December 14, 2023 - IMMERSE CEO Quinn Taber appeared on ABC’s The View today alongside Anand Dass, Meta’s Director of Content Applications, to show how VR is improving language education.
Sara Haines interviewed Taber and Dass on top-ranked talk show The View Thursday morning about how “fun and fast virtual reality app” IMMERSE helps make your language learning dreams come true by “putting you right in the center of the action.”
IMMERSE began in a Syrian refugee camp in 2017 while Taber was working for a philanthropic organization in the Middle East. Living with roommates who didn’t speak English, Taber learned Arabic through immersion and quickly realized what an effective way it is to learn a language. He began to dream about using VR to make language immersion accessible to anyone, anywhere.
Over the six years since, Taber and his team developed IMMERSE, the first and only VR app where you can learn a language through live immersion with other people.
“It’s unlike any language app you’ve ever experienced before,” says Taber. “We created a virtual world for learning - a safe and inclusive space for language learners to connect, have fun, and effectively develop real-life language skills.”
Interested in the potential of this new language learning technology, researchers from over two dozen universities have researched its effectiveness. Their conclusion? IMMERSE leads to fluency four times faster than traditional classroom or online learning.
IMMERSE and the Quest 3 Take Learning to a New Level
In the interview, Sara Haines revealed she has seen firsthand how language immersion really works, watching her sister learn Portuguese and Spanish to native-speaker levels through immersion. She invited Dass to talk about this unique moment in tech and education.
“The Meta Quest 3 is a new kind of computer that marries the real world and the virtual world,” explained Dass, so it allows you to do things like play video games or learn new languages immersively and interactively.
“Instead of say, for example, looking at a scene on a screen, you’re in the scene, 360 degrees virtual world all around you that creates a better sense of immersion.”
Thus VR technology transforms learning from a passive activity to one where learners are actively involved, moving in and interacting with the virtual world around them.
IMMERSE is proud to be an official Meta education partner, helping to increase access to learning in the metaverse. In IMMERSE’s language classes, students gather with real live teachers in one of more than 40 virtual scenes to learn Spanish, French, or English for language lessons that take place through highly interactive activities.
On The View, Taber shared a clip of an IMMERSE Spanish class, where expert teacher José guides a small group of learners as they practice giving one another cooking instructions in Spanish in a virtual kitchen.
Unsure of the Spanish word for “chicken,” one student walks to the fridge and points his language scanner at a chicken to see the word “pollo” and hear how it’s pronounced. Because IMMERSE’s scenes are fully interactive, the students will gather the ingredients and prepare the meal as they continue to learn how to talk about cooking in Spanish.
The Social Impact of IMMERSE
As Taber points out in his conversation with Sara Haines and Anand Dass, “language learning is a key that unlocks employment, visas, and friendships.” IMMERSE has already heard stories from learners about how the app has helped them land their dream job, converse with their in-laws, and connect with other cultures.
More than that, IMMERSE is a community in and of itself. While most language apps are for solo study or perhaps one-on-one conversations, IMMERSE is a virtual space where learners can meet, mingle, learn, and share the joy of experiencing new languages and cultures.
Watch Sara Haine’s full interview with Quinn Taber and Anand Dass:
Sign up for IMMERSE, The World’s First Live VR App for Language Learning
To celebrate appearing on The View, IMMERSE is offering 50% off Immerse with the code THEVIEW50.
Signing up for the award-winning IMMERSE language app gives you unlimited access to live virtual reality Spanish, English, and French classes, conversation meetups, AI practice, and social language games in over 40 interactive scenes. Make friends, gain confidence and speak Spanish, French, or English sooner with a 14-day free trial - accessible through your Mac or PC browser, or check out our app for Quest VR headsets.
This holiday season might finally be the time to buy a Quest 3 and check “learn a new language” off your bucket list. Or give the gift of language this holiday season with an IMMERSE gift card!
More about the Quest 3: Meta’s Most Powerful Headset Yet
The Quest 3 is Meta’s lightest and most powerful headset yet! It’s a standalone VR headset, meaning you don’t need to be plugged into a computer or even a power source while you’re using it.
The controls can be navigated entirely with hand movements, or you can choose to use the precision controllers that come with the headset. And color passthrough cameras built into the Quest 3 mean you can transition seamlessly between virtual reality, mixed reality, and your real-world surroundings.
