Accelerating Language Learning With BCIs; Reline

Have you ever tried learning a new language in school or on your own? The process is tedious and difficult, especially once you hit the age of 18. Even gaining the basic fluency of a language to the point where you can navigate yourself around a foreign country; however, this does not mean you would be anywhere near a point that you could read more complex literature or hold deep discussions with anyone fluent in the language.

Learning a Language the Traditional Way takes 480 hours to learn basic fluency in group 1 languages, like Dutch, Swedish, French, Spanish, and Italian. Groups 2–4 take about 720 hours, assuming you are learning uninterruptedly every day for weeks straight. Duolingo, an app used to learn languages, claims to take about 200 hours to reach Level A2. This is finally the point where one could navigate around on a short visit.

There are roughly 7100 languages which are spoken in just 196 countries across the world.

In addition, a language like Chinese can be made up of 200 different dialects. This means even if you learn one form of a language, you still may not be able to hold a discussion with someone who speaks the same language but in a different dialect. Slang also takes a place in the misunderstanding of languages. A word can possess two exceedingly different meanings due to casual dialect. Learning a foreign language in a country it is not indigenous to often does not include the countries informal language. Similarly, languages often borrow words from each other, so a word spelt or pronounced the same could also be extremely different.

People who travel a lot or live in an area with a lot of foreigners might experience language barriers. Language barriers can cause unnecessary misunderstandings; many people get frustrated or irritated easily and as a result can lead to conflict. Language Barriers limit the knowledge of individuals too.

Moreover, these barriers have noticeable effects on global business. Gaps in communication with a customer can easily end a business relationship. For example, an unsuccessful discussion with a supplier or partner could have serious financial or strategic implications. When expanding their operations and influence globally, Companies know that they require a workforce that can communicate effectively in various languages. However, two-thirds of the business executives report that less than half of their employees have professional proficiency in more than one language.

Introducing Reline:

Reline’s mission is to solve issues related to communication and language barriers by simplifying and accelerating the language learning process.

As the learning process can be difficult and dull, our goal is to lessen the time it traditionally takes a single person to learn the basic fluency of a language and more. Instead of using an invasive treatment by an implanted BCI, we’re taking a safer approach based on research and conclusions made by researchers and universites.

Here’s how we’re doing it. 👇

1. Electromagnetic Stimulation

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) uses a magnetic field generated by a coil in a paddle that is held against the patient’s head to stimulate specific areas of the brain. This is called repetitive TMS or rTMS due to the magnet’s continuous switch between on and off.

Using electromagnetic pulses in a precise location of the brains memory center improves memory. Norwestern Medicine reported on a study that they have successfully improved the memory of older adults with age-related memory loss to the level of young adults. By using a TMS to stimulate the hippocampus, scientists were successfully able to improve memory retention within seniors.

2. Combining Memory Retention and Language Learning

Now in order to learn languages at a quicker rate, we can fuse the electromagentic pulse treatment together with language learning by incorporating a language app. With language learnig apps like Duolingo, a user is taught to say and write in foreign languages, which the brain retains 70% of the information learned. With electromagnetic pulses, earlier tests have shown to prove that 50% more information is retained then traditionally. As a result, we can make learning a language 15% more efficient with 85% of memory more retained. This means languages that took 200 hours through Duolingo to learn now takes around 20% less time.

When using the interface to learn dialect, tones, or grammar, the app is corroborating with rTMS to send the electromagnetic stimulations as accordingly. Our rTMS would be a transportable interface that would allow people to where it for long periods of time and anywhere they desire.

Communication should not be a struggle and at Reline we are determined to solve this inconvinieve in the quickest, most efficient way possible.

While there have been many tests within the electromagnetic stimulation field, the technology for this solution will only be ready in approximately 5 years.