I didn't start building Glyph for the sake of building it. I built it for the sole purpose that no app on the market actually brought me any closer to speaking the language.
There is a minimum floor of knowledge necessary to start engaging in conversation and this needs to be taught in a structured way that even right now, no app does well across the large sweep of options out there. Duolingo focuses in on gameification and easy wins rather than teaching the content. Pimsleur is just too boring. It focuses in on the right things, but loses track of what was taught before. There is no strong spaced repetition model within it and stuff learned early on gets forgotten as you move on. New AI language apps address the concern of speaking in the language further, but it doesn't feel like there is any sensible curriculum. Textbooks aren't built for Egyptian Arabic and the few that exist with Franco Arabic are only as useful as to what you decide is worth memorizing and spending the time doing it. As of now, I do not think there is a good app out there to create the baseline floor you need to engage in a real conversation.
Lets say you do have this floor, what are the actual goals now, but to speak in the language. The same problem arises, you do not have the capability to translate this segmented knowledge into conversation. Conversation doesn't stay bounded to what you know and that is my key complaint with apps that are at the next step. It works as if you hear what is said and can immediately interact with it. These apps seem useful for continued practice at advanced levels, but not at beginner-intermediate.
I mentioned some of the big name apps, but I also dabbled with some of the smaller Egyptian Arabic specific apps and my opinion is they aren't built with the learner in mind. Its mixed attempts at using fancy AI features with an incoherent framwork. Its using marketing rather than real quality product to drive users. There is some merit to the attempts, but the ones I have tried don't make me as a user feel like I have a clear path to progress. That is why I started building my own app.
I have rebuilt my app at least 5 different times end to end. I have had many useful proof of concepts, but time after time I realized it wasn't scratching the real problem I was having. When I decided it was time to make this a real product, I wanted to bring myself back to the core difficulty of language learning: engaging in any conversation with a native speaker.
I didn't start learning the language so that I can say broken, boring sentences. I am learning so that when I talk to the people in my life that prefer the language I can still interact with them. What does this mean when building an app, well it means I am designing around the problems I face. If I hear
Izzayak ye Steven, Enta 3amel eh el neharada?
Ana kwayyis el neharda? W enta? Bet3amel eh el neharda?
Ana kwayyis ewwey. Ana ashtaghalt w baedeen ana arooht el gim. Bes, sahbi kont mehtag ana 3amelt haga ma howa. Da mish kwayyis. Da shoghl washish.
...
This is a poor example using my small vocabulary and grammar capabilities, but I don't have any tricks to follow up with my friend in the conversation. That is the core problem I am addressing. I know there is a raw learning period, but there also needs to be a direct translation to being able to speak with others. In the beginning, we can learn to be good listeners. Look at children, a parent tends to talk at them and the child grasps the gist of it and gives simple answers or follow ups. Why? What? I want that? Yay! and others. We need to rethink our framework for learning. We aren't trying to be perfect conversationalists but to feel like we can engage with another person.
My app is following this journey exactly and bridging that gap until we go from survival into an active speaking partner. It starts with foundations, then survival, then drawing the conversation to a mastered subject, until you get to living in the conversation exactly where it is.
My goal of modeling the app after my own learning journey is that others facing the same challenges I have faced will also make the desired breakthroughs into real conversation. We are learning to communicate with real human beings, not to stay on an app. My app is here to get you to the point where you don't need it anymore.