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by klakierr 990 days ago
Not exactly Duolingo alternative, but: I'm currently building an an app for language learning by reading books. It takes an (your) ebook and inserts translations:

—Arthur —dijo con tono cortante, ["Arthur," he said sharply.] y su voz sonó como el chasquido de una ratonera—, [and his voice sounded like the click of a mousetrap.]

There is zero gamification, as it's not needed - you're motivated by the pleasure of reading.

It won't help you to learn to speak (there is an option to read aloud a selected phrase though), but it will help you with vocabulary. I went with it from not being able to read even one page, to being able to understand 70% of a book (intermediate Spanish level) in about a month.

ATM looking for beta users, completely free of charge. Pls leave a contact in a comment if you're interested

18 comments

Super idea! You are welcome to use my ebooks which are free open source guide books for technology-related terminology. Your readers could learn many professional concepts and phrases.

https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/ has the guide books. Topics include startups, UI/UX, programming, project management, etc.

Feel free to email me joel@joelparkerhenderson.com. I can give you access to the repos, if you wish to add your translations there too. You're on to a really great idea IMHO.

wow, thanks a ton, I will contact you when I'll be adding books directly to the app; ATM I just have the option to upload a book for the users
All the other comments: I've sent you an email with access link & info. Thanks for the interest and sorry it took me a whole week to get back to you!
Hi! This sounds exactly like Beelinguapp, have you tried that one? You can read books in 2 different languages with audio as well. https://beelinguapp.com/get
Hi, yes I tried, it's great. They do not let you upload your own books though, and for me (as an user) it is important
This sounds fantastic, I've been learning Spanish for about 8 months and the most effective tool for building my vocab has been reading. My email is da/vis/jo/nathan38/0 [at] gmail.com without the forwardslashes!
Really cool. LingQ.com is a similar idea, you may want to take a look for inspiration.
I'm familiar with it, it's great. It's a bit different interface-wise, they do not insert translations intro text, you have to click on words to translate them
This is an amazing idea! I use a much more rudimentary version of this to read (and learn along the way) multiple languages. My favorite method so far.
This is the way I’ve felt is best for learning how languages work and building vocabulary. I’d love to beta (email in profile).
I'm interested- joe.r.collins@gmail.com

I'm going to guess the translations are mechanical, rather than professional?

Yes, mechanical. It's a copyright issue, I cannot offer translated books, so each user upload will get separate generated and inserted translations. Obviously the quality is not the best compared to professional translations. For that you can try beelinguapp.com or lingq.com, both mentioned in this thread. What's different in my app is that it inserts translations in the text, so no additional clicking, and it allows you to upload your own books.

I've tried using LibreTranslate, GoogleTranslate, DeepL, ChatGPT 3.5 and 4 for translations - in my experience ChatGPT is the best for this use case, 3.5 is good enough and economically viable, 4 is superior, especially if you want translation in a language different than English, but expensive compared to 3.5: ~$20 for a book.

Seems awesome would like to try! What languages? (I am learning Polish and am approx A2 level)
Theoretically any language that ChatGPT "speaks" is supported, but the more popular language the better quality of inserted translations.
This sounds great and I'd love to help test. Kevin at silent planet dot com. Thanks!
I'm currently learning Spanish at an intermediate level, so would love to try it!

gmail: antforce

Looks interesting, worth giving a try! Gmail - idealpriyanshu
Where is your site project? Could you show us the link? Thx
ATM there is basically no landing page, and without beta user code you wont be able to use the app
Hey you won a new user! odysseas -+ a.t. +- dilmun ¢dot© net
Love this idea and would be happy to beta test. tim@timwis.com
Sounds great! My Telegram is ttf92.
Do you have a waitlist?
I don't
agile.beach5204@fastmail.com