Being an immigrant isn’t easy. People are different, foods are weird, places are new. I mean, seriously, even Doritos taste awkward – and they’re the same old ones we have back in Brazil. But above all, communication and language are different. 💬
I think the language issue is the worst thing for me, being Brazilian, speaking a language with so many expressions that I simply can’t find a translation for in English. But, we have to try, don’t we? It’s not like I’ve got a choice, if I moved to a country, or want to move, I need to learn another language, their language.
And this is my experience. I decided to marry a Dutch woman 🇳🇱 – Because only English wasn’t enough, was it? Now I’m moving to the Netherlands, the fourth country I’m going to live in, in about two weeks. And they didn’t make this immigration process easy, but why would they, right? There’s a Dutch test to get a 5-year temporary visa, and another test to get your permanent residency. The thing is: we need to integrate into society.
📚 I took that test and aced it in all three categories, but not without panicking, crying, having anxiety attacks, and finding over thirteen thousand people with the same problems as me in a Facebook group.
That’s where the idea of creating Dutchify came from, my app to help people with the civic integration exam process. But I needed a more specific audience, so I chose Brazilians. So, here’s the plan: I’m going to make sure every Brazilian soul who needs a hand has all the tools to prep for that test. And so, I did. And even though the app isn’t published, it exists and works, it just needs some legal adjustments. 🤦🏻♀️
Now, you might be thinking, “Why did you create this if Duolingo and Babbel already exist?” because Dutchify’s goal isn’t to teach you a new language, it’s to train you to pass the test, and then you can learn the language in the Netherlands with a course and all. But even though teaching the language isn’t the app’s goal, you end up learning a bit as well. 📝
Now you are thinking, “Sounds like a bore.” The purpose isn’t to be fun, it’s to train you, but I think I managed to make the app quite enjoyable by using gamification. What did I do? Well, I created a quiz. You have time to answer, there are sounds, winner and loser pages. These are small things that make the game more enjoyable without ceasing to be a training app.
And what are the advantages of e-learning?
Well, there are some. The main characteristic of e-learning challenge one of the aspects that most define traditional education: the need for the teacher and student to be in the same physical space at the same time. With e-learning, you can have greater flexibility in terms of time and space. So, these are the benefits of studying through Dutchify:
- 🕒 Flexibility: Learn on your schedule.
- 💰 Resource Savings: No paying for super expensive classes.
- 🎯 Student-Centric: Tailored to your learning needs – it is a VERY specific app, only to train you for the Inburgering.
- 🔄 Updates: Im able to update the app if the test changes, as well as add new categories to it.
- 🌍 Wide Reach: This is not something the app has now, but connect with fellow learners nationwide is one of Dutchify goals for the future.
- 💲 Affordability: Cost-effective compared to traditional methods.
- ⏩ Personalised Pace: You can use the app in your time, so no pressure.
- 📈 Business Scalability: A boon for app developers like me, because I can implement so many things on it, such as integrate chat gpt in the future.
Now that you have a bit of an understanding about the app and why I decided to create it, it’s easier to comprehend the process behind it in the other blog posts. See you 👋🏻
#E-learning #MobileLearning #AppDevelopment #Immigrant #Digital #Language
