Olenka Polak, a daughter of polish immigrants, would frequently find herself at the movie theatre with her family. She and her brother, who had grown up in the states and knew English, understood exactly what was going on in the movie. Her parents, on the other hand, really struggled to enjoy their experience at the cinema due to the language barrier.
During Polak’s time at Harvard, she decided to pursue the solution to this problem. myLINGO allows for non-English speakers to listen and understand a movie in their own language. All you have to do is download myLINGO on a smart phone and bring a pair of headphones to the theatre. Once you’re at the cinema you select the movie you are seeing and the language you want to listen to the film in.
At age nineteen, Polak chose to take time off from Harvard to grow and develop this business. She was featured in Forbes “30 under 30” and seems to be growing into a quite the success story.
We all have something to learn from Polak. Whether it’s her recognition of a problem, or her ambition to leave Harvard and pursue her dreams, she is an inspiration to us all.
Great post! I have never thought about something like this before but now I can see how big of a problem this could be for those with language barriers. Someone could also use this product if they wished to better understand a foreign language; I see this as a great potential for a learning tool!
I would say that the U.S. is pretty dominate in the film industry when it comes to making quality films. Whats cool about this invention is that more people across the world will now be able to understand these films in a much easier way instead of just english speakers. Very interesting find.
I love this idea! Most people in the states do not recognize this issue because English is the dominant language. It’s cool how her family had such an impact on her innovation that she can end up helping hundreds of others with the same problem.
This is a great idea! One of the most interesting parts of America is that it truly is a melting pot of world cultures and languages. Sometimes we forget that not everyone speaks English. But to encourage the vibrancy of the cultural diversity here, it would be good to have options like myLINGO. That way, people here can feel connected to American culture, even if they are not at the place that they can speak the language fluently. I wonder how an app like this would do in the market overseas. I imagine that there are some countries where it would be successful, but I would venture that it is truly meant for American cultural patterns.