Bio
My Story
Who am I?
Hi there! I’m Zhané and I’m a polyglot, a data scientist, a language teacher and an entrepreneur. In my 29 years of life, I’ve gone from first generation American, to double major Columbia University graduate to founder of my startup Lexpal. I was born in the Bronx to Jamaican immigrants and quickly learned the meaning of hard work. My parents were shining examples of diligent workers, and their work ethic left an impression on me. In middle school, I joined a Youths in Entrepreneurship group, knowing I wanted to create something for myself some day. The matter was figuring out just what.
My passions & purpose
In my life so far I have known two great passions: data science and foreign language. I wasn’t properly introduced to data science until after my graduation from Columbia University, when I started teaching myself with online courses and later attended NYC Data Science Academy while I worked at Bloomberg. It was challenging for me, but extremely stimulating and I loved coding. At Columbia, I also discovered my love for languages. I’d been exposed to the Spanish language the majority of my childhood in New York, so I was already pretty familiar. But with all the Spanish courses already full when I went to enroll, I decided to test the waters in French instead. The language was completely foreign to me, but I fell in love on the very first day. When spots opened up to take Spanish, I couldn’t decide between the two and took both.Traveling abroad to Paris marked my first time out of the United States and completely redefined my world view. I got the chance to immerse myself in the foreign language, jumping on every opportunity to practice speaking, and achieved C1 level fluency by the time the semester ended. I promptly applied for a teaching job in Versailles, France and moved back upon graduating. Here began my experience on the other side of the language learning process.
What I learned
As both a teacher and a learner, I quickly noticed the patterns and faults in how we tend to learn languages. In learning my fourth language, German, I put my theory to the test and found that it was true: becoming fluent on paper and fluent in conversation are very different things. So the key, I understood, was becoming fluent in conversation.Despite studying at a respected institution in Paris, with comprehensive language classes, guest speakers and frequent learning opportunities, I recognized that nightly dinner with my host mom was where my language quickly improved.This fact was frustrating, as it goes against the traditional way that most people learn additional languages, but the realization paved the way for a solution. A conversation-based language learning app.
Enter: Lexpal
I created Lexpal to help learners bridge the gap between language learning and language speaking. The app is AI-powered to tailor lesson material to a user’s proficiency and matches language partners based on speaking level to create the optimal learning partnership.The app effectively saves language learners two very valuable assets: time and money. Time spent taking years of traditional classes just to struggle having a basic conversation, and the money spent on futile classes and language tutors.My hope is that Lexpal will foster the curiosity and eagerness to learn within the language community and help users reach fluency before they can lose interest. I know an app like this would have helped me gain confidence speaking far sooner in my language journey than I did. I hope it can do just that for future Lexpallers.
Hi there! I’m Zhané and I’m a polyglot, a data scientist, a language teacher and an entrepreneur. In my 29 years of life, I’ve gone from first generation American, to double major Columbia University graduate to founder of my startup Lexpal. I was born in the Bronx to Jamaican immigrants and quickly learned the meaning of hard work. My parents were shining examples of diligent workers, and their work ethic left an impression on me. In middle school, I joined a Youths in Entrepreneurship group, knowing I wanted to create something for myself some day. The matter was figuring out just what.
My passions & purpose
In my life so far I have known two great passions: data science and foreign language. I wasn’t properly introduced to data science until after my graduation from Columbia University, when I started teaching myself with online courses and later attended NYC Data Science Academy while I worked at Bloomberg. It was challenging for me, but extremely stimulating and I loved coding. At Columbia, I also discovered my love for languages. I’d been exposed to the Spanish language the majority of my childhood in New York, so I was already pretty familiar. But with all the Spanish courses already full when I went to enroll, I decided to test the waters in French instead. The language was completely foreign to me, but I fell in love on the very first day. When spots opened up to take Spanish, I couldn’t decide between the two and took both.Traveling abroad to Paris marked my first time out of the United States and completely redefined my world view. I got the chance to immerse myself in the foreign language, jumping on every opportunity to practice speaking, and achieved C1 level fluency by the time the semester ended. I promptly applied for a teaching job in Versailles, France and moved back upon graduating. Here began my experience on the other side of the language learning process.
What I learned
As both a teacher and a learner, I quickly noticed the patterns and faults in how we tend to learn languages. In learning my fourth language, German, I put my theory to the test and found that it was true: becoming fluent on paper and fluent in conversation are very different things. So the key, I understood, was becoming fluent in conversation.Despite studying at a respected institution in Paris, with comprehensive language classes, guest speakers and frequent learning opportunities, I recognized that nightly dinner with my host mom was where my language quickly improved.This fact was frustrating, as it goes against the traditional way that most people learn additional languages, but the realization paved the way for a solution. A conversation-based language learning app.
Enter: Lexpal
I created Lexpal to help learners bridge the gap between language learning and language speaking. The app is AI-powered to tailor lesson material to a user’s proficiency and matches language partners based on speaking level to create the optimal learning partnership.The app effectively saves language learners two very valuable assets: time and money. Time spent taking years of traditional classes just to struggle having a basic conversation, and the money spent on futile classes and language tutors.My hope is that Lexpal will foster the curiosity and eagerness to learn within the language community and help users reach fluency before they can lose interest. I know an app like this would have helped me gain confidence speaking far sooner in my language journey than I did. I hope it can do just that for future Lexpallers.