I was watching a TED talk this week from Luis von Ahn, the founder of CAPTCHA. Very interesting talk on mass collaboration over the web and how reCAPTCHA is allowing the web community to participate in a project to digitize books.
All very interesting, but what really got my attention was a new project that they're launching at the moment called Duolingo. It uses a similar approach of getting humans to type in captcha type words, but you're translating these words from a foreign language. von Ahn suggests this is an excellent way to learn a new language.
The site is still in beta at the moment and alas doesn't currently offer Czech as an option but it's certainly one I'll keep an eye out for. They have a video describing the service, which I've embed below for you.
Looks like an interesting concept. Might sign up and try and improve my French.
Yeah it's a shame that Czech isn't an option yet but I've signed up for the beta to see how it works. It's a nice idea if nothing else.
why are you learning czech?
Hi David. My partner is Czech so I\’m hoping one day to be able to converse with her family. That\’s the plan anyway.
Finally got accepted onto the beta for this today so will be able to give it a go. I'll report back.
Hi, just wondering what the result of your beta testing was? I see that they are almost ready to release the beta of English for Czech speakers, but haven’t been able to find anything for learning Czech.
Hi Nick. As you rightly observe, there is sadly still no Czech language option. I've found Memrise.com to be a useful tool however, and have used that extensively alongside my formal classes. Give that a go (if you aren't already).
Wow that’s awesome. Actually I want to learn Czech language Too. I’m planning to move in Czech country sooner.
Duolingo has been voted best app for iPhones.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talk…
Can't find any reference to Czech on the site…how can I sign up to the beta? I can get some native speakers to help, potentially.
Bit about the site here
http://www.fastcompany.com/3028253/bottom-line/th…