Learning Armenian is more colorful with Lala and Ara
Kouynerou Ashkhar’ (Kuyneru Aşkhar; World of Colors) is an application which is designed with the purpose of making Western Armenian a more commonly used language in daily life. Designed by Hamazkayin, a Beirut-based technology firm, this application aims for teaching Armenian to native Armenian speaker children and younger kids who don’t speak Armenian in simple ways. After collecting enough money with donations, ‘Kouynerou Ashkhar’ released for Android and IOS and it can be downloaded free.
‘Children don’t speak Armenian’
Arin Kalusdyan, the spokesperson of the project, stated that they are aware of the fact that using technological tools can cause addiction for children, but they also think that technology can be used for education. Speaking to Agos, Kalusdyan said that they designed this application, because they think that children might benefit from it. Saying that most of the children who live in Diaspora go to foreign schools and use mobile applications in foreign languages, Kaludsyan stated that, given these facts, designing an application is important.
‘We started from the colors’
Dealing with the pedagogical aspect of the project, Talin Yahniyan said that 3-4 years-old children knows that colors have different names and they started from colors, since they think that it would be useful to learn the colors in their native tongue. Voicing the characters in the application, Hera Nacaryan said that they created two characters called Lala and Ara. While children learn the rules of the games with the directions of Lala and Ara, they improve their pronunciation skills.
‘No memorizing’
Games in ‘Kuyneru Aşkhar’ are designed for children older than 3, and the main theme of the games is colors. There are four different games for each color chosen from 10 options. With the games like coloring the objects, playing duduk, matching the similar pictures, the application is designed with the purpose of teaching children Armenian with games without memorizing.
