Thanks to your help, I’ve fixed a few issues that might have disrupted your signup or login attempts. In no particular order:
If those bugs frustrated you, I apologize. Thanks again for the feedback!
For the last few months (in between bouts of paying the rent), I’ve been reworking Popling to be less obtrusive but still provide that extra POP of motivation. I think I’ve met that goal and I am ready to release Popling to a slightly bigger audience. Welcome guys and gals.
I have to admit, I’m a bit nervous. Please keep in mind Popling is just getting started and is currently only one guy with a day job, sometimes a bunch of day jobs. That said, I’ll be working to integrate media like audio and pictures, improve interaction between the AIR application and the web app, squash all those pesky bugs, try and make some money with this thing and add more content. If you don’t want to wait on me though, you can always make your own. I’d appreciate your advice on anything related to the site. Just leave a comment or make a post in the appropriate forum.
If you didn’t get an invite code, leave a comment. I’ll get one to you as soon as I can determine the system is running fast enough for the current users.
I created and subscribed to Learn Spanish Numbers a few weeks ago. I knew I was learning and retaining the numbers, but I didn’t realize how well Popling was working for me until my latest trip to Baja.
Somewhere around the small town of Colonet, I stopped at a gas station and told the attendant: lleno (full). When he finished he leaned toward the window and said “Trescientos veintiocho”. Immediately, I translated that in my head to 328 pesos, without even thinking about it. I don’t think the guy knew what to make of my huge smile, because no one could be that happy about paying for gas. 
I’ve always wanted to learn Spanish. I travel to Mexico often, live in a culture where I am surrounded by the Spanish language and I know tons of Spanish speakers. What I have always lacked however, was the motivation to consistently study the language.
I’m not entirely sure how I got there, but I had a eureka moment about the problem that went something like this… “I’m online most of my day, so what if my web browser could teach me Spanish?”.
I started by creating a browser plugin to ‘pop’ open a new tab with a quiz about a Spanish word every few minutes. Next I built some tools to help me learn faster. The first was a retention requirement to help me remember the word I’d just seen. Then came a banked list for words I knew and a hardlist for words that I needed to study more. Then I made it easy to make my own quizzes and flashcards (which I call Poplings) containing content like common phrases and pronunciation.
All these tools started to form the type of application I had hoped it would be. Popling doesn’t make me follow a set structure and I don’t have to set aside time to study, it just fits my right into my day. The coolest thing though, is that it can help you learn anything you want too… French, German, Math, Art History, 3 letter Scrabble words, or whatever you can find or create a Popling for.
Popling is currently in a closed beta version so I can work the kinks out. If you want to be notified when it goes live, leave a comment here.
