Second Life Comparative Field Note 2:
Two cultural environments in Second Life
This article intends to provide some educational implications of using interactive virtual learning environments in learning foreign languages and cultures. Specially, this article explores two Second Life places Japan-Hiroba and Moscow Island with a focus on cultural and language environment immersion.
Second Life enables participants to explore foreign places where they may never get a change to visit. Participants can get an opportunity to walk in someone else’s shoes and gain a sense of empathy. The atmosphere and replications of historical and cultural places make people feel a strong sense of being there, and the social interaction and collaboration with participants from across the world enable people to feel that they are so involved in the place they are the protagonists of the story.
Japan-Hiroba, is a place for Japanese-speaking residents in Second Life. It consists of a spacious square, a multi-themed dressing room, a community space and a dancing floor. After searching the information online and referring to a Japanese friend, I assume that “Hiroba” is a pseudonym which does not exist in the real world.
Moscow Island is a recreation of some well-known historical places in Russia’s capital, such as the Red Square, St. Basil’s Cathedral, the Kremlin, Lenin’s mausoleum, the GUM department store. Let me be your guide to explore these two worlds.
Cultural and historical immersion
In Hiroba, you can go to the dressing room first and put on your kimono. Then, I recommend you go to the Japanese Cottage in southern part of Hiroba. In the quiet and cozy cottage, you can sit cross-legged on the tatami, taste tea and meditate, with deers wandering around and cherry blossoms falling off from the tree. After teatime, follow the path near the cottage and penetrate deeper into woods, then you will see an ancient Japanese temple. You can make a pray there or buy a lottery to see your fortune. Outside the cottage, you can play the Japanese backgammon game with a resident in Japanese animation costume.
On Moscow Island, you can have access to more than ten kinds of boards games in the open air game club located on east side of the Red Square. The Russian residents in Moscow Island are robust but very friendly. Make friends with the players you meet in the game and ask them to be your companies. Take a tour around the Red Square and take selfies in front of the magnificent Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral and, Lenin’s mausoleum, and the GUM.
Language immersion
Both of the two virtual foreign environments are intended for Japanese-speaking and Russian-speaking visitors in Second Life. In Hiroba, the language on the signs and billboards are mainly Japanese with some simple English, and way users communicate is mainly through Japanese and English text chat. The multilingual signs bring much convenience for international travelers in SL. While on Moscow Island, almost all the signs are written in Russian and users frequently talk orally in Russian.
For language learners, through interacting with the virtual exotic environment and communicating with native speakers in Hiroba and Moscow Island, they can have more immersion in the foreign language environments. Virtual Language Learning Environments (VLLEs) is considered as promising venues to approximate the type of naturalistic learning that happens in real-life immersion (Morz, 2014).
References
Mroz, A. (2014). 21st century virtual language learning environments (VLLEs). Language and
Linguistics Compass, 8(8), 330-343. 10.1111/lnc3.12089
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© Wenyi Gong 2018
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