We’ve long had the feeling that social networks, cool as they are in many ways, could be so much better. For instance, instead of a community just logging in to gossip and chat about trivia, why couldn’t they spend time doing something genuinely useful for each other? Something which would confer a real benefit rather than just take up time?

Fixoodle seems to have put together something that might just work in that direction. The new site offers a community based online language translation service, but instead of friending people to chat about the weather, you make friends who can help you learn your target language.

It can be used in a number of ways, including general language practice, but the one feature which sticks out for us is the ability to get native speakers to translate or correct text snippets that you post to the community board. There’s also a bunch of functionality built into the backend, including chat, virtual classrooms and video, although we had a problem even registering for the site, which could be a bit of a downer to new adopters.

Nevertheless, it looks to be a good effort, and something that could offer a real alternative value to people around the world who need to learn a language quickly and easily.