Dodo China ro has been Featured By Apple AppStore Education globally.
Q: What is your original thought of Dodo China?
Petty: I used to live and work in Shanghai. It gave me a good chance to contact with some Chinese –teaching teachers from China and some foreign people, who was learning Chinese and held strong interest in Chinese culture.From what they shared with me, I find that Chinese characters are not only a carrier of language, but an important way to know something deeper on Chinese ideology. Chinese characters look like pictures, which can be understood from their appearances. However, it was not easy for foreigners to recognize them because of their different language system. Neither could they tackle the obstacles of learning Chinese, nor would they miss the entry of cultural exploration. We should show the characters vividly in one scene. Take “山水鸟鱼” as an example, is there any possibility of combining them in a picture of “bird is flying over the mountain and fish is swimming in the water”? That’s the point where inspired us to create Dodo China.
Q: What is the purpose of mixing scenarios with Chinese characters?
Petty: We always pay much attention to culture when we refers to language learning. We hope it will never happen that language becomes a restriction of exploration of Chinese, especially for the one who is interested with aesthesis and living style of China. So, it is the key that how to find an appropriate way of mixing culture with language. We create scenarios which contain Chinese life as a combination in Dodo China, which include the life style of Chinese, the scenery of fields, the fair on the street, the lantern show for delivering miss and wishes, the changeable fate in Chinese drama, the adventure of finding Shifu in the forest. We hope users can enjoy themselves as the development of scenarios gradually and get a deeper understanding of the meaning of Chinese characters.
Q: What is the relationship of recognition between culture and children’s learning?
Petty: Strong curiosity and constant courage are demanded for the exploration of an unknown culture, which is similar to the fearlessness of children’s exploration of the world. When start to learn, children are not depend totally on adults, but themselves. For the world is full of various knowledge, daily life is the best teacher of them. As a researcher of children’s development, I saw many vivid examples in reality which children learn actively by themselves. The more initiative they be, the more will they learn in high quality. What’s more, they can have happier feeling during learning. What we hope is to bring such a good feeling as same as that in language learning and cultural communication. That’s what we wish: Dodo China, for every stormy brain, for every adventurous heart and forever-young you!
Q: I heard that your team is fond of the book River Town, can you share something with us?
Petty: We hope we can create a way for the world to know more about China. Furthermore, we are still on the way of multi-cultural exploration in high spirit. River Town move us deeply. It is a book written by a foreign individual about modern China. It is something far from “see, listen and feel”, but a rational understanding after experience and analysis. Based on “thought of modern life in China and Chinese life style”, the writer focuses on putting history and contradiction on the right place, observing the differences between eastern and western ideologies. The book won a prize which aims at encouraging the consistent of various culture. We also devote ourselves, holding the same purpose. We can accelerate people to understand each other under different cultures, helping the one who holds the wish to enjoy the cultural learning. That is not only the most important meaning of our hard-working, but also the necessity of the world with barriers and bridges, which owns multicultural value. It is the future which is worthwhile for us to fight for.
Q: “Moqi” is kind of Chinese style, is there any meaning or wish in it? What kind of cooperator is Moqi looking for?
Petty: “Moqi” is the transliteration of “More Chinese”, of which the pronunciations are similar. The aspiration of Moqi is to help more people know something about China. We hope we can cooperate with organization or individual which is fond of and familiar with Chinese culture, for strikes of thoughts as well as innovation, hoping customs and wisdoms will not disappeared in the river of history. What Moqi also believes is that language is not the fatal barrier of cultures and that we can provide a series of products without any language obstacle. If you are interested in Moqi, welcome to contact with us.