Our Story
We’re making language learning human-centered, efficient and fun. Like language learning, Lingophant is a collaborative effort to create better understanding and personal development.
Hey, I’m Alex. I never liked language learning. But I had quite a bit of it in school and uni. But I loved traveling, and the “oh wow!” moments of realizing that I can speak a language abroad was the nicest feeling always. And I wanna share it through Lingophant.
It’s also a symbol of freedom and safety, being able to learn any language means being able to feel at home anywhere in the world. As long as you respect the people.
So when I saw a real chance that this new method works, I decided to move to the country of Georgia and it allowed me to continue working on it.
Language learning combines it all. Logic, memory, listening, empathy, muscle memory, interpretation, and cultural backgrounds are all part of the journey.
Just… ineffective learning feels like a waste of time.
Many stories exist of people being successful, but none really with language learning apps. And after a lot of experimentation and reading research I’m pretty sure this might be the a really fast way.
So what started as an idea in Amsterdam, got decided on actually doing in a club called Alphabet, now in Georgia became a fully developed journey with modern tools.
2014-2015
Got the idea as a student
Noticing that only students with a job or frequent conversations learned the language quickly. Decided to do it in the “Alphabet” club when I forgot the word for “nothing” three times in a row.
13 July , 2017
Lingophant launches on iOS
The Lingophant app is built as a prototype to work with. 2 years later the Android version is added so it can be used in classrooms.
Feb 2, 2020
Sharing phrase sets works
Instead of just having a local version, phrases can now be shared with other people. The back-end was implemented
Feb-June 2021
4 months of working on it from Central America
Quit my job to go work on Lingophant during Covid. From an iPad. The best part of these four months was by far speaking Spanish. Traveling would simply not be the same. Realizing that just memorizing words is not enough but a full journey including listening is the only way to go.
Aug 14, 2023
Moving to Georgia
In order to work with focus on the project, Alex moves to Georgia. Costs of living are lower and the local language is one of the oldest and most difficult languages to try the method with.
αα£ α₯αα αα£αα‘ ααα‘α¬αααα, α§αααα αααα‘ ααα‘α¬αααα.
As you can see, we’ve chosen the hard way, because it’s the road where we learn most. And we can move in peace while reflecting a lot on what’s really needed to learn fast.
But it really is hard, and we kind of depend on your support for continuing. Try learning a language to a level where you can have fun in it with our π΄ 12-week program (doesn’t need to be done in 12 weeks, donate at the end).
Lingophant makes learning human and effective.
When you’re having fun, learning becomes easier. You’re motivated to continue or it even becomes effortless cause you enjoy speaking or listening to people.
Language learning can be equally fun as watching movies or other passive consumption activities.
Our goal is to get to the fun part as quickly as possible.
That’s also the best motivator, once you’re having fun it’s easy to continue. So we’re trying to make you feel a connection to the people and to get prepared for real life.
Effective learning is also fun. You feel your brain is growing, you feel you’re using your time in the best way. So we cut all inefficient methods, and only use three highly-effective methods that really support each other. No boring puzzles. Try memorizing phrases.
And that’s what brought us to where we are now.
Taking it easy
We didn’t want to do advertising without it being thoroughly tested. That’s why we didn’t make any money yet. lol. There are too many companies lying to people, promising the stars and delivering peanuts. They’re usually started by IT people, business people, and not necessarily language learners.
It’s not the goal to make billions, the goal is to make something that actually works. Then success will come, and we can have fun with languages.
Weβre an independent and global company.
100% of the company was funded by private salary, savings, and small family loans. We did not receive any grants from the public sector, after having had every proposal rejected, we decided to do it anyways. No external money, and high ethical standards.
There is no incentive to sell your data, as we don’t need to be hyper profitable. We will treat your data like we want companies to treat our own data, meaning that we wonβt sell data, and won’t use voice data for e.g. training AI models. We also use a simple but effective stack of technologies, to keep costs low.
And experimentation has been in our path.
Our mission is to make language learning human and genuinely enjoyable. Ultimately, we want to make the world a better place through education, technology, and collaboration.
Lingophant has worked with people from Brazil, Germany, Syria, Kazakhstan, Chile, Russia, Georgia, the US and many more. It has been a career starting board for at least 8 people.
Big thanks to everyone, the Georgians, and many more.