Blog
The Wading blog
Notes on gradual immersion, building Wade, and learning without guilt.
Why Wade won't play hangman
We added games to Wading. The two everyone suggests first are the two we refused, and working out why told us exactly what a good one looks like.
Read itWhat Wade remembers
A tutor who forgets you between sessions isn't a tutor, it's a quiz. Here's exactly what Wade keeps in his head about your life — and the line we drew around it.
Read itWho pays for the free plan
Free apps are usually free because you're the product. We wanted a free plan that wasn't — so here's the whole arrangement, including the parts that cost us money to refuse.
Read itWhy tapping a suggestion doesn't count
We shipped a bug that quietly inflated everyone's progress, and the fix makes the number go down. Here's why that was the right trade.
Read itAny language you can hold a conversation in
Spanish, Japanese, Croatian — obviously. But also Šatrovački, Esperanto, and Shakespearean English. The engine doesn't have a course catalogue, and that turns out to matter more than it sounds.
Read itWade has an accent
When Wade speaks English to a Spanish learner, he says it like a Spaniard would. That sounds like a gimmick. It's the part of voice mode we spent the longest getting right.
Read itThe shallow end is the fast lane
Full immersion sounds brave and works badly. The research on comprehensible input says the fastest way into a language is the gentle slope — here's how Wading turns that into software.
Read itWhy we built Wading
Language apps taught us to fear the streak flame. We wanted an app that works the way memory actually does — words fade, you come back, the water rises again.
Read it