Once upon a time, there was a romantic and dreamy guy who believed that offering free language lessons could help people. But he was completely mistaken.
In October 2016, I embarked on a journey that would eventually become the best language conversation community called TALKNTALK, where about 3,000 appointments are made every month.
Back then, I believed that language learning could and should be free. But I would only realize the biggest mistake of my life almost 6 years later in June 2022.
Why is learning languages for free a mistake?
Learning languages for free isn't wrong, but providing a service that helps you study, converse, access mentoring, materials, and dozens of other benefits entirely for free is extremely harmful for those striving for fluency.
Let's do the math together...
You could invest around R$400 per month to learn a new language with any course or private tutor, but there's a conversation platform with daily classes at various times, and it's entirely free. Sounds great, right?
But there's a problem; you sign up, schedule the first class, and then you never show up. And this platform pays for you not showing up.
The math is simple: someone is paying for you to study for free, just like someone is paying for you to read this article for free or use the social media you use.
And if someone doesn't pay with money, you pay in another way.
I am Brazilian, living in São Paulo, and I pay my taxes here. We've started generating jobs in this country and paying all kinds of bureaucracy, lawyers, accounting, and other costs involved in developing a business.
And even so, for almost 6 years, we offered a free plan for you to study. During this time, you could have become fluent in not just one, but three different languages, not just English. Yes, because besides English, you could have scheduled sessions in French, Spanish, and Italian, all entirely for free.
In 2016, it was easy to do something free, maybe once a week. In 2022, it's 80 live conversation classes per week and about 70 people involved to make it happen.
We pay with our time (and sometimes with blood too)
TALKNTALK is not an NGO.
We are an education startup that wants to and is transforming the way you learn languages. And like any business that starts, it undergoes changes, matures, and grows.
Starting a business and learning languages are quite similar journeys of ups and downs where the course needs to be constantly adjusted.
And that's why I'm writing this text for you to follow my reasoning.
On average, out of every 10 people who access the free plan, only 1 person participates consistently every month and for at least 3 consecutive months. Out of the other 9, only 2 people participate for 1 month, and the remaining 7 people simply drop out before attending the first class.
You know that person who participates consistently and for free? Well, they have a family income of at least R$5,000 per month.
We need to invest extremely high time, energy, and money to have the number of people we currently have. It's expensive, very expensive, to maintain something free that you don't value. So logically and analytically, we decided to end the free plan's recurrence, offering only 4 classes for you to test and see if it's what you're looking for to gain confidence and fluency in another language.
You can test for 7 days, and if you really want to solve your fluency problem, you can subscribe to TALKNTALK like any other place. Simple, right?
The fact is, doing it for free has been more expensive for you than paying, simply because you don't commit and continue to struggle with the same problem: not speaking the language you're studying.
TALKNTALK will solve your confidence and lack of self-esteem issues when speaking a new language, whether it's English, French, Spanish, Italian, or even Portuguese.
If you really want to enter the world of speaking another language, here's an invitation for you to test our platform and become a Talker.
If it doesn't work for you, I'll be happy to refund your money.
Phillipe Soares
PS: If you're unemployed, we've launched a project with 100% free access for you to study at TALKNTALK without spending anything. If this is your situation and you are committed to results, sign up here.
Hi Philipe, I partially agree.
I agree that the fact that it is "free" is not enough of a motivator for people to learn a language.
Now a days everything is very dynamic, and the free time we have is very little.
So "just" free classes don't motivate me, I needed to have another motivator to really want to learn English.
In my case it was a job opportunity, but it could have been a trip abroad or something similar.
But providing quality study and learning at an affordable price, I agree with that.
So I think your strategy is killer. Congratulations and continue with the excellent work you are doing.
My best wishes, Ricardo Franco