Free Online English Learning Service “iKnow!”

February 4, 2008 8:17 PM

I tried a new online English learning service called “iKnow!”, which Ishitani-san was giving a rave review in his blog.

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It is a SNS service. Ishitani-san says in the post that “if you live in an English-speaking country, your English skill naturally improves. Likewise, if you join an English SNS, your English skill should improve”.

It sounds logical, but to ordinary Japanese, joining an English SNS is too challenging. I am not motivated to do so, either. I wanted to know how iKnow were overcoming these problems because Ishitani-san described this service as “The Ultimate Web2.0 Service -- iKnow”!

For those who do not want to subscribe as a full member yet, a trial version is provided.

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Wow... the contents are good and I can even hear the pronunciation of native speakers. I do not know why they are offering this service for free.…

The trial version was exciting enough so I decided to subscribe as a full member.

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All you need is to provide some information about yourself and click the URL indicated in an e-mail which is sent to you after filling out the subscription page.

The page looks like that of a normal SNS.

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I uploaded my photo and moved on to a session.

iKnow provides 6 channels:

1. Core Channel: Beginner's English
2. TOEIC Channel
3. Tono’s Corpus Channel
4. Travel Channel
5. Business English Channel
6. MBA/Study-abroad Channel

Without a doubt, I should be choosing Channel 1, or maybe 4.

I have wondered around America for about 2 months before, so I decided to challenge Channel 4 even though the site says this channel is for intermediate-level learners.

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In the first half of the session, I learnt several words and sample sentences for traveling in a quiz format. The latter half of the session was more practical and I was asked to type in words I learnt.

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The session took only a few minutes. At the end of the session, a summery page was displayed.

I could hear pronunciations of native speakers, too. Each session is short and simple, so I might try it once a day whenever I like to get used to English.

I am going to have an American step-brother soon, so I was thinking about studying English in order to communicate with him.

iKnow is free and it’s great. Welcome to the era of “desktop learning”!

Why such a well-made service is offered for free?

I found the answer in the FAQ page. They are planning to offer “more valuable optional services for premium members” which require some fees. But the current basic services are continued to be provided for free after these fee-based services are offered. iKnow has services for corporate users as well.

I was further impressed to know that they were providing value commerce affiliate programs.

If you are interested in learning English, iKnow might be worth trying.