Mondly is an EdTech company that develops a freemium language learning platform which includes a website and apps with free and paid courses for 33 languages. The company also offers lessons in virtual and augmented reality.
congrats for the prduct! looks neat! are there any studies that say that a real tutor (or VR one) is more helpful in learning languages compared to let's say "self learning"..?
Congrats for the launch!
How do you see this evolving in the next future? What can you share about your roadmap?
For example, I'd love to be able to mix this with camera translation like what Google Translate offers. I could scan objects and signs while traveling, and study them with AR added help :)
@immanuelkapa Hello Emanuelle, thx for the questions!
Image and object recognition is something we've been playing with for quite a while. Although we didn't launch it in v1, it is working quite well in our labs and it's planned to be released very soon.
Regarding our roadmap, we're planning to launch MondlyAR on iOS using ARKit, Apple's augmented reality SDK, at the end of this month.
We're also adding more languages with the goal to support 30 languages by this summer.
Cheers!
Clever but what's the value of learning a language from a bot in AR? It seems like this would be less accessible than more traditional, non-AR apps like Duolingo. What am I missing?
@rrhoover Hello Ryan, thanks for the thoughtful questions.
VR and AR are less accessible than simple mobile apps in the same way that planes are less accessible than cars.
While it requires newer hardware, AR is able to create a feeling of immersion that traditional mobile apps are not capable of.
Nothing compares with the illusion of seeing a 10 ft elephant, moving and trumpeting in your room. A photo cannot cannot convey that emotion.
Or admiring a life-size grand piano with all its details and from any angle, blending perfectly in your environment, with spatial sound that changes its intensity while you move to explore this work of art.
While this exploration happens, Mondly, the virtual teacher is aware of you and your environment at any moment.
She knows if youโre facing her, if youโre at the right or left of the piano and she can use this information in a dialogue: โIf you move to the left youโll see the stringsโ.
She can move closer to you, looks at you, follows you, gesticulates just like a real teacher would do to reinforce language and make the experience more memorable.
She can change from a teacher to a conversational partner just like in a SF movie. Want to practice ordering food at a restaurant? No problem - Mondly will change her outfit to accommodate the situation: โQue desea seรฑor?โ
She can understand what you are saying and help correct your pronunciation and can even answer some of your random questions.
I hope you see how combining the spatial capabilities of AR with the interactivity of chatbots and speech recognition can create a more personal and immersive learning experience, which is recognised by all studies to be the ideal ingredients for fast and effective learning.
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Learning languages in school is notoriously Boring! I took German and French for 8+ years and still can't speak either fluently. This app is super cool, it's no longer about the end result, learning to speaking the language, it's about the whole experience.
As a US expat living in Berlin, trying to learn German, Mondly has been a huge help. I've used many language learning apps in the past but I tend to get bored after a while. Mondly seems to be the only app that I stick with longer than a few months. Now with AR, it makes learning German more engaging and entertaining. Of all the apps integrating AR into their products, this [for me] is the best use of AR I have seen. Great job guys!
Hola Product Hunt, and Danke for hunting us, @chrismessina!
4 years ago we created Mondly with a sole vision: to help people learn languages online so they can have meaningful conversations in real life.
I truly believe that conversations are the ultimate goal of every language learner.
Here are the steps we made towards our vision in the past few years:
-Released the 1st voice-enabled language chatbot in the world (August 2016)
-Launched MondlyVR, the first virtual reality language app with speech recognition for Oculus (February 2017) and Daydream (September 2017)
-Today, we are introducing MondlyAR - The first augmented reality language learning experience with chatbots and speech recognition (March 2018) on ARCore
Mondly AR introduces a lifelike avatar that carries humanlike conversations and offers instant feedback on your pronunciation.
With the power of ARCore it can virtually teleport all kinds of objects into your living room, creating a new kind of immersive experience. This makes learning fun and memorable.
We are thrilled with this version of the product, but there's room to grow. Now Iโm turning to you, the toughest crowd in the tech world, for feedback and ideas on how to take Mondly one step forward.
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@iliescualex What does Augmented Reality add to this? It seems to me like it adds nothing meaningful at all to the learning process, just an additional step that will grow tiresome for users. Let me know if I'm missing something.
@william_falloon Hi William, great question!
What we are seeing with AR is that it's able to create a better feeling of immersion that stimulates better interaction with the learning materials.
Nothing compares with the illusion of seeing a 10 ft elephant, moving and trumpeting in your room. A photo or an illustrated image in an app cannot cannot convey that emotion.
Or admiring a life-size grand piano with all its details and from any angle, blending perfectly in your environment, with spatial sound that changes its intensity while you move to explore this work of art.
While this exploration happens, Mondly, the virtual teacher is aware of you and your environment at any moment.
She knows if youโre facing her, if youโre at the right or left of the piano and she can use this information in a dialogue: โIf you move to the left youโll see the stringsโ.
She can move closer to you, looks at you, follows you, gesticulates just like a real teacher would do to reinforce language and make the experience more memorable.
She can change from a teacher to a conversational partner just like in a SF movie. Want to practice ordering food at a restaurant? No problem - Mondly will change her outfit to accommodate the situation: โQue desea seรฑor?โ
She can understand what you are saying and help correct your pronunciation and can even answer some of your random questions.
I hope you see how combining the spatial capabilities of AR with the interactivity of chatbots and speech recognition can create a more personal and immersive learning experience, which is recognised by all studies to be the ideal ingredients for fast and effective learning.
TypingDNA
Questo
Tailor
Mondly Languages
Product Hunt
Mondly Languages
Learning languages in school is notoriously Boring! I took German and French for 8+ years and still can't speak either fluently. This app is super cool, it's no longer about the end result, learning to speaking the language, it's about the whole experience.
Pros:FUN and quirky
Cons:might be good to have a male teacher also?
Questo
Gummicube
Questo
Mondly Languages
Mondly Languages
I can really see myself learn a language in AR
Pros:really cool use of augmented reality
Cons:none
Questo