The Best VR Language Learning Apps To Learn A Language in Virtual Reality

So you’re trying to learn a language and you’re wondering if there are any VR language learning games that might help you in doing that.

Well, the good news is that there are lots of VR language learning apps, several in fact, and while some are similar in some ways, all are overall very different experiences. Virtual Reality can be a fantastic tool for language learning, and you can learn a language in VR if you want to.

Of course, you’re probably still wondering what language learning Virtual Reality games are out there and which one you might like the best, so it’s a good thing you found your way here.

Here we’ll be going through the best available apps and games that can help you learn a language in Virtual Reality whether you’re a beginner or already close to making yourself a pro at your new language. Virtual Reality education has come a long way when it comes to teaching languages, and now you get to reap the benefits.

These are the Best VR Language Learning Games and Apps in VR.

Noun Town VR - A Colorful And Cute VR Language Learning Game

The Noun Town Logo

Let’s start by taking a look at Noun Town, a VR language learning game that also has a flatscreen PC version, though we won’t be talking about that.

It is clear that a lot of work and development has gone into Noun Town. It has had many updates since its release, though the main premise of the game, and how it teaches you a new language, hasn’t changed much.

The main way that you learn words in Noun Town VR is by picking up objects that are near you in the VR world, pressing a button to see that object’s word in the language you are learning, and then saying that word successfully to “learn” the object.

Once the object is learned it turns from a bland gray to a bright color! All of Noun Town VR’s world starts out as gray, with just little bits of color here and there, but you get to fill it in and make it alive while you learn.

Learning a word by holding the object and saying it in Noun Town VR

The objects, animals, environments, and the many villagers of Noun Town that you will meet are all cute, heavily stylized, and colorful. Though as mentioned you’ll need to work to fill in the color in most places, and even the walls and floor will only get colored in after you pass a daily quiz.

There are a lot of different rooms and areas to explore, learn words in, and colorize in Noun Town VR. That’s the core of the fun of how to learn a language in Virtual Reality in this VR game. You learn words, practice them, and the world becomes brighter.

The villagers also share little phrases with you, and you can ask them questions to learn some phrases in your new language. Though Noun Town VR’s strength is really in teaching you vocabulary.

You can decorate your home with objects you have learned in Noun Town VR

Still, this VR game gives you a lot of ways to express yourself through the VR environment you find yourself in while it teaches you a new language.

Like how you can print objects whose names you have learned inside of your home base, an airship, and decorate it with those objects. Oh, and there’s also some fun minigames spread around to try. The developers behind Noun Town VR have added a lot of new ways to learn over the years, and the game is a lot stronger for it.

However one of the most impressive additions has got to be the Mixed Reality mode. Instead of decorating a VR environment you can decorate and learn new words in your new language in MR instead of VR.

The Mixed Reality mode is truly immersive in the Noun Town VR language learning game

You can add a lot of stuff anywhere you want to in your actual, physical playspace! Like any of the objects whose words you learn, or a door to talk to visitors through. This is very cool, and the best use of Mixed Reality in learning a language in any of these language learning games. Like the door that dispenses little games you do to act out the verbs that it shows you. It’s a very neat idea.

Noun Town tracks your daily progress and encourages you to come back for more practice every day like most language learning games and apps do.

If you want to learn vocabulary in a new language in Virtual Reality then Noun Town is a solid game to pick up. Though its main drawback is that it doesn’t teach you much beyond some simple vocabulary. Talking to the villagers is usually tough for a beginner, and hard to learn from without grammar lessons that the game doesn’t provide.

So if you do pick up Noun Town VR expect it to teach you vocabulary more than how to speak a language, but if you complete the game and memorize every word in its many areas then you’ll be halfway there to fluency for sure!

Noun Town supports many languages such as English, Japanese, German, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish (MX), Spanish (ES), French, Italian, Ukrainian, Russian, Greek, and more.

Mondly VR - A Chatbot Driven Language Learning VR Game

The Mondly VR language learning game

Mondly VR is advertised as a game that further enhances your learning experience by teaching you a language in VR in the context of real world situations with simulated real world surroundings.

Instead of just being told what is commonly said in say, a Taxi, in whatever language you are learning, the idea of Mondly VR is to actually put you in that Taxi talking to the driver. This is a very good idea, and certainly one that makes full use of Virtual Reality for language learning.

Mondly VR delivers on this idea, but not as much as you might hope. Let’s get into why that is.

Mondly VR has some creepy looking characters, but does teach you a language

First of all, there are not many scenarios like this to choose from. Not even more than 10 different situations, which isn’t great considering that you can find yourself in a lot of places when using a new language.

Mondly VR also advertises itself on using the same technology used in chatbots to make these conversations dynamic, basically making them slightly different every time. However, after replaying some of these situations more than once it is very clear that the variation is minimal at best if you even notice it at all.

Lastly, the environments are very ugly looking and not very stimulating to look at in VR. If Virtual Reality is meant to enhance language teaching then it should look at least passably real. The same goes for your conversation partners. It’s kind of hard to focus on learning a language in the VR environment when they stare at you creepily and look like strange dolls.

The immersive lessons are Mondly VR’s biggest contribution to VR language learning

The main way that Mondly VR doesn’t deliver is that it doesn’t have a lot of content. As mentioned previously, the most interesting part of this Virtual Reality language learning app is that it puts you in real life situations in VR, and there aren’t many situations to try. There are some “Immersive” vocabulary lessons, but there just aren’t enough of those either.

The vast majority of Mondly VR’s content comes in the form of vocabulary and phrase lessons delivered in the same room by the same AI prompter over and over again. It’s just listening to this woman feed you new words in the language you are learning and repeating them.

Mondly VR ends up mostly just teaching you vocabulary in your chosen language

This is not a bad way to learn a language, but not the best way to learn a language in VR. It takes all of the advantages of Mondly’s VR nature out of the equation. You would be better off using a phone app like Babel.

You might want to get Mondly if you’ve got a spare ten dollars and really want to try the immersive conversations. While limited in number they are still a very fun idea, and it would be nice if there were more to try.

For a list of the languages you can learn in Mondly VR check out their website.

Terra Alia - A Fantasy RPG That Teaches You A Language In VR

The Terra Alia Logo

Terra Alia isn’t just a language teaching VR game, but it’s also a fantasy RPG!

Out of all of the VR games on this list none embraces the feeling of being a game more than Terra Alia. These other apps are more like teaching tools than games.

Terra Alia does its best to not only teach you a language in Virtual Reality, but also to be an enjoyable Roleplaying Game with characters, a story, stats, levels, and mechanics.

While you are learning a language in Virtual Reality you also get a story in Terra Alia

So in terms of creativity and doing more with the medium of Virtual Reality to make learning a language fun, none of these games can top Terra Alia. It uses game mechanics and the VR space that you learn in very effectively to create a more immersive, motivating, and captivating experience through the use of game mechanics.

It’s easy to get into for beginners right from the start and is even useful to intermediate learners who are trying to fill out their vocabulary.

Just as in Noun Town, your very first goal, after a brief introduction to the story, is to learn the words of nearby objects in the language that you are learning.

Learning a word in a new language in Terra Alia

So you look around the fantastical looking room with stone brick walls and fancy furniture and point your hand at a nearby object. With the press of a button, the game tells you what it is called in both your language and the language you are learning.

Just like in Noun Town, this is the first thing that you learn to do in the game and the first method you have to get experience and advance through levels. It also adds new words that you have learned to your vocabulary, and they will come up later.

That’s because later on you’ll find yourself in magical battles with other people. There are a lot of factors that help in these battles like in any other RPG sort of game. Your equipment, your level, the level of your abilities, all of these will make you stronger or weaker.

Using learned vocabulary in a battle in Terra Alia

Though where Terra Alia really shines in helping you learn a language in VR is in how the words you already learned through objects are reused in the combat.

Each fight in this fantasy language learning RPG means another opportunity to practice. To cast your magic spells and win you’ll need to answer a simple question using the words that you learned, like matching the word to its translation.

Answer the question correctly and you cast your spell. Don’t worry about being rushed though, the game will slow down to give you time to answer.

Terra Alia doesn’t end there either. There are phrases and brief conversations to learn during the game’s quests, chests to unlock with your new vocabulary skills in order to get money and equipment, and a leveling progression system that encourages you to learn many different sorts of words.

Terra Alia is a fantastic way to learn and memorize new vocabulary in the language that you are learning. However it does have some downsides in being limited to mostly being useful for vocabulary instead of grammar, and most of all being very hard to look at. While this game doesn’t look terrible in screenshots it can be hard to look at in Virtual Reality due to hazy textures and models.

If you want to learn new words in the language that you are pursuing and want to do so in as gamified a way as possible, then give Terra Alia a look.

For a list of the languages that you can learn in Terra Alia check out their website.

Immerse VR - A Multiplayer Social Language Teaching Game

The Immerse VR Logo

The other games on this list have been focused on Singleplayer language learning in Virtual Reality.

Immerse brings new life to the concept by emphasizing itself as a Multiplayer VR language learning game with an emphasis on live classes, and hanging out and talking to others in the language that you are learning.

This focus on more socially oriented learning makes Immerse VR stand out from other Virtual Reality language learning games, and language teaching tools in general. It’s been said that the best way to learn a language is to truly immerse yourself within it and actually use it in conversations with others.

Immerse is the Virtual Reality game to play if you are a believer in this philosophy.

Interactions with other students make Immerse VR a great way to learn a language in VR

Immerse starts you out by introducing you to the various tools that you can use in social spaces and classes. It’s a good tutorial, and you won’t find yourself confused when interfacing with anything after it.

There are a lot of objects to use in the various spaces that Immerse VR places you in, and the controls are simple and easy. Speaking of those spaces, you can jump into any one any time that you want.

You can hop into a place like a bar, just like you would in any Social VR Game, and talk to other people in your chosen language. Not to mention there are a ton of NPCs littered around the space to talk to if you’re feeling shy about your conversational skills, nobody is around, or you want a stress free way to practice.

This VR game also has chatbots which are educational to talk to

These NPCs function like chatbots in any other language learning VR game, but they’re AI driven. While this might sound like a buzzword to make them sound smart, they do a really good job of reacting to what you say in different ways, and if you change up what you say you can have entirely different conversations from the last time you spoke with them.

The game even gives you goals of what to do in the conversation and suggestions of what to say. Like introducing yourself in the language you are learning, or ordering something.

Where Immerse VR really shines is in its interactions with real people. The easiest way to do that is by signing up for the classes that constantly rotate throughout the day. Each of these classes has a professional teacher with a lesson plan, and they amount to much more than just lectures that you sit through.

Each class in Immerse VR is interactive and informative

Each class has conversational activities that you complete with your fellow students and the teacher. The lessons are also taught in the language you are learning in VR, though if you’re having trouble understanding the teacher can break things down in your native language as well.

The experience overall is more engaging than using a language learning app or other game and brings grammar and vocabulary together by listening to and speaking in your new language.

Immerse VR is great for beginners and more advanced learners as well. It is especially great if you’re looking for a replacement for traditional language learning classes that you can pursue anywhere that you like without having to spend the time to drive to a physical building where those language classes are being held.

The VR interactions in Immerse VR are basic but very fun and spread throughout the different areas

Though Immerse VR does lose some flexibility when compared to other VR language learning games in that the classes aren’t always available, and start and end at select times. So you’ll have to do a bit of scheduling to take full advantage of them, though they occur fairly often. Though if your VR time doesn’t coincide with your learning time you can also use Immerse on a PC.

Also, those language teachers need to be consistently paid, so Immerse runs on a subscription model, which is the biggest downside. While starting the app and doing the tutorial is free, actually accessing language learning content beyond that will require a subscription fee to be paid on a regular basis.

Immerse VR does have a 14 day trial to try it out, but if you want to learn for longer than that you’ll end up paying far more than any of these other Virtual Reality games (though still far less than a personal tutor would cost you).

Also, the amount of languages you can learn in Immerse is more limited, with only Spanish and French at the time of writing. More languages are planned to be added in the future, however.

That’s it for the VR games that can teach you a language in VR. Virtual Reality for language learning is a part of the future of VR education, and more and more impressive games have been created to make this a reality over time. However you decide to pursue language learning in VR, enjoy!