I was reading on MomLogic today and came across this post about a new language learning software called PeanutButter – Laguage learning that sticks. It sounds really exciting, and one of the majorly cool factors is the iPhone application you can download so you can learn on the go! Even the desktop software is just $99 which is really good considering you’d spend a couple hundred on something like Rosetta Stone!
Here are some tidbits of information!
- Website: http://peanutbuttersticks.com/
- Our debut language is Spanish, but we will continue creating until we run out of languages (hehee!) Next in the works: Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.
- One of the many things that makes us unique: PB teaches dialects, too. The Spanish program has 6 regional dialects.
- We do customized solutions for businesses that need to learn and/or teach a foreign language. We work alongside companies to see where their specific needs are, and make a software package that is a perfect fit. For example, we are in the process of working with local police departments to offer language training for their officers. If you know of any companies that have a language need, please send them our name!
- Many versions are in the works, including an economy version and a children’s version in addition to the core version and the iPod apps.
- We take YOUR suggestions and put them into the software. If you have a particular dialogue or situation you want to see, we will put it on film. We are always open to suggestions.
From the wife of PeanutButter’s inventor… (quoted with permission)
When I met my husband, who I call CandyMan, one of the first things I discovered about him was his love for languages and cultures. As newlyweds, we spent a summer in Russia, and I often had to find my way around Moscow on my own while CM was interning at the newspaper. Shortly after we got married, he got his degree in Russian and International Relations and jumped into the work force. Through the years, he has held many different kinds of jobs and many of them have included a need to learn another language. Foreign languages have always been an important part of our lives, and to date CM has studied 14 languages, both in a college setting and individually.
Basically, after studying so many languages, CM learned many things that make foreign language learning much faster, more efficient and more productive. Over the recent years, CM has written down notes and observations as he has studied different languages. We have needed something to help with the language acquisition, but it wasn’t until he took a job with an IT company in November 2007 that he got the final piece to the puzzle. He began his first official sketches for a foreign language learning software program in March 2008, and soon had notebooks full of ideas and plans. We have felt inspired and guided along the way. Then in August 2008, he decided to devote his full time efforts to completing the project.
PeanutButter~Language Learning that Sticks~as we call the software, has been an incredible journey. We took a huge leap of faith to leave an IT job and jump with both feet into the unknown. But we believe in this. PeanutButter is not rocket science. It’s presented in simplicity, with the tools that people need to learn a language. It is unique and unlike any other foreign language software out there, a fact which has CM often saying. “I don’t understand why nobody has ever done this before! This is nothing new!”
When describing themselves,