The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/933479
FEBRUARY/MARCH The Linguist 7 thelinguist.uberflip.com FEATURES Q How did you develop it into a business? A It started as a side project at university. After I graduated we got some funding. We built up an audience through social media, and in May 2016 we got £35,000 in pre-orders through a Kickstarter campaign, enabling us to launch our subscriptions in February 2017. Q Why did you choose this business model? A We talked to headteachers and parents, and realised it would be better to start with the direct-to-consumer route. We were going to build it as an app but parents told us they'd rather have a book to read at bedtime. It would be difficult to rely on one-off book sales so the subscription model made more sense. Q How big is the team today? A We've got three people working full-time in customer service, marketing and publishing, and 11-12 freelancers: narrators, proofreaders, illustrators, translators, editors. We just moved to an office big enough for a team of ten. Q How did you find partners and investors? A The Goethe Institut saw our Kickstarter campaign and approached us. On the back of that, we got in touch with the Spanish Embassy. Nottingham University contacted us because Jonny is an alumnus. We are a limited liability business and we'll likely look to raise another round from investors in 2018. Q How did you tackle areas such as web design, marketing and fundraising? A Neither of us had any real job experience or training. We did a three-month business programme and talked to a lot of people back in 2015. It was all about making a tonne of mistakes. Jonny actually taught himself to code and designed the website. Q What are your plans for the future? A We'll look at the US and English-as-a- second-language markets. We're currently aimed at ages 4-9, so we'll expand into a younger age group. German will probably be the next language we introduce. We'll also look to extend the 12-month course to 24 months, and we're studying the possibility of video and digital mediums. There's a lot of ideas about where the product could go. onethirdstories.com Thebig idea Q Describe One Third Stories in a nutshell… A We create children's books that start in English and end in a different language (either French or Spanish) by gradually introducing the foreign words. This is done through our Clockwork Methodology, which we developed alongside teachers, Nottingham University and the Spanish Embassy. It's about making sure that the first steps in language learning are as simple and enjoyable as possible. Q What's in the monthly subscription box? A Every box comes with a new storybook, activity book, audiobook and a few other treats. The audiobook is delivered before the box arrives so kids and parents can get accustomed to the pronunciation of the foreign words. It's a 12-month course, with each box introducing a different topic and reinforcing vocabulary from previous boxes. Q What is your languages background? A I grew up in Paraguay to British parents and attended a bilingual school. I moved to the UK when I was 17 and met my co-Founder Jonny [Pryn]. I studied Politics with Portuguese and Italian at Exeter, and worked in Milan, Venice and Brazil. I recently started learning Russian. Jonny had a negative experience with French at school, but later really regretted dropping it and has been trying to make up ever since. Q How did you come up with the idea? A As part of Jonny's degree in Creative Writing with Linguistics, he read A Clockwork Orange, which has a made-up slang that is comprehensible in the context. We wanted to build on this concept of introducing foreign words into a text in the reader's first language, but using children's books where illustrations add another layer of context, which is ideal. One Third Stories co-Founder Alex Somervell on the books that gently introduce children to foreign language words Clockwise from above: Jonny (l) and Alex; a child receives his story box; and uses the materials