

Show HN: BiFluent (Japan-based startup) - progress tracking for English learners - diasks2
https://www.bifluent.com/en

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diasks2
OP here. We went live with the site last week and emailed it to a few people
we know in our target market. Feedback is in and we are doing a horrible job
of explaining what the site is, the benefits of the site and how to actually
use the site. One thing we are planning to do is create a ~1 minute video.
Other than that though, I would love your feedback/ideas on how to make our
onboarding process suck less.

Also, if anyone will be attending the Tokyo Hacker News Meetup tomorrow night,
feel free to give me your feedback in person.

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marquis
A video would be a really good idea, and I'd also recommend a trial that
doesn't require a sign-up: if this were in any of the languages I'm constantly
trying to pick up and it had a way of engaging me immediately without a sign-
up I would have spent at least 20 minutes on the trial - I went down the site
and did the english tests and it wasn't clear whether I got all the answers
right! So, I would put a really clear call-to-action above the fold that takes
you through a basic test and asks you to login/sign up on each step to save
your progress.

I liked the format and variety of the questions: if you do well with this
consider making french/spanish/portuguese/chinese/japanese/russian versions
please!

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diasks2
Thanks for the feedback. I've considered doing a guest registration, but then
decided to just put some sample questions on the front page that users can try
out. Seems like we should possibly try out a guest registration.

Yes, if we can find some success in this market we plan to expand to other
markets and languages.

~~~
marquis
The language market has huge opportunities still to be found - I pay for a
private language teacher because I like the custom attention, and I'd pay for
a service that could enhance genuine learning. Good luck!

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ollysb
Am I right in understanding that your service only offers tests? Does it
actually teach any english or is just a way to track your current level?

~~~
diasks2
Yes, you are correct. Right now (our MVP) we only offer tests. In the future
we have plans for some other tools that are more geared toward teaching. We
also hope to be able to teach through the results of the test (i.e. we offer
explanations and tips for each question a user gets wrong or skips). With
other tests, you typically only receive your score, but we want to offer
transparent results that you can check every question and answer set and try
to learn from your mistakes.

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hdra
this is targeted for Japanese people who are learning English right? seems
like some sections overview aren't fully localized. and why is the free tier
called "Stowaway"?

seems pretty cool though, would love a similar service for people learning
Japanese..

~~~
diasks2
Yes, right now we are targeting Japanese learning English as we have
experience in that market. If we are able to achieve product/market fit we
definitely want to expand to other languages and countries. We are still
working on fully localizing the app. Thanks for checking it out!

~~~
dthunt
I'd definitely ask that question of some of your target audience; whether
they'd prefer English or localized explanations, etc. If they're targeting
TOEIC, or have passed it, I think it's okay to have some faith in them.

Of course, training wheels don't always hurt, either. :)

