Lingopal (blog)

It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged, and I have been stirred into action by someone a good deal more industrious than me.

Catherine (Cat) Wentworth is a young lady living and learning in Thailand. Her website, Women Learn Thai (WLT) is home to a range of “Thai language learning tips and techniques, local quirks and insights of Thailand”. She interviews language teachers, reviews books, and has a keen photographic eye too. She also reviews iPhone apps. Diligently.

Lingopal has been reviewed quite a few times. Some reviews are lengthy and verbose; others very short. A recent one from iApplicate.tv lasts a measly 57 seconds - perfect for the internet generation whose attentions span shorter than a Bolivian general’s temper. And most have been very favourable too. Where there has been criticism it has generally been justified, and we have, and will continue, to consider such criticism closely when developing future improvements.

But Cat’s WLT review is the first where we’ve actually been compared alongside our competition. It’s odd, because that’s what we do when purchasing things in our general lives, so why don’t reviewers do it for the App Store’s offerings?

Anyway, Cat has provided a fairly comprehensive analysis of no less than 14 different Thai language iPhone apps. Some are designed more as language-learning tools; others (like Lingopal) are more the ‘helping hand.’ I’m happy to say that Lingopal comes through fairly unscathed. Cat kindly pointed out that the addition of polite particles would be an improvement; it seems that just about all the apps failed in this regard.

The review was written from the perspective of an English-speaking person, which is fair enough, but I would have liked to see a little more emphasis on the fact that people from all round the world can use our app. In fact, we find Lingopal Thai to be particularly popular amongst our Japanese customers. And I would have also liked to have seen more consideration given to the relative value for money.

But those are minor whinges in what is an admirable undertaking. Carry on the good work Cat.

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