Yeah, some people think roleplay only consists of the nasty stuff and overlook how much of a great practice for writing and general grammar exercise it is. I really wouldn't speak english as fluenty if it weren't for roleplay. It's just like the furry community- If you say furry, they say nasty, only because they saw the minority of the community (the +18 one) which sadly is the one that shows the most. It's really sad because people are very quick to judge whitout setting afoot into the other person's perspectives, i know this may sound cliché but i wanna say that its like the moon- It will always have a dark side and a shining side, nothing can be entirely good, just less or more bad.
Try to specify what kind of roleplay you're talking about? Because from what they said i am most definitely sure they misunderstood what roleplay you're talking about. Not the nasty kind, i betcha.
If they were talking about roleplays-roleplays, just explain to them shortly that roleplaying with someone is like making a story with them- You get to write a deep character and both players also enhance their skills (character development, writing speed, grammar, formal writing, etc...) And that if done right it can be considered healthy because it could help you give you new skills and abroad new paths in your workplace, industry or just your field of work (Say, in the future, you have to write a convincing letter to a business to propose something. In such case, then, you'd be capable of writing something convincing with barely any grammar mistakes (hopefully), and all of it because you strenghtened your abilities through something you enjoy doing.) This is especially a good practice for when trying to learn a foreign language, because through the constant repetition and (if your partner speaks the language you're attempting to learn, correction too) execution of words that are foreign to oneself, you start getting used to speaking them and, although your speaking and pronounciation could be a little risky, you can be safe that if you were on the countries that speak that language, you could handle yourself decently, even if its just through written means.
That was just my cent on the pot, and i hope you liked my reply!
xoxo
- Sophy