Voices of TA-DA!: San Francisco High School of the Arts

By Elsabete Kebede 

Earlier this year, two members of our team—Jesse Lewis (sound engineer extraordinaire) and Michelle Glorieux (our committed CEO)—were on a two-day race to complete a series of sound recordings at top schools in the Bay Area.

One of those stops was to visit the bright students at the San Francisco High School of the Arts (formerly Xian Yun Academy of the Arts) to record with their  native Mandarin Chinese-speaking students and staff.

San Francisco High School of the Arts’ name says it all: they nurture students who are passionate about the arts. Whether it be a student who focuses on traditional Chinese dance or one who enjoys classical music, they are dedicated to preserving culture and expressing oneself through art.

That dedication to “lifelong learning, independent thought, and creative exploration” is one that resonates deeply with the TA-DA! team.

Art, in a variety of different mediums, plays a significant role in how TA-DA! engages young language learners.

TA-DA!’s talented illustrators bring stories and culture to life through their drawings.

And with the help of team member Jesse—a four-time Grammy-Award winning recording engineer—all of TA-DA!’s products feature original sound and/or music written and performed by our partner musicians.

When working with the students at the school, Jesse was focused on building a warm, friendly environment—which in turn engendered more authentic “performances” from the students when they were speaking and recording key vocabulary words.

The TA-DA! team also prioritized carefully balancing the standard pronunciation and the authenticity of the native voices. Unlike English and other languages of the Germanic family, Mandarin is a tonal language which uses tones to differentiate words and their distinct meanings. This means there is a standard pronunciation for each word with an invariant tone in a given context.

However, as Jesse noted:

TA-DA! intern Vivian Yang with sound recording engineer Jesse Lewis

“You want to hear the most comfortable version of somebody coming from these books. You don’t want this canned, clinical, linguist version of the pronunciation. You need some vernacular. You need some fun, some joy.”

And while TA-DA! regularly consults with linguists and our school partner in China for accuracy of the pronunciations, we also want to make sure you hear the way the native speakers naturally talk in a joyful conversation.

As Michelle, our CEO, notes,

“TA-DA!’s creations are “meant for kids”—and thus need to be both authentic and fun”.

Keeping a close eye (or shall we say ear) on the day’s recording proceedings was TA-DA!’s rockstar intern Vivian Yang, a University of California-Berkeley student and native Mandarin speaker. Not only was Vivian key to ensuring that all the Mandarin words were pronounced correctly in the moment, she also translated on behalf of a young student who had only arrived in the U.S. a few weeks prior and did not know any English. Thank you for being our on-site ambassador and linguist, Vivian!

TA-DA! is so lucky to have interns, and friends like those at San Francisco High School of the Arts who are willing to join us on this journey.

Thank you for helping make our dreams to provide accessible, authentic, and entertaining language-learning for kids internationally a reality!

谢谢！