Student a foreign language ace

Taliah Su'a is achieving on a world scale with the help of an online language tool. PHOTO/STUART MUNRO

Wanganui High School student Taliah Su'a has achieved a score of 52,000 points for Spanish learning on Language Perfect, an online study platform.

"That puts her in the top one per cent of around 300,000 users globally," says founder and company chief executive Craig Smith, who developed the system while still at school and lived in Wanganui for a short time.

Mr Smith created Language Perfect as a 15-year-old after struggling with Japanese and French pronunciation at school.

"I lived in Wanganui for a short while when my family moved there from South Africa but I was too young to remember much about it.

"Wanganui schools were some of my first Language Perfect customers and I am grateful for their support."

Marilyn Wilkie, head of the language faculty at Wanganui High School, said Language Perfect is a good resource that supports student learning.

"From a teacher's perspective it reinforces classroom learning and helps to build vocabulary.

"Teachers can set up word lists for students and they can add their own lists.

"It is in line with NCEA standards and a lot of language students enjoy using it but Taliah is our biggest user."

Year 10 student Taliah says she really enjoys the competitive aspect of Language Perfect and reaching each new goal.

"The competitions are a real incentive and it is really exciting when you can instantly see how well you have done.

"I'm always wanting to move on to the next goal and enter the competitions."

"Although I have been learning Spanish, I have had a go at some of the Portuguese lately and I enjoyed that.

"My grandparents speak Samoan and I learned it when I was small, so I think it got me used to speaking another language."

Language Perfect students can enter national and global competitions with opportunities to win certificates and prizes in the form of iPods, iTunes vouchers and pizza party vouchers for school groups.

Mr Smith, now 25, is CEO of international online learning company Education Perfect and was accorded the 2014 New Zealand Excellence in IT Awards Internet Entrepreneur of the Year title.

In 2007 he won a National Business Review Audacious award with a grant of $24,000 and went on to build Education Perfect which offers English, maths, science and social sciences as well as languages.

"I studied at Otago and met a lot of people with a great range of expertise. Some of them came on board and our team is growing all the time. They all have real drive and passion for education and those are the main things I look for in people I employ."

Craig Smith's brother, Dr Shane Smith, built the software behind Language Perfect and Education Perfect while studying medicine in Auckland and is chief information officer of the company.

"He did practice medicine for about a year after he graduated but he decided he would rather work with the company," said Craig.

The brothers lead a team of around 40 staff from their Dunedin base and have a small office in Auckland.

High school students can use Education and Language Perfect any time if their school has purchased it or individuals can use it for a monthly fee.

Language Perfect is an online learning tool students can use to test their vocabulary when learning a language. Students are tested on their reading, listening and writing skills in an extensive range of words, verbs and common phrases. It's available in more than 10 languages.