Live Video Language Learning

Note #1: This might be out there somewhere already. If so a) competition is good and b) competition is good. I think maybe LiveMocha, but their website says nothing about what they do.

The idea is a website where a language learner can go to video conference with native speakers of the language during the day, say within a 12 hour time-frame. I would test out the idea with Spanish-only and limit it to 1 hour per day.

Something like, “Every night from 8-9pm EST come chat with a native Spanish speaker to practice your language.” Use Facebook Ads to drive traffic to a simple landing page. Limit the room to 5 students. Charge each student $5 per session, give the native speaker 50%.

Note #2: This is to test the idea. Minimum viable product.

In comparison to other language classes this is a steal. Especially because the student doesn’t have to travel anywhere. Most language learners don’t care about grammar and other BS. They just want to learn the language conversationally. In other words, they want to know enough for it to be useful.

The technology to set this up is already out there and it would take you an evening to get the web site live. Then another few hours setting up Facebook ad campaigns to test conversions.

Ideally I’d like to see the site grow big enough to where you charge a monthly fee and hire native speakers for ~20 hours/week.

This idea isn’t fully fleshed out and I have a lot of other thoughts on this. If you launch this send me your results and I’ll throw some more ideas at you.

Alternate: This would probably work very well for students who want to learn English as well. You’d have to market to them in their language, but Adwords and Facebook Ads in foreign languages are usually cheaper so that’s a bonus.