Learning languages is the door-opener to understand foreign cultures. So far I learned some English, French and a little Spanish. But it’s always tough to start, unless you actually go where the natives are. Many people don’t have the chance – or at least they don’t go for it. My guess is that so far no tool was created that is as much fun as the following idea.

Right know there are many possibilities to learn a language: You can even hire a local teacher, which is probably the highest priced possibility. Then there are courses at universitys and schools  – but these courses are most often between 8am and 6pm. And learning from books or audio crash courses is not fun at all (I tried it once). Probably some more exist. But these are the most used once.

A few days ago I read about a company called Codeacademy (http://www.codecademy.com/) which created a fun way to learn programming. It’s a web-based, interactive programming tutorial that holds your hand and walks you through the basics of JavaScript. I tried it and guess what: it is really easy and lots of fun. One major difference is „interaction“ feeling: as if a teacher was standing in front of you, correcting what you just said – and slaps your shoulder if you did a good job.

And of course we all know Chatroulette – which is a website that pairs strangers from around the world together for webcam-based conversations. (Unfortunately) Nudity has become an established part of the site’s notoriety – which is not only the controversial part of it, but also one main reason why it became so famous in Web 2.0 culture.

Today I had the thought that it would be smart to combine some main smart things about both tools. What would happen if someone programmed a community, where you would meet strangers from around the globe who want to learn a language. Not like a video-chat, rather then meeting random„voices“. The intention is, to pair people from two different languages who already got the basics – through a starter version which teaches a language as codecademy teaches JavaScript.

After finishing a call you need to evaluate the result, for instance on a scale from A to D where a is „native speaker“. To prevent missusage one could add some „block“-button, which is pushed if someone is constantly not even trying to learn the language. So you have a voice and a chat – a good start. Additionally one could add tests to check how good a person really is. If someone started as „D“ and is ranked of e.g. 5  people to be better then that („C“) he needed to make a final audio test, to check whether that’s true or not.

Any website that interacts with people who are willing or forced to learn a language could invent this tool. A Social Network and companies who deal with people that are willing to emigrate, an App for Skype or Facebook, publishers of language courses, websites like couchsurfing.org or AirBnB.com, travelling sites like expedia.com and translation websites such dict.cc

Concerning this idea, some more details such as financial aspects, as well as incentives to prevent missusage came up to my mind. And I’m looking forward to receive a message that tells me: This is what I want to create. As already mentioned in other posts: I would support the idea and it’s inventer in whatever possible way. Just give me a message.