Language Corpus
for intermediate-to-advanced foreign language learners
The original thinking behind what is now Language Corpus started 20 years ago when I began teaching English in the Middle East and studying Arabic after earning an M.A. in Linguistics.
Strongly influenced by the writings of language coach/consultant Greg Thomspon, my wife and I collected and worked through many Arabic recordings, and I began to share those on CD-ROMs with other Arabic learners I knew.
As I saw the value of these recordings, and realizing that not everyone had the privilege of living where the language was spoken, I began to formulate an idea of providing natural language recordings in many languages on CD-ROM.
The friction of technology's limitations 20 years ago kept me from pursuing the idea then, but my skill gained in creating a successful language learning website and email newsletter led me to a job back in the U.S., where I programmed an online video streaming and test taking web application for the Department of Modern Languages at UTA.
These new skills in web application development took me into the business world, where eventually I would start and run a software development company that at its peak had 13 team members.
And now, 20 years after the germ of the idea, the internet is quite established enough for Language Corpus to provide audio recordings, transcripts, and translations to language learners in many languages all over the world -- no CD-ROMs required.
Our vision is to provide many thousands of audio recordings on many topics by many speakers in each of many, many languages, and then provide "smart" online software that guides each learner through the recordings that will most help them progress. This will enable intermediate-to-advanced language learners to significantly grow in their ability to understand "real world" spoken language, especially for those who don't have the privilege of living somewhere where the language is spoken. (And it will also speed along the proficiency of those who do live where the language is spoken.)
After several months of after-hours programming by one co-founder (me) and gathering audio recordings (my daughter as co-founder #2), we launched out beta MVP on May 1, with a goal of having our official launch on July 1.
Since I'm writing this in past tense and my next milestone will be the launch itself, I'll add that we learned a lot during the beta period, which resulted in a much better product for our launch. This learning came through a combination of watching people use Language Corpus and also user feedback.
Also key during our beta was listening twice to the book "Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Growth" by Gabriel Weinberg. Can't recommend this book enough for startups.
4 Comments
@reidw7 is there a mobile app underway? My parents are in US right now and they are having trouble communicating in English but they are not tech savvy and they don't use laptop that much. They are on mobile most of the times so I personally feel a mobile app can definitely work.
Our website is quite mobile friendly -- should work fine on any modern phone, but through using a web browser. A mobile app is on our road map but not any time soon.
Language Corpus is free for learners of English -- I hope this is something that can be helpful to them.
I love seeing more resources for language learners, so this is interesting. Who are the main group of your target customers?
Language Corpus is definitely not for beginners, but rather it is for intermediate and advanced language learners. There are five free audio recordings for each language we offer, so people can get an idea of whether their level is a good match with our offering.