LEARN ENGLISH PODCAST: IS THIS THE FUTURE OF LANGUAGE LEARNING?

- [Jack] The metaverse.

The metaverse.

If you don't know what this is,

welcome to this podcast episode,

this audio lesson where I'm going to explore

the topic of the metaverse

while explaining some of the key terms in English.

Now, if you don't know what the metaverse is,

welcome to the club,

because I am just finding out.

I am just exploring this topic myself.

And I'm going to use various articles

to explore what the metaverse is

and why it might be important for learning English, too.

And I'm also going to use a variety of tenses

because I'm going to talk about

what things were like in the past

when it came to learning English,

what things are like now,

and how things have changed,

and also what things will be like in the future.

So, we're going to use the past,

the present, and the future.

Now, to help you with this lesson,

if you are watching on YouTube, then turn on the subtitles.

If you're listening to the podcast episode,

I'll leave a link to the subtitles for you

so that you can read while you listen.

And let's just get started with the BBC article,

which again, you'll find in the description.

Now, the headline is this.

"Apparently, it's the next big thing.

"What is the metaverse?"

And I think the reason why a lot of people

are talking about this right now is because of Facebook.

They have changed their name,

or the company that owns Facebook

has changed its name to Meta,

and they have announced that they're going to hire

10,000 people to develop this metaverse.

So, let's just talk about what it is first.

So, reading from this BBC article,

"Instead of being on a computer,

"in the metaverse, you might use a headset

"to enter a virtual world

"connecting all sorts of digital environments."

So, a headset,

those virtual reality headsets

that you might have seen people use.

I have never used one before.

I have never tried one,

but I do know there are certain places

around the city where I live,

or at least one place that I know of

where you can go in and try them out,

which I might have to do soon.

It goes on to say, "Unlike current VR,"

which means virtual reality,

"Which is mostly used for gaming,

"this virtual world could be used for practically anything,

"work, play, concerts, cinema trips, or just hanging out."

So, it seems like the metaverse is the next thing where

companies are going to take virtual reality

so that you can put on a headset

and meet people virtually for work, meetings,

to hang out with friends, to go to cinema, the cinema,

to watch concerts.

So, you're not actually there in person,

but you're there virtually.

"The Los Angeles Times" explains it like this.

"Think of it as the internet brought to life,

"or at least rendered in 3D."

So, that just means that you can be inside of the internet:

Zuckerberg has described it as a virtual environment

you can go inside of

instead of just looking at it on a screen.

Essentially, it's a world of endless

interconnected virtual communities

where people can meet, work, and play

using virtual reality headsets, augmented reality glasses,

smartphone apps, or other devices.

So, it seems like you will be able to enter

this virtual reality, putting on your headset,

and be able to interact with people and things in this world

and do a lot of the things that you do now,

but do it in virtual reality.

Now, I'm sure at this stage, you're thinking maybe,

wow, that sounds cool.

I can see myself being able

to meet friends in this virtual world

and have these different types of experiences.

You might also be thinking,

uh-oh, that sounds scary.

That sounds like a future

which might be a little bit dystopian, dystopian.

And a dystopian society

is one that is undesirable or frightening,

and it's the opposite of utopian.

Now, I won't go into too much detail

on my thoughts on that today.

However,

I do wanna talk about this in terms of language learning.

And before I talk about how the metaverse

might be used by you in the future to learn English,

I just wanna talk about how the internet

has really changed language learning.

Because when I first started teaching online

all the way back in 2008,

I remember people, having discussions with people,

and they said:

No one is going to learn using the internet.

No one in the future is going to learn a language

using the internet.

You have to be in real life with people.

You have to go to language schools.

You have to have a teacher there.

You have to go visit the country.

However, and as you know,

right now, most learners use the internet to learn English.

For example, you're listening to this podcast

right now using the internet.

And I have seen, for example,

platforms like YouTube just explode

when it comes to language learning.

So, the thought of somebody having

over a million subscribers on YouTube to teach English

was just unthinkable five, 10 years ago.

But now there are many channels

that have over a million subscribers.

My channel has 560,000.

I never thought it would get so big.

And this is because more people are moving online

and using the internet and social media and their phone

to learn languages.

But again, 14 years ago,

a lot of people were saying

that this wasn't going to happen.

And now people are finding teachers online.

They're using YouTube, using podcasts,

they're reading articles online.

And I think another important area

that a lot of people don't think about

is that I have spoken to many people

who have learned English just through playing computer games

and joining those types of communities.

Now, when you think about computer games,

they're more involved.

You are interacting with the game.

You are more active,

and you can think about virtual reality

as like a step forward with this

where you're actually immersed in the environment.

And at the moment, VR is big in gaming.

That is where virtual reality is starting to really thrive.

So, I think gaming is such an important thing to think about

when it comes to the metaverse

and how it's going to be used in the future.

But also, it's a good indication of how you can use

or potentially use the metaverse in the future

to learn English.

Now, before I talk about that,

I just want to mention two films that have really predicted

or look at virtual reality

and what this might be like in the future.

Not just virtual reality, but augmented reality.

Now, the first one is "The Matrix",

which was made in 1999.

And I've just got a link to this.

I'll read from it where it says,

"One of the most influential action movies ever made

"and a perfect mix of thrilling form with brainy content."

And it talks about the tale of humanity

enslaved to machines through VR

and how you have to decide whether you want to live

in a virtual space or the real world.

And I think a lot of people are going to think about that

when it comes to the future.

How much do you want to escape into virtual reality

and how much do you want to be in the real world?

And that is going to be a big topic moving forward.

Now, the other one which, I love this movie,

is "Minority Report".

And this shows augmented reality

where you can be in different places

and have some augmented reality come into your world.

So, you can put in these little things, these little cards,

and it brings out different types of augmented reality.

Now, let's talk about the metaverse

when it comes to learning languages and learning English.

I'm sure you can already picture,

you can imagine what this might be like.

It's basically where you are interacting with people

in a virtual environment so that you are having a near,

or like a virtual experience of learning English

in a English-speaking country.

So, you can imagine being in a room with other people

or being on the streets of this virtual place

and talking to people in English

and having to respond to what they ask you.

Now, I'm not quite sure whether this will be

with actual other real people

who are using virtual reality as well,

or just virtual reality people.

But on top of that, it won't just be listening to people,

but you'll be able to also see what they're saying.

So, you'll be able to have captions with what they say.

I'm sure you'll be able to also see definitions of words,

words you don't understand,

to be able to use your fingers and your hands

in order to bring up the dictionary

or to have someone explain something to you.

You might also have the ability

to join language learning online,

where it's like a traditional lesson,

but instead, it's virtual reality.

And you'll be in this virtual classroom like you are,

it will look exactly like a different classroom

and you'll be able to take lessons with a teacher.

You'll also be able to attend concerts and shows

and anything else in English as well,

where again, I'm sure there'll be subtitles

for you to follow along.

You'll be able to interact with people

in different situations.

You'll be able to practice role-plays.

For example, to check into a hotel

where it's like a game

where you have to check in to the hotel.

These are just some of the things that I predict

that will come with the metaverse

when it comes to language learning.

And the biggest positive here

is that you're going to be part of this environment.

It's going to feel real

because you're going to be in a virtual world

instead of just looking at a screen.

Now, my concern for all of this

is similar to the concern that I talked about

in the lesson where I went through social media

and how to learn English on social media,

but some of the drawbacks of this.

And I'm sure it's going to become addictive,

where people will just say,

"Oh, I'm just gonna go into virtual reality

"just for an hour."

And they end up doing this until two in the morning,

just like TV shows can be addictive, Instagram,

and also playing computer games.

I'm sure this is going to be an issue in the future.

But the positives are definitely there,

where you can immerse yourself into an English environment

without having to go to different countries.

Now, in terms of the payment of all this,

I'm sure there are going to be free options,

but you're also going to have to pay for this.

And it seems like the metaverse

and the economy of the metaverse

is being built around digital currencies and NFTs.

Now, NFTs are called non-fungible tokens

and they're using crypto and blockchain technology.

And basically, what they do is they assign an asset

or something to someone's name.

So, it's a way to know what kind of digital asset

is belonging to which person.

Now, this podcast episode has been done

with only a little bit of research

and just me thinking about what the future might look like.

So, I would love to know your thoughts about this, too.

If you are listening on a podcast app,

then feel free to send me a message

or to go to my YouTube channel and leave a comment there.

And then just tell me about what you think the future

of education and language learning specifically

is going to look like in the metaverse.

Do you think it's going to take over the normal internet,

the internet that we know today?

Do you think it's gonna take over

traditional language lessons,

or do you think that there's always going to be

that desire to be in the real world?

And finally, if you found this useful,

then please like and share this English lesson.

Just look for the share button, get the link,

and send it to your friends or post it on social media.

I really appreciate anyone who does that.

And then, if you're on a platform that allows this,

please leave a comment below.

Tell me what you think about the future of this.

Okay, so thank you so much for listening.

Be sure to check out the description

for the links that I have researched,

and also for my book,

"The Five-Step Plan for English Fluency",

which is free to download.

And then once you have finished with this lesson,

why not listen to the one where I talk about social media?

I'll leave a link to that, too.

Okay, thank you so much for listening

and I'll speak to you soon, bye-bye.