Not just the sets but the camera, too. Whedon wanted the audience to feel like they were in the space, so they wouldn’t do the usual tricks of removing walls to set the camera up for stuff like hallway shots. If you watch on the longer shots where they move through the ship you can see the actors turn their shoulders slightly when they pass the camera cause they’re squeezing around the corner of the hallway.
As opposed to French, which famously exists as a natural truth of the universe. Even if we had never discovered French it would still be there… waiting.