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Ok, it's true that this looks like a naked grab for money, but honestly? If this app works the way I think it does, I'd seriously consider springing for the an

by blahedo 17y ago

Ok, it's true that this looks like a naked grab for money, but honestly? If this app works the way I think it does, I'd seriously consider springing for the analogous thing for Le Monde or Nouvel Observateur---I've tried to buff my French by regularly reading the news, but the grammar and vocab targeted at a general audience is still just a smidge too dense for me to handle. Training wheels would be nice. I suspect there is quite a market for this, actually.

malloreon 17y ago
entirely agreed. a suite of apps that took current foreign language periodicals and turned them into language lessons? Take my money. please.
MikeCapone 17y ago
I think it's a great idea. Nobody's forced to buy it, so it's not like locking the main site behind a pay wall. And if someone can learn a new language more easily with it, it has life-changing potential (I know that learning English changed my life, and I would have loved to have this back then).
idlewords 17y ago
Newspaper French is a little difficult to approach if you are not already fairly fluent; it's distant in style from colloquial French and uses some grammatical features that are likely to be unfamiliar. I would suggest reading some Jules Verne! You can find full texts of his stories online in French and English, and reading them in parallel (with the English as a check on your comprehension) will help you hoover up a lot of vocabulary while enjoying a fun story.
patio11 17y ago
I suspect there is quite a market for this, actually. Japanese publishers sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of "Learn English with Barack Obama" by taking his most famous speeches and annotating them. Yes, I think there is a wee bit of a market for selling practical English instruction to high-brow consumers in other nations. (Granted, a lot of people buying those books are paying for the experience of buying the book rather than paying to learn English, but that is true of plenty of software, too.)

by blahedo 17y ago

malloreon 17y ago

entirely agreed. a suite of apps that took current foreign language periodicals and turned them into language lessons? Take my money. please.

MikeCapone 17y ago

I think it's a great idea. Nobody's forced to buy it, so it's not like locking the main site behind a pay wall. And if someone can learn a new language more easily with it, it has life-changing potential (I know that learning English changed my life, and I would have loved to have this back then).

idlewords 17y ago

Newspaper French is a little difficult to approach if you are not already fairly fluent; it's distant in style from colloquial French and uses some grammatical features that are likely to be unfamiliar. I would suggest reading some Jules Verne! You can find full texts of his stories online in French and English, and reading them in parallel (with the English as a check on your comprehension) will help you hoover up a lot of vocabulary while enjoying a fun story.

patio11 17y ago

I suspect there is quite a market for this, actually. Japanese publishers sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of "Learn English with Barack Obama" by taking his most famous speeches and annotating them. Yes, I think there is a wee bit of a market for selling practical English instruction to high-brow consumers in other nations. (Granted, a lot of people buying those books are paying for the experience of buying the book rather than paying to learn English, but that is true of plenty of software, too.)