Why I Started Khru: To Help People Connect and Learn Languages That Are Often Overlooked
When I first started learning languages, I was drawn to the usual suspects—Spanish, French, German. These are wonderful languages with rich cultures and histories, but I soon realized that the language learning world was dominated by the same few dozen languages, while hundreds of others remained in the shadows.
That realization became deeply personal when I married my Bulgarian wife. I wanted to connect with her family, understand her culture, and speak her native language. But when I looked for quality Bulgarian learning resources, I hit a wall. Most language apps offered the same big languages, while Bulgarian was either completely missing or relegated to a tiny section with minimal, poorly designed content.
This became even clearer during our trip to Thailand. While we could navigate the basic tourist signs and phrases, we yearned to understand the deeper conversations happening around us—the vendors at local markets, the families chatting at temples, the rich cultural expressions that went far beyond "hello" and "thank you." We wanted to connect with Thailand beyond the surface level, but found ourselves limited to tourist-friendly interactions while the real language and culture remained just out of reach.
The Problem with Language Learning Today
The current language learning landscape suffers from a popularity bias. If you want to learn Spanish, you'll find dozens of apps, courses, and resources. But if you're interested in Bulgarian, Lithuanian, Serbian or Thai, your options suddenly become very limited. This creates a cycle where popular languages get more resources, while others are forgotten.
There are hundreds of languages spoken by millions of people that are completely ignored by mainstream language learning apps. Estonian, Latvian, Icelandic, Serbian—each of these languages has rich literary traditions and fascinating grammar systems. Yet they're treated as afterthoughts by the language learning industry.
Enter Khru: A Different Approach
I am creating Khru with a simple mission: every language deserves the spotlight. Instead of focusing on the most popular languages, we're building comprehensive learning experiences for languages that are often overlooked. My personal frustration with learning Bulgarian and helping my wife learn Romanian became the motivation for something bigger.
Our initial focus includes Bulgarian, Romanian, Thai, Icelandic, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Serbian—languages spoken by millions of people worldwide, yet underserved by traditional language learning apps.
Looking Ahead
We're launching with seven carefully chosen languages, but this is just the beginning. Our goal is to create an app where any language learner can find high-quality, culturally rich content for the language they're passionate about—whether that's Swahili, Welsh, Tagalog, or any of the hundreds of other languages that mainstream apps ignore.
