press release

Background: German firm Babbel.com has just bought out British FriendsAbroad.com - but Brit owned Learnitlists.com is there to make you learn using the methods of the ad industry.

English speakers don’t exactly have the best reputation for speaking a second language. Those that do are the exception, rather than the rule. But, now is the time to try, because learning a new language just got a lot more convenient. The learnit widget is a new service which helps you pick up 10 new words every day. It uses the thinking of the advertising industry, and you can find it on all over the Internet.

The old fashioned, Brits Abroad way of communicating with “Johnny Foreigner” was to talk loudly, and, if that didn’t work, shout. With 750 million people around the world learning English, it’s easy to see why native speakers can get away without learning the local lingo, so why try?

Nicola Robinsonova, from learnitlists.com says that the number one reason given by learnit users, is, because it’s fun! Brain fitness and career opportunities are also important, but pleasure was the number 1 motivator for language learners. Learning a language for love was also important, with many learners saying that they were inspired to learn because of their partner, or family.

Why now? We are seeing rapid technological development. There are a host of new products being created for the growing market of online language learners. Many of these are currently free, or available for a small charge. And though 80% of the Internet is in English, there are lots of materials in other languages, such as tv and radio stations and local newspapers. These days you can be immersed without leaving your computer. You can swap languages with native speakers on several language sites such as German based Babbel.com.

One tool,  the Learnit widget, began with its founders, Mike and Nic, moved to a small village in South Bohemia.

“We’d been learning Czech for 18 months before we moved. Our classes were great - but, lacking time, we skipped class & didn’t do our homework. As Czech isn’t a common language, there weren’t so many resources available for it online. We created Learnit out of our own need, so that learning a language is part of our day, not something that takes extra time. We now offer 22 languages (the long tail), so not just the most popular ones like French, German & Spanish.

“I get to see 10 daily words in lots of different places: my email & twitter accounts, blogs and language sites. They’re on Facebook, my desktop and we have a screensaver as well. You can even subscribe to an SMS service to get the words sent to your mobile phone every day.”

The inspiration for Learnit came out of Nicola’s experience as a researcher for the advertising industry. “We are using the techniques of the advertising industry to help people learn what they want to.” says Nicola.

The learnit widget spins out user generated lists around the Internet through an affiliate scheme - this means that any publisher can put an ‘advert’ on their site which holds the content selected by members of Learnitlists.com. Sponsored slots are also available to spread the content even further.

The English language is the lingua franca around the world, arguably the UK’s most successful export. If you want to get on in business or a career you need to be able to speak English. In many countries, such as the Czech Republic, you need to be fluent to get a place at University.

Nicola says that this affords great opportunities to native English speakers: “if you have an education, and a willingness to travel, you’re pretty much guaranteed work in any country. Native English speakers are like gold dust.”

“With the beginnings of a new language under your belt, you can make changes to your life… blog from Seville, for example, or create a web 2.0 startup from South Bohemia!”
Ends

Contact nik@learnitlists.com

Welcome to Learnit!  Do you want to get better at a foreign language? We can help. We’ll give you 10 words a day to learn.  You’ll see them around the Internet. We’re on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll send you a daily email, too. You will see your words on many sites. Any publisher can join our affiliate scheme to help you learn your daily words online.

Learnit uses the science behind advertising to help you learn. Use our services for free, or you can subscribe to extras such as a virtual teacher like me,  daily SMS,  and our screensaver too. Learning gets clever with learn it. Join us now!

We thought it was time we looked again at this fundamental question.  Over the past 9 months we have developed the widget, guided by the requests of our members, and the limits of our own resources.

We have added:

• ‘listen’ word recordings (provided both free - user generated, or from a speaking avatar via a subscription service)
• A test
• Grammatical info
• Multiple languages
• ‘write’ common phase translator
• ’share’ - directory of useful language resources
• twitter feeds (providing the words as RSS as well)
• a facebook application

We are currently developing:

• a daily email (free)
• sms service (pre-register via the ‘my account’ page on the widget, $0.20 US per message)
• a screensaver ($4.95 US)

For us, the most exciting part of the project is the use of the techniques of the advertising industry in learning - to this end we are building partnerships with other sites so that we can maximise the number of times a day you will come into contact with the materials you want to learn. Please get in contact if you have space to join our affiliate scheme - making the learnit daily words available in a variety of standard advert sizes.

Right now I’m sitting listening to Tim O’Reilly talk about the effects of the economic downturn on web 2.0 startups such as our own.  A strange situation seeing as the conference seems to have gatecrashed the Community Room - provided, I thought, so that we could get on with a bit of work while attending the expo. Just different work to that what I thought I’d be doing. Read the rest of this entry »

Today we started sending content to our members directly - we have always advocated providing our content in as many different environments as possible - and words by email is a logical extension of our service, like the words by SMS premium service.

Learnitlists.com is certainly not a destination site. We expect our members to see the widget & word content in a variety of different locations - such as their igoogle homepage & other language sites, as well as via our affiliate advertising scheme (which is taking some time to organise!).  The emails serve the dual purpose of giving members an additional exposure to their daily words, as well as reminding them of their goal of learning a language. We all know that good intentions aren’t always enough - sometimes we need somebody to nag us a bit.

We are starting slowly with the emails - this is now being sent out to our first 100 founder members, and we will increase this number once we have gauged reaction and ironed out any creases which arise. So far, so good.

The email service is free to all our existing members.  Members can unsubscribe from the service at any time by following the link at the bottom of the email.

There really is no escaping Learnit once you’ve committed to learning a new language.

The next trick we are going to pull from our sleeve is a daily SMS service - so you can get to your daily words when you’re not at your computer, or without mobile WIFI (this scenario may be tough for some to imagine, we know, but not everyone has an iPhone!).

To pre-subscribe, click on the ‘my account’ link at the top of the widget. Select ’subscriptions’ and enter your mobile phone number, including the area code in the box. To unsubscribe, all you have to do is delete your phone number. Easy.

The service costs just 20 cents (US) per message or will be included in the premium subscription.  Learn by SMS will be launched as soon as we have enough customers - so preregister now if you want it!

Newspaper Editors: Do you want your publication to be the first ever
to contain a Web 2.0 widget? We seek print media partners to publish
Learnit offline, supported by significant PR.  For further info,
please contact us: info@learnitlists.com or visit
www.learnitlists.com.

This quote from Kennedy clearly shows two things. Firstly that it is dangerous to use a direct translation without checking this with a native speaker, and secondly, when you make mistakes while speaking in a second language, native speakers don’t really mind. We like the fact that others are trying to communicate in our language. When Kennedy was in Berlin talking about ‘an island of freedom’ they didn’t care that he said ‘I am a jam donut’.

We are really excited to be travelling to Berlin next week to attend the Web 2.0 expo.

Currently we’re trying to work out where to stay. Hopefully Mike Butcher will let us put an ad on the CrunchBoard and some kind fellow entrepreneur will put us up. I can’t wait to see Berlin for myself.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today we are having a peak from Denmark. It’s really interesting, and somewhat perplexing, to see a sudden rush from a specific geographical location. We may be global society, but we still move in tribes. Read the rest of this entry »