Database Highlight #49: We Rock in any Language (but especially in Spanish)
Have a child looking to learn a new language this summer? Our Little Pim language learning service is specifically designed for kid-appeal and includes 10 languages: Russian, German, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Hebrew, English, Spanish, and French. With videos and games to help language acquisition, our youngest customers will have a blast picking up new words and phrases.
Don’t miss the window of opportunity when it’s fun & easy for kids to learn. Little Pim’s Entertainment Immersion Method® uses strategic repetition of key vocabulary words for faster language acquisition. Our companion guides and scripts make it easy for parents & teachers to follow along with no prior language knowledge needed. – from the vendor
Do your customers already speak Spanish and are looking for something to read? Skip the hassle of trying to find Spanish language books buried in a pile of English language books. Our latest ebook/eaudio platform, Odilo, is all Spanish,all the time - including children's books! Highlight a Spanish language children’s book during storytime. Most of the Odilo books are from native language publishers which means you won't just be sharing langauge, you'll be sharing a culture. Download the Odilo app for reading on the go: available for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire.
Action Steps
- Pick a language in Little Pim and watch a video. Leave a word or phrase you learned in the comments.
- Download the Odilo app or browse the Odilo catalog online. Try checking out a children’s book (pro-tip: there’s a children’s curation for easy browsing!)
What languages do you speak or are interested in learning?
Odilo pens for all commenters!
No highlight next week. Enjoy your 4th of July holiday!
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Comments
I chose Arabic in Little Pim. I learned the following words:
haleeb - milk
shawkah - fork
milaaqah - spoon
Looks to be a very useful service for kids who want to learn a new language. I think it would also be helpful for adults who would like to learn some basic words and phrases.
I previewed the following childrens books in Odilo:
A Tricky Sleepover (Una pijamada complicada)
Kicking It (Pateandolo)
A Monster in the mangroves (Un monstruo en las manglares)
I will definitely recommend Odilo to our Spanish speaking customers as we have a limited amount of Spanish books on our shelves. You can use the translate function to read the web page in English which will be helpful for staff who are not fluent in Spanish.
I would like to learn Spanish. I took 2 years of French in high school and haven't used it much since.
First, I chose Chinese. In the Chinese video I watched, there was a picture/video of the item, then they said the word, but when they showed the word, they used the Chinese characters instead of using pinyin, spelling them out using Roman letters. So, I'm not sure how helpful the videos are. The practice cards do have the items spelled out with pinyin, but since the video uses a different writing system than the cards, I'm not certain how helpful those will be.
So next I chose Arabic. The Arabic video I watched had the words romanized, so I was able to pick up a few.
apple: tuf-fa-ha
banana: mawzah
I think that these videos will be helpful to both kids and adults. I'm just not sure about how they did the Chinese ones. They romanized all of the other languages that use writing systems that aren't Roman-based (Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew).
I'm not sure why they opted to do it that way for the Chinese videos. You're right, I would struggle with the Chinese characters because I typically rely on the spelling to help me pronounce words.
I looked at 5 language videos in Little Pim. I agree that using Chinese characters was not helpful - I didn't have a clue. As for the other 4 languages, I can now ask for a an apple or a banana correctly in Spanish, una manzana = apple, un platano = banana; French, une pomme = apple, une banane = banana; in Italian, una mela = apple, une banana = banana; and finally, Hebrew, tapuach = apple, and banana = banana - who knew?. The video and the cards were fun; kids would like it.
I checked out Odilo for the books - good resource for Spanish speakers. I did a preview of a cookbook, but it only showed me the indices and the introduction, so no recipes in Spanish.
I took Spanish in high school and college, but I need a refresher to say the least. Also, I learned some Chinese from a friend who is Chinese and teaches Chinese, but I have not worked on it for awhile. I would like to get back to studying Mandarin.
Hi Kathy - am I understanding right that you previewed the book but didn't check it out? I just want to make sure it isn't a case of checking out a book only to find the whole thing didn't pull through.