- [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.