What is Alphaliterate
Alphaliterate is a system for learning how to read in foreign alphabets.
If you want to learn a language like Greek, Ukrainian, Arabic, Hebrew, or Japanese, to name a few, you will need to learn to read their writing systems.
Existing language learning tools like Duolingo or Rosetta Stone do not offer a way of learning the alphabet. They just expect you to pick it up as you go along. That is stupid.
Learning to read is hard. You don't think about it since you've been doing it since you were a little kid, but it is. But it doesn't have to be.
How does it work?
Speaking a language and knowing how to read an alphabet are two completely different skills. Most language curricula treat them as one package deal. Again, that is stupid and wrong.
Your brain has limited bandwidth. The more information you try to cram into it at once, the more spread out your brainpower will be, which means you will be less efficient at retaining it, and it will feel overwhelming.
If you are trying to learn another language, one that involves a new alphabet, rather than trying to learn the language and the alphabet together, Alphaliterate allows you to learn them separately, and then connect them together whenever you're ready.
The way it does this is by letting you read English in a foreign alphabet. Think of it this way. The way we can write out "sushi" and "Boris Yeltsin" in our alphabet, even though they weren't originally intended to be written out that way, you can write out English words in other alphabets.
Take the word "alphabet". This is what it looks like in other alphabets:
άλφαβητ
ӕлфабет
ٱلفابإت
Those aren't words in other languages that mean "alphabet". They are literally pronounced "alphabet".
All you have to do is read a story
Alphaliterate lets you learn new alphabets by reading interesting stories in English, but in a foreign alphabet. It's as simple as that. You read, and you don't even notice you're learning. No quizzes, minimal introductions. Just read. That's it.
The stories
These are Google Docs. Clicking any of them creates a copy in your account.
Greek (beginner)
I, Pencil by Leonard Read
A Vision of Opium by João do Rio
Cyrillic (intermediate)
The Rain of Fire by Leopoldo Lugones
Father Against Mother by Machado de Assis
Arabic (expert)
"Training wheels" mode (simplified characters)
The Horla by Guy de Maupassant
True Arabic mode coming soon