Lingoo is a community website, dedicated to improving language learning for children and teenagers. We accomplish this primarily by facilitating language exchange holidays, or establishing connections for parents to pay for their child to stay with a host family in a foreign country. Lingoo allows parents to get in contact with like-minded families, who have children of the same age, and who have the same interests and values. Families meet, get to know each other, and are then able to organise language exchange holidays for their children directly, and personally, without the need for an expensive agent. The site is secure, and all of our families have followed a registration process with a clear protocol governing identification and security. Lingoo also appeals to families who are interested in welcoming students from abroad into their homes as paying guests. By being a host family through Lingoo, you will be able to select a child from a like-minded family abroad, and to get to know them before their visit. Your role will be to help them to understand about our culture and, in the process, you and your family will gain a greater knowledge and understanding about theirs.
The History of Lingoo
Lingoo has been facilitating language exchanges and hosted homestay language holidays since 2008. The idea was conceived by myself and my wife Anne. I am English and Anne is French. Our experiences bringing up a bilingual family and living in different European cities set us on the road to founding Lingoo. The idea was conceived over time whilst we were raising our family. Friends from across Europe were always asking us for help in finding an exchange family to help to develop their child’s language skills. When a change in career gave us an opportunity to start our own business, we thought we would formalise a service we had already been providing over the years to our extended network. This was a great way of using our own experience to support language learning. The more we became involved, the more we realised that the existing language learning model was very traditional, and was not taking advantage of the internet to give flexibility and choice to parents. We have worked hard to develop the platform into one that works for all parties, and we now facilitate thousands of exchanges each year.
Plans For The Future
We are currently working on a new version of the Lingoo website that will be launched in 2016. It will offer more fluid navigation and ease of use for both visitors and members. We also plan to expand our service to engage with a larger audience, looking to immerse themselves in a foreign language. This will include offering our platform to adults and family groups wishing to take part in language exchanges and paid stay holidays.