“Why are you learning Spanish?” - I have asked this question to a lot of people in the last months. Interestingly, you can classify a majority of the answers and Spanish learners into two categories: Those who learn Spanish for work, and those who learn it out of passion. And guess what, this second group is the dominant one!
Yes, people learn languages out of passion today. And it always starts with a first contact. Maybe you travel to a Spanish-speaking country and you fall in love with it – the weather, the food, the people, or maybe even someone in particular. And then you come back and decide you want to learn Spanish. Many people then just sign up for a local Spanish school or for one of those big language learning platforms on the Internet and wait for the epiphany – only to discover a few weeks later that they no longer have the drive. Of course we lose the drive, because we do not get what we are looking for. So, what are we looking for?
What are we looking for when learning Spanish?
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| Immersive experience is key to staying motivated Photo credit: XPLingo licensed CC BY 2.0 |
Instead of repeating vocabulary and grammar with multimedia support, our idea was to create a virtual world for learning Spanish. A world that uses storytelling to provide a personal experience to the user, very simpleilar to the one of being abroad. José and I, we both believed in the power that fun experiences can have on anyone’s motivation to learn a new language. So we started to work on our project, which we called “Play Your Language!” or “XPLingo” (XP for Experience, Lingo for Language). It was tough to start from scratch, because there was no technology on the market to combine games with language learning. So we built something completely new.
As a first language we decided to go for Spanish. The reason for it was simple: we had both lived in Barcelona for a while. And it was there that we both saw for ourselves how real language learning takes place through personal experiences, rather than within a language course. Knowing Spain and Barcelona so well also made it easier for us to think about a good storyline for our product. Today, almost 12 months later, we can proudly present a first beta version for learning Spanish.
Of course, this isn’t the first time someone has attempted to turn language learning into a game. But the deal with most such games is, they make it all too easy and mundane to offer any meaningful language acquisition. Most such “games” today involve you clicking pictures and scoring points. Be it Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, or a myriad others. They all have the same cookie-cutter strategy that gets dead-beat and unproductive very quickly. As you’d have guessed, this one breaks that jinx.
“Las Tres Puertas”: Spanish immersion, gamified
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| “Las Tres Puertas” is extremely fun and engaging Photo credit: XPLingo licensed CC BY 2.0 |
In “Las Tres Puertas” fun and motivation to keep going with your learning progress are guaranteed. Why? Because it creates moments and situations which you could usually only experience while being abroad. You literally experience a story in the country. New words and phrases are therefore important and meaningful to you. That is: you learn within the context, i.e. by walking into different scenarios within the virtual world, by seeing and using objects, and by talking to Spanish people. With every step you discover new aspects of the story, and finally solve the mystery about the old music box. “Las Tres Puertas” is not just another gamification product, but the game and the story are your basis and motivation for learning Spanish.
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| Whoever said playing games was counterproductive hasn‘t tried XPLingo yet Photo credit: XPLingo licensed CC BY 2.0 |
Preparing our crowdfunding campaign
As a team, we have a big vision. We want to change the way how people learn languages on their digital devices. Because we think that most language learning platforms on the Internet are just using the same techniques that have already been used in schoolbooks. For our vision to come true, we need to start with a complete and ready product, like the full version of “Las Tres Puertas.” This is why we are preparing for a Crowdfunding campaign these days.
It has not started yet, since we first need more people on our list. To convince users, we offer the beta version of “Las Tres Puertas” as a free download on our web page. This will not just help us spread the word about XPLingo but also let you get a feel of what it can do for your Spanish learning endeavors! We are also very interested in getting more feedback from language learners like you, so as to improve the product and adapt it to what you really want. Help us to get 10,000 users and improve the game by downloading and testing the first beta version of “Las Tres Puertas” here.
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