Caterpillar App

Turn any movie into a full language course

4 followers

Turn any movie into a full language course

4 followers

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Launch tags:Productivity•Movies•Languages

Launch Team

Render Sandboxes: a computer for every agentIsolated compute, persistent state and a real filesystem

Promoted

I love the idea! The OSX App is well designed. I would recommend to invest some time in adding more content (Open Source or Paid) to the App because it is kind of a hustle to upload a video file + Subs. This functionality should be an optional feature not the main one. The first thing your users should see are starter videos (Just click and Start Learning) not a dialog to open a file. Keep the good work.

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9yr ago

Caterpillar App

Maker

@luismiguelpg That's great feedback Luis. Thank you. You're right. It can be kindof a hustle until you're used to it. But at the same time, you'll only have to do that hustle every now and then considering how much content is in a single movie ;) Either way, we're thinking of ways to expand the library of available titles within the confines of the law. However, first priority is to make sure that people who DO have content can use it well and get utility out of the app. We are constantly working to improve the functionality via user feedback and our own ideas so if there's something you think could be better, please don't hesitate to reach out. Curious: Is there any specific content you'd like to see? What language are you learning?

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9yr ago

@kiikoblak I totally understand the 'Why' behind, just keep in mind that in this Netflix/Streaming-era, people rarely have movie or subs files. About what content i would like to see; TedTalks are a great source (Good call there). Maybe Discovery Channel or Natgeo 'free'/paid content. Cool future idea; A chrome extension that work on top of netflix / Youtube. That way i can use your methodology all over internet. btw. I'm interesting in french (I speak english/Spanish)

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9yr ago

Caterpillar App

Maker

@luismiguelpg I will look into the feasibility of those. Good ideas. Thanks. And yeah we've thought about the chrome extension. That'd be cool for sure.

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9yr ago

CryptoPoops

Wow, good timing! I was just telling friends about this technique, and wishing there were an index of entertainment sorted by language. https://twitter.com/staringispol... Best paired with an explicit conversationalist course. Most effective for me has been Michel Thomas. Do you guys have a favorite? @johnomarkid @kiikoblak

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9yr ago

Caterpillar App

Maker

@staringispolite I've tried Pimsleur but those courses are always too boring for me to keep at it. When I start learning a language I typically try to grind through Duolingo until I have some vocabulary and an idea of the grammatical structure, then I get into native materials (videos, articles, podcasts) as soon as I can.

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9yr ago

CryptoPoops

@johnomarkid Super interesting. Michel Thomas got me conversational in Spanish in 3 months, which I'd never been able to do before. Duolingo was OK as flashcards, but not very useful. Feels like this points to language learning being very person-specific, and maybe even context-specific to that person's habits. For instance, I wonder if I'd have liked Michel Thomas if I didn't have a 30 minute commute during this time.

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9yr ago

CryptoPoops

@johnomarkid Do you know of any lists of this type of content out there? Either in your format (Movie file + subtitle file) or just online generally? I've only found iffy content farms so far

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9yr ago

Caterpillar App

Maker

@staringispolite we've been learning with content on https://archive.org/ recently. Some good stuff!

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9yr ago

Caterpillar App

Maker

Hey PH! Caterpillar team here (@johnomarkid and @kiikoblak). We're language polyglots and techies, so we put our passions together to create a better way to learn languages. Questions are welcome!

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9yr ago

Boom video

@johnomarkid @kiikoblak Congrats on the launch guys!

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9yr ago

Caterpillar App

Maker

@robjama thanks man!

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9yr ago

@johnomarkid Great product John!

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9yr ago

What languages are supported? Didn't see this anywhere on the website, but i'd like to know before downloading.

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9yr ago

Caterpillar App

Maker

@kayla_ervin you can use the app to learn any language as long as you have a video and subtitle file in that language.

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9yr ago

I used to teach English Spanish and Portuguese when I was younger to try and pay the bills. This is exactly what I did to advanced and intermediate students. This is a great great project. Congratulations and best of luck.

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9yr ago

Caterpillar App

Maker

@lyondhur thanks!

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9yr ago

Caterpillar App

Maker

@lyondhur Thank you!

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9yr ago

AirCTO

@johnomarkid Great idea! I really love how the content is used on the website. But, don't you think 99$ is a bit pricey, especially in countries where the difference between exchange rate is quite high? This may turn off lots of potential consumers.

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9yr ago

very nice idea, but I couldn't really explore all the features without paying 99$ it would be nice to have a free trial.

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9yr ago

Caterpillar App

Maker

@liudmyla_tiurnikova the free trial includes unlimited access to the first section of any video, and in that section you can test every feature that the app offers.

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9yr ago

@johnomarkid maybe I'm doing it wrong but all I see is the video from the first section without subtitles or exercises. When I click on it I get the message "You need a Premium account to access further content"((

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9yr ago

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