LinguaNow

Inspiration

As heritage Mandarin speakers living in the U.S., we rarely use our language skills beyond everyday conversation. Yet the desire to stay connected to our Chinese roots, whether for family, identity, or career, is deeply felt. Research shows that heritage languages like Mandarin are often lost by the third generation due to a lack of real-world practice and the dominance of English in daily life (Kanno & Norton, 2003).

We’re not alone. Many heritage and intermediate learners crave tools that go beyond flashcards and gamified drills. What’s missing is access to relevant, readable Mandarin content that keeps our literacy skills alive and evolving. Studies confirm that authentic cultural practice and exposure to meaningful materials not only improve reading proficiency but also boost motivation and help learners feel more connected to their heritage (Liu, 2014; Byram & Feng, 2004). The best language learning happens when readers are immersed in current events, pop culture, and everyday stories that feel alive and relevant (Sercu et al., 2005; Wilkinson, 2002).

That’s why we built LinguaNow. It’s not a static reader or a vocabulary app. It’s a dynamic tool for personalized reading practice, powered by trending stories from the real and present world.

What it does

LinguaNow helps users improve their reading comprehension in their target language by automatically generating level-appropriate readings in the target language. The app surfaces the most up-to-date stories aligned with each user’s interests, whether that’s celebrity gossip, global politics, new tech, or regional holidays.

Key Features:

• Real-World Content: Pulls in trending topics and global events using Google Search via Gemini, filtered for linguistic and cultural relevance.
• Skill-Adaptive Reading: Generates level-appropriate readings using onboarding diagnostics and vocabulary lookup behavior to adjust text difficulty.
• Interactive Word Lookup: Tap any unfamiliar word for an instant definition or sentence translation without losing reading flow. Unknown words will automatically help to determine the difficulty of subsequent readings.
• Cultural Immersion Through Literacy: Designed specifically for heritage and intermediate learners who want to go beyond the textbook and re-engage with their language through culture.

Currently supports English as the native language and Simplified Chinese as the target language. More language pairs coming soon.

How we built it

To generate timely and relevant reading content, we leveraged Gemini's Grounding with Google Search feature. Search provides up-to-date, real-world context based on user interests, while Gemini generates level-appropriate reading passages that are grounded in current events. Gemini’s powerful natural language generation and translation capabilities also allow us to eventually create fluent, culturally aware content across multiple languages, ensuring support for more learners worldwide.

Another key component of our project was GitLab, which we used to coordinate development and maintain code quality as we iterated on features and prompts. As we refined our language generation logic through adapting prompts, GitLab’s version control and collaboration tools helped us manage rapid changes effectively. Its built-in CI/CD pipelines ensured that each update, whether to frontend UI or backend prompt logic, was automatically tested and deployed, keeping our app stable and responsive throughout development.

What's next for LinguaNow

• Story Caching: To reduce the cost of repeated generation, we plan to cache stories and serve them using MongoDB’s vector search, minimizing calls to the LLM without sacrificing personalization.
• Smarter Leveling: Fine-tune reading difficulty based on real usage data.
• Interest-Based Curation: Improve content personalization by considering user engagement with suggested reading topics.
• Support for Speaking, Listening, and Writing: Expand LinguaNow beyond reading to support full-spectrum language practice. Future updates will introduce speaking prompts, audio-based listening tasks, and guided writing exercises. Each will be grounded in the same real-world content that powers the reading experience.
• More Languages: Expand to additional heritage and regional languages. Imagine reading about the 46th ASEAN summit in Bahasa Indonesia, or exploring Copa América coverage in Spanish.

References

• Byram, M., & Feng, A. (2004). Culture and language learning: Teaching, research, and scholarship.
• Kanno, Y., & Norton, B. (2003). Imagined communities and educational possibilities: Introduction.
• Liu, Y. (2014). Effects of cultural exposure on motivation in foreign language learning.
• Sercu, L., et al. (2005). Foreign language teachers and intercultural competence.
• Wilkinson, S. (2002). The omnipresent classroom during summer study abroad: American students in conversation with their Spanish hosts.

Built With

• fastapi
• gemini
• gitlab
• mongodb
• python
• react-native