Give people more ways to think and create
Why it exists
¡YapZee! is being built to help people keep learning and creating throughout their lives. The first product gives busy adults a language routine they can fit around work and family.
Math and Music are experimental extensions of that approach. The longer-term vision includes Kids and Creators, both future products. Today's work is focused on the adult learning app.
What it is
A language app built around four daily tasks: story podcast, reading, texting and listening, in that order. Together they take about fifteen minutes.
Castilian Spanish is the only course with lessons available. Catalan is coming next, with no release date. You learn one language at a time.
Why fifteen minutes is a real number
The story task gives you time to listen before asking you to review twenty vocabulary cards. The remaining tasks bring those words back in several ways.
The aim is a daily practice you can fit around work and family.
- 10 minutes: the story podcast
- 2 minutes: reading
- 2 minutes: texting a character back
- 1 minute: listening
A clear order for the day
Open the app and there's one thing to do. Finish it and the next task opens. Same four tasks, same order, every day.
Mini-packs help you choose the topics for future practice. When you want more, Current Events offers reading, audio, vocabulary cards and a short recap outside the daily four.
Day one is free, and it's a real day
First you pick the language you already speak, and the whole interface switches to it. That's an accessibility decision before it's anything else: nobody should have to read a second language to set up learning a second language.
Choose your course, age, experience and starting level, then set a reminder. These choices help prepare your first day.
Try all four tasks before making an account. After that, choose a plan preference, complete the spoken setup and sign up. Billing is currently off, so choosing a plan doesn't charge you.
Two more minutes, if you want them
Take two minutes to write with Apple Pencil. A prompt gives you somewhere to start, and six optional words and expressions at your level sit beside the page with translations. Use them or write your own way. Grammar feedback on what you wrote comes when the two minutes are up, and taking part earns XP. There's no word target and no XP to lose. This needs the native iPad app; phones and browsers don't support it.
The cast, and the slang
The stories follow a recurring cast through ordinary situations: meeting someone, cooking with family, talking about football or visiting a doctor.
In the texting task, choose a conversation partner and respond in your own words. The scene gives you a reason to use the vocabulary you're learning.
Slang and social context are part of the practice from the start.
Who built it
Pisith Soeun. Solo, bootstrapped and planning to stay that way.
If you want to reach him, every address is here. He reads all of them.
The same curiosity. New notebooks.
We're experimenting with music and math using the same idea: practise a little, notice what needs work, and build on it tomorrow.
An experiment in music theory and ear training for adults. Guided practice works alongside your instrument or voice lessons.
An experiment in college algebra with interactive walkthroughs and handwritten practice on supported iPads.
We're bringing Language, Music and Math into one adult app. Music and Math aren't available publicly yet, and neither has a release date. Both are included in our monthly and annual subscription plans when available.