LEX language materials

[elaida]

I've acquired a few LEX language learning materials, so I am just writing to share more information about them for those of you who are interested.

Their website is http://www.lexlrf.org . Some of the interesting links on their website include the PDFs from the speaker series they ran a few years ago http://www.lexlrf.org/Arlington%20Lecture%20Series/Lecture%20Schedule.htm and their ideas for how to use language learning materials http://www.lexlrf.org/Our%20CDs%20&%20Books/Files%20for%20Languages/Listening%20To%20LEX%20Audio%20Materials.pdf . A sample of their material can be found at http://www.lexlrf.org/Our%20CDs%20&%20Books/Listen%20Languages.htm

I purchased the Family Mini Set, which is more geared towards children than their other offerings. Once one has purchased a starter set, that qualifies you to buy additional materials at a discount when they have sales. My understanding is that sales occur a couple of times a year (there seems to be one in September and they were discussing maybe having one earlier as well) and represent a significant savings (up to 40%) off the "list price".

The family mini set includes their "Sing Along! Dance Along!" (SADA) series of songs. This is an 8 CD collection of songs. The first 5 CDs contain a mix of songs in Mandarin Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish. The 6th and 7th CDs contain songs in Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Indonesian, Malay, Portuguese, and Thai. The 8th CD has additional songs, mostly in English (12), with 1 song each in French, German, Korean, and Mandarin Chinese.
The total distribution of languages of the 123 songs is as follows:
English 34
French 11
German 11
Mandarin Chinese 10
Spanish 9
Korean 8
Portuguese 5
Arabic 4
Cantonese 4
Indonesian 4
Italian 4
Japanese 4
Malay 4
Russian 4
Hindi 3
Thai 3
Mixed languages (English, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, French) 1

8 of the songs (6 English, 2 Japanese) are marked as being original to the Hippo Language Club (what their language clubs are called in Japan).

The set comes with individual books for each CD 1-7 (6&7 are combined in one book) that has the lyrics in the original language for each song on a double-page spread with an illustration. The lyrics for the Extra CD (the 8th one) are printed on a glossy sheet of paper that was included in the CD case). There is also a separate pamphlet in English that lists all the songs and provides a short description of the topic of the song. No other translations are provided.

For those who are interested, I've attached the list of songs in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish that are included in the collection. This list does not include the songs that are original to the Hippo Language Club or the songs in other languages since I am not familiar with typing in those other languages (e.g., the Arabic songs are provided with Arabic titles and Arabic lyrics).

The Family Mini Set also includes Book 1 in their Kabajin series. The Kabajin series has stories that are more geared towards younger children. Book 1 is titled "What am I?" and the main character (Kabajin) is a hippopotamus that is trying to figure out what he is and he goes around and meets other kinds of animals. At the end of the story is a song. Included are two books. One book is the story in comic book style in English. The other book is a transcript of the story in all seven languages. Each line of the story is presented in German, Korean, English, Mandarin Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish. One line is printed in those languages (in that order), and then the next line of the story is printed in those languages in the same order. The lyrics of the song are then printed in each of the languages. There are no pictures in the transcript book.

There are six CDs for Kabajin Book 1. Each CD has two tracks. Tracks are about 18-22 minutes long. The first track is the English/focus language track. The second track is another language with the focus language track. The specific language pairs are listed in the table below. Each track reads each line of the story in the first language listed and then the second language listed. The idea is that you can use a new language that you have learned to bridge your learning with yet another language.

CD	Track 1	Track 2
Japanese	Japanese-English	Japanese-Korean
French	English-French	French-German
Spanish	English-Spanish	Spanish-French
German	English-German	Japanese-German
Chinese	English-Chinese	Japanese-Chinese
Korean	English-Korean	Korean-Chinese

The Kabajin Series includes 3 other books/stories in the same format, but these are not included in the Family Mini Set, so they would be an additional purchase.

LEX also offers two story series that are topically geared more towards high school/adult level language learners. These are the "Hippo Goes Overseas" and the "Multilingual Friends Around the World" series. Both are offered as "Transnational Editions" in the starter sets with the option to purchase individual language versions once one has acquired any of the starter sets. In the Transnational versions, there are 7 CDs. Each track of the CD represents a chapter in the story. Within a CD, the tracks include a mix of languages (e.g., Track/Chapter 1 may be English and Track/Chapter 2 may be Spanish and Track/Chapter 3 may be Chinese). If you rip all 7 CDs, you can reassemble the complete story in each of the 7 languages as well as make your own mixed-language playlists. Transcripts are provided in the accompanying book(s).

I have a single language version of the Hippo Goes Overseas story. The playing time is close to an hour. What I noticed is that the language is not an exact translation, one-for-one from the English version of the story. Instead, they do customize the language to match what phrases would typically be used in the culture that uses that language. I think that is a good thing. When you buy a single language version, you only get the transcript book for that language and not any translations to another language.

Overall, the audio quality seems to be very good/clear, and the speakers enunciate words clearly and have proper accents. They do sound like professionally recorded works. For all the stories, they have different speakers for each of the characters. So, the child characters sound like children, the male characters sound like males, etc.

Hope this helps, and I'll try to answer any additional questions that people might have.

[Kristiina]

Hello elaida!

Thank you for sharing! This looks great ! I added the link to my collection so I can get it easily when needed.

Does anyone have any experiences how did this program work and what kind of language expertise children have been able to gain using this program?

Kristiina

[Mandabplus3]

Awesome thanks for all the details.
So now you have it do you think it was worth the money? It seems to be a lot of resources in terms of language options but less resources in terms of language depth. That does sound like a lot of audio overall!
Do you know anything about the Hippo language club? I am looking to find Japanese children's resourses especially music and it is very difficult as I don't read Japanese. Audio stories, music and even books are hard work to track down. Perhaps their club in Japan might have something more than 4 songs?

[elaida]

Hi,

I've visited the LEX America office in the USA twice now. The first time was about a year ago, when I was pregnant. I went to see what a Hippo Club meeting was like and attended the Saturday club meeting. I found the energy level fairly low because the attendance was not very good that day. There were 4 staff people (2 staff and 2 interns), a family (1 dad and 2 middle-school aged children), and another lady. Basically, they played a number of selections from their CDs and people would try to imitate the CD together. Participants could request specific languages. They usually have a set of motions that they do with the children's songs (that's why the set is called "Sing Along! Dance Along!"). They only teach them at the club meetings, but they say that the important thing isn't the specific motion, but that you get up and "dance"/move with the music. Some of it is fingerplay like stuff, and some of it is like the youtube video that was linked in the attachment to the original post. They also played some language games. One was focused on colors, where there were multiple squares of various colors scattered on the floor. We went around the circle and each person called out a color in the language of their choice and everyone else would try to grab a square in that color.

I went to visit again last week. I had wanted to see what their Tuesday morning meeting is like, since they said that is the one with their best attendance and lots of children. Unfortunately, DS usually naps at that time, so we didn't arrive until the end of the meeting. It was definitely better attended (maybe about 15 parents/kids) and had a number of little kids (toddler-preschool). I showed up just as they were doing their goodbye song, so I didn't get to see what the meeting was like, but I could tell that it was more energetic. Afterwards, I met one club member who was a mother with a son a few days younger than mine (he was there, too). While I was purchasing the starter set, another mother showed up with a 7 month old baby asking to restart her membership.

Yes, I was surprised by the number of songs in some languages (being fewer than I expected). However, I think that is partially because of demand and partially because their goal is one of getting people familiar with the sound of the language (so you can identify which language is which) and basic mimicking of the language. You'd need supplemental material for true fluency/understanding (this is my opinion).

I don't know yet whether it was worth the money (ask me again in 5 years!). I am planning to participate in the language club in the fall (when DS should be napping only once a day so the club meeting times won't interfere with his naps) and wanted to get a head start on being familiar with the materials. So, it was kind of a necessary purchase sooner or later. The mother I met had been a club member before having her first child. I asked her what she listens to with her child, and she does the "Hippo Goes Overseas" series, since she is interested in learning the languages herself and has been working with that series for some time. So, her child just listens to that as well. She says that they spend 30 minutes a day listening to the series and working on mimicing sounds together.

Overall, I think you can do better by assembling your own set of materials, especially if you have particular languages you want to learn. For example, I'm not that interested in the languages on CDs 6&7, but am paying for them anyways.

I don't know if their club in Japan has more songs. To them, Japanese would not be a foreign language, so I think they would not include many Japanese songs for that reason (and English would be language they want to learn, thus the heavy set of English songs).

I did some searching on the internet for Japanese language learning resources (since I was curious as to what is available). I've found the following. Perhaps you know of them, but if not, you can try them out. In the past, I've searched for Chinese language resources (which are easier to find) and used Google Translate (http://translate.google.com/ ) to translate web pages that I can't read. By doing so, you can get around a lot of websites (but not the ones that are heavy on image navigation).

Music/Songs
http://www.mamalisa.com/?p=528&t=ec&c=85 has a list of songs with Japanese and transliteration (romanji) as well as English translation and the music
http://www3.u-toyama.ac.jp/niho/song_e.html has more songs, sorted by level
http://www.tofugu.com/2010/08/02/using-kid%E2%80%99s-songs-to-learn-japanese/ has six youtube video songs

Online Learning
http://www.erin.ne.jp/ video series geared towards kids (with navigation in a number of other languages)
http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/language/ has basic language lessons as well as a games section

DVD
http://dinolingo.com/ a DVD program - somewhat expensive (no idea if it is any good or not, just putting it here since I had not heard of it before)

Books/Materials from Japan
http://shop.whiterabbitjapan.com/ has graded readers (e.g., they sell this set http://www.nihongo-ask.jp/tadoku/index.html , which does not include any English, but does include audio) in Japanese as well as a service that will ship you anything from Japan. I think the best source is probably stuff from Japan itself. You might ask if they can also help you find what you are looking for, or you can navigate Japanese bookstores with the help of a website translator (like Google Translate).

http://stores.ebay.com/Pacific-Planet/Childrens-Books-Eng-other-/_i.html?_fsub=14472393&_sid=35814357&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322 this eBay seller carries a number of Japanese children's books (there are probably other eBay sellers, too)

http://forum.koohii.com/viewtopic.php?id=8295 scroll down to see a list of kids websites and stories (may need Google Translate for many of the sites). Attached to this post is a copy of the book that is available at http://p.booklog.jp/book/29948 (listed on the koohii page). I did OCR it using Adobe Acrobat so that the text would be copyable.

Online stores that specialize in books in other languages
http://www.internationalchildbook.com/category/21940499 has a few books in English/Japanese
http://multilingualbooks.com/bilingual-japanese.html also has a few books in English/Japanese

Other
http://www.jbby.org/en/ lists good children's books in Japanese. Could ask the White Rabbit service above to get some of these for you.

Hope this helps!

[Mandabplus3]

Oh how generous of you! I know of some of these but certainly not all of them! I shall add some links for you once I go though all that you listed. I am sure I found a couple not yet on there.
I found a number of Japanese children's CDs on iTunes ( although it took a few searches to narrow the field to ones actually in Japanese!) which we will start using Tuesday.
I spent some time researching polyglots over the weekend and a number of them suggest shadowing as a way to learn a language quickly with minimal accent. Basically you play any audio and try to copy it just a fraction behind the speaker. I figure the easiest way for kids to do this is with singing children's songs. A step up from that is probably audio books ( which I can't find in Japanese in any quantity)
You mentioned a lady who listens and copies for 30 mins a day. I was wondering if the language club has a recomendation for time spent each day? From my experience 30 mins a day should do it if you are doing one language.maybe even if you are doing two, splitting the 30 mins throughout the week. ( I guess that means 3 languages anyway, if you are speaking one all day long  ) this is our aim now. 30 mins a day in 2 languages. ( school run is almost 30 mins, kids are receptive in the morning and fight it in the afternoon so morning only just now) plus music in those languages on the weekend. Anyway I am curious if anyone has found any specific recommendations. Based on the 10000 hrs to excellence model we may have to up the time but excellence isn't my aim here just adequate 
The dinosaur DVDs look like loads of fun for younger kids. I think in your situation with a young child they could be perfect! Perhaps due to the price just use them for the language that you have the most difficulty finding resources for. My youngest is 5...he will probably still enjoy them though. Definitely on the list to consider.
We like the wink to learn DVDs. If you get on their mailing list you will get send discounts of up to 40% a few times a year.
Google translate is awesome but like you said the Japanese LOVE technology and so they always have sites heavy  in graphics buttons!  I just find it hard to believe that a nation that prides itself on education as much as the Japanese do doesn't flaunt their language and culture to the world for others children's education. It doesn't make sence. 
thanks for your help.    I will share anything I find that's really good!

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Manda,

Ask me about acquiring Japanese materials and books in about 3-6 months....will be happy to ship. And I know I have mentioned these on this forum before, but we have had the best luck to learn the basic stuff through these apps. http://drmoku.com/hiragana-free/ You can even download the free versions on your i-things. If you haven't checked them out already, definitely do! We are making progress (slow progress) but we are at least moving in the right direction.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Elaida, this is a great list of resources, thank you!!!

Can anyone figure out how I can save these? http://www3.u-toyama.ac.jp/niho/song/musunde/musunde_e.html It has a link for the mp3 and the midi, but I can't tell how to save it? I looks like it allows for it because the icons are seemingly there.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

oh and I just saw that this company will ship ANYTHING to you from Japan, they offer a mail forwarding service! Very cool.

[Mandabplus3]

Awesome TMT can't wait til you move  maybe you can find the elusive Japanese audio story books!
Anyway I recently bought this
http://genkienglish.net/genkijapan/download.htm
I think it is good value as far as Japanese resources go. It would be a great kit for EL parents as it contains flash cards for all the alphabets and lots of posters. It's completely downloadable too which means NO POSTAGE! Yay! My kids love the songs ( a couple drive me nuts but I can't help but sing along With them  )
He is one so you know just how much fun they are 
http://youtu.be/o-vPmoyoSgs

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Cool thanks will check it out! http://nihongo-e-na.com/ was just posted today on the Hiragana Mama blog. I get her updates via email- http://hiraganamama.wordpress.com/author/hatsuho/

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