I met Brad Moon a few weeks ago at InPlay and was very impressed by him. Unlike so many other bloggers, Brad doesn’t write about things because companies pay him to review them. Instead, he genuinely seeks things that are interesting and sufficiently “geeky”. It’s so refreshing to be appreciated for all of the hard work, research, and brainpower that we put into making GoGo Lingo an entertaining language learning tool.   (A lot of people just ask us to “dumb it down”.) Thanks for the love, Brad.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to participate in the InPlay Conference in Toronto to talk about making entertaining AND educational games. The conference was really fun and informative. I felt honored that they asked me to participate as a panelist.

We were asked to talk about the balancing act that comes with creating entertaining and educational properties for kids. In the past, I would often lose someone when I would start talking about GoGo Lingo as an educational game for kids; many would just hear the word educational and automatically think boring. I understand this. Many times, I’d review an educational game and realize that the game was the reward for completing the educational exercise, which is typically a boring drill and kill interaction. So one of our goals with GoGo Lingo was to change this perception. We believe that learning Spanish can be fun and that all of the steps that you go through to learn Spanish can be done through the game. People that review GoGo Lingo sometimes say that we are tricking kids into learning Spanish. And we take that as a compliment because what we think they are really saying is that we’ve created something that is truly engaging, that kids want to play, and that actually gives them something of real value.

I am so happy to have met a lot of fantastic people at the conference. From that experience alone I feel the perception of educational gaming is on the cusp of change.

What do you think?

One thing that I love about Cinco de Mayo, is that it is more of an American holiday than a Mexican one.  Contrary to popular belief, it is not Mexican Independence Day. It is a celebration of the Mexican army’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.  Granted the French came back and occupied Mexico only a year later  (they stayed for three years before withdrawing under pressure from the United States).  But that’s not the point.  The Battle at Puebla was significant because the Mexican army was outnumbered by the French 2 to 1.  Yet they still won.  So, I like to think of Cinco de Mayo as a celebration of the underdog being victorious in the face of a huge challenge. Even if you think you might lose, you gotta at least put up a fight.

But really, why I like Cinco de Mayo is that it is a true demonstration of how life is better because the world is becoming a smaller place.  Americans have embraced this date as a chance to celebrate our Mexican brothers and sisters. And to that, I raise my virgin margarita.

I realize that perhaps for many of us, there is a psychological barrier to learning Chinese.  It isn’t an alphabetic language and it just feels too foreign.  I’ll admit one of the reasons that I chose to start GoGo Lingo with Spanish instead of Chinese is because deep down I was a little afraid of Chinese.  During the conference, someone was trying to help me practice the 4 tones. After about 20 minutes he goes- “perfect! you got it!” Unfortunately, I didn’t think I was saying anything differently.  I could not even perceive the differences in the tones, so I am sure I couldn’t replicate it. For a perfectionist like me, that’s tough.

But the truth is, that we have got to get over this fear.  China’s position in our world and more importantly, China’s complex and fascinating relationship with the U.S. isn’t going anywhere.  I think about my baby and realize how much more she will be able to accomplish if she can speak Chinese. And what an opportunity I have in my hands to start teaching her now, when she can perceive the different tones and doesn’t know to be afraid of the language. (Actually, some studies suggest that that window for perceiving the sounds may already be closing for Tali.)

Unfortunately, I don’t have the  funding to develop GoGo Lingo Chinese right now. But I am going to start working with Tali to learn Chinese and I will start sharing the resources I find and the experience that we have. So yes, now we will be teaching Tali English, Portuguese, Farsi, Chinese and Spanish. She’ll either love us or hate us when she grows up…I’ll keep you posted.

We’re honored to announce that GoGo Lingo has been named among the best in family-friendly media, products and services by the Mom’s Choice Awards. GoGo Lingo received the Gold Award–the MCA’s highest honors!

Thank you to all you little lingo fans out there.

We know how hard it is to teach Spanish or to teach any foreign language to your preschooler.  We hope that GoGo Lingo helps all of those moms and dads that are trying to give their kids this precious gift. We know it is going to help your kids in so mnay ways.

]]> http://www.gogolingo.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=241 http://www.gogolingo.com/blog/?p=238 http://www.gogolingo.com/blog/?p=238#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 10:06:59 +0000 admin http://www.gogolingo.com/blog/?p=238 I know it has been a while since I have written a post. I have had my hands full with my own little lingo. My beautiful daughter, Tali was born January 25th. She is the sweetest little baby and I never imagined that I could feel such intense love so instantly.

In these two short months, I have been reminded on a daily basis how difficult it is to raise a bilingual or in our case trilingual child. Given our families, we are teaching Tali English, Portuguese and Farsi. We know that language development begins immediately so we have been talking to her and have asked our families to speak to her in the three languages since day 1. The strategy we are trying to use is each adult is primarily responsible for speaking in one language. And yes, each of our family members have been given a specific language assignment (Aunt Allison gets to speak English, Tia Re Portuguese, Grandma Giti speaks Farsi etc. etc.). I’ve been speaking to her in all three languages, reading books in Portuguese and English while Patrick is trying to stick with the Portuguese. The truth is, it isn’t always easy to keep a continuous monologue going and it gets even harder when you are trying to do it in another language. After a night of very little sleep and a long day, when Patrick comes home from work, sometimes we just want to speak to each other without having to make the extra effort to do it in Portuguese. But we won’t give up because we know how important it is to teach her more than one language. We know that this is a gift that will literally last her a lifetime. I knew it would be hard, which is why I created GoGo Lingo in the first place but of course, we haven’t been able to develop Portuguese or Farsi yet. Hopefully one day soon. In the meantime, I am just grateful that Tali is finally here and I am able to even have this challenge.

It’s been great having my in-laws here. I am constantly reminded not to assume or try to predict anything. For instance, my mother-in-law, Ruth (pronounced “Hoochie”- I’m not kidding) is kind of shy to touch my belly to feel the baby moving.  That may not sound surprising but let me tell you about the first time I met her.  Patrick and I started dating because he was helping me plan a trip with my sister to Brazil.  I was going to be there alone for a few days and he graciously offered for me to stay with him and his family.  Smart move on his part - within two weeks of our first dinner, I was on a plane with him to Brazil and he asked me if I wanted to officially be his girlfriend somewhere over Venezuela.  At first I laughed, “Are you really asking me this?” but I couldn’t resist his charm and agreed.  I realized that he hadn’t seen his family for a while, so I told him on the first day that he should drop me off to shop for Brazilian bikinis while he spends some time with his family.

I’ll never forget that first day.  We had breakfast with the family- his mother spoke very limited English at the time so she just kept staring and smiling at me.  Then, next thing I know I am with Patrick,  my new “boyfriend” who I’ve been hanging out with for two weeks, his mother, Hoochie, and his cousin- all of us shopping for bikinis for me. Apparently, Hoochie loves to shop.  And isn’t shy about expressing her opinion.  At one point, she even came into the dressing room to check out the goods (I’m still not sure if she was checking out the bathing suits or me).  I would never let my own mother into the dressing room but I felt at the moment that this was just one of those cultural things. (Or I was so incredibly jet-lagged I didn’t know what else to do).  That shopping excursion was one of the first moments when I realized, “I’m going to marry this guy”. And officially have a Hoochie mama

Now, nearly 4 years later, Hoochie still loves to shop and doesn’t hesitate to express her opinion. I’m learning that child rearing is very cultural. Hoochie was offended when I wouldn’t eat the non-pasteurized cheese she brought from Brazil, shocked that the pediatrician told us not to take the baby around young kids for the first thirty days, and amazed that we have special detergent for the baby’s clothes. We took a family trip to Babies R Us.  Hoochie was insisting we buy sheets for the stroller, apparently a very popular, “must need” item in Brazil.  Babies-R-Us doesn’t even sell them.   I guess like everything in life, culture completely colors the way we go about things- especially how we raise our children.

Now we just have to teach it to make animal sounds in Portuguese and English! (Another fun fact, animals sounds are different in different languages. This is because we hear sounds differently based on the language that we speak.)

Thanks so much Common Sense Media!