StudyStream (www.studystre.am) is the new, free way to learn languages while watching your favorite videos and reading your favorite blogs--transforming the things you already do into insightful learning experiences.

StudyStream keeps language learning fun and interesting for any skill level by letting the learner choose what to study.

Learners can choose from hundreds of videos and articles to learn English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Japanese--including the video series of the "We Are New York English" program and the New York Public Library Blog feed.

StudyStream is a lot of fun but is also a serious learning tool built on the world's leading technologies in computational linguistics, allowing it to decipher many forms of online media and make them into viable learning vehicles. Experienced language learners know that learning a language is about making connections. So, StudyStream uses technology to make those connections--millions of them--and passes them on to you.

Additionally, by observing your progress, StudyStream continually adjusts to your unique interests and learning needs. Everyone is different, so StudyStream is adaptive: it helps you find content that interests you at your level, it progresses through the content you're leaning at the pace you set, and it incorporates new content just for you as you learn.

StudyStream is competing in the BigAppsNYC competition which is open for public voting from Februay 8th through March 8th, 2012.

If youd like to try it out, visit www.studystre.am on your computer, iPhone, iPad, or other device and sign up for a free account.

StudyStream (beta) seamlessly combines several awesome features to deliver an integrated learning experience that will blow your mind (in the make-you-smarter kind of way).

Read along while listening.While watching videos, learn what it is being said and improve your listening skills by following along with text that is highlighted as it is spoken.

Sentence-by-sentence playback. Listen to a sentence as many times as you like or until you can identify the words. Try repeating after the speaker, or singing along. In fact, we would be thrilled to receive videos of you practicing a foreign language with StudyStream.

Side-by-side with your native language.Where available, a translation is displayed side-by-side with the original text. Even though a translation can never capture the subtle nuances of the original words, these translations are especially useful when just starting out.

Instantaneous look-up. Keep up with the speaker in real time, instantly getting the meaning of unknown words/phrases with pop-up meanings. After you see how awesome this is, you may never want to use a dictionary again.

Additionally, click on any word/phrase to download a detailed explanation, including

o Word families. Instead of forcing you to learn words one at a time, StudyStream helps you understand the connection between words by grouping words into families. You will be amazed at how much sense a foreign language can make when you see study the variations of words together, such as swim, swam, and swum, and good, better, and best

o Color-coded word forms. StudyStream utilizes its unique understanding of sentence structure to identify and explain how a word is being used: e.g.

as a noun/verb/adjective/adverb

in the past/future/present tense

whether it is mascule/feminine

whether it is normal/comparative/superlative, etc.

Word forms are color-coded, so it is easy to gain a natural understanding of the different word forms that appear in different languages even without a deep grammatical understanding.

o Usage examples. Linked examples sentences help demonstrate how a word is used in different articles and videos. Click on the link to visit the video or article and further branch out your study.

Personalized exercises.StudyStream creates tailored exercises based on your study habits that help strengthen your memory, improve your listening comprehension, and deepen your understanding of the language you are learning.

o Focus on specific video/article. Focus on learning the words and phrases in a specific video or article. Videos and articles become much easier to understand after learning relevant words/phrases in the article.

o Pick your words. Whether watching a video, reading an article, or concentrating on an exercise, words and phrases can be individually added or removed from your exercises. Add unknown words during an exercise to dynamically expand the exercise and continually fill in gaps.

o Self-balancing load. Learn at your own pace with self-balancing difficulty that optimizes review timing and gradually introduce new words, based on which exercise questions you get right.