An American expat has created an innovative Spanish learning app that competes with the likes of Duolingo and Rosetta Stone.
Tyler Cole, 34, has been trying to learn Spanish for years, but he still feels lost when surrounded by native speakers.
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He lives in the US and has created a revolutionary language learning app to help others become fluent like him.
Palteca uses research-backed technology to immerse you in Spanish, using associations, context, and memory to learn new words and phrases, so you can speak Spanish as if it were your native language. learn.
said Cole, who is based in Madrid. olive press: “I went to a Spanish-speaking country and returned with a strong desire to learn, only to become frustrated and give up after a few months, and I found myself in a vicious cycle.
“I tried everything: traditional teaching methods, books, and over a dozen apps, but nothing seemed to work.”
Later, during a vacation to Peru, the software engineer read a life-changing book about the science of language acquisition, and by applying these techniques, he eventually became fluent.
After finally achieving his “lifelong” goal of speaking Spanish, he was inspired to help others and set out to develop an app using the same science-backed techniques.
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“Palteca is based on the idea that we learn languages through context, rather than studying them. We create memories and connect them with new words,” he said. olive press.
“For example, as a child, we know an apple is an apple because we see it, hold it in our hands, taste it, and we associate it with that word. It does not say “means”. “Hola is a good way to greet someone,” he says. ”
These associations can be personalized, allowing users to curate images that best represent the words they’re trying to learn.
Unlike other apps, Palteca focuses on using Spanish as much as possible, allowing users to “Learn Spanish the way native speakers do” using native-led videos and translations. Not required and English feedback is minimal.
Along with Palteca’s adorable penguin mascot, users are encouraged to “enjoy learning” and have “a clear goal in mind.”
Far from being the menacing bird Duolingo, this app accepts mistakes as “part of the process.”
Since Palteca’s soft launch about five months ago, more than 1,000 users have signed up, and many are eagerly awaiting the next lesson, released weekly.
The official version will be released on Friday, October 18th and will be available for free on the Play Store and App Store.
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