What is Polygloss?

Polygloss is a game that helps you express yourself and communicate in another language.

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What languages are available?

All of them! But it needs at least one other player in the same language so you can play together. So far, the Android version has been played in over 40 languages!

Is the app free?

Yes. We plan to include premium options in the future for iOS, but the current features will remain free.

Are there any differences between the iOS and the Android versions?

The Android version already has the option to pay for premium features. Everything else is the same.

Why are you creating this?

I'm a Software Engineer from Brazil, who studied Software Engineering in France, did my final year project in Germany, went to the UK for work and now am moving to Spain! I have learned many languages throughout this journey and I love doing that just for fun as well. I started developing Polygloss because of my own frustrations learning German, frustrations with the materials and market solutions I have tried, and with how generally hard it is to overcome the intermediate level plateau in any language. It's a vast market but many solutions are available only to beginners, and just chatting with natives can be very stressful unless your level is advanced. So I went ahead, started deeply researching the topic, got a masters degree, and came up with a solution that has really shown results.

How does it work?

Polygloss' focus is communication. Have you ever experienced the stage "I can understand lots of things, but I can't express myself"? This happens when our passive vocabulary is much bigger than our active (also called productive) vocabulary. We can recognize many words when we encounter them, but can't recall the ones we need when we are creating language (writing or speaking). There are different ways of increasing the active vocabulary. One of them is intense repetition. Depending on the system we use, we are often not in control of what vocabulary gets repeated, and if we are only consuming books and series, sometimes the vocabulary we need to learn gets repeated only once or twice. It needs a lot more repetition and effort to really know a word. If we are using flashcards, depending on how we create the cards, we might be missing context as the cards don't change with every turn, and not be learning collocations (which words often go with which words).