Game are available!

Games

If you have watched the development of yappr over the last few months, you might have noticed a link up top that said "games (coming soon)". It was there a LONG time! So long I eventually removed it.

We have finally launched games at yappr! Click on the "play" link and you can try your hand at Bank Robber and Twist List, and hopefully learn a few new words in the process.

I play a few times a day, so see whether you can beat my scores!

The Markets

Living here in New York there is a lot of focus on Wall Street. And these last few months have been quite scary!

The US government is facing a very difficult decision about whether to offer any support to the US  car manufacturers. If they don't, one or more of them will likely fail. If they do, US taxpayers will probably be forced to give money to these companies for many years, and they will likely fail anyway.

Today the US Congress told the car companies to prepare a better argument about why the US taxpayer should support them, and the stock market fell upon hearing that news.

I don't think the bad news is over!

Weaklings or walking?

Weaklings or walking?

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!)

Halloween

Today is Halloween here in the United States. Kids dress up in costumes and visit neighbors collecting candy. The tradition was brought to the US by Irish and Scottish immigrants, but has spread to other countries as well. Read more on Wikipedia.

Of course, the scariest costume this year would be the stock market!

Happy Halloween to all!

Patrick

US Elections

In less than two weeks, the US will select a new president.

Right now it looks like the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, has an advantage over the Republican John McCain. But the campaigning isn't over yet, and things could change.

If you want to follow the election as it is being covered in the US, click here. We have many examples of both news coverage and of the candidates speeches!

Help Check Translations!

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago we released the ability for anyone in the community to translate videos. My goal was to increase the number of videos on yappr. I still had each translation checked to make sure it was of high quality. 

Unfortunately, I couldn't keep up with all of the videos that everybody worked on! We kept getting further behind in publishing your translations.

So last Wednesday we updated yappr.com to allow yapprs to check the translations.

So please help out by checking these translations. Each video needs three people (in addition to the person that originally translated the video) to check the translation before it gets published. If you're the third checker, the video becomes immediately available to the entire community with that translation!

Let's get as many videos out to the yappr community as possible!

Patrick

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.

Approve Spanish translations

Approve Portuguese translations

Approve Chinese translations

Approve Japanese translations

Approve Korean translations

Approve Hindi translations

Approve German translations

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