Singapore-based EduTech firm LingoAce aims to open a world of opportunities for children through tech-enabled, immersive learning, its founder and Chief Executive Officer said.
“For today’s modern learners, I wanted to reimagine language learning and education through immersive experiences to nurture confident, next-generation multicultural communicators.
“Our mission is to open a world of opportunities for children through tech-enabled, immersive learning. Today, we have learners from more than 100 countries and have taught more than 6.5 million classes. “ Hugh Yao told TechNode Global in an interview.
Today, LingoAce is the world’s leading online Mandarin Chinese language learning platform for K-12 students, but it doesn’t stop here, he said.
“We plan to keep expanding our offerings. Last year, we launched our English language learning platform and have started to explore other subjects,” Yao added.
Headquartered in Singapore with a global footprint, LingoAce is a growing and leading education technology company for language learning. With a growing team of 1,700 LingoAcers, 4,500 certified teachers, and offices in the US, Southeast Asia, and China, we serve learners across 100 countries and regions.
Yao has wished for his children to learn Mandarin Chinese effectively when living in Singapore. As a parent, he realized that traditional learning methods do not engage modern young learners.
In 2017, he decided to bring Chinese learning to life through an online proprietary curriculum and started the LingoAce journey.
LingoAce has closed its Series B and C funding rounds in 2021, with a total of $180 million raised to date. Some of its partners and backers include Sequoia Capital India, Owl Ventures, Tiger Global, Shunwei Capital, SWC Global & Decent Capital.
In the interview, Yao also shared the trends driving innovation in the EduTech industry and how has COVID-19 sped up the acceptance of online learning and hybrid learning.
Below is the edited excerpt:
Please tell us more about why you started your company.
I lived in Singapore with my family for many years. When my son started school, English became his primary language, and it was difficult to help him maintain his native Chinese mother tongue. The language schools we tried relied so much on rote memorization and traditional teaching methods that it was hard to keep him engaged, let alone retain what he was learning. That’s why I founded LingoAce.
For today’s modern learners, I wanted to reimagine language learning and education through immersive experiences to nurture confident, next-generation multicultural communicators.
Today, LingoAce is the world’s leading online Mandarin Chinese language learning platform for K-12 students, but it doesn’t stop here. We plan to keep expanding our offerings. Last year, we launched our English language learning platform and have started to explore other subjects.
Our mission is to open a world of opportunities for children through tech-enabled, immersive learning. Today, we have learners from more than 100 countries and have taught more than 6.5 million classes. One of the reasons behind LingoAce’s success is the quality of our teachers.
Our bar for hiring is very high, which means all our teachers are professionally certified and have years of experience in working with children. We take a very holistic approach to training and professional development, covering psychology, methodology, communication, technology, and cultural nuances.
What are the trends driving innovation in your industry? How has COVID-19 sped up the acceptance of online learning and hybrid learning?
The pandemic has changed how people learn and teach. One key trend that many of us experienced was the acceleration of online learning, fueled by global school closures at the peak of the pandemic. Before 2020, online learning was still considered a niche offering that was more suitable for adults who were pursuing higher education degrees or professional development training. Few parents saw it as a viable option for young children.
That’s changed today. Even as students are back in their classrooms, we have observed that many families still want online options for school – especially for afterschool classes. Parents want the flexibility and advanced services that online schools and hybrid learning can offer, which brings out the best in online and in-person learning.
Take our free trials for example. We do this to let students and their parents experience the quality of our teachers and the seamlessness of our learning platform. It also helps us ensure students are placed in the right program before they book their classes.
Since the pandemic, we have heard from some cram schools in Singapore that parents are now asking for free trials. In the past, this would have been unheard of, but is an example of how the pandemic has changed consumer expectations and behaviors.
Kindly cite specific examples of how the pandemic has led to innovation in tech-enabled learning.
One of the upshots of the pandemic was the advancement of the virtual classroom. For language learning specifically, the pandemic changed the perception of what can be an effective “immersive” learning environment. In the past, it was difficult for many people to accept that the live interactions between young students and teachers could be replicated online.
Part of the problem was the curriculum. Lessons designed for in-person learning would be used in these virtual classrooms. It often fell flat with students. For tech-enabled learning to be successful, curriculum needs to be designed for learning through a screen. It can’t just be a one-way lecture.
There needs to two-way conversation, interaction, and movement.
During the pandemic, LingoAce advanced the virtual classroom through an innovative use of video conferencing technology and a reimagining of existing curriculum through gamification and animated storytelling. Our Core Program, for example, was designed for children with little-to-no prior exposure to Mandarin Chinese. We created this program in response to the growing demand from non-heritage families. It uses an engaging narrative and games to guide learners through each lesson that introduce and reinforce new words, sentence structures, pronunciations.
The future of work is also a big concern among businesses and professionals. Does it also relate to learning strategies?
We believe the future of education is personalization. Educators have known long since before the pandemic that learning does not start and stop with the classroom. It can happen anywhere but was previously limited to where you live and the resources around you. What the pandemic did was make students and parents more open-minded about tech-enabled learning. This opened the door for more solutions, thereby offering even more personalized ways to learn.
In regions where world languages are not part of the standard curriculum, online learning has opened new opportunities. For example, American students typically do not start learning a second language until high school, and they are often only limited to Spanish and French.
Through edtech solutions like LingoAce, pre-schoolers can learn Mandarin Chinese online as early as three years old. They are no longer limited to the weekend schools and community college programs that are available to them locally.
Alternatively, in regions like Singapore where bilingual education is standard, what students want is flexibility. The pandemic enabled students to transition from physical classes to online, and subsequently hybrid learning. This transition demonstrates a desire for personalization. For example, LingoAce’s Blended Learning programme in Singapore combines online learning with in-person classes to deliver an immersive, accelerated, and effective Ministry of Education (MOE) certified Chinese learning program for upper primary students. On our online interactive platform, students can access learning materials at any time and learn at their own pace. When students meet with teachers for their in-person classes, they can reinforce what they have learned. This has provided students with a more efficient learning experience.
How can educators and EduTech companies ensure the quality of education solutions? Can this scale globally, and how?
The key is to focus on the learning outcome. This requires understanding the needs of your learner and what challenges they face, which can vary in different markets. Using LingoAce as an example, our learning goal began with helping kids become proficient in Mandarin Chinese. When we got our start in Singapore, our program was very much designed for students who are taught the language from a young age in schools. The challenge was making the learning experience more engaging and effective.
We started small and really took the time to refine our product. This meant training teachers on the best practices of teaching Chinese as a second language in a virtual classroom. This also meant investing in R&D to develop our own gamified curriculum with original animated storytelling and other interactive media. Our seamless blend of content and instruction in a virtual classroom is what has made our language learning platform effective.
By building a strong core product, we were to adapt it to different markets. For example, in markets where language learning is not taught early, like in North America, we developed a new program to help students build a strong foundation. This program was developed using both our own learnings and published big data insights on foreign language learners.
We have also launched English Live in countries across Asia and Europe, where we bring our expertise in Chinese language learning to help students master the English language. Though the content is completely different, it applies the same principles. Games and animation are used to engage students to learn a rigorous curriculum that’s pegged to globally recognized syllabi. To date, we have taught more than 6.5 million class hours, reaching students in more than 100 countries and regions.
Many parents consider education as an investment for their children. What role does technology play in such investment?
Many parents around the world view their expenditure on their child’s education as investments.
Learning a world language early, like Chinese or English, is one of the most popular “investments” that parents make. Being fluent in a second language can open so many future opportunities. This is something that many of us at LingoAce know first-hand and want for our own children.
However, the opportunities for language learning vary depending on where you live, and how it’s taught often feels outdated to modern young learners. For kids growing up in a digital world, this isn’t a very engaging learning experience.
In the last five years, we have seen that parents are demanding more for their children’s education.
They want the best teachers and curriculum designers to be teaching their children, even if that means crossing borders. EdTech solutions like LingoAce are making education more accessible to students, allowing them to learn any subject no matter where they live. They are also improving learning outcomes by modernizing teaching methods and curriculum for digital natives.
Please share any case studies, success stories, data, or industry insights that can highlight these.
Education is not a one-size-fit-all model, and there is extensive evidence to suggest that learning should be tailored to the needs of each individual. “Over 80% of teachers, parents, and students want exactly what personalized education – the holy grail of education can offer,” according to a global 2022 study by UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP). Specifically, this means getting a quality education where students can work at their own pace and be their own benchmark to maximize their potential. What makes this more possible now is technology.
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