Alternate Universe

By Mike McKay

What would you think if I told you we're venturing into a virtual world? What if you could buy a social networking laptop that connected to your virtual living room? How about inviting your friends over to Japan to watch the game, or going shopping at your favorite stores with your best friends halfway across the world? I’m talking about the future of the Internet, and it has arrived in Japan. Enter Second Life (SL); a freely available program from www.secondlife.com,  making it possible for you to talk, text chat and interact with more than 12 million global subscribers.

When I first started using SL back in 2006, I thought it was neat. That’s about it. I could change my appearance and meet new people, play some games and live some pretty interesting moments in the secrecy of my room (ahem). But I didn’t get why it was so popular. Then, about six months ago, I heard that voice chat was coming to Second Life. That’s when it hit me. If I could bring my English students into this world and introduce them to other avatars, or better yet, have them introduce themselves, then I'd have a truly remarkable learning tool on my hands. So I teamed up with Paul Priebisch, owner of English Village, and began working out ways to teach English in virtual worlds.

When my university asked if I wanted to teach classes utilizing video conferencing, I immediately turned them on to using virtual worlds also. Beginning this month, I will be teaching three classes utilizing Second Life, Skype and Moodle. But just how am I going to connect my students with enough people? Well, believing there might be a few others out there interested in the potential of Second Life, I've started a group.

SL Kobe is a group of SL users interested in gathering both in SL and RL (real life) to interact and make friends. It’s a social networking group that goes one step beyond the typical Mixi or Facebook 2D experience by giving members a more personal experience. Not only can we share our experiences and help each other learn, but we can also do language exchanges, networking, building together and just plain having fun, as corny as that sounds. It puts a face to social networking.

Although this may sound like the answer to global communication in English learning, and a way for the Internet to come alive, it does have its drawbacks. Text chat is still the main form of communication in SL and many are very much against using voice, probably because they don’t want to expose the fact that they are not who they appear to be. Also, for Japanese to really enjoy the experience of learning English, it requires them to have at least an upper-beginner level of competency. But for us gaijin, hey, it’s a great way for us to get together and not have to worry about missing the last train home.

If you are interested in coming to a meetup, feel free to join the Facebook group (SL Kobe) or drop me an email. I look forward to meeting you.

Mike McKay is known as Professor Merryman in Second Life and has been teaching in Kobe since 2000. His focus has changed from finding the cheapest nomihodai to doing something that actually makes him feel better the next day. He can be reached at  mike@professormerryman.com

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