Mondly is a

language learning Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language. In other words, it is how human beings gain the ability to be aware of language, to understand it, and to produce and use words and ...

company that operates a website and a number of free and paid language apps. The company was acquired in May 2022 by the British educational giant

Pearson Pearson may refer to: Organizations Education * Lester B. Pearson College, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada * Pearson College (UK), London, owned by Pearson PLC *Lester B. Pearson High School (disambiguation) Companies * Pearson plc, a UK-based ...

. Mondly is a

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ( ...

language-learning platform using a method that combines

vocabulary A vocabulary (also known as a lexicon) is a set of words, typically the set in a language or the set known to an individual. The word ''vocabulary'' originated from the Latin , meaning "a word, name". It forms an essential component of languag ...

and

phrase In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...

learning with

speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers. It is also ...

and

chatbot A chatbot (originally chatterbot) is a software application or web interface designed to have textual or spoken conversations. Modern chatbots are typically online and use generative artificial intelligence systems that are capable of main ...

technologies. Mondly is also a pioneer in VR Education, with its launch on Meta Quest, one of the top world's 10 virtual reality apps.

History

Mondly was founded in 2013 by Alexandru Iliescu and Tudor Iliescu in Brașov, Romania. The company launched the first app in May 2014 on

AppStore An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not in ...

and on

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

in June 2015. A year later, in August 2016, launched the first chatbot with speech recognition on both iTunes and Google Play. This was followed in February 2017 with the launch of MondlyVR, a virtual reality language app with speech recognition. In May 2017, the company released the MondlyKids app for children aged 5 to 12. The following year, in March 2018, the company introduced MondlyAR, the first augmented reality language app with speech recognition. Following a rise in interest in VR education, the company launched Mondly VR on the Oculus Quest store in August 2021. In the third quarter of 2021, Mondly became the second most downloaded language learning app worldwide.

Products

The company offers four primary products: * Mondly Languages - a language learning app that integrates chatbot and speech recognition technologies. * Mondly Kids - a language learning app for toddlers and kids. * MondlyVR - a virtual reality language learning app, available on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

and in the Oculus Store. * MondlyAR - an augmented reality app featuring an avatar teacher that use virtual objects (eg. planets, animals, musical instruments) as teaching tools to engage the user in conversations and provide instant feedback on pronunciation using the chatbot technology.

Language courses

As of 2017, Mondly had courses for 33 languages for beginner, intermediate and advanced users. In 2020, the app added 8 additional languages for a total of 41. Mondly offers courses in the following 41 languages:

Recognition and awards

In January 2016, Mondly Languages was named “Best New App” by

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

and a year later it received the FbStart “App of the Year” award for

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

offered by

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. In December 2017, Mondly Languages and MondlyKids were both chosen as “Editors’ Choice” in Google Play. In 2018, Mondly was named a “Cool Vendor” in Consumer Mobile Applications and Bots by

Gartner Gartner, Inc. is an American research and advisory firm focusing on business and technology topics. Gartner provides its products and services through research reports, conferences, and consulting. Its clients include large corporations, gover ...

and included in Deloitte’s Fast 50 Rising Stars. Alexandru Iliescu, the CEO and co-founder of Mondly, was also named Founder of the Year at the Central European Startup Awards. In February 2019, the Mondly founders were awarded the “Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year: Technology & Innovation” prize by

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

. In July, Mondly was named "Best Online Language Learning Portal” in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

by the Deutsches Institut für Service-Qualität. In November 2021, Mondly won the Chairman’s Award at the WITSA Global ICT Excellence Awards.

References

{{reflist Proprietary language learning software Virtual learning environments Software companies of Romania Android (operating system) software