New Language Offerings?

[jimmymck]

Wow! I just discovered Chatterbug over the weekend and have been obsessed with it ever since. This is the greatest language app I’ve seen since Duolingo because of the interactivity involved. Your teachers are all positive and fun, from what I’ve seen while watching both the French and Spanish streams. I love taking the quizzes to gauge my comprehension and I love the chat for additional help. And to think that I get access to all the best core features for free makes it even better!

But I’m now wondering which languages will be included next. One thing Chatterbug would be really great at teaching that language apps like Duolingo struggle with is teaching sign languages. Since it’s all video streams on your platform with live teachers, there isn’t the same struggle with teaching it compared to other apps. I’ve always wanted to learn ASL but sign languages from other countries could be great as well. I love the inclusivity and representation in Chatterbug and how your teachers participate in each other’s streams. It would be cool having ASL and JSL teachers across streams for example.

But regardless of whether you decide to include sign languages eventually, I excitedly await your next language additions. I personally would like to see some non-European languages as well such as Japanese or Yoruba. I know several people who would love to be teachers for those languages as well.

[27sp.sandra]

Hi @jimmymck

Thank you so much for this valuable feedback! We are happy to hear that you are enjoying the features our platform offers and the way our teachers present and interact with the students.

In regard to ASL, you’re absolutely right, our Stream platform would be ideal to teach this type of language. I’ll pass this idea along to the product team!

We don’t know yet what the future will bring, but like you, I’m also excited to see what will be the next language addition to our platform. Could it be Japanese? Yoruba? Italian? We’ll see .

I wish you the best with your French and Spanish learning and I hope you have a great week.

Au revoir!

[jimmymck]

I wouldn’t mind Italian or Chinese either! I have plans to visit Italy in the near future and would like to speak with my grandmother-in-law in her native language, Mandarin, before she passes. I’m going to continue spreading the word and look forward to both improvements on the current courses and future language additions!

[Leocadie]

Oh yes, I think we are all waiting to see which languages come next !
I would love to refresh my Italian and to start Portuguese once I’ve reached B2 in Spanish !

[tjohnson]

Hey Jimmy,

TJ here from Chatterbug. Great to hear you’re enjoying our app and thanks for your kind words! I thought I’d weigh in here on the addition of further languages.

The bad news up front: further languages aren’t on our immediate roadmap - at least for the moment. You might be surprised to learn that because we write all of our curricula in-house, it can take close to two years (!) to create all of the material for one full language course spanning across all of our products. The bulk of this work goes into our relatively comprehensive Lessons platform.

We’ve taken the long route so far because our current aim is to create a fully integrated ecosystem of learning products, that can take a learner from more approachable, casual learning (i.e Streams) all the way to fully committed, advanced learning (i.e. Live Lessons with tutors). We believe this is the way forward to (mission statement incoming…) make real language learning achievable by anyone.

You’re probably thinking: “just skip the Lessons platform and add languages to the mobile app only!”, and you’d be right: we’d surely be able to acquire Streamers, develop content and build communities much more quickly by focusing solely on the app. As you say, the app would be perfect for languages like Japanese, and we’ve actually always talked internally about someday teaching sign language. In fact, our CEO, Scott, is an ASL speaker himself.

So we’re certainly as excited as you are about adding new languages, and the mobile app would likely be the first place these appear. But as I said, our current focus lies in proving our ecosystem (Chatterverse?) as a whole in the four languages we currently offer.

So for now, we can’t do more than speculate on what language will be next for us. But it’s amazing to see more and more users ask for further languages, and this will certainly inform the direction we go in once we’re ready. So keep the suggestions coming!

Cheers,
TJ

[jimmymck]

This is all great news! Thanks for the update TJ!

It’s cool to know that you’ve already discussed ASL & Japanese, and that Scott can sign ASL as well. I look forward to any new language offerings. The bite-sized lessons make it easy to stay consistent with my learning, when I usually check out of TV shows or YouTube videos in my target language. The comprehension checks are also really helpful for keeping me engaged.

Regardless of your timeline for new language updates, I’ll keep up with my Spanish and French, and may eventually try some German. Thanks again to all of you!

[pauldunahoo]

I know it won’t be the top priority, but I would love it if Dutch was added!

[JackieK]

I would love to see Russian added to the platform! Based on how well German has been done I would join the ultimate subscription for sure