DISGRASIAN™

Who Says You Have To Be Asian To Be A Hardass Asian Parent?

We talk about our Hardass Asian Parents a lot, and the ways in which they, um, pushed us to succeed molded us into perfectionists put us into therapy for life raised us, but the truth is, you don’t have to be Asian to be a Hardass Asian Parent. Take, for example, Ben Morrison.

Morrison, a web developer, created an iPhone app called Langu, because he and his wife adopted a daughter from Taiwan, and they wanted her to grow up fluent in both Mandarin and English. Cute, right?

But wait. There’s more. In addition to the app, Morrison told Wired‘s GeekDad that he also uses these tools to help his daughter learn what would’ve been her native tongue:

We do our best to expose her to many different channels of learning the language, like Mandarin immersion preschool, Chinese picture books, even bootleg “Dora the Explorer” translated into Chinese.

Mandarin immersion preschool AND Chinese picture books AND bootleg “Dora the Explorer” videos translated into Chinese AND you write your own iPhone language app for toddlers that features a “Quiz” mode?!

GeekDad writer Jonathan Liu’s 3 year-old trying out Langu

Not content to sit on his laurels (or let his daughter sit on hers, either), Morrison has other educational iPhone apps in the works:

I’ve been kicking around some ideas for other iPhone apps, most of them center around something I want Violet to learn… probably reading or math next. And of course, if Langu’s well received, I’d like to make more versions… I’d want to tackle Arabic or Hindi next—I like typography, and am easily excited by non-Latin characters.

Good lord, this guy makes my own Hardass Asian Dad, who used to make me go to Chinese school occasionally, do math workbooks over summer vacation, and write up reports on what I’d read in Scientific American, look downright soft.

Hardass Parents of All Stripes: The Langu Mandarin iPhone app is available here.

[GeekDad: Langu Teaches Your Toddler to Be Bilingual (or More)]

Source

Filed under: Adoption, Apple Products, Chinese School, Hardass Asian Dads, Hardass Asian Parents, Hardass Parents of All Colors, iPhone Apps, Learning Chinese, Mandarin Speakers

Tea Party Bonus: Learning Chinese

I get a sick kind of thrill watching tea party footage on YouTube (same feeling washes over me when listening to my cousins lamely rant about Obama being a socialist, while unable to accurately define the word “socialism”). This week’s March on Washington was no exception–the ultimate assemblage of loud, confusing folks, touting clever catch phrases like “Fire Those Wacky Czars” and “Thank You Glenn Beck,” and protesting… well, just about everything.

Some highlights:

Truth be told, I was rather unimpressed by most of the weekend protesterszzZZzZZz, who didn’t seem to bring anything really new or interesting to the tea party table!

But one guy from the selection above actually did catch my eye:

He got me thinking. I was like, OMG, I really struggle with learning languages. My Vietnamese is nil and my Spanish pretty spotty. How the fuck am I going to learn Chinese? We DEFINITELY need to stop the spending (whatever that means)!

But then I realized, if we DON’T stop the spending (whatever THAT means), maybe there’s a slim chance that at some point down the line, somebody might SPEND and BUY me Rosetta Stone for Mandarin. Then I could develop a sharp alternative speaking tongue! THEN Jen (who speaks Mandarin) and I (who will speak Mandarin) can trash annoying people (their outfits, their poor conversation skills, et cetera) with our secret language right in front of their face, whenever we want! How cool would that be?!?!?!? THEN I WOULD BE THE HAPPIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD!

I wish I could tell that dude “thank you” for calmly presenting both options and helping me cement my position on learning Chinese. I’m into it! Guys, let’s DO it (whatever that means)!!

[WSJ: Angry, Polite 'Mob' Descends on D.C.]

Thanks, Marshall!

Filed under: Conservatards, Crappy Rallies, Glenn Beck, Government Spending, Learning Chinese, March On Washington, Missing the Point, Republicans, Silly Shit, Stuff and Nonsense, Tea Parties, Total Failures