Thursday, July 19, 2012

Can Harry Potter teach English? Papagei think so


Using technology to learn languages is nothing new — people were using records for it a century ago. But these days it’s the web’s turn: and one startup is trying to make a difference by using blockbuster entertainment as the basis
Papagei.tv, which uses subtitled online video to teach tongues, has just picked up a wad of funding from one of Germany’s richest people: financial services magnate Carsten Maschmeyer. Papagei (that’s “parrot” auf Deutsch) is based in Hannover and offers an immersion system called ’3i-Learning’, which involves showing a video in the language being taught, with subtitles in the learner’s native language. The idea is that the learner stops consciously looking at the subtitles and starts reading them subconsciously, helping them to internalize their new language.
It may not seem like the most original idea — operations such as Yabla do something similar, and there are many such videos on YouTube — but Papagei puts a strong emphasis on the way it combines education with entertainment. The videos it uses range from current news clips to blockbuster movies, and Papagei has content partnerships with the likes of Warner Bros, Reuters and the BBC.
That means getting to use films such as V for Vendetta and Harry Potter as educational tools.
The company launched earlier this month with services for desktop, tablet and mobile — along with the status of being the ‘official language trainer’ for Germany’s Olympic team. Now Maschmeyer has put an undisclosed “two-digit million” amount into it.
Full report at gigaom

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