Ukrainian developer creates AI-based language learning programme, prepares new version for visually impaired

Maxym Hrynev is a seasoned coder from Lviv, Ukraine, boasting over 20 years in IT despite being entirely self-taught in programming. He recently developed Natulang, a cutting-edge language learning program driven by artificial intelligence and audio technology.

Currently, Maxim is testing a new version of the app designed to assist visually impaired individuals in language acquisition. His extensive background spans diverse IT sectors—from gaming to software security, and across desktop, mobile, and web platforms. He's earned nearly 20 international awards for his game development and has worked at Amazon in Dublin. Just before a major conflict, he turned down an offer from Microsoft. The idea to create a language learning app first emerged more than seven years ago.

"As a language learning enthusiast, I always understood which tools were missing for faster acquisition," Maxim reflects. What surprised him most was the absence of such a tool when he scoured the App Store repeatedly. Fueled by unfortunate circumstances, Maxim accelerated his development timeline after tearing his Achilles tendon during motocross competitions in October 2022. Following surgery, months of home confinement, and a year of rehabilitation, he recalled, "This pushed me significantly, and in less than six months from starting development, the app was already on the App Store."

Countless people have encountered shortcomings in traditional language learning methods. Maxim explains, "After years spent behind a desk, finding yourself in a foreign-speaking environment means firstly understanding nothing at all, and secondly, being unable to say anything." Most modern apps fail to change this scenario. Maxim recalls a memorable moment when Duolingo's CFO, Bob Meese, after six months of using a language app, couldn't respond to the question "¿Hablas español?" during an interview.

"But that's predictable. Our brains efficiently learn what we practice. If you conjugate verbs in a workbook, you'll excel at that. If you tap on a screen for game bonuses every night, you become a master of screen-tapping," Maxim notes. "But that has nothing to do with learning a language. To learn to speak, you need to... drum roll! Speak!" he emphasizes.

Therefore, Natulang operates with the user speaking to their phone 95% of the time, distinguishing it significantly from other language learning applications. Maxim highlights that within nearly six months from scratch, users can watch Netflix with subtitles in the language they're learning.

Language grammar acquisition in Natulang occurs intuitively, akin to a child learning their native language without formal rules. This makes language learning natural and straightforward. Moreover, Natulang has another feature that Maxim discovered unexpectedly, "The app effectively enables blind individuals to learn languages, which makes sense given its focus on speaking. This prompted us to focus on accessibility, and future versions will make it the premier language learning tool for users with partial or complete vision loss," he says.

Natulang is currently available only on iOS. The Android version is nearly complete, but Maxim states it cannot be released due to bugs within Android itself. "Google has been ignoring these bugs for a good ten years, so Natulang on Android will be uncertain for a while," Maxim remarks. Development on the app began in October 2022, and according to Maxim, it was ready within four months, with a little less than half a year until its first release. The free version debuted on the App Store in April 2023, followed by the paid version in June 2023.

"Sitting down with my laptop, I wrote it. It's just software, nothing too complicated," Maxim recalls.

For speech synthesis, Maxim utilized AWS Polly and ElevenLabs. "AWS is a longstanding market leader with quality voices, numerous languages, and the features I needed (pauses, speech speed, etc.). At the time of my search, ElevenLabs were the only ones offering quality Ukrainian language synthesis, so I chose them specifically for Ukrainian," he explains. Given that the model voices are multilingual, this opened new possibilities for the app—English lessons now include instructions in both Ukrainian and English.

Maxim notes that since local language recognition is necessary on the device, the choice of programs is limited. For iOS, this meant Siri. He also experimented with VOSK locally on the device, but found the recognition quality significantly lower and unsatisfactory.

According to Maxim, assembling a team of linguists was the most challenging aspect. Currently, four incredibly talented polyglot linguists are working on lessons, after approximately 70 interviews were conducted to find them. The app is subscription-based. Over a little more than a year, approximately 10,000 users have tried the app, with nearly 400 on a paid subscription and around 300 Ukrainians actively learning English for free. "So, we're growing steadily, if somewhat slowly," Maxim remarks. The most popular languages for learning are Spanish followed by French, both outperforming the free English course for Ukrainians.

The majority of paid users are from the United States, around 60%. Surprisingly, Israel showed the highest performance in the App Store rankings, despite the app's lack of localization or support for popular languages like Arabic and Hebrew. "Because we don't have those languages or localizations," Maxim explains.

Maxim has invested approximately $100,000 of his own savings into development, mostly directed towards paying the salaries of four linguists worldwide. "It's not cheap, and I continue to invest," he reveals. Nevertheless, given all metrics, he doesn't foresee running out of funds anytime soon.

Currently, the team is finishing developing existing courses (Spanish, French, German, English) and plans to add other languages. "Next up are all Latin alphabet languages, from Portuguese to Scandinavian and Polish," Maxim details. Simultaneously, they are working on the "English for speakers of these languages" programme. Although according to Maxim, English for Poles is already available, as well as English for Spanish speakers and, of course, for Ukrainians.

"Each additional language opens up new users for us, and their addition has a cumulative effect," Maxim observes.

Following European languages, Natulang plans to introduce languages with Cyrillic alphabets (excluding Russian). Subsequently, they aim to add languages with other alphabets like Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, and more.

"Each language we add means an intensive one-year daily learning course, after which you can comfortably consume foreign language content (movies, YouTube, etc.) and confidently converse in any situation," Maxim concludes. Ultimately, the team plans to add English courses for Japanese, Chinese, and other language speakers. "Writing these courses will be quite a challenge, but we'll try," Maxim adds.