Comment Could anyone look at my lang-edu startup? (Score 1) 75
So, I actually started a language education startup called Nihongo Master, which is a startup currently aimed at teaching Japanese. I certainly looked at duolingo when I was attempting to learn Japanese on my own and it fell short similar to my thoughts on Rosetta Stone. The lack of really in-depth grammar explanation killed it for me and at the time there was little to no real social interaction and reward system; however, this has been improved with Duolingo from what I last saw. My thoughts are usually when you follow a set pattern for translation (word A means word B, and vice-versa) as a language learning device, you lose the ability to learn a lot of the edge case rules of the language. Japanese has it's fair share of them.
So when I wanted to build a language edu tech platform, I wanted to build something that incorporated all the the positive things I saw in the tools I used. Traditional classroom style lessons delivered electronically, a reward system through points and achievements, ranking against other learners and teaming up with others and more social interaction to practice, practice, practice. Tools like real-time text/voice chat (with text translation), community questions (think stackoverflow style), forums, etc. Plus some nice interesting tech sprinkled in such as spaced repetition style drills for rapid memorization, a solid quizzing system, custom drills, writing sheets, etc.
I really have a tough time understanding Duolingo's business model and it would be interesting to see how far away they are from being profitable with the recent CNN and BuzzFeed deals. I took no outside money and have bootstrapped this idea all on my own and it's been a struggle but it's really close to breaking even. It uses a freemium model so that there's plenty to learn and use as a free user to help promote Japanese as a language. The "paywall" is for advanced lessons and more robust tools (usually meant for advanced learners as well). I've struggled to try and find a proper balance of giving enough to everyone while finding ways to build revenue. Plus it's expensive to have an actual Japanese teacher help to make the content.
So, if anyone would like to look, please take the time to look up Nihongo Master and share me your thoughts. I'd love to know what you think and how it compares with DuoLingo and if I'm on the right track. What is it about DuoLingo that you like/dislike? Did I just simply suck at building my own platform? I'd **really** appreciate honest feedback.
DuoLingo supports so many languages. I build the tech stack so I can approach teaching any language on there as well but I simply don't have the pockets like DuoLingo. I think I made the wrong choice in language after hearing him state Spanish English was their biggest userbase. What are languages YOU want to learn?
So when I wanted to build a language edu tech platform, I wanted to build something that incorporated all the the positive things I saw in the tools I used. Traditional classroom style lessons delivered electronically, a reward system through points and achievements, ranking against other learners and teaming up with others and more social interaction to practice, practice, practice. Tools like real-time text/voice chat (with text translation), community questions (think stackoverflow style), forums, etc. Plus some nice interesting tech sprinkled in such as spaced repetition style drills for rapid memorization, a solid quizzing system, custom drills, writing sheets, etc.
I really have a tough time understanding Duolingo's business model and it would be interesting to see how far away they are from being profitable with the recent CNN and BuzzFeed deals. I took no outside money and have bootstrapped this idea all on my own and it's been a struggle but it's really close to breaking even. It uses a freemium model so that there's plenty to learn and use as a free user to help promote Japanese as a language. The "paywall" is for advanced lessons and more robust tools (usually meant for advanced learners as well). I've struggled to try and find a proper balance of giving enough to everyone while finding ways to build revenue. Plus it's expensive to have an actual Japanese teacher help to make the content.
So, if anyone would like to look, please take the time to look up Nihongo Master and share me your thoughts. I'd love to know what you think and how it compares with DuoLingo and if I'm on the right track. What is it about DuoLingo that you like/dislike? Did I just simply suck at building my own platform? I'd **really** appreciate honest feedback.
DuoLingo supports so many languages. I build the tech stack so I can approach teaching any language on there as well but I simply don't have the pockets like DuoLingo. I think I made the wrong choice in language after hearing him state Spanish English was their biggest userbase. What are languages YOU want to learn?
