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by Joon & Kawa
This article will have a brief overview of the term “third places” and discuss the merging of places in the context of language learning during and after the Covid-19 Pandemic.
What’s a Third Place?
The term “third place,” defined by Ray Oldenburg, refers to a place aside from our home (first place) and workplace (second place) where we exchange ideas, have fun, and build relationships. Oldenburg discussed this concept in his book The Great Good Place (1989) where he mentioned that third places are important for establishing a sense of belonging in a community.
Some common examples of third places are:
Churches
Cafes
Public libraries
Gyms
Parks
Oldenburg also defined third places as “anchors” of community life and facilitating creative interaction. While someone might spend most of their time in their second place, the third place is for relaxation and socialization, where one can unwind and meet others in a casual context.
As technology progressed, a new type appeared: virtual third places. People now had the chance to belong to a community from the comfort of their homes and behind the wall of anonymity. While this sounds convenient in theory, it lead to several concerns:
How does one separate their first place from their third place?
How does the “protection” of anonymity affect one’s behavior in virtual third places as opposed to physical ones?
Is it really necessary to have a physical connection to one’s third place?
The effects of merging first and third places virtually were best observed during the COVID-19 pandemic when people had to shift their whole lives to online.
We will analyse this shift in regard to language learning and the new opportunities that have emerged.
The Shift from First Places to Online Language Learning
Before COVID-19, it was common to attend an in-person course if you wanted to learn a foreign language. However, since the pandemic eliminated in-person activities, people were suddenly stuck at home, still wanting to engage in the social activities they did before. This was the perfect moment for the start of all sorts of online communities (not limited to just gaming as it was in the past).
Online Language Learning Communities: Advantages and Disadvantages
The popularity of online language learning communities picked up speed as their benefits became more apparent:
Learning a language from the comfort of one’s own home was not only much easier for the general public, but it also became more accessible for those who could not leave their houses.
It was more convenient to find a large community with people from around the world with whom you shared the same passions.
Finding native speakers of your target languages as well as accountability buddies became much easier and faster.
It became more affordable to learn a language since people could direct you to free resources or help you out personally.
You would always have access to online communities no matter where you were.
These benefits opened up possibilities for people to learn and access language-learning communities in a way never seen before. However, when the excitement wore off and people got to know each other better, the communities changed as well.
With extended exposure to these online communities, the downsides became visible too:
In a way, people became more isolated as they don’t have to leave their houses in order to interact with online communities.
It became an expectation to reply as fast as possible since the community is always accessible.
Finding a consistent language partner became surprisingly more difficult. With meeting such a vast number of people online at once, the amount of options can be extremely overwhelming, and if there wasn’t a connection right away, it was much easier to stop responding to messages and ghost them (similar to dating app fatigue and option overload).
Organizing times to chat proved to be a challenge due to time zone differences.
The risk of meeting people with bad intentions rose exponentially.
Countless scams are still running online even in heavily moderated communities, making it dangerous for less tech-savvy individuals.
While in theory, these communities are more accessible, it can be difficult for older people to join and contribute either because they lack the technology or because it’s harder to integrate with a younger demographic.
What’s the Best Approach?
With the return of in-person language courses, the accessibility of online communities, and hybrid methods, learners face a lot of options to practice languages. No one has the universal formula for language learning; that is something every person has to figure out by themselves. Ultimately it is up to you to decide what works best whether it’s just learning online, using physical courses, or mixing these two environments.
Our advice: Don’t be afraid to invest time into trying out different options!
It takes a while to find the perfect mix for you, and even when you think you have utilized all the available options, there are always new things popping up that are worthwhile to check out.
Kawa’s Approach
I personally mix up online and in-person communities but mainly use online communities.
It is more accessible to just open Discord and text, but I feel the lack of practicing with someone face to face. For example, my German comprehension is very good since I’ve been consuming a lot of content; however, since I stopped going to courses and having to interact with others in person, my speaking skill became very rusty. I’m currently looking for local language learning communities and courses for my target languages to supplement the online exposure I get.
Joon’s Approach
As someone whose main target language is Spanish but does not live in a community where there are a lot of native Spanish speakers, I personally find that online language learning communities are the best for me as well.
I have tried classes in the past (both in person or via Zoom) but found that the pace is much too slow. Even if you don’t want to jump into a Discord community and prefer more of a one-on-one approach, there are other apps you can use to meet others around the world too like Slowly, Tandem, or even just asking for corrections on a subreddit.
I would definitely encourage joining an online community though because just being in the same environment with other people who share the same passion for languages as you do can be very encouraging. Plus, you typically will make unexpected friends along the way and then decide to like, I don’t know, manage a newsletter with them or something?
We’d love to hear about your approach to language learning!
Let us know how you decided to use online communities on our Discord Server.
About Joon
Joon, from the US, is a master’s student studying in Colombia while also becoming a project manager. She serves as one of the co-founders of Language Cafe where she can finally use her Project Management degree for something. As for hobbies, Joon likes traveling, listening to k-pop, doing theatre, and playing video games. For languages, she has studied Spanish to fluency and is currently working on Portuguese.
About Kawa
A Digital Media graduate passionate about languages, games, books, and art. Kawa is a native Romanian speaker fluent in English and German and learning Korean and Hungarian. When she’s not at work doing marketing, she still does marketing for Language Cafe and other personal projects all while drinking her 3rd cup of coffee. This explains the huge stash of tea and coffee.