Alemán Progresivo
A progressive German learning website for Spanish speakers.
As the name suggests, this Spanish-language project was designed to help Spanish-speaking people start learning German from zero. Since the beginning stages of language learning can be especially difficult, the concept was to introduce one new word at a time—sometimes two—per lesson.
Each lesson introduces a new word (or at most two), then uses those to build a simple dialogue that learners can watch and listen to. All videos are linked—each building on the previous one. The language is very simple because I only use words that the learner has already encountered on the platform.
By lesson 10, students know around 13-14 words, and conversations use only those words. By lesson 60, students have a vocabulary of 80-90 words, making conversations more interesting while still being completely comprehensible.
I built this as a responsive website specifically designed to work well on mobile phones, functioning smoothly on both Android and iOS. At the time, there was no Vibe coding yet, and building a website was easier than developing native apps.
I also didn't have access to an iPhone or MacBook, which I would have needed to develop apps for both platforms. A responsive website was the most practical solution to reach users on any device.
Lesson 1
Introduces 2 words, creates a basic sentence
Lesson 2
Adds 1 new word, creates dialogue using all 3 words
Lesson 10
13-14 word vocabulary, 30-second dialogues between two people
Lesson 60
80-90 word vocabulary, more advanced but still comprehensible conversations
Most of the 3,000 users came from my social media posts. I had a relatively popular TikTok and Instagram account where I shared videos about the site. This social media presence was crucial for driving traffic to the platform.
I also created an English version of the website, but I never promoted it much because I had a large following on social media in Spanish, not in English. The English version never gained significant traction as a result.
While the user numbers looked promising, the conversion rate and retention weren't where they needed to be for a sustainable business.
Poor User Retention
Users weren't staying engaged with the platform long enough to complete significant portions of the course.
Insufficient Revenue
The sales weren't nearly enough to justify the high effort of creating video content and maintaining the platform.
Audience Mismatch
Either the product didn't retain users well enough, or my social media audience wasn't the right fit for this type of learning tool.
Content Creation Burden
The amount of effort required to create quality video content for each lesson was unsustainable given the low conversion rates.
Product-Market Fit Challenges
Having a large social media following doesn't automatically translate to a successful paid product. The audience that enjoys free educational content may not be the same audience willing to pay for structured courses.
This experience taught me the importance of validating demand and retention early, before investing heavily in content creation.
Still Available
While no longer actively developed, the website is still available for anyone interested in exploring the progressive learning approach.