Sign up for our LR Spanish Beta Testing Program (LIMITED SLOTS ONLY!)

[Kezia]

Hi everyone!

We're at the final stages in developing the Spanish Curriculum for Little Reader, and we're opening a beta testing program to do a final check and test run of the curriculum!

For this, we are looking for a limited number of  testers to join us in ironing out bugs in the beta version of the LR Spanish curriculum.

Qualified beta testers will do the following:

• Download and install the beta version of the LR Spanish curriculum. [Important: The latest LR version (v3.3.1440) is required for this beta test!]
  
• Have a look at the words, categories or course lessons and look for errors or problems (e.g., typo errors, missing recordings, pictures or videos, etc.)
  
• Report the bugs you find to the BrillKids Team
  

Successful applicants will get a special gift from us at the end of the beta testing period. 


Our Beta Testing Program is open to 5-10 native Spanish speakers who are also long-time users of our Little Reader program.
Note that our curriculum was developed for teaching Castellano Spanish (i.e., Spanish as spoken in Spain).


**UPDATE: Sign ups for the Beta Program is now CLOSED.**
For everyone who sent in an application, please check your email for our reply.


Didn't make it to the beta testing group? Don't worry - once the Spanish curriculum is officially released, you can download a free trial of it!

[Chukwuma]

I sent an email asking about this earlier today but no one has replied...

[Skylark]

Dear Chukwuma,

I am sure you will receive an email shortly, and applications will be considered in an order they were received, so no worries!

If you have sent your email in the morning your time, it is very possible it was the middle of the night in HK  , that is the beauty and the downside of a very international community -- it is always a day somewhere in the world, but it is also easy to forget about time difference 

Thank you for your application and our tech support team will be getting back to you shortly.

[Chukwuma]

Thanks Skylark!

[Tamsyn]

I don't qualify, but I'm thrilled to see this post because I know it means that it's only a matter of time before you release it to non-native speakers like me.  Yay!

[Kezia]

Hi everyone! To those of you who signed up for beta testing these past few days, please check your inbox. 

[luv2laugh]

Congratulations on making it to the Beta Testing stage.  That is very exciting!  We were looking forward to this version, but were disappointed to see Castellano.  If you ever do a spanish version for those of us in the United States, my husband/daughter will be excellent beta testers.

Good thing you can customize little reader.  I think that will be a task my hubby will enjoy doing for the girl.  At 3 months of age, we still have some time before we have to get our act together.

[Skylark]

Even though everyone around us do not speak Castelliano, I am absolutely not dissapointed in the fact that LR is in Castelliano, in fact I am very happy that it is!

Here is my personal point of view on this. Between my husband and I we lived in a numerous countries where Spanish is spoken. Each country has its peculiar way of speaking Spanish, some even call it differently    , like in Chile, they were calling it Chileno and some people in Argentina were saying we dont speak Spanish, we speak Argentine. But we were all able to understand each other. Sure there were some differences, but it was not a problem. And I would be more then happy to expose my children to Castelliano, even though all the people around where we are now ( if they speak Spanish) speak other dialects of it.

With world becoming more and more global, I expect my children will travel a fair bit, there is also a very big possibility they will work or study or live abroad. So getting them familiar with diversity of the language is always a plus.

For that very reason we get our children familiar with British English and various various US accents ( seriously CA English is as different from Minnesota English as Castelliano from Chileno  ), we are not "teaching" them different accents, but simply they are exposed to them as a normal part of life.

[NPLight]

I can understand the disappointment, but I wouldn't skip this opportunity only due to the difference in accents. I'm one of the lucky ones beta testing the Spanish version and I have to say that it is absolutely wonderful! It is very well translated and the voices are really professional and nice to hear. My twins have been working with the English (British) version, and with my own Spanish translations (without voice), and they really really like it!!! It takes their attention much more than the English version. It will save me a lot of time with my boy, who is not reading Spanish yet.
BTW, I expose them equally to British and American English.
Anyway, maybe the BK people will do the Latin version as well, once the curriculum is done, "only" the recordings have to be changed.

[luv2laugh]

There is a possibility that my disappointment was unfounded.    Husband and I were bummed out and then remarked on how it just shows where the demand for BrillBaby is from. 

And I may be completely incorrect - I am a novice to Early Learning, but I am not comfortable with her being consistently exposed to a different accent.   When it comes to Mandarin, French or ASL, it isn't that important to us which variation she uses or picks up.  Spanish is going to be one of her major languages though, along with English.  It is a big deal to my husband, born in Mexico, that she speaks it the same way he does.  My husband takes a lot of pride in his ability to speak clear and proper Spanish and although there is nothing improper AT ALL about Castellano, it doesn't reflect her heritage correctly.  I hope that makes sense, without offending.

We have plans in place to continue her Spanish education without BrillBaby, but we def. would have purchased it, if it were latin.  We probably still will and will mix it up (I'm glad to hear it is fun and visually appealing!)  I would just feel horrible if I mixed up her accent when I know this is so important to my husband. She is only 3.5 months and I just feel like she is just soaking this stuff in. 

[Chukwuma]

Luv2 Laugh
Really you shouldn't worry about LR in Spanish having influence over your child's accent! You are missing out on an excellent resource for silly reasons. With your child's father being Mexican, the MAJOR influence on how she speaks Spanish will come from him! A year of Early Learning LR to read Spanish at such a young age will not be able to alter that at all! All it will do is teach your child to read in Spanish. Sure some words are different. Well, you can always change those if you want - go into LR and change the recordings and the words. But even then I think that would be silly. Your child will simply learn 2 words for some things. It is an ADVANTAGE, not a disadvantage! All knowledge is good. You will just be providing your child with more knowledge.

I understand your concerns, especially as it must be irritating that the Spanish from Spain is often considered to be the 'proper' Spanish. But I cannot see any disadvantage for you in using LR in Spanish. Go on... you'll never find anything else as good. Why not get your husband to do the sessions with her and then he can always repeat some sentences, using the Latin vocab and emphasis? Then she'll hear both.

I wish you all the best with it. I hope I haven't been too forthright...

[luv2laugh]

Chukwama, you haven't been too forthright at all. 

I'm probably over thinking this.  I've listened to Learn Spanish type CDs for Castillian before and it's not a big deal - the accent actually isn't that different, now that I think about it.  The major difference is the /th/ sound for s and, like you said, a few words. 

When they release the version to everyone, I'll let my husband decide what he wants to do. I'm sure that you are right, if he's sitting there with her, he can just correct her when needed.

[NPLight]

And another question is, what is exactly "latin"?  I have family and friends from Mexico, Colombia and Argentina, and, I'm sure you will agree, they all speak differently!!! Different words and different accents.
I have used a lot of Spanish resources (in latin Spanish) from the BK library, and I just corrected and recorded the words that are not used here in Spain. LR is completely customisable 

[Lappy]

Great to have read all of your wonderful feedback. Thanks so much for being so open with your opinions, and rest assured we do listen to them and they are important to us.

When we're ready to release the Spanish version, we'll be releasing a trial pack for it - pretty much the same trial pack we let users download for our different languages: this way, you won't ever have to buy without trying some of it out. We are big-time believers in allowing our potential users and members to make an informed decision after having experienced how the products work for themselves, and that hasn't changed (and I think it never will!)

We're very much looking forward to being able to launch this new language pack, and all we can ever hope for is for people to enjoy teaching their kids with it as much as we have enjoyed making it.

[Boca Beth]

Hola/Hi -

I applaud any person and any company who tackles this glaring gap in our country's education - where here in the U.S. we do not teach our young children any second language until middle school.  Experts have all agreed for years that the easiest time for children to learn a 2nd language is between birth to five (and at least before age 12).

I have a language program that I have shared for years, and I welcome another person (people) in the marketplace to help raise the awareness that our young children CAN and SHOULD learn more than English.

Bravo -

Boca Beth
www.BocaBeth.com

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