LanguageLab communicates almost exclusively in Second Life

Language school recruits employees, serves customers, communicates with employees—and makes money—all in a virtual world

LanguageLab offers language classes, led by some of the best teachers anywhere, in nearly every corner of the world.

Every class has one thing in common, however: It takes place in Second Life.

“Without Second Life or virtual worlds we would have to have a building in every city in the world to achieve this,” says Shiv Rajendran, operations director of LanguageLab.com. “The cost of having one school in Second Life is minuscule compared to building just one school in London let alone one in every city.”

Rajendran is based in London, along with nine other core team members; the company’s other 50 or so other employees are scattered across the globe—every one of whom was recruited in or via Second Life.

The company ran two teacher-training programs in Second Life, each of which attracted 30 to 40 qualified and experienced language teachers from around the globe.

“From these, we recruited the best to work for us,” Rajendran says.