3D For Language Learning

Now here's an interesting idea. Maybe not as lofty as fighting cancer, but still interesting. Use a 3D game engine to create a foreign town to help learn a language:

We have combined the Torque Game Engine with a very robust speech recognition engine to make a compelling interactive experience. Some of the developers went so far as to live in Spain to make sure we got it right. We have been working on this project for quite a while and have used a market validation process to make sure we're creating something that people will want to buy.

Virtual Spaniards inhabit the town, and wait for you to interact with them. The conversations are the heart of the program and take place in a window we call the VoiceBox. The VoiceBox contains both sides of the dialog in Spanish, a phonetic pronunciation guide, and English. The initial release will include 12 characters with 2+ conversations each, covering the basics of conversational Spanish: pleasantries, directions, shopping, weather, etc.

They also have a website.