Startup 2Tangos: Location-Based Tandem Learning Online

There comes that time, at the beginning of every year, when I promise myself that by the end of it, I will have started learning Spanish, or taken that cooking or painting class I’ve been dreaming of. Yet for some reason, every year, those promises full of good intentions go unfulfilled. And it seems I’m not the only who goes around thinking I can manage more than I actually do. There is always something that comes between us and our ideal self: The class is too far, the course too expensive, the time not right…

A new web-service might just eliminate some of those setbacks. 2Tangos uses what is known as tandem, a learning system that brings two people together who exchange their knowledge on various topics. I teach you French if you teach me how to sow, etc.

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2Tangos’ barter-based system locates people in your surroundings – preferably the same city – who possess the skill you want to learn and in turn, want to learn your skill. Users can register up to three skills they can offer and up to three skills they want to learn.

When a match is found the system automatically connects the two and sends them links to each others’ public social network profiles.

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/36030513[/vimeo]

2Tango is currently free, with no commissions or payments involved.  Ilan Dorot, founder of 2Tango, told Israeli website Newsgeek that the company is not aspiring to charge money for the service or be profitable at this point. 2Tangos started as an idea among friends, he said (Dorot and four others located in Tel Aviv, Dublin and Vienna). One of them needed help learning Chinese and came up with the idea of a barter-based learning system that focuses on geographical locations.

Trading skills with 2Tangos

Dorot said: “Our inspiration came from an article by Erica Swallow about sharing economy, and the rise of other education-related startups such as Skillshare, Coperly and Tutorspree that are good indicators for this trend.”

According to Dorot, “Our model, unlike the ones mentioned, focuses on connecting people who didn’t know each other before in order to learn from each other. After the connection is made, they are free to meet in the physical world. Our interest is helping them with the first connection, afterwards- it’s in their hands.”

Photo by woodleywonderworks