Instructions
Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.
Transcript
Presenter: Welcome to today's show. We're very happy to have Anna Oliveira as our guest today. Anna is the creator and founder of HomeworX – spelled with an 'x' we should note – an app which helps teenagers with their homework. Thanks for coming in, Anna.
Anna: Thanks for having me.
Presenter: So, tell us about your app. How does it work?
Anna: Well, teenagers and their parents have numerous challenges when it comes to homework these days. In many families both parents work and don't have much available time to help their kids with their homework. And even if they do have time to help, they may not be able to offer support with the content. What I mean is, they may not know, or at least remember, enough in any given subject to support.
Presenter: You mean they might not be able to remember complex maths or might have never studied certain subjects, such as biology or economics, themselves?
Anna: Exactly. So they might want to support their children with their homework, but have neither the time nor the knowledge to do so.
Presenter: I see. So the app helps solve this problem?
Anna: Yes, and more. The next issue is that tutors can be expensive, and there may be long waiting lists for specialist tutors in the town or region you live in. Our HomeworX app brings students and tutors together online. Students can search a database of pre-approved tutors and sign up for live online support. They don't need to be in the same town or city.
Presenter: That sounds really great.
Anna: It is. And this approach also enables us to offer the tutoring services at lower prices because there's no travelling time involved for the tutor to get to the student's home. And tutors who live in remote areas are happy to get access to more students, and be able to work from home, even at lower rates.
Presenter: This all sounds great. So, how did you come up with the idea?
Anna: Well, as you might guess, I was one of those parents I described earlier. I really wanted to help my son with his homework, but I was either too busy with work or I didn't actually know anything about the subjects he was having difficulty with. Also, we live in an area where there aren't many tutors and the ones that are there are either very expensive or have long waiting lists.
Presenter: Yes. I can understand your predicament. Well, it sounds like a very useful app that is clearly meeting a need. And its popularity obviously speaks for itself.
Anna: Thank you.
Presenter: So, do you have plans for the future?
Anna: We've just secured some funding and hope to expand the range of services we offer using the app.
Presenter: We wish you the best of luck. Thanks again for coming in. That was Anna Oliveira, founder of the tutoring app HomeworX (with an 'x', don't forget!), which is available for both Apple and Android devices. Join us again next week for another business interview. Have a great week, everyone.
My favourite app for learning English is called by Elsa Speak. Because Elsa is the best way to improve my English speaking skills and pronounce through real-world conversations. I always spend 10 minutes every day for speaking on Elsa and track my improve progress.
Well, The Cambridge dictionary app on my mobile is accessed the most by me. I would say I am a big fan of it as whenever I have any doubt about a new word, I just open it and search for its meaning. I find this app useful and pretty easy to deal with; however, I should point out that not always the app save your searching for a later re-check, for instance. That is not very pleasant because even after you have logged in with your personal account, something happens and the app does't present your history or it stops working suddenly.
What's your favorite app for learning and why?
My favourite app is Tandem because It´s pretty useful for practice my speaking, and inside that app you can find differents tools as traductor, share among others. Also it has differents rates if you would like to enroll with the objetive, you can find other peoples in your zone.
What's your favorite app for learning and why?
Personally, I feel it's difficult to absorb knowledge from school because it's boring and I have a short memory. so I have looked into numerous apps. And an app that is about learning Ielts vocabulary is useful, it's IELTS Vocabulary. For me, the app will help you learn vocabulary in an amenity way. When it uses space repetition method and vocabulary which is common vocab in IELTS. I am used to learning the app for 1 hour a day. It's particularly useful for me.
I don't have any app to learn English because In my opinion, the best way to learn a language is in a schoolar academy. what I mean is depend of the level you want to have for that language. So, anyone can learn the way they considerer are the best for them.
My favorites apps for learning are:
- Lexilize Flashcards (for memorize words, conjunctions and expressions);
- Google Podcast and Bibo English Listening (for listening training);
My huge difficulty is listening, this disturbs me in the conversation.
My favorite app for learning is Anki - a software that, through flashcards, helps you not forget anything. The main reason for my decision is because of what I've just said - through algorithms, Anki sets up your revisions about certain content on the right day. For instance, if you have added a flashcard about the Roman Empire but you didn't remember much about it, then Anki is going to bring it back to you soon. On the other hand, if you have added a flashcard about the U.S history and it was easy to remember, then Anki won’t bring it back really soon. Therefore, I recommend for anyone try Anki, whether you are studying History in high school or studying Economics in college.
I'm not learning English on any app. I learn from a website name British council.
When it comes to learning a foreign language, what make an app useful for me, it has to be competent and has a compelling teaching method, for instance, Busuu is usually being used nowadays. For others sort of stuffs is completely rare myself just pick one up, since I am freak for amassing apps.