Language Transfer

All about language programs, courses, websites and other learning resources
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Elsa Maria
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Elsa Maria » Wed Sep 01, 2021 4:34 pm

Wow, that is such great news for Language Transfer - thanks for sharing it, Cavesa.
I've completed the Spanish and the French courses, and I loved both experiences. I am super happy to hear that LT has had an influx of funds, even though I am not interested in German, Japanese, Mandarin, or Hebrew :) I do believe in supporting creators so I am a Patreon supporter.
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Cainntear
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Cainntear » Thu Sep 02, 2021 3:38 pm

It's not as much as it sounds. Half of it's for staff, half for working space. That means it's basically 1 year's salary for an employee, not including the overheads of employment, and with 3 courses on the list, that's 4 man months each at most.
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crush
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby crush » Thu Sep 02, 2021 4:00 pm

When speaking with Mihalis some time last year i believe they mentioned working with some passionate folks interested in making a Hebrew course and that they had already made decent progress. That is exciting news though, the sooner they can stray out into more non-FIGS languages the better :D
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Cavesa
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Cavesa » Fri Sep 03, 2021 12:10 pm

Cainntear wrote:It's not as much as it sounds. Half of it's for staff, half for working space. That means it's basically 1 year's salary for an employee, not including the overheads of employment, and with 3 courses on the list, that's 4 man months each at most.


True. But it's still much more than not to have that bitcoin. I suppose Hebrew will (logically) get a priority, so perhaps the man months will suffice. But in any case, even the 4 man months for each could move the work significantly forwards.

And that might also attract further donations, smaller or bigger. I guess I am not the only one, who was not too tempted to support music theory courses, and no visible progress in the promissed language courses. It seemed to me as if Mihalis was moving on, having achieved and given us a lot already.

crush wrote:When speaking with Mihalis some time last year i believe they mentioned working with some passionate folks interested in making a Hebrew course and that they had already made decent progress. That is exciting news though, the sooner they can stray out into more non-FIGS languages the better :D


Yes, I am excited. I still hope to start Hebrew in the forseeable future, and I've also been apalled by the prices of many of the online Hebrew resources. Hebrew really looks like an expensive language, so LT could be a very welcome addition. And if the FIGS finally get out of the way, we might finally get the resources for languages in need of them.

I think a good direction to explore in future might be FIGS+En courses for natives of the typical immigrant languages though.
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mokibao
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby mokibao » Mon Feb 07, 2022 10:53 pm

Some news from his Patreon. I'm not sure I'm allowed to share all of it, but the gist is that he's moving back to Cyprus, and as a result will prioritize the Greek-to-Cypriot course as well as finding people to finish the Turkish course. The rest depends on who he finds to work on it.

This is... unexpected? I'm used to creators never setting deadlines and changing them all the time but this is the first time I see someone actually changing their end goal at every post. If he said next month he'd move on to teaching math I wouldn't even be surprised.
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Cainntear
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Cainntear » Tue Feb 08, 2022 10:39 pm

mokibao wrote:Some news from his Patreon. I'm not sure I'm allowed to share all of it, but the gist is that he's moving back to Cyprus, and as a result will prioritize the Greek-to-Cypriot course as well as finding people to finish the Turkish course. The rest depends on who he finds to work on it.

This is... unexpected? I'm used to creators never setting deadlines and changing them all the time but this is the first time I see someone actually changing their end goal at every post. If he said next month he'd move on to teaching math I wouldn't even be surprised.

Is it even legal? Didn't he spend years taking money off people on the grounds that their donations bought votes and control over what the next language would be, and that their votes would never expire until they got what they wanted?
Has he refunded everyone whose votes no longer count?
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mokibao
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby mokibao » Tue Feb 08, 2022 11:11 pm

It's probably ill-advised to try and interpret someone's summary of what someone said, and it turns out he made his post public on substack after all so you can read it for yourself

https://languagetransfer.substack.com/p/roots

He's not renouncing the other courses, simply postponing them to 'soon (tm)' or at least hiring someone to do them. Which is what most people already knew. You don't donate to influence the project for your personal ends (by the time he gets around to make, say, Complete Hebrew you could be learning Hebrew on your own), you donate as a way to say thanks for what you've already gotten from him (+interlinear books and other perks). So no hard feelings for me, just a bit of surprise.
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby zenmonkey » Tue Feb 08, 2022 11:26 pm

mokibao wrote:He's not renouncing the other courses, simply postponing them to 'soon (tm)' or at least hiring someone to do them. Which is what most people already knew. You don't donate to influence the project for your personal ends (by the time he gets around to make, say, Complete Hebrew you could be learning Hebrew on your own), you donate as a way to say thanks for what you've already gotten from him (+interlinear books and other perks). So no hard feelings for me, just a bit of surprise.


I'm not seeing anything in that sub that talks about priorities, hiring, or courses. Am I missing something?
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Cavesa
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Cavesa » Wed Feb 09, 2022 9:19 pm

Thanks for bringing the news. I've missed them, since he decided to leave FB.

Well, I can understand a part of the decision of course, and focus on the Cypriot Greek and Turkish is indeed good news, the Turkish learners had been left with just the short course for a very long time, the Cypriot Greek had probably given up on hope already. Also it is different than the FIGS and much more needed. If he wants to return to the roots of the LT and focus primarily on the languages if this region (so Greek, Turkish, probably also Arabic that seems to have been close to his heart), awesome.

However, wasn't he supposed to work primarily on Hebrew, which had been funded by the sponsor? Hadn't he promised to do stuff in the order chosen by the supporters?

Sure, Mihailis is free to do anything he wants, and I repeat that he has already given the language learning community a lot. So, taking it for what it is (and perhaps supporting as a form of payment fot that) with no expectation of anything more, that's the way to go.

However, it would be nice not to make false promises that he cannot or doesn't want to keep. It must be frustrating for the regular supporters to send a bit of money regularly, vote, be near the goal or even reach it, and then see it replaced by something else yet again, which may not even get finished either.
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Cainntear
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Re: Language Transfer

Postby Cainntear » Wed Feb 09, 2022 11:36 pm

mokibao wrote:You don't donate to influence the project for your personal ends

Your personal motivations don't effect the legality of him taking money off people on specific grounds then unilaterally changing the terms.

The minute I saw that funding model, I thought he'd completely destroyed the project, because I didn't believe he was going to get enough funding to continue and the promise of everlasting votes meant that the only legally permissible change of plan would be to abandon the project.

He hasn't had legal problems because no-one has chosen to sue him.
Lucky him.
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