With the seemingly endless tidal wave of action packed shooters and frantic racing-type games jostling for position on VR shelves, Mondly on the Oculus Quest is nothing short of a breath of fresh air. An educational language learning app on the Quest. And, even better, it actually makes learning a foreign language fun. Yes, you read that right. Learning a language can be fun. Who would have known?
Mondly is a game changing VR experience that allows you to choose any one of 33 languages you’d like to learn. Once you’ve made your choice, you can then opt for learning vocabulary or conversation. As I have a home in France, I quite naturally chose to learn French.
Before I dive into this review, a quick pause for disclosure; my wife and I have – in the past – tried learning French the traditional way. That is, in a class room with a well-meaning native French speaking instructor who also had a good grasp of English. It didn’t work. At the start of the lesson, the instructor separated our class into two sections depending on our level of experience with French. My wife was put in the class which tackled conjugating verbs, identified the masculine and feminine versions of common words and explored the work of Montesquieu and Voltaire. I, on the other hand, was put into the class where they sit you in a corner wearing a T-shirt that says ‘Mungo,’ and everyone throws food at you. As you can probably guess, I only went to the one lesson.
But learning French in VR? Well, that’s a totally different kettle of fish. This was fun, immersive and rewarding. The team at Mondly have done an incredible job of recreating that feeling of eager anticipation and excitement that should accompany any learning experience. As the program starts, you’re given your travel documents, whisked away to the airport and, in my case at least, on arrival, you find yourself on a train sitting opposite a ‘real’ French person. From there, you strike up a conversation with your new friend who, conveniently asks you lots of questions about yourself and your reason for visiting France. To respond, Mondly offers you a selection of phrases you can choose from. You hover over the selection and a voice speaks it out loud for you (so you can nail the pronunciation) and then it’s your turn to try it out. For the most part, the voice recognition works pretty damned well. It’s not 100 perc cent just yet (once in a while it wouldn’t recognise what I was saying no matter how much I cried and begged it to) but at least 80 percent of the time it was spot on.
Each lesson lasts around ten minutes, which is just about long enough for you to learn something and not too long so you’re mind begins to turn to mush.
One of my favourite lessons was in a restaurant where I was taught how to order food and talk about my bill. While the waiter left to handle my order, I got the chance to talk to some of the other diners (because I’m a friendly soul). The result was hilarious. After a few polite phrases were exchanged, my new friend would always find a reason to excuse themselves and leave.
With the vocabulary options a virtual teacher will walk you through the idiosyncrasies of hundreds of animal, food and object names and useful phrases.
The fact that all of this is taking place in a vibrant and colourful virtual world is the real show stopper. Being so immersed in what looks and sounds like a real environment helps you overcome that fear of speaking a foreign language in public. And after a while, you’ll find yourself actually looking forward to the next lesson.
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After a week or so of road testing Mondly on the Quest, my French has improved considerably. I’m not 100 per cent fluent yet, but the VR lessons have worked wonders for my self-confidence and vocabulary. So much so, I think I can take this T-short off now. Merci, Mondly. 9 out of 10.
