Kiddie Twi First Words Is Available

Kiddie Twi First Words is available on the Apple App Store now. Kiddie Twi First Words is a fun educational app that teaches children and even adults the names of things and how to say them in Asante Twi.

Kiddie Twi First Words is free with four basic but very important topics. You’ll learn how to say the Twi Alphabet, Numbers, Colours and Shapes and after that you can play simple fun games to reinforce what you’ve learnt.

IMG_5537

If you want to learn some more you can upgrade for only $1.99 to unlock eight more topics including Fruits, Food, Animals, Human body, Clothes, Home, Transport and Nature.

IMG_5538

IMG_5539

Download Kiddie Twi First Words now.

 

Kiddie Twi First Words Is Coming Soon

 PROVERB: “Go mu yɛ, ntɛm yɛ”

EXPLANATION: “Ɛtɔ berɛ bi a, na ntwentwɛnsoɔ ne ntɛm pɛ nyinaa so wɔ mfasoɔ” – Prompt and delayed actions have their merits.

I started making Kiddie Twi First Words three months ago and I’m happy to announce that it’s finally done and submitted to Apple for review. Kiddie Twi First Words, which is part of a new line of Nkyea African language apps for children, is a simple app that teaches children and even adults more than 150 Asante Twi words using beautiful pictures, animations, audio and fun games.

Kiddie Twi First Words is coming to iOS on 21st November 2015.

 

Kiddie Twi First Words

Kiddie Twi First Words

Tap on things to learn how to say them

Tap on things to learn how to say them

Tap on things to learn how to say them

Tap on things to learn how to say them

Play games to test yourself

Play games to test yourself

See how you are doing

See how you are doing

Search In Both English And Twi In Twi Phrasebook

 PROVERB: “Bɛma foforɔ na wɔde to dada ho sene”

EXPLANATION: “Adeɛ foforɔ yɛgyina dada a obi ayɛ so” – A new thing is designed on an old one.

Twi Phrasebook version 4.0.1 is ready for download. Searching in Twi was one of the most requested features last year so I’ve added it in this update. You can now search for a word or phrase in English or Twi in version 4.0.1. To search, simply tap the search bar, choose English and search in English or Twi and search in Twi. To type Ɛ and Ɔ, when searching in Twi, you could download and install Nkyea Keyboard or use the keyboard shortcuts technique shown here.

Searching for phrase in Twi

Nkyea Twi Phrasebook provides translations of more than 3600 practical and useful phrases. It replaces bulky and inconvenient books and speaks all of its phrases aloud using clear, understandable native Twi speaker voice narration. With it you will be understood – even if you can’t speak a word of Twi.

Download Twi Phrasebook now and if you like it, support it by rating it in the App Store and telling your friends to get it too. If you already have a previous version then update now.

How To Type Asante Twi On An iPhone Or iPad

With the exception of a few people, most of the Twi speaking iPhone and iPad users I interact with on the Internet use the characters 3 and ) in place of Ɛ and Ɔ when typing. They use these because the standard iOS keyboard doesn’t come with Ɛ and Ɔ.

You have two choices if you want to type Ɛ and Ɔ. You can save the two characters as keyboard shortcuts if your device runs iOS 7 or lower or you can download and install Nkyea Keyboard from the App Store if your device runs iOS 8 or higher.

USING KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
I came across the keyboard shortcuts technique on @ObengWoHa‘s Akan language Tumblr blog a while back before iOS 8 was released. Below is how to add the characters as shortcuts on your keyboard.

  1. Open the Notes app on your iPhone or iPad and copy and paste ɛ and ɔ from this blog into a note.
  2. Open the Settings app, tap General, tap Keyboard and tap Shortcuts to open the Shortcuts screen.
  3. Tap the + button on the top bar.
  4. Copy ɛ from the Notes app, paste it into Phrase, type eee into Shortcut and tap Save.
  5. Tap the + button again
  6. Copy ɔ from the Notes app, paste it into Phrase and type ooo into Shortcut and tap Save.

Now any time you want to type ɛ or ɔ in any app, all you do is type eee or ooo and Space respectively. That’s it!

GET NKYEA KEYBOARD
Personally I think the keyboard shortcuts technique is a bit cumbersome so I made Nkyea Keyboard when Apple released iOS 8. As you may know iOS 8 supports third-party keyboards. You should download and install Nkyea Keyboard as one of your keyboards if you are running iOS 8 or higher. Below is how to install Nkyea Keyboard after you’ve downloaded it.

  1. Open the Settings app, tap General, tap Keyboard and tap Keyboards
  2. On the Keyboards screen tap Add New Keyboard…
  3. On the Add New Keyboard screen tap Nkyea to add the Nkyea Keyboard
  4. Final tap Nkyea Keyboard – Nkyea and tap Allow Full Access and choose Allow from the alert.

Now to use Nkyea Keyboard press the globe button on the standard iOS keyboard and choose Nkyea Keyboard – Nkyea.

NOTE: You can only choose different keyboard colours and hear key taps when Allow Full Access is enabled.

Apart from making it easy to type Ɛ and Ɔ, Nkyea Keyboard also includes a nifty built-in English-to-Twi word translator. You can use the translator when you get stuck typing a Twi word. Below is how to use the translator.

  1. Swipe down on the keyboard to reveal the translator.
  2. Type the word you want to translate, in English, and tap trans and it’ll be translated into Twi.
  3. Now tap add at the bottom of the keyboard to add the translation into what you are typing.
  4. Swipe up on the keyboard to hide the translator and continue typing.

Using the translator

So you can use the shortcuts technique to add Ɛ and Ɔ into your typing if you use iOS 7 or lower or you can download and install Nkyea Keyboard, get all the keys necessary for typing Twi and the added benefit of using a powerful built-in English-to-Twi translator if you use iOS 8 or higher.

Learn To Speak Asante Twi With Twi Primer

PROVERB: “Ebi Akyi wɔ bi”

EXPLANATION: “Ntoboaseɛ ne anidahɔ na wɔtumi de yɛ ade kɛseɛ” – Success follows patience.

About three years ago I promised Twi learners that I would release a much better version of Twi Primer (my PC and Mac Twi app), for the iPhone and iPad. About a month ago I did just that and quietly released Twi Primer for iOS.

Twi Primer for iOS

Twi Primer is meant to introduce non-Twi speakers to the written and spoken language, and help them acquire it better and faster than traditional learning materials such as books and audio tapes.

LEARN WITH IN-DEPTH TUTORIALS
There are fifteen beginner to intermediate topics in Twi Primer. Each topic is made up of three sections including Tutorial, Vocabulary and Challenges. In the Tutorial section, Twi parts of speech and grammar are introduced with simple tutorials and examples. You learn the rules, tips and tricks of each part of speech from here. The two buttons, Vocabulary and Challenges, at the bottom of the Tutorial section take you to the Vocabulary and Challenges sections respectively.

Tutorial Section

LEARN TO SAY WORDS AND SENTENCES
The Vocabulary section helps to build your Asante Twi vocabulary. Tap Vocabulary after reading the tutorial to present the words you need to know and include in your vocabulary. To listen to a word, you tap the speaker button. It’s important to play, listen to and repeat all the words after the native speaker. This will help you to memorize them and improve your pronunciation.

Vocabulary Section

To further improve your pronunciation, tap the word to open the Pronunciation screen. You can play the word at normal speed or slower to clearly hear all of its syllables. You can also record and compare with the native speaker. You will even see and hear an example of how the part of speech is used.

Vocabulary Section

REINFORCE WHAT YOU LEARN WITH CHALLENGES
In the Challenges section, you have to finish two challenges, Fill the Gap and Listen Carefully. The Fill the Gap challenge tests your Asante Twi reading skills, while the Listen Carefully challenge tests your listening skills based on the knowledge you acquire in the Tutorial and Vocabulary sections. You tap the Challenges button in the Tutorial section to start a challenge.

Fill the Gap Challenge

Listen Carefully Challenge

COLLECT BADGES TO UNLOCK NEW TOPICS
When you start using Twi Primer you will notice that all the topics except Alphabet and Prepositions are greyed. They are locked. To start learning Pronouns you need to finish learning Prepositions and complete its challenges to unlock Pronouns. This makes sure that you master a topic thoroughly to build on it with new information in the next topic. It’s very satisfying when you gain a badge. Each challenge has three testing levels. Score at least 7 out of 10 questions in each test to gain a badge. You have to gain 3 badges in Fill the Gap and 3 badges in Listen Carefully under each topic to unlock the next topic.

Collect badges to unlock new topics

Collect badges as you learn

IN CONCLUSION
With Twi Primer for iOS, you’ll learn better and faster Twi than using a book or just audio material, because you have the ability to control the speed of your learning, test your competence and have fun at the same time.

In conclusion, if you have an iPhone or an iPad and you seriously want to learn Asante Twi you shouldn’t look anywhere else but to download Twi Primer for iOS.

Meda mo ase paa.