Who we are
MAMAKO Started with One Student Missing One Word.
A teacher explains something. One unfamiliar word lands badly. The lesson keeps moving while the student is still trying to work out what was said.
I kept seeing that moment in English-medium classrooms, especially with students who understood the subject better than they could always follow the language around it.
MAMAKO grew out of that problem.
Why MAMAKO Exists
Students learning in English often have to do two things at once: understand the subject, and keep up with the language used to teach it.
Most of the time the teacher cannot stop and explain every unfamiliar word. The class has to keep moving.
MAMAKO gives teachers another way to support that moment. It captions the teacher live on the classroom board, translates each line into the students’ home language with the lesson’s key terms kept in English, and writes a recap the teacher can check and share after class. The aim is to give students more chances to stay with the lesson while it is still happening.
Built from Inside the Classroom
I'm Logan Shaffer, the founder of MAMAKO and a classroom teacher.
I have taught English, humanities, economics and business in international schools across East Asia, including schools in Korea, Taiwan and China. I earned my M.S.Ed in TESOL from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.
MAMAKO came from years of teaching students who could understand the content but lost the thread of a lesson because of one unfamiliar word, phrase or explanation. I wanted language support that could happen inside the lesson, without asking the teacher to rebuild the lesson around it.
That became MAMAKO.
Why the Name MAMAKO?
MAMAKO does not belong to any one language. That was intentional.
The classrooms it was built for may include students who speak several different languages at home. We wanted a name that did not favor any one of them.
The swan came later. We liked the idea of something calm and present in the background, helping without demanding attention.
MAMAKO Today
MAMAKO is built for schools where students learn academic content in English while they are still developing the language.
Teachers run it in Chrome or Edge on the laptop they already teach from. MAMAKO supports the lesson while it is happening and gives teachers something useful to share afterward.
MAMAKO LLC is based in Missouri and works with schools directly.
Want MAMAKO at Your School?
If you work with multilingual learners and want to see how MAMAKO could fit your school, ask for a quote or send us a message.
© 2026 MAMAKO LLC · mamako.app