PARTNERS

Problem

Literacy training in languages that use Chinese writing characters is one of the most challenging problems in the history of education.

You need to master about 2000 writing characters to read a newspaper written in Japanese or Chinese. For native speakers of these languages, it takes nine years of daily practice to gain literacy. Most non native learners never learn how to read and write at a meaningful level. Neither traditional textbooks or the latest educational apps have managed to address this challenge in an efficient and engaging way.

Research

In a scientific evaluation study* we measured the educational effects of our alpha-demo. In comparison with other methods, both students and teachers expressed it was easier and more fun to learn Chinese writing characters with our concept.

The study took place in real life classroom settings in Tokyo. 130 students and 6 teachers of Japanese as a foreign language participated. The students ranged from beginners to advanced level and were between 10-35 years old. The demo taught 150 writing characters. On average, after using our demo between 80-240 minutes the students memorized the meaning of 61 new writing characters. This learning progress was measured as the difference between the students average score in a pre-test and post-test. *Read the published paper HERE.

Testimony from one of the teachers:

”Since I witnessed that students enjoyed the app and learned a lot of kanji in a short time, I am looking forward to using the expanded version of this excellent software”.

Product

Doctor Professor is a digital platform where you learn how to read and write in Chinese and Japanese. Here are some key features:

Game based learning

Play games that challenge you on all aspects of your literacy training: writing, word building, pronounciation and translation. Take exams, level up and keep track on your academic progress.

Zero instructions

Intuitive and user-friendly navigation. Just hit start and begin learning.

Preset or customized content

Feed the app with any text or wordlist you would like to learn. The app instantly transforms your content into a step-by-step course of game based learning. You can also select from our preset courses that build on wordlists from any textbook or official language test on the market.

Choose your learning method

Memorize writing characters with your favorite study method: by watching animated memory stories, by studying etymological explanations or by rote learning excercises.

Individual and collaborative learning

Study individually or collaborate with fellow students in multi-player mode. Join a team at your level of proficiency, from beginner to fluent.

Empower teaching

Are you a teacher? Create assignments by feeding the app with text or a wordlist from your own syllabus. The app converts your feed into a game based course to share with your students. Let the app review student’s submissions and present their results graphically in your account.

Sign up

Interested in becoming a test user? Sign up and we will let you know when we are about to test the next versions of our apps.

Team

You find us at Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg, Sweden.

CO-FOUNDER
Tobias Sehlberg
tobias@doctorprofessor.net
+46 708 25 84 26

CO-FOUNDER
Josef Brinck Davidsson
josef@doctorprofessor.net
+46 735 20 19 00

ILLUSTRATION
Kenneth Andersson
Illustrator
Söderberg Agentur, Stockholm

ANIMATION
Mattias Johannesson
Animation artist
Gothenburg

ADVISORS

GAME BASED LEARNING
Neil Rubens
PhD, Visiting Scholar at MediaX
Stanford University, USA

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Anne-Marie Kaufmann
Business Developer The Game Incubator
Gothia Innovation AB, Sweden

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Van Hoang
Head of East China
Business Sweden in Shanghai

GAME BASED LEARNING
Wolmet Barendregt
PHD, Educational Games Researcher
University of Gothenburg

SUPPORTED BY

Learn to read and write in Chinese and Japanese.

Memorize Chinese writing characters efficiently and achieve literacy with our game based learning apps.