Mind Your Language announced for DS

Summer holidays are on their way and with them the embarrassment of having to point and grunt your way around a variety of shops for anyone who doesn't speak the lingo of the country they're visiting.

So publisher Virgin PLAY couldn't have announced its Mind Your Language series at a better time. Apparently turning language learning into an "exciting, fun game", the series will begin by catering for learners of five languages – Spanish, French, German, Japanese and English (although if you're reading this you presumably won't be so interested in that last one).

The games are in development with the Liverpool based Spiral House and in association with the Berlitz language academy. We've seen their name on plenty of French textbooks, so that's affirmation enough for us it'll mean the games might actually work.

Aimed at ages eight to 15, players pass through four different levels that get progressively more difficult. There's a variety of mini-games to aid learning, plus a library where you can look up words and search for popular phrases.

Learn English and Learn Spanish will be the first two titles in the series released in time for summer, while the remaining three will follow sometime in the autumn. We look forward to expanding on our current French vocabulary (which currently consists of "Je voudrais une grande biere, please" and "Il n'y a pas de fumée sans feu") then.