Pick Some Words Out of Little Pim’s Word Bag

When you’re learning a foreign language, it’s helpful to have frequent vocabulary reminders for words you have learned. To help with that, the creators of the Little Pim DVDs (which Jonathan and I reviewed recently) have written an app for the iPhone/iPod Touch called Little Pim’s Word Bag*. The app contains both Spanish and French nouns which are a subset of the words taught on the DVDs.

When you start up the game, choose which language, French or Spanish, that you want to study. Within each, the words are split among three different topics: eating and drinking, wake up smiling and playtime. Once you have made your choice, Little Pim the panda rolls in with his messenger bag and greets you. His bag starts shaking, signaling you to tap the bag. Little Pim then takes out an item and says the word for it. The item and the word for it go to the bottom of the screen. When the screen width is full, the words and pictures shift to the left. You can always shift them back to review words. When you’re done with a section, touch the back arrow to go to the main menu for that language.

The program is identical in both French and Spanish, except for the language. Since there are no English words in the app, it encourages you to think only in the language you are studying. This app is perfect for reinforcing the words already learned in the DVDs. Since all of the words are written on the screen, you learn the words visually and auditorily. I personally find this very helpful, since my entire family seems to learn visually. Being able to see how a word is spelled helps us to remember more.

I wish that Little Pim would use each word in a sentence, too, but at this price, it is a cute, fun, interactive and educational activity for kids. It is most helpful to use along with the DVDs, to reinforce vocabulary words, but it is also very fun and helpful on its own. I hope that they’ll come out with apps for the other languages offered on DVD.

The Little Pim’s Word Bag app is $1.99 at the iTunes Store.

Wired: Adorable panda, very useful vocabulary words, reinforces learning from the Little Pim DVDs, good price for what you get.

Tired: Limited number of words, wish there were more languages offered.

* I received a free copy of this game to review.