News

We are a nosy bunch and so we’ve already had a quick sneak peek into the writing competition entries we have received so far. We’re so excited to have reached budding writers worldwide, e.g. from Finland, the USA and the Philippines! Keep the stories coming!

As Louis L’Amour said: “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” ✏

You still have enough time to write 225 words (15 words x 15 pages). The deadline is 30 June 2020.

A quick recap: the winning entry will receive £100. In addition, it will be professionally illustrated by Clive Goddard and translated into 20 languages on our bilingual books app. If you don’t already know Unuhi, just download our free book, ‘Rikki’s Week of Weather’, to see what a finished bilingual story book looks like! Get it on iOS or Android.

Please find full details at https://unuhi.com/june-2020-story-competition

We really look forward to reading all your entries! 😊

Here at Unuhi HQ we love good illustrations and know how important they are to bringing children’s books to life. They need to be engaging and help tell the story, especially to a younger audience who are learning a new language.

As we grow our library we will be looking for different styles and approaches from illustrators to bring our future stories to life. Could you be the next artist to illustrate a story for us? Perhaps the next winner from our international story writing competition could be illustrated by you!

Our first story “Rikki’s Week Of Weather” was illustrated by Simon Reid, an Oxfordshire based illustrator. We love Simon’s vision for Rikki and caught up with him to find out more about how he got started, his work and inspiration.

1. Hi Simon, when did you discover your passion for illustration? Who were your inspirations and which illustrators do you admire?

Like most illustrators, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t drawing. Reading The Beano cover to cover was a weekly ritual for me, and later I moved onto other comics, like Hergé’s Tintin, which is still a major inspiration. Eventually I started creating my own characters and stories, and my parents kept buying me exciting new art materials, encouraging my early efforts (and my stationery addiction). For a while I drew a regular comic about the unlikely adventures of our pet cats, called The Cat Gang. It was drawn in fine-liner and coloured pencils on A4, assembled into a booklet with a sellotaped spine, and then circulated around family members. Seeing people enjoy something I’d created out of nothing has stuck with me, and I’ve never really stopped doing that kind of thing!

A couple of my favourite cartoonists working today are Scott Campbell and Jim Woodring.

2. What kind of illustrations do you do and for what purpose?

My style is quite cartoony and whimsical, and luckily seems to lend itself to lots of different purposes. This year my work has been seen in textbooks, museums, video games, comics anthologies, exhibitions and at academic conferences. I like having this interesting mix of work and I hope it continues.

3. Do you prefer one medium over another?

Almost all of my work is completed digitally, using a graphics tablet and my computer – but I like to begin with lots of pencil drawings, just taking my time to develop the idea until I’ve settled on shapes and compositions that seem to work. Lately I’ve been trying to get used to drawing with an Apple Pencil on an iPad.

4. What were your thoughts for how you might illustrate Rikki’s Week of Weather?

Due to the target audience of the app, I had to resist adding too much visual information – it was all about communicating the particular vocabulary. It was also important not to clutter up the areas at the top and bottom of the screen, so that the text in the two chosen languages is always as readable as possible. Even within those limitations, I enjoyed coming up with the incidental details like the crab on the beach, the duck-shaped cloud, or Rikki’s spare arm left on the desk. The snowy day was my favourite page to illustrate!

I’m quite pleased with the friendly style with chunky, clean linework that we settled on, and I think Rikki has potential for more stories. I’d like to find out more about his home life, and how often he needs recharging.

5. What are your personal hobbies and interests?

Books, cats, music (I play bass guitar in a band) and video games.

6. What advice can you give to all the budding illustrators out there?

Draw a lot! But try to draw lots of different things, rather than settling onto a few things you can reliably doodle – that way you’ll keep developing and it’ll get easier to translate everything you see (or dream up) into your own unmistakable style. But it’s never that easy, so don’t get discouraged if it’s not quite working, as the next breakthrough might be one sketchbook page away. Don’t worry too much about having the best tools – just find something that feels comfortable, and get cracking. Don’t compare yourself to other artists’ successes or styles. Encourage and support other creative people that you like, and collaborate with them when you can.

We will certainly be working with Simon again soon on another adventure for Rikki, he’s proved really popular with our readers worldwide. For more information on Simon please visit his website at www.simonhreid.co.uk.

Unuhi: Bilingual Books for Children is available to download free on both iOS App Store and Google Play for Android. Rikki is our free book for everyone to try and it’s available in any combination of 20 languages, as are all our stories and flashcards. You choose!

How do bilingual books work?

Bilingual books are a wonderful aid to learning a second language and are particularly effective for toddlers and young children. They are sometimes referred to as ‘Dual Language Books’ or ‘Side-by-Side Books’ and have 2 different languages on the same page with the second language being a translation of the first, allowing the reader to compare vocabulary, language style, grammar and alphabetical characters with ease.

Bilingual books have been around since the 1980’s and are widely recognised as a valuable resource for parents and educators to use with children, as they provide a child-friendly bridge to reading and speaking in another language.

Some reading methods for you to try

There are many different ways to read a bilingual book and you will find the right method for you and your child. There is no right or wrong and bilingual books are there to bring the joy of storytelling to a language learning environment in a fun and interactive way.

1. Read the book first in the main language, then in the second/weaker language

One of the most popular methods is to read the story aloud in the child’s main language first, so that they can get to know it. Treat it like any other story book and look at the pictures, talk about the story and interact with the characters. Understanding the story in the stronger language can help in the process of learning the weaker language.

Go back and read the story again, this time in the second or weaker language and then again in the first language. Don’t worry if your pronunciation isn’t quite correct in the weaker language, just have fun trying it out. The idea is to stimulate curiosity and interest in the second language. When you think you and your child are ready, you can try reading the story in the second language only. Ask them to read it with you if they are keen to try.

2. Let your child have a go!

Above all encourage your child to have a go. Unlike adults, young children are usually not that self-conscious and this is excellent for building up confidence in a foreign language. Remember, having fun is the most important part of learning a language. Bilingual books provide a good base for this on many levels. Comparing the words, the different sounds and showing the new letters in a language’s alphabet are just a few ways to make languages fun and exciting.

A bilingual book will work in any language combination and here at Unuhi we feature 20 languages which makes for a total of almost 200 different language combinations! We are bringing bilingual books to as many kids as we can across the globe.

3. Remove the weaker language and ask your child to translate

For more advanced learners, try removing the weaker language and ask your child to have a go at translating into it. Then reveal Unuhi’s translation and see how they compare.

4. Go wordless

Remove both languages and go wordless! Wordless picture books are a fun way to promote creativity and imagination. You can enjoy Unuhi’s illustrations, talk about what you see and even create your own story.

5. Play games

Play games to identify the nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs in the stories. Find things that are interesting in the illustrations. (For example, have you spotted the duck-shaped cloud in ‘Rikki’s Week of Weather’?)

6. Try different languages

Randomly select a language and have fun letting another person guess which one it is.

7. Have fun with our flashcards

When you’re reading our flashcards, try to guess which other languages use the same word for the object you’re looking at. You might be surprised at the similarities!

Tell us your methods!

If you have a unique way of reading your bilingual books, or a game you play with the app, we would love to hear from you so please do get in touch with us

Why not download and try your first book for free? The Unuhi App is available on iOS and Android. Start reading bilingual books to your children today!

The advantages of speaking another language are well documented with new research adding to the list of bilingual benefits all the time. From improved problem solving and learning capabilities, to being more resilient against the onset of dementia to name but a few. There are also the economic, social, and cultural benefits to consider. On a personal level, I’ve always loved being able to switch back and forth between English and Italian to the amazement of my monolingual friends, even though in recent years “il mio italiano è un po ‘arrugginito”, but I still get by.

However being monolingual in the U.K is not uncommon. 10 years ago a survey carried out by the European Commission found the UK & Ireland were the two countries in Europe with the lowest rates of bilingualism – defined as being able to hold a conversation in more than one language. In fact it’s still predominantly English speaking countries that get a failing grade in this respect. That’s no doubt much to do with the fact that, even with Mandarin at the top of the world’s most spoken languages list with 1.2 billion, English is still by far the world’s lingua franca: the language of science and technology, business relations, diplomacy, popular culture and travel. Therefore one could argue that the high levels of bilingualism in non-English speaking countries is still driven by the specific need to learn English.

I must admit, I’ve not always been particularly interested in languages. I was first introduced to a second language when I started secondary school, but it didn’t excite me. I struggled, and spent most of the time “editing” the illustrations in the language books and laughing at the guy with the horrendous French accent. He would have us all in stitches.. but looking back now, at least he had a go.

No, I became interested in languages a couple of years later. I was about 15 and it was my first family holiday abroad in Spain. We were all sat in a restaurant to eat when I decided to ask the waiter where the toilet was in Spanish. I’d found a guide book on the aeroplane with a short list of Spanish words and just put some together to form the question. It did backfire a bit though, as the waiter replied to me in full speed Spanish. I hadn’t a clue what he’d said but not wanting to disappoint my proud (and surprised) parents, got up from the table, said “gracias” and casually walked towards a door in one corner of the restaurant hoping it was the loo…it wasn’t. But at least I had a go.

But that experience didn’t put me off, it rather ignited an interest for languages and travel.

I like to think I became ‘properly’ bilingual whist living in Rome during the mid 90’s. From arriving and only knowing only a few handy phrases to speaking quite fluently took about 6 months, after that I was really just adding to my vocabulary. Being immersed in the country and trying to work out there, I had little choice but to learn the native tongue. But this time I had an advantage… I actually wanted to learn the language. I loved the country, culture and way of life. I wanted to read, speak and listen to all things Italian. Oh and the food wasn’t bad either.

Being bilingual certainly helped me make friends, progress and make more of my time whilst living in Italy. I was even known to my friends out there as “Marco”, and was often told I spoke Italian with a roman accent, which I was very proud of. Being bilingual also helped me when I finally returned to the UK in finding work in the hospitality industry.

Thankfully now as language learning becomes ever more popular and the fact that being bilingual brings recognised benefits, many people are now exposed to a second language at a younger age. That’s good news, as we know children generally have a much easier time picking up foreign languages than adults.

We’d love to hear what motivated you to learn a second language. Was there a defining moment?

Here at Unuhi we want to play a part in a child’s discovery of new languages. We want to make the learning process between a bilingual parent and child as fun as possible, providing fun short stories in the two languages of your choice – we have 20 languages available!

Download the app (iOS and Android) and start reading your first book for free.