LangRead is a web app that gradually swaps words in your book with your target language, letting you learn as you read. Accept each word, see translations and definitions, and track your progress. Works with PDF, EPUB and Kindle formats.
Hey everyone! I built Langread because I just hated how Duolingo helps (no) people learn langauges.
In Langread you can upload a book that you like (in your native language) or just a new book you want to read, The app will gradually swap the words from native language with words from your target language you want to learn.
The idea is that, the further you go into the book, the more words in the new language you will meet, and eventually you will be able to read in the language you wanted to learn.
As well you can:
See translations and hear pronunciations of the words you learn;
Select manually words you are interested to learn
Repeat words using spaced repetition and active recall;
Repetition through typing one learned word time to time directly in the book;
Upload any PDF, EPUB, azw3 (kindle format) (Limit 4.5 MB now, working on it);
Track your progress;
Dark/light/sepia themes.
Features ideas:
Adaptive Grammar lessons based on the grammar used in the book, meaning if a new rule you dont know appeared on your current page, you will get a small grammar lesson with example from the page you are reading;
For example if he saw that you learned the word “book” and now getting “books” he can explain to you how plural words work in English
Optimize app;
Add pronunciations of words (as in typical school books)
Add a new type of pronunciation, where the pronunciation is not written with weird characters nobody understands, but using the language you already speak
French -> using English pronunciations
Bonjour → bon-zhoor (hello)
Merci → mehr-see (thank you)
Croissant → kwah-sahn (croissant)
Add possibility to import from Kindle (if possible);
Add payment system;
Optimize mobile version;
AI explaining/answering questions about paragraphs you select, for more details or explain meaning of a sentence;
Flashcards for words you learn;
Make app available offline;
In case you had time off from the book, talk to book to question what happened before page X;
Sentence translations when more words are already learned.
It’s still an MVP I’d love your feedback: Any features I’m missing? does this technique work for you? Any feedback is welcomed, this is my first launch on ProductHunt!
Interesting approach! I can really relate to your motivation — Duolingo can be a bit annoying sometimes.
By the way, I have a question: considering the various grammatical structures across different languages, do you find that changing words is more effective than changing sentences? If you have any research or references on this, I’d love to see it!
Vladimir, I am a huge fan of learning foreign languages. What languages are going to be supported next?
Any plans to support, e.g. native language to another language (my native language is Slovak, so I reckon that the level of understanding could be better when I started from Slovak –> German instead of English –> German).
Swapping in target language words as you read your own book is actualy genius, fr—feels way more natural than random vocab drills. Rooting for you on this one!
No way, reading full books while picking up a new language? That’s the dream for language nerds like me. Is there support for different genres or just classics right now?
Hey everyone!
I built Langread because I just hated how Duolingo helps (no) people learn langauges.
In Langread you can upload a book that you like (in your native language) or just a new book you want to read, The app will gradually swap the words from native language with words from your target language you want to learn.
The idea is that, the further you go into the book, the more words in the new language you will meet, and eventually you will be able to read in the language you wanted to learn.
As well you can:
See translations and hear pronunciations of the words you learn;
Select manually words you are interested to learn
Repeat words using spaced repetition and active recall;
Repetition through typing one learned word time to time directly in the book;
Upload any PDF, EPUB, azw3 (kindle format) (Limit 4.5 MB now, working on it);
Track your progress;
Dark/light/sepia themes.
Features ideas:
Adaptive Grammar lessons based on the grammar used in the book, meaning if a new rule you dont know appeared on your current page, you will get a small grammar lesson with example from the page you are reading;
For example if he saw that you learned the word “book” and now getting “books” he can explain to you how plural words work in English
Optimize app;
Add pronunciations of words (as in typical school books)
Add a new type of pronunciation, where the pronunciation is not written with weird characters nobody understands, but using the language you already speak
French -> using English pronunciations
Bonjour → bon-zhoor (hello)
Merci → mehr-see (thank you)
Croissant → kwah-sahn (croissant)
Add possibility to import from Kindle (if possible);
Add payment system;
Optimize mobile version;
AI explaining/answering questions about paragraphs you select, for more details or explain meaning of a sentence;
Flashcards for words you learn;
Make app available offline;
In case you had time off from the book, talk to book to question what happened before page X;
Sentence translations when more words are already learned.
It’s still an MVP I’d love your feedback: Any features I’m missing? does this technique work for you? Any feedback is welcomed, this is my first launch on ProductHunt!