Some friendly advice

[flozfz]

Hi All - my wife is German and I am Egyptian - we lived in London and now we live in Denmark. Our kids speak four languages and we have encouraged them to express themselves with languages. They have tremendous capabilities to soak soo much in. Especially during the early years- but just remember to remove all pressure. Encourage them and respect them at the same time. Sometimes we decide that we have dinner in one language - and another night we pick a different language (usually involves one parent eating in total silence- but ultimately learning as well). We certainly also use technology - and an app that has helped us (only if you have an IOS device is attached)- it has 12 languages or so and is meant for bilingual or multilingual kids like ours- we have loved it.

https://apps.apple.com/dk/app/babylectus/id1468885557

 

[loloy]

@flozfz Did you speak four languages from the start or did you begin with the two languages of the parents and then add more along the way? Or did the environment just do the rest?

Our daughter is 1,5 years now. My wife speaks in her native language (Khmer) and I speak in mine (German). Sometimes my wife and I still communicate with each other in English just for convenience, however we try to stick to German when around our daughter. And she seems to be understanding both of our native languages just fine and is also learning words in both of them. So that's very encouraging so far. Just wondering if it's best to leave English out as much as possible for now and start introducing it when the other languages are a little more solid?

 

[flozfz]

@loloy Well I would certainly say that it was a very cautious decision that we made. We both speak our native languages with our child (mother German and myself Arabic). My wife and I exclusively communicate in English and so they have since birth been exposed to that- and we have been living in Denmark for three years- so all cartoons and dare care etc in Danish. The only thing you must never do is lose your patience or give up - and remember your expectations must be realistic - they will not equal good in all, and that is ok. Don’t beat yourself up or put pressure on them- make it fun to speak a language - not stressful

 

[kashif]

@flozfz Sounds really interesting thanks you for sharing. My daughter is two but I’ll show her the app anyway and let you now what she thinks about it . Bests of luck

 

[caaraa]

@flozfz Just posting to say your app is great! Well done and thank you. Hope you get to add more chapters and more languages. All the best!

 

[flozfz]

@caaraa This means so much to us. My wife and i have just spent sooo much time on this - we are passionate about it so your kind comment is truly rewarding. Please let me know if you can think of any improvements - and if you can drop us a 5 star review on the Apple store that would be amazing

 

[caaraa]

@flozfz Suggestions for chapters:
- Days of the week
- Numbers 1 to 25 (and possibly tens, hundreds, and thousands)
- Professionals (doctor, firefighter, nurse, etc.)
- Furniture

Suggested languages:
- French
- Persian

Suggested features:
- maybe add the number of words in each chapter and overall. This could be a good marketing tool (“Your kid can learn 300 words in each of 12 different languages!”)
- clarify what’s the difference between Level 1 and Level 2.
- Possibly add a “Submit feedback” button if you want.

Again, we love your app and look forward to using it when the time comes. It already works so well even without any of the above (which I only offer in response to your request). Thank you again.

 

[flozfz]

@caaraa Brilliant feedback - so helpful. Thank you soo much. This is pure Gold. If you know anyone that wants to do the recordings in any language let us know ! We have actually already added 3 languages organically via users that wanted to have their language on the app! It’s super simple, just need a native speaker that is happy to do the recordings on their iPhone

 

[caaraa]

@flozfz For finding volunteer native speakers, you could put out a request on certain language subreddits and probably expand by a few languages in just a few days

 

[flozfz]

@caaraa Great idea- will definitely try to run with that. Just curious - How come you suggested french and Persian?

 

[caaraa]

@flozfz Selfish reasons: those are two languages we’re looking for

 

[flozfz]

@caaraa not selfish at all. In my view no language should be forgotten. I will do my best! if anyone reading this is a native French or Persian speaker - please reach out to me so we can help 2025Goals!!!

 

[caaraa]

@flozfz I’m messaging you back after a long time to let you know we continue to love your app. Thank you for having spent the time and thought to put this together!

 

[cmagnum]

@flozfz Just downloaded it, can’t wait to play on it with my 3 year old daughter and 15 month old son.

 

[flozfz]

@cmagnum Amazing ! What languages do your little ones speak? So happy to hear this and excited to get your thoughts. Please also if not to much trouble, feel free to leave a 5 star review in the App Store- I know most people don’t do that but it would mean the world for us as that’s the only way for apps popularity to grow... but only if you like it of course

 

[cmagnum]

@flozfz Well my son is saying about 20 words in typical baby fashion. But my wife and I speak English to then, she doesn't speak any other languages. I've been talking to them more in spanish and my daughter knows a little. She usually tells me to stop speaking spanish though

 

[vimaster]

@flozfz Please help. I downloaded the app onto my kid's 2019 iPad mini, and it worked fine. I liked it and upgraded to premium, but, despite paying, the upgrade never went into effect. So I tried reinstalling the app, and now, not only can I not sign back in, I can't even sign up for another different account. In other words, after upgrading to premium, I am unable to even access the free version. I'm completely shut out of the app. When I enter my child's name and my email and password and click "Sign Up", it spins for about a minute or so, and then...nothing.

 

[flozfz]

@vimaster Oh dear. I am so sorry hear this - please do let me know the username and I will look into this. Due to News years holiday it might require a day or two. But let’s look to get it fixed- this should certainly not be happening

 

[vimaster]

@flozfz The Apple ID associated with the device for which the app won't allow me to sign up is [sent via PM]. I'm a bit confused, as I believe I had to sign up in order to use the free version of the app in the first place (I had already created a profile for my kid), and yet the "Forgot Password" doesn't recognize either my email address or my kid's.

My kid will actually be boarding a plane (without me) to China tomorrow evening (we're based in the Pacific Time Zone), so if it's possible to rectify this within the next 30 hours before we start driving to the airport, that would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[vimaster]

@flozfz I'm not sure if you made any changes, but I was able to log in, though I still cannot access the premium version that I paid for. After the "Fetching New Words" message, I get an error message stating "Error to download words. Please try again."