uTalk’s ‘classroom in the sky’ is awards runner-up


Passengers catching a flight with Emirates are able to learn a language while they’re in the air, thanks to a pioneering scheme launched in 2017.

And the ‘classroom in the sky’ scheme, which lets passengers learn a language from videos in their seat headrest, was shortlisted for two awards from Inflight Middle East — but narrowly missed winning.

“We’re honoured just to have been short-listed for these awards which for us was like being nominated for two Oscars!” says uTalk Founder Richard Howeson. “And we’d like to thank our partner Emirates Airline and all the passengers who’ve learned with us for getting us this far,” he adds.

uTalk was nominated for awards in the Content Provision and in the Supplier Innovation categories as a result of its collaboration with Emirates Airlines.

Under the scheme, passengers who speak either German, Spanish, English, Arabic or Mandarin can learn any of 15 languages while they fly.

It means that by the time their plane lands, says Richard, “they will be able to order a coffee or raise a smile in another language and who wouldn’t want to do that?”

The awards were announced on Tuesday Feb 12 in Dubai.

uTalk staff are now consoling themselves on their near miss by raiding their chocolate biscuit stash, proving that every cloud has a silver lining!

Spare biscuits (but not the chocolate ones) are available to representatives from any airlines who’d like to discuss how uTalk could work with them. Contact hello@utalk.com

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