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Show HN: Flowlingo – practice a foreign language with tech news

79 points by levpopov 7y ago

mjlee 7y ago
I'm a little confused about how this works, and the site doesn't answer my question readily. What is the source? The "Browse any website" claim implies that you're translating on the fly and then I learn by translating back to English. Is this the case?
- gnode 7y ago
  Given the inadequacies of automated translation, it would make more sense if the model was: browse websites written originally in foreign languages, and automatically translate to English (or another known language) for hints. This is also implied by their suggestion of "learn the culture surrounding a language with local trending news."
  - levpopov 7y ago
    Yep, that's exactly how Flowlingo works! We do the same for books and videos as well (native content in foreign language with ML translation tools to help you read/watch)
- levpopov 7y ago
  Hey, thanks for the feedback on the site being confusing. Will update to make it more clear! All content is native content in the foreign language you are learning. Suppose you are learning Spanish - we'll show you a feed of popular news articles originally written in Spanish so you can practice by reading those. There is machine translation built in for words or sentences that you might need help with. We'll even automatically create flashcards for you for words you look up, to help you review with spaced repetition later. When we say "browse any website" we mean that Flowlingo can be used as a general purpose browser - you can navigate to any website in Spanish and use the same learning tools to practice!
  - mjlee 7y ago
    Got it! Thank you for clarifying.
tomjohnneill 7y ago
Just tried it out. Seems like a nice idea and can see how it might be useful. However, for the Android version in Chinese, it's very difficult to get the translations of the words - it defaults to translating entire lines. Also, when you try and adjust the amount that is being selected, if it hasn't finished reading out the whole line, you get two chunks being read simultaneously.
- levpopov 7y ago
  Hey, thanks for the feedback. We definitely need to improve the app for Chinese - word tokenization is much harder here so we don't handle word selection well right now. Our app is most polished for languages like Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Russian. Stay tuned though! We definitely want to make it work just as well for Chinese in the future!
  - tomjohnneill 7y ago
    I thought that would be the case. I tried it in French and I understood the app much better. Though one other thing, it didn't seem that clear how to add words to flashcards. I later figured out that it automatically adds them when you click translate, but might be better to have an option to add them or not? Or at least a little notification saying "flashcard added".
    - levpopov 7y ago
      Great feedback. We plan on adding both - a notification, as well as a button to add and remove flashcards after tapping.
programLyrique 7y ago
Reading the reviews on Google Play, it seems there is some in-app purchase, but on the website, I see no indication paying is needed at some point ( sounds like all is free actually when reading the website) so I am confused...
- burkaman 7y ago
  You get extra features and Harry Potter if you subscribe: https://www.getflowlingo.com/harrypotter https://www.getflowlingo.com/harrypotter
- levpopov 7y ago
  Almost everything in the app is free - including the tech news. There is a premium subscription to help our tiny team of two fund the development. Subscribers can practice with books (Flowlingo works with any .ePub file), and get more videos (in languages where we have a video library).
fastball 7y ago
Only accepting US phone numbers for a non-region-specific app in [current year]?
- levpopov 7y ago
  Hey - the phone number is just a convenience if you want to text the app store link to you phone (from the desktop landing page). You don't need a phone number to use Flowlingo, and we don't ask for anything other than email when you register.
kawera 7y ago
No ToS, no privacy policy, no physical address, no authors' names... and it wants to roam with me inside my pocket?!?
- burkaman 7y ago
  Privacy Policy: https://reader.getflowlingo.com/privacy.html https://reader.getflowlingo.com/privacy.html Physical Address: 2443 Fillmore St #380-8214 San Francisco, CA 94115 Authors' names: Matt Kelly, Lev Popov
  - kawera 7y ago
    Great, thanks! With growing concerns related to both privacy and malicious mobile apps, maybe it would be a good idea to make at least an "about" page telling who you are and what info is collected.
    - levpopov 7y ago
      Flowlingo dev here: Thanks for the suggestion - all this info is linked from app store pages (I'm guessing this is where the person above found it). Having a separate about page on the website is a great idea as well, we'll add that.
- estebarb 7y ago
  I didn't installed it on Android, as it asks for too much permisions: why this app requires contact access, call info, etc...?
- kwhitefoot 7y ago
  And no list of supported languages.
brianshaffer 7y ago
I like it. I like how I can click words or phrases in the article and it translates them directly. The video section es muy bueno también. Gracias por tu ayuda!
- levpopov 7y ago
  Gracias! Feel free to send us feedback in the app, any time (just tap “Help” and scroll to the bottom)
tmountain 7y ago
I like this conceptually, as I think media immersion is a good way for an intermediate/advanced language learner to continue with their progress; however, I can't find a way to use this on my laptop. Your tagline says: "Infinite content on mobile, tablet, desktop." However, I only see mobile versions available as downloads. How do I use it on the desktop?
- levpopov 7y ago
  You can use Flowlingo on desktop/laptop at https://reader.getflowlingo.com https://reader.getflowlingo.com - the mobile apps are definitely the most polished at this point which is why we’d prefer people start there first (we send a follow up email after registration with desktop info). Feel free to message us feedback/bugs at any time (tap “Help” and scroll to the bottom). Thanks!
  - cloverich 7y ago
    Hi. I just tried doing that with English -> Japanese. It gave me a prompt that said that that language is only available on mobile. I wanted to go back but it would not let me -- and it takes me back there still if I refresh the page (to the original link). Oh no! :D
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
orky56 7y ago
Productive x2! Love it. For second generation immigrants and I'm sure many others, learning a new language often comes while watching foreign language films, sometimes with subtitles. This seems like a more productive way to not only learn the content but also the language.
- MattKelly 7y ago
  I'm glad you like it! Feel free to send us feedback any time (support@getflowlingo.com or tap "Help" in the app and scroll to the bottom for chat).
enahs-sf 7y ago
This is a fantastic idea. I learned Swedish as a child in a very similar fashion through watching tons of movies in english with Swedish subtitles and reading. Having this for digital media seems invaluable.
- gargarplex 7y ago
  For anyone learning Swedish as an adult, consider joining the Kodapor groups on Facebook.
nevada_scout 7y ago
The app doesn't work very well on iPhone X devices (due to the notch)... Once that's fixed I'll give it a try properly!
- MattKelly 7y ago
  Thanks for letting us know. Can you email us support@getflowlingo.com so we can investigate?
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
samuraiseoul 7y ago
Phone only and also requires sign up before I can even see a list of languages that are available? I'd like to use it but I'm not gonna do it on my phone, and I'm not gonna sign up before if I know my target languages are available. Also its not clear if this is just some in-line translation of articles and subtitles using google translate? Something else?
- rakoo 7y ago
  The full list is available from the Android play store page (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wowlabs.flowlingo&hl=en_US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wowlabs.fl...): > 22 languages supported, including: English, Spanish, Français (French), Deutsch (German), Русский (Russian), 简体中文 (Chinese Simplified), বাংলা (Bengali), Dansk (Danish), Nederlands (Dutch), Ελληνικά (Greek), हिन्दी (Hindi), Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian), Italiano (Italian), 日本語 (Japanese), 한국어 (Korean), Polski (Polish), Português (Portuguese), Svenska (Swedish), Tagalog (Filipino), ภาษาไทย (Thai), Türkçe (Turkish), and Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese).
- MattKelly 7y ago
  We list the languages on the website and the app description (also rakoo pasted them in his comment). Check out @levpopov's other comments about phone #s (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20097197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20097197) and how we handle translation (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20097026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20097026).
  - samuraiseoul 7y ago
    I see the language description on the site now but it was hard to spot until I looked really carefully. That said, I don't see a way to use this as a web app, only to download it for a mobile device. I know the phone number is for getting a download link but the thing is I do not want to download it.
    - ramblerman 7y ago
      Then don’t.
trustfundbaby 7y ago
Been looking for exactly this. Was actually going to write a script that grabbed paragraphs of random Spanish news and emailed them to me with the English translations beneath them every morning so I could get some practice every morning in my inbox. Nice!
k__ 7y ago
Nice! I had a similar idea, learning a language with Twitter. You'd select a profile and it would crawl all Tweets and create a learning plan from it. The idea was to learn how people actually talk and not some random DuoLingo stuff.
distantaidenn 7y ago
On an Android. I like the idea, and am currently studying Korean. The app is unusably slow, and hangs often. If you want my phone environment, feel free to pm.
- MattKelly 7y ago
  Thanks for letting us know. I'm not sure how to PM someone. Email us at support@getflowlingo.com - we'll investigate and make sure it's fixed.
bloolizard 7y ago
Cool idea, I like the thought behind this app. Having tried a lot of other language apps, and not getting much use out of them but learning how to play a game (even after finishing), seems definitely more immersive imo. Just downloaded the Android version, will give it a whirl. If you have a support forum, would definitely give feedback and potential bugs.
- MattKelly 7y ago
  Thanks! Feel free to email us feedback at support@getflowlingo.com or contact us in-app by tapping "Help" and scrolling to the bottom.
arafalov 7y ago
<rant> The thing that annoys me about all of these attempts is failing to recognize the impact of irregular forms of the verbs. So - for French - all the different forms of the verb aller (go) are treated individually. I paid for ReadLang for a while, but this lack of a feature has proven too frustrating. I would have loved to have an app that runs the text through something like Google Natural Language API (https://cloud.google.com/natural-language/ https://cloud.google.com/natural-language/) and then use the results of _that_ for flashcards, noun-phrase translation, etc. Google Translate alone is just not sufficient. </rant> Of course, I have 10 pages worth of ideas about language learning and none of that implemented. So, kudos for trying to make at least something happen. Let the thousand flowers bloom and all that.
- avinium 7y ago
  The thing that annoys me about all of these attempts is failing to recognize the impact of irregular forms of the verbs. So - for French - all the different forms of the verb aller (go) are treated individually. I paid for ReadLang for a while, but this lack of a feature has proven too frustrating. I don't speak French so I'm having trouble understanding what you mean. Do you mind giving a bit more detail? I'm also curious about the other ideas you mentioned.
  - rakoo 7y ago
    French here, I never realized it but there are at least 3 different forms depending on who does it and when: Present: Je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont Future: j'irai, tu iras, il ira, nous irons, vous irez, ils iront Same goes for être (to be): Present: Je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont Future: Je serai, tu sera, il sera, nous serons, vous serez, ils seront Simple past: Je fus, tu fus, il fut, nous fûmes, vous fûtes, ils furent (No one uses simple past, but here it is) Subordinate (?): Que je sois, que tu sois, qu'il soit, que nous soyons, que vous soyez, qu'ils soient I guess it's the same in pretty much every language, especially for those 2 common verbs, there are irregular forms everywhere.
    - arafalov 7y ago

79 points by levpopov 7y ago

I'm a little confused about how this works, and the site doesn't answer my question readily. What is the source? The "Browse any website" claim implies that you're translating on the fly and then I learn by translating back to English. Is this the case?

gnode 7y ago
Given the inadequacies of automated translation, it would make more sense if the model was: browse websites written originally in foreign languages, and automatically translate to English (or another known language) for hints. This is also implied by their suggestion of "learn the culture surrounding a language with local trending news."
- levpopov 7y ago
  Yep, that's exactly how Flowlingo works! We do the same for books and videos as well (native content in foreign language with ML translation tools to help you read/watch)
levpopov 7y ago
Hey, thanks for the feedback on the site being confusing. Will update to make it more clear! All content is native content in the foreign language you are learning. Suppose you are learning Spanish - we'll show you a feed of popular news articles originally written in Spanish so you can practice by reading those. There is machine translation built in for words or sentences that you might need help with. We'll even automatically create flashcards for you for words you look up, to help you review with spaced repetition later. When we say "browse any website" we mean that Flowlingo can be used as a general purpose browser - you can navigate to any website in Spanish and use the same learning tools to practice!
- mjlee 7y ago
  Got it! Thank you for clarifying.

tomjohnneill 7y ago

Just tried it out. Seems like a nice idea and can see how it might be useful. However, for the Android version in Chinese, it's very difficult to get the translations of the words - it defaults to translating entire lines. Also, when you try and adjust the amount that is being selected, if it hasn't finished reading out the whole line, you get two chunks being read simultaneously.

levpopov 7y ago
Hey, thanks for the feedback. We definitely need to improve the app for Chinese - word tokenization is much harder here so we don't handle word selection well right now. Our app is most polished for languages like Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Russian. Stay tuned though! We definitely want to make it work just as well for Chinese in the future!
- tomjohnneill 7y ago
  I thought that would be the case. I tried it in French and I understood the app much better. Though one other thing, it didn't seem that clear how to add words to flashcards. I later figured out that it automatically adds them when you click translate, but might be better to have an option to add them or not? Or at least a little notification saying "flashcard added".
  - levpopov 7y ago
    Great feedback. We plan on adding both - a notification, as well as a button to add and remove flashcards after tapping.

programLyrique 7y ago

Reading the reviews on Google Play, it seems there is some in-app purchase, but on the website, I see no indication paying is needed at some point ( sounds like all is free actually when reading the website) so I am confused...

burkaman 7y ago
You get extra features and Harry Potter if you subscribe: https://www.getflowlingo.com/harrypotter https://www.getflowlingo.com/harrypotter
levpopov 7y ago
Almost everything in the app is free - including the tech news. There is a premium subscription to help our tiny team of two fund the development. Subscribers can practice with books (Flowlingo works with any .ePub file), and get more videos (in languages where we have a video library).

fastball 7y ago

Only accepting US phone numbers for a non-region-specific app in [current year]?

levpopov 7y ago
Hey - the phone number is just a convenience if you want to text the app store link to you phone (from the desktop landing page). You don't need a phone number to use Flowlingo, and we don't ask for anything other than email when you register.

kawera 7y ago

No ToS, no privacy policy, no physical address, no authors' names... and it wants to roam with me inside my pocket?!?

burkaman 7y ago
Privacy Policy: https://reader.getflowlingo.com/privacy.html https://reader.getflowlingo.com/privacy.html Physical Address: 2443 Fillmore St #380-8214 San Francisco, CA 94115 Authors' names: Matt Kelly, Lev Popov
- kawera 7y ago
  Great, thanks! With growing concerns related to both privacy and malicious mobile apps, maybe it would be a good idea to make at least an "about" page telling who you are and what info is collected.
  - levpopov 7y ago
    Flowlingo dev here: Thanks for the suggestion - all this info is linked from app store pages (I'm guessing this is where the person above found it). Having a separate about page on the website is a great idea as well, we'll add that.
estebarb 7y ago
I didn't installed it on Android, as it asks for too much permisions: why this app requires contact access, call info, etc...?
kwhitefoot 7y ago
And no list of supported languages.

brianshaffer 7y ago

I like it. I like how I can click words or phrases in the article and it translates them directly. The video section es muy bueno también. Gracias por tu ayuda!

levpopov 7y ago
Gracias! Feel free to send us feedback in the app, any time (just tap “Help” and scroll to the bottom)

tmountain 7y ago

I like this conceptually, as I think media immersion is a good way for an intermediate/advanced language learner to continue with their progress; however, I can't find a way to use this on my laptop. Your tagline says: "Infinite content on mobile, tablet, desktop." However, I only see mobile versions available as downloads. How do I use it on the desktop?

levpopov 7y ago
You can use Flowlingo on desktop/laptop at https://reader.getflowlingo.com https://reader.getflowlingo.com - the mobile apps are definitely the most polished at this point which is why we’d prefer people start there first (we send a follow up email after registration with desktop info). Feel free to message us feedback/bugs at any time (tap “Help” and scroll to the bottom). Thanks!
- cloverich 7y ago
  Hi. I just tried doing that with English -> Japanese. It gave me a prompt that said that that language is only available on mobile. I wanted to go back but it would not let me -- and it takes me back there still if I refresh the page (to the original link). Oh no! :D

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

orky56 7y ago

Productive x2! Love it. For second generation immigrants and I'm sure many others, learning a new language often comes while watching foreign language films, sometimes with subtitles. This seems like a more productive way to not only learn the content but also the language.

MattKelly 7y ago
I'm glad you like it! Feel free to send us feedback any time (support@getflowlingo.com or tap "Help" in the app and scroll to the bottom for chat).

enahs-sf 7y ago

This is a fantastic idea. I learned Swedish as a child in a very similar fashion through watching tons of movies in english with Swedish subtitles and reading. Having this for digital media seems invaluable.

gargarplex 7y ago
For anyone learning Swedish as an adult, consider joining the Kodapor groups on Facebook.

nevada_scout 7y ago

The app doesn't work very well on iPhone X devices (due to the notch)... Once that's fixed I'll give it a try properly!

MattKelly 7y ago
Thanks for letting us know. Can you email us support@getflowlingo.com so we can investigate?

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

samuraiseoul 7y ago

Phone only and also requires sign up before I can even see a list of languages that are available? I'd like to use it but I'm not gonna do it on my phone, and I'm not gonna sign up before if I know my target languages are available. Also its not clear if this is just some in-line translation of articles and subtitles using google translate? Something else?

rakoo 7y ago
The full list is available from the Android play store page (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wowlabs.flowlingo&hl=en_US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wowlabs.fl...): > 22 languages supported, including: English, Spanish, Français (French), Deutsch (German), Русский (Russian), 简体中文 (Chinese Simplified), বাংলা (Bengali), Dansk (Danish), Nederlands (Dutch), Ελληνικά (Greek), हिन्दी (Hindi), Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian), Italiano (Italian), 日本語 (Japanese), 한국어 (Korean), Polski (Polish), Português (Portuguese), Svenska (Swedish), Tagalog (Filipino), ภาษาไทย (Thai), Türkçe (Turkish), and Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese).
MattKelly 7y ago
We list the languages on the website and the app description (also rakoo pasted them in his comment). Check out @levpopov's other comments about phone #s (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20097197 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20097197) and how we handle translation (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20097026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20097026).
- samuraiseoul 7y ago
  I see the language description on the site now but it was hard to spot until I looked really carefully. That said, I don't see a way to use this as a web app, only to download it for a mobile device. I know the phone number is for getting a download link but the thing is I do not want to download it.
  - ramblerman 7y ago
    Then don’t.

trustfundbaby 7y ago

Been looking for exactly this. Was actually going to write a script that grabbed paragraphs of random Spanish news and emailed them to me with the English translations beneath them every morning so I could get some practice every morning in my inbox. Nice!

k__ 7y ago

Nice! I had a similar idea, learning a language with Twitter. You'd select a profile and it would crawl all Tweets and create a learning plan from it. The idea was to learn how people actually talk and not some random DuoLingo stuff.

distantaidenn 7y ago

On an Android. I like the idea, and am currently studying Korean. The app is unusably slow, and hangs often. If you want my phone environment, feel free to pm.

MattKelly 7y ago
Thanks for letting us know. I'm not sure how to PM someone. Email us at support@getflowlingo.com - we'll investigate and make sure it's fixed.

bloolizard 7y ago

Cool idea, I like the thought behind this app. Having tried a lot of other language apps, and not getting much use out of them but learning how to play a game (even after finishing), seems definitely more immersive imo. Just downloaded the Android version, will give it a whirl. If you have a support forum, would definitely give feedback and potential bugs.

MattKelly 7y ago
Thanks! Feel free to email us feedback at support@getflowlingo.com or contact us in-app by tapping "Help" and scrolling to the bottom.

arafalov 7y ago

<rant> The thing that annoys me about all of these attempts is failing to recognize the impact of irregular forms of the verbs. So - for French - all the different forms of the verb aller (go) are treated individually. I paid for ReadLang for a while, but this lack of a feature has proven too frustrating. I would have loved to have an app that runs the text through something like Google Natural Language API (https://cloud.google.com/natural-language/ https://cloud.google.com/natural-language/) and then use the results of _that_ for flashcards, noun-phrase translation, etc. Google Translate alone is just not sufficient. </rant> Of course, I have 10 pages worth of ideas about language learning and none of that implemented. So, kudos for trying to make at least something happen. Let the thousand flowers bloom and all that.

avinium 7y ago
The thing that annoys me about all of these attempts is failing to recognize the impact of irregular forms of the verbs. So - for French - all the different forms of the verb aller (go) are treated individually. I paid for ReadLang for a while, but this lack of a feature has proven too frustrating. I don't speak French so I'm having trouble understanding what you mean. Do you mind giving a bit more detail? I'm also curious about the other ideas you mentioned.
- rakoo 7y ago
  French here, I never realized it but there are at least 3 different forms depending on who does it and when: Present: Je vais, tu vas, il va, nous allons, vous allez, ils vont Future: j'irai, tu iras, il ira, nous irons, vous irez, ils iront Same goes for être (to be): Present: Je suis, tu es, il est, nous sommes, vous êtes, ils sont Future: Je serai, tu sera, il sera, nous serons, vous serez, ils seront Simple past: Je fus, tu fus, il fut, nous fûmes, vous fûtes, ils furent (No one uses simple past, but here it is) Subordinate (?): Que je sois, que tu sois, qu'il soit, que nous soyons, que vous soyez, qu'ils soient I guess it's the same in pretty much every language, especially for those 2 common verbs, there are irregular forms everywhere.
  - arafalov 7y ago