Voices of TA-DA!: German International School of Silicon Valley
We’re so fortunate to have such great partners in top language schools, and one of our very first supporters was—and remains—the wunderbar German International School of Silicon Valley - or ‘GISSV.’
GISSV is the only German school endorsed by the German Consulate in the entire United States, and we applaud their dedication to the German language and culture.
We absolutely love what the school has to say about the advantages of a bilingual education: “Immersion in a second language equips children not only with an amazing capacity for language acquisition, but also a deep understanding of and appreciation for other cultures.” And TA-DA! launched with the Language Adventures series of books targeted to children 0-5+ with the desire to help kids achieve this head start in life.
Lucky us that GISSV is our neighbor, and we could pop right over recently (just weeks before the coronavirus arrived) for a recording session with their phenomenal students and staff, whose voices will help us teach other children the German language via our talking books. Racing to record as many voices as possible while our sound producer Jesse was in town (he’d taken a red-eye from Boston to California, and was heading back East shortly)—we knew we had to make this event happen!
To bring our books’ readers authentic voices, we focused on recording native speaking teachers and students who recently arrived from Germany. GISSV has a multitude of expat families and staff who come to the United States for shorter durations, so this worked beautifully. Together, we recorded words for TA-DA!’s ocean- and camping-themed Language Adventures series books.
These words may look easy at face value, but we all know language is complicated! Take English for example. Do we teach the word “panda” or “panda bear”? Do we feature “flamingo” or “pink flamingo”? For camping, do we include “bug spray” or “insect repellent”? We so enjoyed debating how complex every language is with this dedicated and enthusiastic team at GISSV.
We—both TA-DA! and GISSV—don’t take the missions that we have embarked on lightly. We are teaching children, and making a difference in their vocabulary. We’re so grateful to have as many bright minds weigh in as possible so that these books are indeed as effective as they are fun for the children for whom they are created.
We are extremely excited to keep working with the GISSV community to ensure TA-DA!’s German is perfekt (no translation needed)!
