Those who know me well  knows that I am very passionate about learning, especially the intersection of technology and learning. On my endless trips throughout Asia on behalf of Ginger, I ran into Andrew Smith Lewis and Eric Young in Tokyo, the founders of Cerego,  two of the smartest and most interesting people I have ever  met.  Cerego’s mission is to transform information into lasting knowledge. Its approach combines proven learning science with cloud technology to bring breakthrough learning solutions to a rapidly expanding global market for learning languages and other core domains of knowledge.

One thing that I have learned in my career is that people and relationships are everything. If you then are lucky to find great people that you can share a bottle of Sake’ or two over endless sushi servings while passionately discussing learning/cognitive sciences and technology while cracking a joke or two, without feeling awkward, that is priceless.

Andrew and Eric are two such persons, and when they asked me if I was willing to consider becoming an advisor to Cerego, my first feeling was “I’m not worthy“. However, I quickly accepted. I don’t know if it was the Sake, the Sushi or the company. Perhaps it was the combination .  Anyway, I feel very honored to join them & Cerego as an advisor as they take the world by a storm

I really believe that Cerego is one of the most innovative companies in the learning/tech space. In Japan , they run the amazing language learning platform iknow,  helping people to learn and master new languages.If you haven’t tried iknow yet, go ahead and check them out. It has definitely improved my Chinese/Japanese vocabulary. However, Cerego is not limited to just language learning, their adaptive learning engine and platform really can turn any content into learning material. Check out Uncharted.fm for a taste of how you can fast can learn Geography (among other things). Keep an eye on this company. It is going to be big.

Take a look at Andrew demoing the iKnow platform at AllthingsD.