How powerful
is reading?
Reading got me a long way in four new languages while I built the app. This study measures how well it works for other people.
Reading, and a way to measure it
The best way to learn a language is a method you’ll stick with, one you enjoy. Reading is one of those: a book gives you a lot of the language at once, and it never feels like studying. This study measures how much it improves your comprehension and vocabulary.
Read a little, most days
The reading is the study. Set a daily goal you can keep, even five minutes, and read on as many days as you can. The habit is what we’re testing, not the word count.
A check-in every two weeks
You read a passage from the same book and mark the words you didn’t know and whether it made sense. The book stays the same, so the change over three months is the data: fewer unknown words, more understood.
Tell me what’s missing
You tell me what’s broken and what would make reading easier, and what you think of the new designs. Your feedback goes straight into what I build next.
Join the Discord
You join the Simply Fluent Discord and meet the other participants, with a channel just for the study. It’s where you talk with me, follow the development, and see what’s coming first.
It’s free, but it asks for real time. The data only works if everyone keeps reading, so if you go quiet I may pass your spot to someone waiting. If you can’t commit for three months right now, this isn’t the round for you, and that’s fine.
What is Simply Fluent?
A reading app for learning a language. Instead of lessons and exercises, you read books in your language, from short stories to full novels.
As you read, the words you don’t know are right there. Select any word, or a whole expression, to see what it means, then save it. Simply Fluent keeps showing that translation wherever the word appears again, and turns it into a flashcard you review so it sticks.
The more you read, the more words you know, and the easier reading gets. This study measures how far that takes you.
Read real books, translated in context.
Hi, I’m Marco, and I build Simply Fluent.
I started building it as a side project in 2018 because I wanted to read a book in Dutch, and at the time there was nothing good for it. I read every night to test the app, and my Dutch improved a lot without my noticing. I was understanding conversations on topics I’d never read about, and watching Dutch films without subtitles. All I had done was read books.
That made me curious to learn a new language from scratch: no classes, no apps, just flashcards for a couple hundred words before I started reading in Spanish. A few months later I was getting by on my own in Colombia for five weeks.
Three years after that I started Portuguese from zero, with only the Spanish I already had to lean on. My first book in it was a 300,000-word novel, and it took me a little over 26 hours across a few months. Reading was the only method I used, and then I started having conversations.
I don’t think reading is the only way to learn a language. Grammar, classes, speaking practice all have their place. What I believe is that the best method is the one you’ll stick with and enjoy. Reading is that for me. A book gives you a lot of the language at once, with a lot of repetition, different sentence structures and grammar, all at your own pace. No need to pause or rewind, just read. It has never felt like I was studying. I’m just reading something I want to read, and the language arrives by itself.
Since I started building Simply Fluent, I’ve read books in Dutch, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and a little French. I know it works for me. Now I want to see how well it works for other people, in a more controlled way. That’s what this study is about. I want Simply Fluent to become the best reading app for language learners.
Premium, free, for at least three months
You’re a reader I’m learning from, not a test subject. The free access is my thanks for being in it.
Premium, on me
Full access to Simply Fluent for the three months, free. The whole library, every book, and the word lookup and flashcards that go with it.
A language that improves
Read a book in your language and watch the unknown words drop off, month by month. The reading moves you forward: it isn’t a task you do for the study.
You find out for yourself
The check-ins are as much for you as for me. You see, in your own numbers, whether reading is moving your comprehension and vocabulary.
I’d love to meet you
I read every application. I’ll get back to you within 48 hours.
Who this is for
- You can already get through simple text, but a whole book still feels like work.
- You want to know if reading alone can move your language, and you’re willing to find out.
- You can show up, most days, for three months.
- You’re comfortable talking with me in English.
What matters is that you’ll keep reading and check in. It’s not for applying and then disappearing. If you’re going to show up, I’d love to have you.
Not ready to apply? You don’t have to be in the study to be part of this. Come say hi in the Discord and follow along while I build Simply Fluent.