Name: Flashsticks
Based: Birmingham
Website: www.flashsticks.com
Frustrated at how tricky it can be to maintain momentum when learning a foreign language, we set out to create a new resource to help with this challenge. The solution: FlashSticks - quite simply, pre-printed foreign language Post-it notes, that are colour coded to word gender (blue for masculine, pink for feminine etc) and also include a free smartphone app.
The notes themselves provide a simple way to label objects or to stick words in convenient places around you (bathroom mirror, kitchen fridge etc), so that learners can maintain their learning momentum as they simply go about their daily routine.
With our free app, users can simply hover their smartphone/tablet over a note and a native tutor pops up and pronounces the word for them. As a new start-up based in Birmingham, we’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with multinational 3M, resulting in the use of the world famous Post-it brand logo on the pack and also with major retailers such as WHSmith, with the products recently rolling out across all of their high street stores.
FlashSticks are now being adopted in schools to help engage more children with languages. We started by packing 1,000 packs ourselves on a dining table at home to a point where we have now printed over 20 million individual FlashStick Post-it notes, in French, Spanish, Italian, German, English and British Sign Language. We’re on a small mission of helping to make language stick, with a little fun along the way.
Veejay Lingiah is chief executive of Flashsticks
