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Comment by alex_c | Hacker News Reader

Argh. Show, don't tell. I'm not going to "Sign Up or login" just to see what the interface is like. There are tons of language resources out there, and tons of different ways to learn (currently hooked on language apps on my iPhone) - I have a rough idea of what works for me and what doesn't, I should be able to tell right away what methods the site uses and if it's for me or not.

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Agree. Along the same lines, the items of the form

<span style="font-size:24px;" class="blue">Learning is a game.</span>

look like they ought to be links to describing the features (they're blue!) and so sent me needlessly changing NoScript settings, to no avail. If this is just unimplemented, then OK, but otherwise you should change the colour scheme before leaving beta, or your users will be wasting precious seconds on the front page. (Apologies if you already knew!)

It's beta. I would imagine that they will get the sales pitch down once they are finished with the product.

I think the gp's intent was to give constructive feedback, something to be encouraged for beta products in particular!

When I first read the comment I read it as overly confrontational and I didn't really like it(esp. after reading the thread on flagging.) I didn't read it as feedback because it wasn't a Rate my startup submission but a techcrunch post so it felt like a tl;dr comment. Viewing it as a constructive feedback comment makes it seem less snarky and less confrontational.

Ah, sorry - my intent wasn't to be snarky or confrontational. I automatically switched to review mode after reading that it's a YC startup, since I figured the founders would be seeing this thread.

Definitely - we understand and appreciate the spirit of HN. All the feedback here is gold.

Thanks for this point! We'll definitely work on getting a more enlightening front page in the future.

any recommendations for language apps on the iPhone?

I've been meaning to write a blog post about this, but here's a quick list (I've finally started to learn Japanese):

Human Japanese - basically an interactive textbook, with audio clips and interactive quizzes. Probably the best of the bunch.

Pocket Japanese - based on several series of podcasts, for different skill levels. Each lesson has a ~10min podcast, sentence by sentence breakdown, ~1-4min review track, vocabulary flashcards, and written grammar lesson. Interface can be a bit annoying, but the content and features are good.

iKana - for learning Hiragana and Katakana

AccelaStudy Japanese - for pure vocabulary cramming, very polished.

To the Lingt team - if an iPhone app isn't already on your roadmap, it definitely should be. It's a ridiculously convenient way to learn a language.

Thanks for this list. I took japanese in high school for several years and wanted a way to refresh and expand on it.

I wonder if there are as many resources for korean.

I found Lingt very similar (in concept) to Anki, which has an iPhone client. I do not have an iPhone, so I can't tell how good it is, but Anki (desktop) is fantastic. I am currently learning Mandarin, and Anki is my primary resource for vocabulary memorization.

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