Steve Kaufman is the founder of Vancouver based LingQ, a language learning app and community hub for language learners.
Kaufman is an expected founder of a language learning tool; his background is not education, computer science or linguistics, rather, he worked in the forestry industry. He admits to having neither interest or experience in learning a languages while growing, claiming that at the age of 17 he spoke only English – this despite being born in Sweden and growing up in Montreal.
Despite this, he began acquiring languages as he began travelling. His philosophy on language learning is that desire to communicate is the primary motivation, and traditional methods of teaching grammar and using boring texts is counterproductive. His app, LingQ, follows this approach as a way to differentiate itself from competing apps (Duolingo or Memrise for example), which have a more traditional approach. LingQ provides larger sections of written and spoken samples, with support to help learners deal with new vocabulary and phrases. Instead of a prescribed curriculum, users are encouraged to find languages and texts that interest them.
Another way LingQ differs from its competition is that Kaufman maintains a highly visible presence. Besides using his personal experience as an example, he regularly produces videos, interviews and blog posts on the topic of language learning. These not only draw interest in his company, but continue to provide motivation and suggestions to existing users.
Resources
LingQ
Interview with Kaufman
https://www.smartlanguagelearner.com/steve-kaufmann-interview
About page at Steve Kaufman’s blog
https://www.thelinguist.com/about
Steve Kaufman’s LinkedIn profile
https://www.linkedin.com/company/lingq-com/?originalSubdomain=ca
As someone who has repeatedly tried to learn French via Duolingo, I find this post particularly intriguing. While Duolingo and other similar language learning apps create fun ways to practice the language, they don’t get the user to practice interesting texts or audio. They rely on simple gamification that becomes old rather quickly. LingQ’s use of interesting content within the learning experience makes me think the learner is more likely to continue the pursuit of practicing their desired language as opposed to the eventual boredom that Duolingo users (such as myself) experience.
The fact that Kaufman speaks 17 languages attests to his understanding of the language learning process. With this in mind, as well as the unique differentiation of LingQ, I would say Kaufman represents a strong role model for would-be entrepreneurs.