Learning a Language within Virtual Reality
Learning a language is hard, but made easier with others to support you. This VRChat community is doing just that!
Have you ever tried learning a language? Threatened by a green homicidal owl and learned how to say ‘boy’ and ‘water’, ‘gutt’ and ‘vann’ — yes, I have tried unsuccessfully to learn Norwegian. Just to find a child a fraction of your age from said country has a better grasp on the language than yourself. The ticket is they’re immersed, and you’re squirreling away study when you can. What if it was easy to become immersed in language too, have a support circle to keep you motivated and to learn new things together? That’s what the VRChat Language Exchange provides to those wanting to learn Japanese or English.
Virtual reality takes the internet's ability to create a worldwide community and brings it into a 3D space. It increases immersion, and that’s what helps in learning a language. Through the Language Exchange individuals can come together for the mutual goal of learning Japanese or English, creating a supportive, friendly, and fun space enabled by virtual reality! As the host of the exchange sleeping_now said to me in our interview “the essence of community is people.”
Regular attendee Criogenesis thought a lot of beginners to the Language Exchange, either English or Japanese, had a fear of “messing up or not knowing what to say” but the group tries to create an accessible environment for learning so hopefully “that friendly and non-hostile environment keeps other people coming back as well.”
The idea for the Language Exchange came from an encounter that “changed my life,” sleeping_now explains. “Back in 2015, when I arrived at Canada, I had no friends. I was alone, sitting in my empty apartment, and had no clue what to do with my life. Fortunately, I found someone hosting weekly language exchanges in Toronto. I had no idea what language exchange meant at first. But as soon as I tried it I was hooked on this amazing activity.” From this spark came a small meetup in VRChat, back in November of 2020. In the beginning it was a collab project between sleeping_now and Moe from VR Nihongo, “she has been teaching Japanese in VR for almost two years, I believe.” She helped sleeping_now gather English speakers as he wasn’t familiar with English speaking communities in VR back then, “I didn’t know organising events is that hard.”
Sleeping_now went on to explain how the language exchange works. At the beginning of the event everyone breaks up into smaller groups, usually four to seven people in each. It starts with a simple introduction, usually in a language the individual is learning. “In VRChat, introducing yourself is core to giving a good first impression. It’s good to get used to it.”
Once everyone is finished, with the opportunity for corrections if something sounds unnatural or is mispronounced, the conversation moves into the weekly topic. “It’s really hard to have a proper conversation with people you meet for the first time,” sleeping_now says, “and Japanese speakers tend to be shy to speak in English. That’s why the topic is set every week.”
Topics might be ‘what is your dream job?’ or ‘the best place you’ve visited?’. “So long as you’re listening or talking, the topic doesn’t matter much” sleeping_now explains. The important part is getting used to the language you’re trying to learn. “The connection with native speakers can motivate you to study more as well. I think it’s the ideal way to get better.”
I spoke to a number of the group’s regulars over Discord, some of their favourite memories are below.
Sabuus is a recently graduated computer science student with a minor degree in Japanese. He described “a really bad few weeks. School was starting to wrap up, and I was at a job that really was not treating me well. It felt almost like I was trapped there, but every Friday I was able to just come home and just talk to people. It helped calm me down, and it just felt so good to talk to people that could make my day better almost immediately while being complete strangers. It would end at about 1 AM my time, but I would still keep talking with people all the way up until about 3 AM. It was probably one of my happiest memories there.”
Criogenesis is a programmer currently working from home and told me a memory that shows the “experiences that kind of reflects or represents this community for me in a single experience.” Before the event, Criogenesis was talking in the common area wearing a Kamen Rider avatar, “Even though Kamen Rider is popular in Japan it’s still kind of a niche show that not even a lot of Japanese people have particular interest in. It turns out this particular girl [from Japan] loved Kamen Rider as well as Monster Hunter, and we talked with other people about Kamen Rider for a really long time. At that time I was getting better at Japanese conversationally and so I could mix in some Japanese with some English. It was a really fulfilling experience, we eventually told this girl that her English was really good and it made her really happy” given she had studied English 10 years prior and was only just getting back into it.
To these few, and the many more I spoke with, VRChat represents more than a game but instead a community that offers support and encouragement in an endeavor that is long and difficult. Thank you to everyone I spoke with for your time and allowing me a glimpse into your community. If you would like to join in on the fun there’s a poster below showing event times and any other information you might need.
