Many Things

What Many Things does

Many Things (manythings.org) is a non-commercial, ad-free educational website for ESL and EFL students, established in 1997 by Charles Kelly and Lawrence Kelly, faculty members at Aichi Institute of Technology in Japan. The platform curates and presents bilingual sentence pairs, listening exercises, quizzes, reading materials, and specialized Japanese language study resources, drawing primarily from the Tatoeba Project's multilingual corpus (over 900,000 sentences), the University of Tokyo's Business Scene Dialogue Corpus (808 dialogues, ~24,000 sentences), and the TUFS Asian Language Parallel Corpus. Core products include Bilingual Sentence Pairs (40+ languages with English, many with audio), the Business Scene Dialogue Corpus, TALPCo Sentence Pairs, tab-delimited files compatible with Anki flashcard software, VOA-based quizzes, Listen & Repeat YouTube content, and the recently launched Bilingual TTS Player supporting 40 languages.

The technology stack is a web-based content aggregation and presentation layer with text-to-speech integration for audio pronunciation across multiple languages, plus downloadable Anki-compatible study files. Distribution is entirely self-serve and free, relying on organic search, teacher referrals, and two YouTube channels (@InterestingThingsESL and @JapaneseTTS) as the primary community touchpoints. There are no paid tiers, no advertisements, and no disclosed revenue — the platform operates as a volunteer-maintained academic project. The user base consists of self-directed ESL/EFL learners, classroom teachers who link to activities from course pages, and Japanese language learners seeking JLPT preparation, Kanji study, and business English materials with Japanese translations.

Name

Many Things

Legal name

Many Things

Website

https://manythings.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Many Things operates manythings.org, a non-commercial, ad-free educational website established in 1997 that serves ESL/EFL students, teachers, and Japanese language learners worldwide with free bilingual sentence pairs, quizzes, listening exercises, and Anki-compatible flashcards drawn from academic corpora.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Language Learning Resources

NAICS

Language Schools (61163), Educational Support Services (611710), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (5192)

SIC

Miscellaneous Publishing (2741), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Language Learning eLearning Modules (ESL/EFL) (EDAGAEAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Adult & Workplace English (ESP) Materials (EDAGAHAH), Grammar, Vocabulary & Pronunciation Materials (EDAGAHAB), Classroom Supplementary Resources (Worksheets, Games, Activities) (EDAGAHAN)

Keywords

• Language learning resources
• ESL education materials
• Bilingual sentence pairs
• Vocabulary quizzes
• Language learning flashcards

Headquarters

HQ city

Nagoya

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. Free Educational Content: The website operates as a non-commercial, ad-free educational resource with no revenue generation. All content is provided free of charge to ESL/EFL students and teachers worldwide.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Many Things (manythings.org) is a free, non-commercial educational website for ESL/EFL students that provides bilingual sentence pairs across 40+ languages, vocabulary and grammar quizzes, listening exercises, reading materials with audio, and downloadable Anki-compatible flashcards. The platform curates content from the Tatoeba Project corpus and also offers specialized Japanese language study resources and a Japanese-English Business Scene Dialogue Corpus (808 dialogues). It is primarily web-based, with video content distributed through associated YouTube channels.

Product overview

Many Things (www.manythings.org) is a non-commercial, ad-free educational website for ESL and EFL students established in 1997. The platform operates as a content aggregation and curation service built around the Tatoeba Project corpus. Its core product portfolio includes Bilingual Sentence Pairs (40+ languages with audio), the Business Scene Dialogue Corpus (Japanese-English business conversations), TALPCo Sentence Pairs, and Tab-delimited Bilingual Sentence Pairs for Anki flashcard users. Supporting features include VOA Quizzes, Listen & Repeat Videos, Irregular Verbs Videos, Read Along Stories, and specialized Japanese Language Study Materials. Recent additions include a Bilingual TTS Player (40 languages) launched in 2026-05. The site also offers English-Japanese Sentences (65,000+ pairs), vocabulary tools, and downloadable resources compatible with Anki and similar flashcard applications. All content is free for educational use.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Japanese Listen and Repeat: YouTube channel for Japanese language study featuring listen-and-repeat videos and TTS content

Products and services

• Bilingual Sentence Pairs Extensive collection of sentence pairs across 40+ languages with English, many featuring audio recordings. Derived from the Tatoeba Project corpus and filtered for quality through native speaker contributions.
• Business Scene Dialogue Corpus (BSD) Japanese-English business conversation corpus containing 808 dialogues (~24,000 sentences) covering business scenarios such as meetings, phone calls, training, and presentations. Includes TTS for both languages. Sourced from the University of Tokyo under CC BY-NC-SA license.
• TALPCo Sentence Pairs English-Japanese sentence pairs selected from the TUFS Asian Language Parallel Corpus (TALPCo), with audio files from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Over 600 pairs available for bilingual study.
• Tab-delimited Bilingual Sentence Pairs Downloadable tab-delimited text files of bilingual sentence pairs formatted for import into Anki and similar flashcard applications. Covers 80+ language combinations.
• VOA Quizzes Grammar and vocabulary quizzes based on Voice of America (VOA) programs including Science Reports, American Mosaic, and People in America.
• Listen & Repeat Sentences Audio-based pronunciation practice with sentences recorded for the Tatoeba Project, available on the YouTube channel @InterestingThingsESL and the website. Features hours of listen-and-repeat content.
• Bilingual TTS Player Text-to-speech player supporting 40 languages for sentence pairs from the Tatoeba corpus. Enables pronunciation practice with synthesized audio.
• English-Japanese Sentences High-frequency English words with English-Japanese example sentences, featuring over 65,000 English-Japanese sentence pairs derived from the Tanaka Corpus.
• Japanese Language Study Materials Comprehensive Japanese language learning resources including Kanji study, JLPT vocabulary lists, Japanese-English quizzes in Romaji, Kana quizzes, reading practice, and TTS-based listen-and-repeat videos on the @JapaneseTTS YouTube channel.

Quantifiable outcome

• Free access to all educational content without paywalls or subscriptions

Named customers3 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability2 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• Tatoeba ProjectcoreTechnology or IntegrationManyThings.org uses data from the Tatoeba Project, a large multilingual database of example sentences translated by volunteer members. The corpus contains over 900,000 sentences with translations into many languages. ManyThings curates and presents selected sentence pairs from this corpus, filtering for quality and appropriateness.
• Anki (AnkiSRS)coreTechnology or IntegrationProvides tab-delimited downloadable files compatible with Anki and similar flashcard programs for spaced repetition learning. This enables users to import bilingual sentence pairs into their flashcard study workflows.
• University of Tokyo (BSD Corpus)coreTechnology or IntegrationThe Business Scene Dialogue Corpus (808 Japanese-English business dialogues, ~24,000 sentences) is sourced from the University of Tokyo, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA. This provides authentic business conversation scenarios for language learning.
• Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS)majorTechnology or IntegrationTALPCo (TUFS Asian Language Parallel Corpus) provides Japanese audio files used in English-Japanese sentence pairs, licensed CC-BY 4.0. The corpus includes Japanese, Korean, Burmese, Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese and English.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• JapanesePod101: Specialized Japanese language learning platform operated by Innovative Language Learning. Directly competes with ManyThings' Japanese-language study materials (Kanji, JLPT, listening practice) but offers paid subscriptions, podcast content, and structured curricula.
• Open Culture: Curator of free educational content including language learning resources, audiobooks, and online courses. Comparable non-commercial model aggregating high-quality educational materials, though broader in subject coverage than ManyThings.
• Anki: Open-source spaced repetition flashcard software that integrates with ManyThings via tab-delimited downloadable files. ManyThings exports content into Anki's ecosystem, making Anki both a partner and adjacent learning tool for the same language learning use case.
• Tatoeba Project: Open multilingual sentence corpus that supplies ManyThings' core content. Operates a similar volunteer-driven, non-commercial model with the same bilingual sentence pair approach. Highly comparable in mission, content structure, and community governance.

Broad incumbents

• Duolingo: Dominant consumer language learning platform serving the same ESL/EFL learner segment. Competes for user attention and teacher recommendations but operates at vastly larger scale with commercial subscription model, mobile apps, and AI personalization.
• Memrise: Consumer language learning platform with user-generated and official courses. Competes for the same ESL/EFL and Japanese learner audiences, offering gamified UX, video content from native speakers, and a freemium model.
• Babbel: Commercial language learning platform targeting adult learners including ESL/EFL. Comparable in audience and ESP focus (business English), but delivers via mobile app with paid subscription versus ManyThings' free web delivery.
• Busuu: Commercial language learning platform with structured curricula and community features. Targets the same adult ESL/EFL learner segment as ManyThings but with paid subscriptions, mobile-first delivery, and AI-powered review.
• FluentU: Language learning platform using authentic video content (movie clips, news, music) with interactive captions and bilingual support. Competes with ManyThings' read-along stories and listening practice but operates commercially with curated multimedia content.

Emerging players

• LingQ: Language learning platform built around extensive reading and listening content with bilingual sentence annotation. Closely aligned with ManyThings' sentence-pair approach but offers a paid subscription model and mobile app.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@InterestingThingsESL
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/many-things

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Many Things