One verse. Four layers. And it plays.
Press play, switch the layers on and turn the voice down to sing along. This is FonoBeat from the inside.
Hear the four layers
Four layers, in the same order as the app: the lyrics, their translation, the sounds-like line and the phonetic alphabet. Switch them on and off to see what each one adds.
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Hello! Hello!
¡Hola! ¡Hola!
jeLOU jeLOU
həˈloʊ həˈloʊ
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When I see you, I say hello
Cuando te veo, digo hola
uen ái si iú ái séi jeLOU
wɛn aɪ si ju aɪ seɪ həˈloʊ
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Hello, hello to you
Hola, hola a ti
jeLOU jeLOU tu iú
həˈloʊ həˈloʊ tu ju
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When you see me, you say hello
Cuando me ves, dices hola
uen iú si mi iú séi jeLOU
wɛn ju si mi ju seɪ həˈloʊ
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Hello, hello to me
Hola, hola a mí
jeLOU jeLOU tu mi
həˈloʊ həˈloʊ tu mi
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Key phrase
Hello, hello, my friend
Hola, hola, mi amigo
jeLOU jeLOU mai frend
həˈloʊ həˈloʊ maɪ frɛnd
The stressed syllable is in CAPITALS.
Word 1 of 28
Turn it down and you get karaoke: the backing track keeps playing and the child sings over it. It’s the same control as in the app.
The audio couldn’t be loaded, so the line advances on its own using its real timings.
A real excerpt from “What Is Your Name?”: 33 s of a 1:52 song. The voice and the backing track are two separate files —the same ones the app uses— 256 KB each, and nothing downloads until you press play.
How it works One song, four moments
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Listen
The song plays and the lyrics light up word by word, in sync with the music.
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Read
Up to four layers on screen: the lyrics, what they mean, how to say them with your own letters and how they sound in the phonetic alphabet. The helps switch on or off with a tap; the lyrics stay.
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Pronounce
Your child turns the singer down and takes that part themselves. The feedback celebrates the attempt — there are never any red marks.
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Progress
Every session adds practice days, minutes, finished songs and new words, and you can see it in the parent dashboard.
And when they stop reading and start singing
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The voice goes down, it does not go off
A slider mixes the vocal track with the instrumental one. The guide voice can start loud and come down when the child feels ready, until only the music is left.
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The feedback celebrates the attempt
When they sing a Challenge, the app listens and gives back a kind comment about which sound to move closer. The child’s audio is processed and discarded: it is never stored, not on the phone and not on a server.
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The word comes back, in another song
Each word reappears on average in 8.7 later lessons, in another world and with another melody. It is the boring part of learning a language, done with different songs.
