Understand Tamil but freeze when it's your turn to talk? Kiki is a patient Tamil friend you talk to by voice. No drills, no judgement.
Start your first conversationFor adults, 18 and over • Speaking-first • First 4 conversations free
You answer out loud. Kiki listens, and keeps the conversation going.
Food, family, places, your day. Kiki asks, and you answer out loud. No typing.
Mix in English when you're stuck. She gives you a hint when you freeze, and says it back the right way without making you feel corrected.
Each conversation ends on its own after a few minutes. Come back tomorrow and the topics get a little harder as you do.
Hold your own at the dinner table, not just smile and nod.
You grew up hearing Tamil. Turn what you hear into what you can say.
Everyday Tamil for colleagues, shops and new places.
Talk about the stories and songs you love, in the language they were made in.
Six decades of language-acquisition research, from Krashen, Swain and Long, built into how Kiki behaves, turn by turn.
Recast
When you get a form wrong, Kiki doesn't stop to mark it. Her next reply simply uses the right form, and the conversation carries on. You hear the fix without being put on the spot.
Michael Long · corrective recasts
Practice Card
After the conversation, Kiki picks out the exact sentences you stumbled on and asks you to say them again, out loud. A slip that keeps returning comes back later as a quick game. Spaced practice, on your own errors.
Swain · pushed output + the spacing effect
Living memory
Week three isn't a stranger starting over. Kiki carries what you care about, the words you've earned and the grammar you keep tripping on, so each conversation builds on the last.
Longitudinal · unique to you
Comprehensible input (i+1)
Kiki listens to how it's going and adjusts as you talk. When you're confident, she draws you into longer, harder Tamil. When you're stuck, she gives you simpler footing. New words arrive inside sentences you can already follow.
Krashen · comprehensible input
Grounded in the modern consensus on how a second language is actually acquired: Krashen & Terrell (1983), Swain (1985), Schmidt (1990), Long (1996).
Your learners get ten minutes of speaking every day between classes, on the topics you teach, and you see who is practising.
Tell us about your class →From the founders
We started this because of a child who understands every word their grandmother says, and answers in English. Nowhere in that child's week was there a place to practise speaking without an audience. We built that place for children first. Then teachers who teach adults asked for it for their classes, so Kiki now has an adult mode: ten judgment-free minutes a day, spoken to you as the adult you are.
We're building the first serious practice platform for spoken Indian languages. We started with Hindi. Now Tamil, with more languages on the way.
Advised by Prof. Surinder Tikoo, Professor of Marketing & International Business at SUNY New Paltz.
The first 4 conversations are free, with no card. After that, choose a plan if you'd like to keep going.
| 3-month plan | 6-month plan |
|---|---|
| $5.99 a monthbilled $17.97 every 3 months | $3.99 a monthbilled $23.94 every 6 months |
Nothing is charged unless you choose a plan. Cancel anytime.
Kiki started with children, and most people who talk to her still are. Adults get their own mode: you sign up as yourself, from 18 up, and Kiki talks with you as the adult you are.
A little understanding helps. If you can follow the first topic, which is the easiest one, it's a good fit, even if you answer mostly in English at first.
About ten minutes. Each conversation ends on its own, so it fits into a commute or a coffee break.
Use the sign-up link your teacher shared, or type the code on the last step of sign-up. Your practice then shows up for your teacher.
The first 4 conversations are free. After that it's the 3- or 6-month plan for where you are, shown above. Nothing is charged unless you choose a plan.
The first 4 are free.
Start your first conversationAlready have an account? Log in