Language learning is an incredible pain. Most people I know took Spanish in high school and the amount of Spanish that they retained couldn't order them a taco. So few Americans are bilingual today and the reason is obvious; you really only need English in the United States to get by. If you want to become fluent in a language fast and naturally, you need to immerse yourself in that culture and speak the language frequently. Necessity is a much better teacher than routine.
The problem is most people can't drop everything to spend months in Berlin to learn German. They don't have the money or the time. But… can't we simulate immersion? Emstrata allows for this exact thing. Want to learn French? Start a simulated reality in Paris. Want to learn Chinese? Embody a character that's traveling all around the Chinese provinces. The possibilities are endless. When you get really good, perhaps you just tell the AI to write the entire thing in your language of choice or maybe even opting to learn Swahili in a fantasy world.
Emstrata is an emergent narrative engine that uses AI to build storylines and full worlds according to your prompts, actions, and inputs. It's a text-based system that unravels a world as you live in it and perform actions within the emergent narrative. There's a comprehensive tool-set to manage, improve, and keep track of your story as well.
I used Emstrata to get started learning German. It was surprisingly effective at not only managing an engaging storyline with real stakes, but also weaving in genuinely useful phrases throughout the process and providing great context for them. I found myself in a narrative where my character was dropped in Germany with minimal money, trying to track down a particular Jugendherberge (youth hostel). It was a compelling storyline that quickly unraveled into a comprehensive lesson. Try it yourself by starting a new sim using the "Fremd in Berlin" template; it's categorized as a 'Learning through Immersion' sim. By the tenth turn, I had learned the following words and phrases:
- Fremd: Foreigner
- Hauptbahnhof: Central Train Station
- Entschuldigung, wo ist...: Excuse me, where is...
- Ich verstehe nicht: I don't understand
- Brauchen Sie Hilfe?: Do you need help?
- Auskunft: Information
- U-Bahn: Subway
- Jugendherberge: Youth hostel
- Wie heißt du?: What is your name?
- Wohin gehst du?: Where are you going?
- Ich heiße Klaus: I'm called Klaus
- Ich gehe zur Arbeit in Mitte: I'm going to work in Mitte
- Wo ist der Bahnhof: Where is the railroad station?
- Wo ist das Hotel: Where is the hotel?
- Wieviel kostet das?: How much does that cost?
- Sprechen Sie Englisch?: Do you speak English?
- Eine Fahrkarte nach Friedrichshain: One ticket to Friedrichshain
- Einmal nach...: Once to...
- Viel Glück: Good luck
- Einzelfahrt: One-way, single journey
- Tageskarte: Day pass
- Das sind böhmische Dörfer für mich: That's all Greek to me
- Mein Zug: My train
- Mein Zug kommt bald: My train comes soon
- Bis bald: See you soon
- Mein Gott: My God
- Danke schön: Thank you very much
'Das sind böhmische Dörfer für mich' has to be my favorite. Once I'm fluent, everything in German will, in fact, be Greek to me. Then I'll need a simulation where I can learn Greek from the island of Mykonos.
Compare this method to ones utilized by Duolingo or other language learning apps. Fundamentally-speaking, this is more immersive, entertaining, natural, and time-efficient. It was never the use-case I imagined when I built Emstrata, but it seems to be one of the really powerful ones that has come to the fore.
Here's an example turn I got from Emstrata that demonstrates how this works:
Fremd in Berlin | Turn 2
Jon flips through the phrasebook's weathered pages, his thumb tracing over cramped handwriting that chronicles three days of linguistic desperation. The margins bristle with his translations: 'Entschuldigung, wo ist...' paired with 'Ex-SHOOL-di-goong, vo ist' in shaky phonetics. He finds a cluster of transportation phrases and mouths them silently—'Ich verstehe nicht' becoming a whispered mantra as German announcements cascade overhead like verbal static.
A middle-aged commuter in a wool coat slows near him, catching sight of Jon's obvious struggle with the book. The man approaches with a cautious smile, speaking in deliberately simple German: 'Brauchen Sie Hilfe?' His tone carries the patient cadence of someone accustomed to helping lost travelers. Around them, the station's complexity seems to amplify—departure boards flickering with destinations Jon can't parse, the PA system crackling with announcements that blur into incomprehensible noise.
Jon stands at the nexus of possibility, phrasebook trembling slightly in his grip. The information booth with its 'Auskunft' sign offers official help but intimidating formality. To his east, the U-Bahn entrance promises direct passage to Friedrichshain, though the subway map resembles a multicolored spiderweb of confusion. The helpful commuter waits patiently, eyebrows raised in gentle inquiry, while the morning rush continues to eddy around them in rapid-fire German that gnaws at Jon's confidence with every overheard syllable.
Just in that turn, I took note of a number of helpful phrases. I also used the note-taking tool on Emstrata to capture these all:
Note-taking on Emstrata
The only better way to learn a language would have to be actually going to the country itself. Perusing the markets, making small-talk with store clerks, but, as mentioned, this is unfeasible. Emstrata is the digital answer to immersion learning. Also, this isn't even limited to language learning. Imagine witnessing the Trial of Socrates or fighting in a bunker in World War I. You could learn history, brainstorm ideas for your novel by living within its reality, and so much more.