Report from the SpeaQ With Me office

Hi I’m Dilber.

I'm studying Computational Linguistics at Saarland University and as a part of my studies I did an internship for SpeaQ With Me. I found out about the internship because one of the founders, Patrick, also studied in the same faculty, and a friend from class told me that they were looking for interns.

The idea of language exchange really interests me because I speak several foreign languages and want to improve them and learn more. I thought that the internship would be a good chance for me to see how language exchanges could work online, so I applied for the position.

Here I was with Kerstin, finding students to do the alpha test with.

During the interview, the team gave me an overview of the project and their aims and worked with me to figure out where I could contribute. When I was accepted for the position the team had prepared a list of tasks for me to get started on, so I knew from the very beginning that they were organized and wanted me to be an active member of the team.

The concept for language exchange on the SpeaQ With Me platform captivated me and I could immediately see the potential. From my own experience, I knew that practicing a language by talking to a native speaker is an effective way to learn. But getting help from the platform by matching you with the right conversation partners AND especially giving you some "extra tools" that help you have a conversation is a very good idea.

How to SpeaQ With Me – Text Chat

We are happy to present you with a few more tips on how to use SpeaQ With Me, the language learning platform.

In an earlier blog post, we talked about how the user profile works and took a glimpse at the people page where you can find native speakers to chat with. So today we are going to talk a little bit more about how text communication works with other users on the platform.

The first communication you will probably have with another user is the text chat. We wanted to make this chat as convenient as possible for you, which is why we have a handy chat interface next to the profile of every person you meet. That way when you find a person's profile interesting you can immediately start writing them. We hope this tool makes it easier to overcome hesitation and be the first to send a message. And of course once you have established contact with a few text messages, you can also switch to a video conversation by clicking the camera button in the top right corner of the interface.  

Bits & Pretzels – SpeaQ With Me at the Founders Festival in Munich

We are back in the office!

After some days spend networking, pitching our project, getting up really early, listening to inspiring personalities and drinking beer, we are sitting at our desks again, trying to process all these impressions.

But let’s start at the beginning: We started planning to go to Munich for the startup fair Bits & Pretzels at the end of July. Bought the tickets, designed and ordered Flyer and a Roll-up for our booth, applied for the pitch and planned our schedule of speeches and classes.

Last Saturday we went to Munich early in the morning so we would have some time to see Munich before we had to get up real early on Sunday morning. The doors to the ICM (International Congress Center Munich) opened at 8 a.m. for the exhibitors. Before the visitors started pouring in at 9 a.m., we had to prepare our stand which also meant setting up the computers with a local version of  the SpeaQ With Me platform.

What would a language learning platform be without user profiles?

You already read a little bit about how the SpeaQ With Me platform is developing. In this blog post we are going to show you the next part of our language learning platform.

But let’s start slowly. On www.speaqwith.me we are currently building a social network that is designed to help people practice languages. That’s why our slogan is “social language learning for everyone”. The idea is that everyone can register on the platform to find international chat partners to practice foreign languages with.

To do so, every user needs a profile first, and that’s what we are going to show you today.

Like in every social network, the registration process contains some questions about the new user. Name, nationality and a profile picture are standard. On SpeaQ With Me the user also enters which languages he/she speaks and at what level. There will also be a section where you can describe yourself and choose from a selection of interests.

Julian the Intern

Hi SpeaQ community,

I am Julian, the first intern at SpeaQ With Me. As a part of my studies I had to do an internship (I’m studying English and French and aiming to become a teacher in the future). I wanted to complete the internship in my hometown of Saarbrücken, where SpeaQ With Me is located.

Here I am with Patrick, at the BBQ of the "Starterzentrum"
Fun Fact: "Der Schwenker schwenkt den Schwenker auf dem Schwenker"
is an actual sentence in the local Saarbrücker dialect. It means the
the grill master grills a special kind of meat on this swinging grill. 

When looking for the internship, I came across a job posting website run by the local university. SpeaQ With Me’s ad on the site was the most interesting to me because I believe that you can’t learn a language without speaking it, either.

So I decided to contact the team. They presented the concept of SpeaQ With Me to me. I was very intrigued by the aims of the company. In the end I was told that I should expect a decision about two weeks later on whether or not I would get a spot as an intern. So a bit later I received a mail which said they wanted me to work with them, and I could start on September 1st.

Work, work, work

What have we been doing for the last few weeks?

We promised to keep you updated on our work progress, so here is the first post about the development of the platform!

As you have already seen on www.speaqwith.me and our Facebook page, we are building up a new design for our landing page, social media channels, and later, for the app itself. The first thing that emerged in this design process was - of course - the logo. The SpeaQ-“Q” and its color gradient represent for us the fun, friendly and diverse range of conversations that you will have when you speaq to people on the app. You can see it now being integrated into all of the channels where we are present online. Of course this colorful logo on its nice dark blue background isn’t just for social media, and these elements will also play an important role in the app design.

Off to Munich!

Maybe you’ve already heard on Twitter that we went to Munich two weeks ago.  We were invited to go there for a team building seminar as part of the eXist startup program. This program is pretty cool, it is directed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the European Social Fund and is designed to help young startups get their ideas off the ground. As part of the project, we receive financial support and also lots of help and coaching on how to navigate the world of business as a new startup. So this team building seminar was our first official event with eXist and designed to help us get to know each other better and identify our team’s competencies.

Skipping English

I know that a lot of people who want to learn a language with SpeaQ With Me are probably interested in English, because well it’s the most popular foreign language to learn. Well, I guess for me as a native speaker I can’t really tell you about my struggles learning it, so instead I wanted to share a contrasting story of how “just saying no to English” really helped me learn a foreign language and better appreciate the culture.

So the story starts in Oregon, when I was still in High School. The older brother of a friend of mine had just come back from an exchange year in Denmark with the Rotary organization and was telling me what a cool experience it had been. He managed to convince me that I should also give it a try, and so I applied to travel abroad the next school year. I managed to get a spot in the program and when it came time for me to let them know where I preferred to be sent, I said I wanted to go somewhere with snow so I could still cross-country ski in the winter. They ended up assigning me to Sweden, so I was pretty stoked about that.

Fear of French and Other Stories

This story is about my experiences with foreign languages. It starts with me being kind of unenthusiastic or scared of learning them in school, and goes all the way to the present where I use foreign languages every day for my job and just for fun.

My first contact with another language was in school. Starting at the age of 10, I had to take English classes like many other students here in Germany. I have never been too interested in learning it, but I guess it wasn’t too bad. Eventually, after a few years of English classes the time came to choose another elective subject, and I ended up picking French. Don’t ask me why, I guess because all my friends chose French too. I actually quite liked my first French class because it wasn’t like English “which everyone has to learn.”

Around the age of 16 I had to change schools and that’s when the whole foreign language situation flipped. The English I had learned at my old school was good enough to get through the new classes and I liked my teacher a lot. But what about French? Well, I have to say I had a really hard time. When I walked into the French class I noticed that I knew maybe a third of what the other students knew. My listening and speaking abilities were especially bad, and because the teacher taught the class only in French I missed a lot of what was going on at first. Still, I had to get through it because I couldn’t change my elective for that year. In the end I survived the class, but this experience kind of traumatized me and ruined my appreciation for the French language. For a really long time after that, I didn’t want to learn anything more about French and I also didn’t want to speak it.

Learning English in New Zealand

It was in the 5^th grade when I was forced to learn English. As someone who likes natural science over humanities I wasn’t pleased with this development in my life. I always had a hard time learning all the vocabulary and grammar. So it’s easy to say that English never became my favorite subject, maybe it was even the one I disliked the most.

That didn’t get any better when I got into the 7^th grade and we had to choose another language to learn. I had the choice between French and Latin. So for me basically it was a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. I went with Latin. It seemed to be a little bit easier because there were rules to everything. But I also instantly knew this wouldn’t be fun either.

So that was the first part of my language education, sitting in school learning English and Latin. I still don’t like to think back to that time. Fortunately, everything changed when I went to New Zealand at the age of 16.

SpeaQwith.me - How an idea became a startup

Have you ever noticed what a huge difference there is between learning a language from a course or online tutorial, and actually using it in the real world? I can remember the first time I had that ah-ha moment as I was talking to a French exchange student. I had been studying French for a while and felt pretty good about all the grammar and vocabulary I knew, but when it came time to speak, suddenly all my carefully planned sentences seemed to fall apart!

So that was a bit frustrating, because of course I wanted to communicate in this language that I had been studying for so long. It helped me realize though, that textbook learning would only get me so far, and that to feel really comfortable in the language, I needed to spend more time listening and talking to native speakers.