Who hasn't wished for an easier way to learn and practice language skills? Until now the technology did not make it easy - remember the days when we needed to open the shrink-wrap, install the software, and peruse the user guide trying to figure out how to make all the cool bells and whistles actually work?
With that in mind, Maurice knows you will absolutely love this app. It is so easy to use - with a fun, engaging style.
Here's Maurice showing it off, in its current prototype state:
Here's the link to the press release:
Kickstarter for "Visually Speaking" App: Students Dialog with iPad to Learn Languages
Have you observed that people are walking around staring at their devices instead of looking at and interacting with the live people right next to them or in front of them? Love it or hate it, many of us live in a whole new relationship to our computers - our devices - and as a result the education industry is making a rapid shift - almost in a heartbeat - along with communications, marketing, shopping, project management - all kinds of stuff we used to do face to face, we're doing with these devices and screens.
So now with the tools to drive an app being literally in nearly everyone's pocket, Maurice sees that it's time, after 25 years, to bring this visual teaching method to the entire world, to millions, starting with iOS and the larger iPad screen, but next step is the SmartPhone - just need to complete one phase of this project at a time.
Now you know what Maurice wants each of us to do - please click on his Kickstarter project link, pledge $1 or $7 or whatever you can, and please - very important - please leave a positive comment - and then, well then share the link with your friends. Okay, this will take three minutes, maybe less, so do it right now, while you are thinking about it. The clock is ticking, and Maurice cannot do this without your help. Plus did we mention there are very cool rewards at each pledge level? For $107 you get a live lesson from Maurice himself - live if you're in New York City, elsewhere it will be via Skype (or why not make a trip to New York City for your language lesson and check out the clubs, museums, entertainment, parks, shopping - lots and lots of fun things to do, and don't forget Manhattan's hottest neighborhood for arts and fun - Tribeca!
Well, you may be hesitating because you are wondering: Why doesn't Maurice simply fund the development from the operating capital of QTalk Publishing and/or Tribeca Language, Maurice's two existing companies? Excellent, excellent question. Here's the scoop:
The main reason for doing a Kickstarter is when you want to create something new, and expose it to the world before it exists, so that the world has a chance to be involved in its creation. So when there is a new venture, such as this app, that has a different, more ambitious purpose than any existing business such as Maurice's well-established and steadily growing QTalk Publishing (K12 schools, homeschool families, private tutors) and Tribeca Language (group classes and private tutoring for Lower Manhattan language learners of all ages), you don't want to put the operating capital of those ongoing concerns at risk, or divert to a venture that is not aligned with their specific commitments and activities. So that's where this new venture comes in - it's of course an integral part of Maurice's vision that includes QTalk and Tribeca Language - and all those existing customers will get to pilot and use the new app - but the big picture is much, much bigger here.
So what will this new app, this "Visually Speaking" dialog partner on your iPad, do for your language learning experience? Will it eliminate the need for a language teacher? Not exactly. Because no computer can ever take the place of a live teacher, in any subject but especially language and most especially when we're talking about children. But technology can indeed play a key supportive role, and even more so with adult language learners.
This new app will be transformative - it will give every language learner the "on ramp" to become communicative immediately, in order to then have the capacity to engage in real conversations and connect with other speakers of the language immediately - this will erase the discussion about communicative skills versus grammar - a needless distinction, when your goal is for a student to become fluent, with a confident, natural mastery of the new language. Somehow as educators who love the mechanics of language, we've gotten too into showing the student all the gears and belts - and teaching them the names - rather than simply allowing the student to drive the car, with the needed supports (for QTalk it's called "visual scaffolding" and the whole experience is much more enjoyable, rapid, and successful. We education professionals will never cease being fascinated with details of the semantics of how to teach and learn languages - it's what we do - but what Maurice is saying to all of us is, "Hey guys, let's back up and take a look at this thing, let's focus on the student." So the new app will achieve exactly that purpose. Imagine a student who is speaking in complete, correct sentences from the first lesson, with complete understanding, no grammar lesson, no memorization, no translation. The results of Maurice's QTalk Method speak for themselves, literally. So that's why Maurice is doing this app as a new venture to get the word out, to get the QTalk Method into the hands of every language learner, and it's why the Kickstarter needs as much visibility as possible - Maurice would love to reach 10,000 $1 backers. In the reality of our noisy media Internet information firehose it's really difficult to hold and keep attention.
Since you've read this far, here is another cool video to learn some Chinese (Mandarin).This is the method you'll experience, live, when you enroll in a class or sign up for home tutoring at Tribeca Language.
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