Hi, my name's Sonny Qazim.
I'm glad you stumbled on my little creation here.

I had first thought of making an app like this back in 2018 when I was backpacking through Southeast Asia. I wanted to learn some of the region's languages: xin chào; sawasdee kráp; kamusta; just the basics.

Each language was a way to connect not only to meaning but also to the culture and people. So naturally I wanted to go deeper and enrich my vocabulary.

Years ago I learned French primarily through reading, which I believe is the greatest low-cost, high-reward activity.

Language learning requires consistent exposure over a long period of time. Living in a non-French speaking part of Canada naturally demanded a lot of motivation to sustain exposure to the language. So I needed a resource.

The resource must be:

1. Large enough to last.
2. Meaningful and interesting enough to keep using.

I picked literature.

I used popular learning-with-text sites (LingQ and ReadLang) and also listened to audiobooks. My comprehension improved and I slowly went from active learning to acquisition.

I found that for any new endeavour in a language my brain needed reading material. But nothing irrelevant or educational. It had to be interesting: curiosity needed to drive the process.

I was trying to find something similar for these lesser known SE Asian languages but they notoriously lack viable and consistent resources. And what they do have is often inconvenient, inaccessible or outdated.

Then I thought about Libgrafy. At that time it was just a nameless platform that housed libraries of stories in foreign languages. Okay, cool story, but I didn't know what to do with it (I was too busy backpacking).

Then five years after I was living in Thailand, trying to realize a dream of being a digital nomad and working on this platform.

And now you're on it.

It's improving, expanding, and being refined by me and the contributions of curious, international learners and enthusiasts like you.

Thank you.

I very much hope you get more out of Libgrafy than just a few new words.