Happy New Year everyone!
2009 has started with lots of work here at yappr! We removed our chat feature last December because it wasn't fast enough to support all the yapprs that were using it. It was responding slowly, and, worse, it slowed down the entire site.
Our engineers have been working diligently to improve yappr's performance and I hope you will notice that the pages return much more quickly.
And we finally introduced the newly re-engineered chat application. There will still be a few items to polish and fix, but chat should be faster, more reliable, and will not slow down the web pages at yappr any longer.
Please thank the engineers at yappr, many of whom slept overnight to get chat released to the web site!
Patrick
Showing posts with label yappr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yappr. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Friday, November 7, 2008
Election Relief!
The Presidential election is finally finished!!
They have been campaigning for more than 2 years, so it is a great relief to have it over. Now we have 2 years without discussions about the next presidential election; then it will start over again.
People were driving around the streets of NY honking their horns as the results were announced. It sounded like the Yankees had won the World Series of baseball, or Italy had won the World Cup of soccer!
Now Obama has a lot of work ahead of him!
What did people say about the election in your country?
Patrick
(We have lots of clips of the election coverage at http://www.yappr.com!)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Back to Blogging
Hello yapprs!
I was very busy over the summer and haven't had the time to keep up with the blog. I apologize!
We have added many new people to the yappr team, and we are all working to bring new features to yappr.com as quickly as possible.
More Videos!
One of the directions we are focused on is getting more videos onto yappr. As you have probably noticed, I have asked for your help in both selecting the videos and in translating them. With today's new release of software, the process is getting a little smoother.
Starting today, yappr.com allows the community to review translations and approve them for release to the main portion of the yappr.com. I don't want to release translations that aren't high quality, but when I was having them reviewed internally I couldn't keep up with the number of videos yapprs are translating!
So if you click on one of the links below you will see a list of videos that have been translated by members of the yappr community. Before a video will appear on the front page, three other yapprs must approve the translation. Please take care in reviewing a translation so that yappr.com can remain a high-quality language learning tool.
US Elections
One of the biggest topics of conversation in the United States right now is the upcoming Presidential election. I know from living in Japan and Italy that many people abroad follow our elections, and most have their own opinion about who should win! I am always asked about how the candidates are seen by Americans, so I thought I would include an election video a day until the campaings are done. Click on the Election category to see them!
Coming Soon
We are working on some additional types of video that people have been asking for, as well as some features everyone has been asking for. We'll be telling you about them here as they become available. And if you have any other requests for features, please let me know by writing here.
I'll keep blogging, and will get some of the new members of the team to tell you about what they are working on as well. See you soon on yappr!
Patrick
chief yappr
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving Post
Happy Thanksgiving!
I haven't posted about this week's videos because my primary computer crashed and I've spent the last few days keeping the site running and recovering my laptop. This computer doesn't have Japanese input installed, so I'm limited to English for a few days.
Some great videos will be showing up in the next few days, and I'll get my computers running again.
Patrick
I haven't posted about this week's videos because my primary computer crashed and I've spent the last few days keeping the site running and recovering my laptop. This computer doesn't have Japanese input installed, so I'm limited to English for a few days.
Some great videos will be showing up in the next few days, and I'll get my computers running again.
Patrick
Friday, October 26, 2007
The first article has been written about Yappr!
The on-line business web site WebVentureLink has written an article about the Yappr launch. The article is in Japanese, but there are also some terrible pictures of me! Click here to read it.
Yapprの一番目の記事が出版しました。
WebVentureLink （Webベンチャーリンク）と言うウェブサイトはYapprの開発についてきじを書きました。日本語で書かれて私の写真も出ますー恥ずかしい！ここでクリックして読んでください。
The on-line business web site WebVentureLink has written an article about the Yappr launch. The article is in Japanese, but there are also some terrible pictures of me! Click here to read it.
Yapprの一番目の記事が出版しました。
WebVentureLink （Webベンチャーリンク）と言うウェブサイトはYapprの開発についてきじを書きました。日本語で書かれて私の写真も出ますー恥ずかしい！ここでクリックして読んでください。
Monday, October 22, 2007
Feedback, please!
Please give us feedback!
What do you like about Yappr.com? What didn't work?
What videos would you like to see?
Leave your comments in any language!
Yapprについてフィードバックをお願いします。あなたの意見は大切です。
どんな機能は好きですか。どれは不便ですか。
どんなような動画を見たいですか。
何語でもいいですよ。
What do you like about Yappr.com? What didn't work?
What videos would you like to see?
Leave your comments in any language!
Yapprについてフィードバックをお願いします。あなたの意見は大切です。
どんな機能は好きですか。どれは不便ですか。
どんなような動画を見たいですか。
何語でもいいですよ。
Friday, October 19, 2007
Welcome to Yappr
Yappr.com has finally launched!
I have envisioned this product for years. As I learned two foreign languages as an adult, I consistently found watching local television to be the most fun and productive way to study.
When I returned home from graduate school or from work, the last thing I had the energy to do was study a vocabulary list or review grammar.
At the end of the day, watching TV was a great escape. Initially I couldn't understand enough to enjoy it, but once I was able to understand enough to follow, I rapidly started learning expressions not taught in the classroom, following shared cultural phenomena, and most importantly, relaxing in front of the TV while still "studying."
Yappr.com is designed to replicate my learning experience. Your teacher may love Yappr - anything to get you to hear the language - or hate its lack of structure. I don't expect anyone to tackle a language with Yappr alone, but hey, my kids have learned to speak English and they watch lots of TV!
I hope you enjoy Yappr.com. Let me know what you like, what you don't like, and what you wish it included.
And tell me what videos you'd like to see posted.
Write me in English, Italiano, or 日本語。 Actually, write me in any language and I'll try to find someone to translate for me.
Patrick
patrick@yappr.com
http://www.yappr.com
いよいよYappr.com（ヤッパー・ドット・コム）がスタートします。
私は何年も前からこのサービスの構想を温めてきました。おとなになって２つの外国語を学んだ経験から、外国語はテレビで学ぶのが一番面白くて効率がいいと思うようになったからです。
外国語を勉強していた頃、大学の勉強や仕事が忙しく、家に戻ると、疲れて単語や文法を勉強するエネルギーはもう残っていませんでした。
夜テレビを見るのは頭が疲れませんでしたが、最初のうちはテレビを見ても意味が分からなくてつまりませんでした。ところが、少し分かるようになってくると、どんどんどんどん自然な表現や現代の文化を理解できるようになって、楽しくなってきたのです。テレビを見るのはとても勉強になりました。
Yappr.comは、この経験をヒントに設計しました。英語の授 業の代わりにYapprを使うのではなく、生の英語の表現や発音、英語の文化に触れるために、楽しんで使っていただけたらうれしいです。英語の勉強はテレビを見るだけでは不十分ですから・・・。でも、僕の子供たちはテレビばかり見て英語を覚えているので、大丈夫かな。
YouTube.comの動画で見たいものがあったらリクエストしてください。また、あったらいいと思う機能や使いにくい点なども、ぜひ知らせてくださいね。
Yapprへよこそう。
パトリック
patrick@yappr.com
http://www.yappr.com
I have envisioned this product for years. As I learned two foreign languages as an adult, I consistently found watching local television to be the most fun and productive way to study.
When I returned home from graduate school or from work, the last thing I had the energy to do was study a vocabulary list or review grammar.
At the end of the day, watching TV was a great escape. Initially I couldn't understand enough to enjoy it, but once I was able to understand enough to follow, I rapidly started learning expressions not taught in the classroom, following shared cultural phenomena, and most importantly, relaxing in front of the TV while still "studying."
Yappr.com is designed to replicate my learning experience. Your teacher may love Yappr - anything to get you to hear the language - or hate its lack of structure. I don't expect anyone to tackle a language with Yappr alone, but hey, my kids have learned to speak English and they watch lots of TV!
I hope you enjoy Yappr.com. Let me know what you like, what you don't like, and what you wish it included.
And tell me what videos you'd like to see posted.
Write me in English, Italiano, or 日本語。 Actually, write me in any language and I'll try to find someone to translate for me.
Patrick
patrick@yappr.com
http://www.yappr.com
いよいよYappr.com（ヤッパー・ドット・コム）がスタートします。
私は何年も前からこのサービスの構想を温めてきました。おとなになって２つの外国語を学んだ経験から、外国語はテレビで学ぶのが一番面白くて効率がいいと思うようになったからです。
外国語を勉強していた頃、大学の勉強や仕事が忙しく、家に戻ると、疲れて単語や文法を勉強するエネルギーはもう残っていませんでした。
夜テレビを見るのは頭が疲れませんでしたが、最初のうちはテレビを見ても意味が分からなくてつまりませんでした。ところが、少し分かるようになってくると、どんどんどんどん自然な表現や現代の文化を理解できるようになって、楽しくなってきたのです。テレビを見るのはとても勉強になりました。
Yappr.comは、この経験をヒントに設計しました。英語の授 業の代わりにYapprを使うのではなく、生の英語の表現や発音、英語の文化に触れるために、楽しんで使っていただけたらうれしいです。英語の勉強はテレビを見るだけでは不十分ですから・・・。でも、僕の子供たちはテレビばかり見て英語を覚えているので、大丈夫かな。
YouTube.comの動画で見たいものがあったらリクエストしてください。また、あったらいいと思う機能や使いにくい点なども、ぜひ知らせてくださいね。
Yapprへよこそう。
パトリック
patrick@yappr.com
http://www.yappr.com
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