Learn a new language...

There's lot of research and anecdotal evidence that learning a language is a mind-broadening experience. Maybe "learn a new language" is on your list of things to do this year! Or maybe on your child's list?  (or your list for them!)

We've been playing around with some products from BilingualMe recently, broadening our minds! :) I am a great fan of learning languages, and even knowing a few words in another language is already a good step. I don't know if I'd have picked Chinese as the next language to learn, but it certainly has been an interesting experience!

The LOYO Pen

We all know Chinese is a very difficult language. So, if no one at home speaks it, how are you going to learn? Books aren't going to be enough because the pronunciation is so challenging. BilingualMe has created a book and audio-pen set that meets the challenge. This set would also be useful for Chinese-speaking children wanting or needing to learn English, as it goes both ways.

Bilingual Me Publishing House Inc. is a Canadian company that specializes in Chinese learning for children to improve their Mandarin Chinese vocabulary and pronunciation. Non-Chinese speaking families, particularly members of FCC (Families with Children from China), will enjoy this easy to use educational product and learning system.

The LOYO (learn on your own) pen has several settings, and can be volume-adjusted. It hooks up via USB (cable included) to your computer for recharging (hooray for not having to buy and replace batteries all the time!) and for downloading audio files. It is easy to operate - Jonathan basically figured it out on his own! The pronunciation of the words is clear and articulate, enabling the learner to easily hear and replicate the sounds.

The My First Words Set includes 8 books on a variety of subjects, including family, colours, numbers, food and more. Each page displays colour photographs of the items in question, along with the English words, Chinese characters and Chinese words in English letters (this transcription into Roman letters is called Pinyin - you learn something new every day!). I'm assuming the Chinese is all correct - however there are a few minor errors in English. The set comes with instructions on how to use the pen with the books. As well, there are demo videos on the website and on YouTube to help a new user get familiar with the set.

My First Words Series
Touch and Talk technology enabled
Features:
•High quality pictures
•Child-friendly everyday words
•Standard pronunciation
•Big characters with Pinyin
•Bilingual (English and Mandarin)
•Spoken language - Mandarin Chinese and English
•Written language  - Simplified Chinese and English

Here's Jonathan giving a quick demo of how one of the family member pages in the "My..." book works (excuse the sibling interruptions - it's hard to keep everyone away from the action!). He has used it a few times over the last month or so, and has caught on to how the system works easily. Because he can read in English, he is able to listen to the Chinese sound, and find it on the page using the words written in our letters. If you listen carefully, you'll hear him saying some of the sounds as well. This is another example of how much easier it is for a child to learn a new language than an adult! Without any preconceived notions of how difficult it might be, he has just jumped in, and picked up a few words!

We also received a calendar - the 2012 DIY fun days Talking Calendar. For each month of the year, you can mark holidays and fun events on your calendar by using the 180 full-colour talking-pen enabled stickers, or you can draw a picture, or stick a photo, or write some fun messages.

A new set is in development, called Everyday Dialogs. This will build on the vocabulary learned in the "My First Words" books, and help learners use their new words in a sentence or simple conversation.

The books and pen work really well together, and are absolutely inseparable if no one around you speaks Chinese! They are available for purchase through BilingualMe as well as on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com

**Disclosure: The products mentioned above have been given free of charge from BilingualMe in exchange for being featured on Glimpse. The opinions expressed in this post are those of Glimpse and have not been influenced in any other way. Please see the full Terms of use.