The Egyptians certainly didn’t anticipate what recent Stanford graduate Govinda Dasu (Harker ’12) would do with their Rosetta Stone.

Govinda sought to find out if translation software Rosetta Stone could be used to teach English to an individual with no prior background. He documented the experiment in order to write his own, specialized smartphone application, which would improve upon the weaknesses of Rosetta Stone in context.

“You have to make it less boring. Rosetta Stone is kind of like a classroom,” Govinda said in a video interview from Hyderabad, India with theWinged Post. “She really always wanted to watch YouTube videos a lot more than she wanted to do Rosetta Stone.”

Govinda referred to his subject Geeta, a 37-year old illiterate cook living in Hyderabad who completed approximately 20 hours of Rosetta Stone. He explained how knowing English is a valuable asset in the emerging markets of India, citing transport service Über as an example.

Govinda pointed out that Rosetta Stone is targeted at the developed market; however, the greatest demand for learning a new language lies in the developing market. He also noted shortcomings of the subject’s experience with the methods of learning the software employed, as well as her technical difficulties maneuvering the interface.

“[It] was difficult was for her to be able to understand grammar. She was really good at understanding nouns, adjectives, even verbs,” he observed. “But at the point of conjugating pronouns, ‘their ball’ vs ‘her ball’, she couldn’t understand at all what was going on. Grammar was a no, vocabulary was a yes.”

During the course of the experiment, Govinda also noted that incentivizing the software was effective in engaging Geeta’s interest.

“She was always concerned with how many points she had,” he said. “You have to balance that with not making it so competitive that you have a leaderboard and she always feels like she’s at the bottom of the leaderboard, if you make it connected to social media or contacts on her own phone.”

Govinda explained his business model, which will continue to generate revenue for ongoing support. The software will enable more low-income groups to secure higher-level jobs while it proffers itself as a recruiter to businesses.

“[I plan to] make it free for people to learn English using [the] software, but charge the grocery stores and the Übers and hotels for a conversation with our English graduates to make their process of recruiting a little bit easier,” he said.

To maximize accessibility, the application will be written in HTML5 and eventually Java, meaning it will run on smartphones and desktops, as well as the more ubiquitous feature phone. He does not expect many desktop users.

He hopes to eventually implement the program in Indian schools, which will offer a larger number of prospective users.

The Egyptians certainly didn’t anticipate what recent Stanford graduate Govinda Dasu (Harker ’12) would do with their Rosetta Stone.

Govinda sought to find out if translation software Rosetta Stone could be used to teach English to an individual with no prior background. He documented the experiment in order to write his own, specialized smartphone application, which would improve upon the weaknesses of Rosetta Stone in context.

“You have to make it less boring.” Govinda said in a video interview from Hyderabad, India with theWinged Post. “She really always wanted to watch YouTube videos a lot more than she wanted to do Rosetta Stone.”

Govinda referred to his subject Geeta, a 37-year old illiterate cook living in Hyderabad who completed approximately 20 hours of Rosetta Stone. He explained how knowing English is a valuable asset in the emerging markets of India, citing transport service Über as an example.

Govinda pointed out that Rosetta Stone is targeted at the developed market; however, the greatest demand for learning a new language lies in the developing market. He also noted shortcomings of the subject’s experience with the methods of learning the software employed, as well as her technical difficulties maneuvering the interface.

“[It] was difficult was for her to be able to understand grammar. She was really good at understanding nouns, adjectives, even verbs,” he observed. “But at the point of conjugating pronouns, ‘their ball’ vs ‘her ball’, she couldn’t understand at all what was going on. Grammar was a no, vocabulary was a yes.”

During the course of the experiment, Govinda also noted that incentivizing the software was effective in engaging Geeta’s interest.

“She was always concerned with how many points she had,” he said. “You have to balance that with not making it so competitive that you have a leaderboard, and she always feels like she’s at the bottom of the leaderboard, if you make it connected to social media or contacts on her own phone.”

Govinda explained his business model, which will continue to generate revenue for ongoing support. The software will enable more low-income groups to secure higher-level jobs while it proffers itself as a recruiter to businesses.

“[I plan to] make it free for people to learn English using [the] software, but charge the grocery stores and the Übers and hotels for a conversation with our English graduates to make their process of recruiting a little bit easier,” he said.

To maximize accessibility, the application will be written in HTML5 and eventually Java, meaning it will run on smartphones and desktops, as well as the more ubiquitous feature phone. He does not expect many desktop users.

He hopes to eventually implement the program in Indian schools, which will offer a larger number of prospective users.

The Egyptians certainly didn’t anticipate what recent Stanford graduate Govinda Dasu (Harker ’12) would do with their Rosetta Stone.

Govinda sought to find out if translation software Rosetta Stone could be used to teach English to an individual with no prior background. He documented the experiment in order to write his own smartphone application, which would improve upon the weaknesses of Rosetta Stone in context.

“You have to make it less boring. Rosetta Stone is kind of like a classroom,” Govinda said in a video interview from Hyderabad, India with theWinged Post.

Govinda referred to his subject Geeta, a 37-year old illiterate cook living in Hyderabad who completed approximately 20 hours of Rosetta Stone. He noted shortcomings of the methods of learning the software employed, as well as the subject’s technical difficulties maneuvering the interface.

“[It] was difficult was for her to be able to understand grammar,” he observed. “Grammar was a no, vocabulary was a yes.”

The software will enable more low-income groups to secure higher-level jobs while it proffers itself as a recruiter to businesses. To maximize accessibility, the application will be written in HTML5 and eventually Java, meaning it will run on smartphones and desktops, as well as the more ubiquitous feature phone.

He hopes to eventually implement the program in Indian schools, which will offer a larger number of prospective users.

This article was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on August 29, 2014.