Jiveworld: Language Learning 12+

Understand real-world Spanish in all the ways it's spoken across Latin America, with stories from the award-winning Radio Ambulante podcast.

US Patents 10,984,667; 11,551,568 B2

Learn to hear and understand a language naturally, like a native speaker. Jiveworld's interactive audio player — something you won't find anywhere else — focuses your ear so you can understand real-world accents at natural speeds, and build a robust colloquial vocabulary. Jiveworld fills a crucial gap for intermediate-level learners who've hit the "sound barrier" — where the language they've learned in the classroom doesn't resemble what they encounter at street level.

Listening and understanding is the foundation for true fluency. You can spend years on drills, flashcards, and grammar study, only to stumble when you visit the country and encounter a native speaker: you can't understand the answer to the question you asked (where IS the bathroom?), you fear answering the phone, can't follow a story on the radio or TV, or engage in meaningful social interactions. You may miss things that a four-year-old local would catch.

The problem is that your ear has been trained on "slow language" — the artificial, curated speech used by teachers in most language study products. "Slow language" is not "real language". It's not even about the speed: rather it's about the local accents; the way sounds run together in natural speech; colloquial use of words; and how it all changes from region to region.

In Jiveworld, you're getting real language in its full complexity and beauty. At the heart of Jiveworld are the stories: beautiful audio narratives that pull you in and hold your attention. For example, for Jiveworld Español we teamed up with the award-winning Radio Ambulante podcast, bringing you tales of love and adventure, of soaring success, and sometimes devastating heartbreak.

Stories like these are perfect for building up your real-world listening because you're hearing the authentic language spoken in a variety of accents. At the same time, you are constantly exposed to the idiom — the language as it's really spoken — giving you useful models to mimic in your own speaking. Memorable stories — narratives where you connect deeply with the characters and their journey — make the language inside them more sticky, so you spend less time on drills and flashcards, and more time on exploring.

The challenge for the learner working with authentic spoken content is how to handle all the new information coming at you all at once, often spoken at a speed and in a style that you're not used to hearing.

Jiveworld offers you help as you listen, with speed controls, vocabulary, and notes about language and the cultural context. But the real magic lies in some unique features:
• Story Scaffolding — stories organized into chapters and passages, with succinct guides that help you follow the plot
• X-Ray Script — follow the script while you listen, karaoke style, but showing only the most difficult words
• Smart Pause — ensures you always listen in complete sentences, without stop-start in unnatural places
• Study Flow — after you study a chapter, relisten in the Natural Listening Player to reinforce the authentic sounds of the language
• Idiom to Idiom — wherever you see a translation, you'll see the most natural expression in both languages, showing you how your target language really works.

...and much more, all presented in a beautifully designed app for focused and productive study.

Practicing regularly with Jiveworld you will find yourself getting comfortable listening to native voices speaking at natural speed, and you will build up a robust vocabulary so you can handle yourself with confidence in any conversation.