The App That Teaches English Using Native Languages

20 years ago, Raj Ridvan Singh set out on a journey to bring education to the underprivileged through SOLS 24/7. Fast forward to the present day, Teacher Raj, as he is fondly called, is steadfastly dedicated to revolutionising education yet again. This time, he is doing it through an app called SOLS edu Pro. Simply put, SOLS edu Pro uses the native language of users to teach English. At the time of this post, users are able to learn English from Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin and Indonesian. The app currently has over 9,500++ monthly active users and ranked among the Top 100 Education Apps in Malaysia on Google Play Store from April till July 2020.

Low English Proficiency = Lower Salary, Reduced Opportunities

Let’s face it, English is the most commonly used language in the business world. Enhanced communication skills in English can, therefore, lead to better employment or career opportunities. In fact, most job interviews are conducted in English. So, whether it’s for a job interview or working in a professional setting, proficiency in English can help users communicate clearly and effectively. Job seekers have a very small window of opportunity to make a good first impression on their interviewers. Poor English skills can mean smaller chances of snagging that job. While there are a great many apps for users to learn new languages, Teacher Raj’s vision is to help those with Zero/basic English to be able to speak Employable English in 75-100 hours, while having access to globally recognized certification, at an affordable price.

Teaching English Via Native Languages

SOLS edu Pro currently offers two Cambridge-aligned courses, catered to basic or intermediate levels. Users going through any of these courses can choose to learn via Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin or Bahasa Indonesia. Learning via a user's native language can help speed up comprehension and learning. This is a useful method of learning especially if users have little to almost no experience with the English language.

Building The App

Teacher Raj’s dream has been to make high-quality education and certification accessible to everyone. In order to make this possible, he spent almost 6 years elbow-deep in the research and development of SOLS edu Pro. By digitizing SOLS 24/7’s award-winning courses and curating the content to be mobile-friendly, users across the globe will have access to high-quality and affordable education in the palm of their hands.

Features To Speed Up Learning

To help users learn Employable English quickly and effectively, SOLS edu Pro contains some helpful features such as:

1. Video and audio tutorials, picture-word association, fill-in-the-blanks, and multiple choices to make learning English an interactive adventure.
2. Competitions, clear goals and immediate feedback in all its lessons to keep users actively learning.
3. Results in real-time, performance evaluation, and lesson repetition so users continue improving their English through the app.

Users & Growth

The current market for SOLS edu Pro includes more than 30 million Bahasa Malaysia speakers, 270++ million Bahasa Indonesia speakers and more than 1 billion Mandarin speakers. Currently, 40% of SOLS edu Pro users are from Malaysia while 60% of users are from Indonesia. As more languages are added to the app, the team looks forward to expanding to countries like India, China and more in the near future.

Accessing the App

Users can gain access to high-quality business English courses at an affordable price with SOLS edu Pro. All users who download the app for the first time receive 30 days free to try out the course. As a subscription-based app, users can subscribe to the SOLS edu Pro courses on a monthly or annual basis. The team is currently developing short courses to improve communication and skills and will be available to the public in mid-August. SOLS edu Pro also hopes to collaborate with higher education institutions and corporations by incorporating our mobile courses in their learning or training programmes.Find out more