`Multimedia Nobel Prize´ for Lingorilla

LinguaTV´s lingorilla.com among the world´s best eContent!
The only German winner at the World Summit Award 2009.

LinguaTV received the World Summit Award (WSA) in the 'e-learning and education' category for the multimedia language learning platform lingorilla.com. The young company, which is developing a similar platform for businesses, is the only German participant to be awarded a prize today in Monterrey (Mexico). Founded by and with continued support from UNESCO among others, the World Summit Award is held every two years. The Berlin-based start-up’s language training website, lingorilla.com, has been selected by an international jury of experts from a total of more than 20,000 submissions. With contemporary and entertaining e-learning content, Lingorilla connects language enthusiasts across the globe. LinguaTV was also the winner of the 2008 German IPTV award.

The WSA, which has been taking place since 2003, honors the world's best e-content and e-services. The global competition is supported by UNESCO, UNIDO and the Internet Society. One of the most famous Internet experts in the world, Prof. Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the initiator of the 'One Laptop per Child' initiative, described the World Summit Award as “the Nobel Prize of Multimedia”. A 34-member panel of experts has chosen a total of 40 competition entries spread across eight categories from all parts of the world. LinguaTV is the only German company to receive a 2009 WSA.

Interactive learning platform banks on the power of moving pictures

"To be part of such an illustrious circle and convince experts from around the world with our ideas and our technology makes us, especially as a young company, incredibly proud," says Sandra Gasber, LinguaTV's managing director. The core of their web-TV offering is special professionally-produced training videos with subtitles and relevant vocabulary. As part of their learning experience, users move between video scenes, online dictionaries, and interactive exercises. Licensed content such as travel reports and music videos from partners gives the user interesting impressions from different countries, people and cultures whilst training listening comprehension at the same time. The interactive exercises build on previously acquired knowledge.
With its cross-platform point system, Lingorilla shows the overall progress of users and helps them to compare their experiences with other learners. As such, the community plays an important role at lingorilla.com and each language enthusiast is invited to find a learning partner from more than 150 countries, and then communicate with them via the integrated video chat. In the virtual classroom, people can meet virtually or take a language course.

Federal Minister of Education praises LinguaTV

Prof. Dr. Annette Schavan, Germany´s Federal Minister for Education and Research, congratulated LinguaTV on their success at the World Summit Award. In her congratulatory letter Schavan showed that she was clearly impressed: "I am delighted that LinguaTV´s educational offering could convince the international jury and succeed against the competition from 170 other countries. This is even more outstanding because LinguaTV as a small and young company has reached this on its own."
Philip Gienandt, founder and CEO of LinguaTV is convinced, that the recipe for success derives from the "unique combination of proven teaching methods, professional learning content and advanced communication technologies", a recipe that is sparking continued interest especially from business customers. The demand from corporate training centers for an interactive networked language-learning platform is steadily increasing. "Winning the WSA will continue to push us forward and motivate us in our continued revision of our training platform," anticipates Philip Gienandt. The relaunch of the platform is due to be completed in the next few weeks.

Information for TV reporters: video footage about LinguaTV and Lingorilla is available at http://www.linguatv.com/press.html

World Summit Award website: http://www.wsis-award.org

Contact:
LinguaTV GmbH
Philip Gienandt
Landsberger Allee 24
D-10249 Berlin / Germany
Phone: +49- (0) 30-42802751
Mobile: +49- (0) 163-8585115
E-mail: philip.gienandt (at) linguatv.com
Website: www.linguatv.com

About LinguaTV:
LinguaTV produces videos for modern language learning. The topic-specific video tutorials are geared to the unique needs of companies and private individuals for effective training. The extensive online platform includes Web-TV, entertaining videos, interactive games and "social network community" features such as video chat and study groups.