Children playing Juatsjinyam. Source: National University of Colombia.
Ayda Mile España Jamioy, indigenous student of Civil Engineering of the National University of Colombia, has designed, along with two more colleges, a videogame to learn the Camëntsá language, which is spoken by 5,539 people.
With this tool, users learn the name of objects, foodstuff, animals, or daily activities of this language, which is spoken by 5,539 people in Colombia. The videogame is called Jatsjinyam, which means “learning” in Camëntsá language, according to the University.
The videogame has been created with the programme MS-Visual Basic. The videogame consists of five levels, which correspond to the basic elements of a house, names of some animals or objects, numbers, additions and multiplications, among others. “The user recognises the elements through images and its relation to the word to which it belongs”, explains the student. Once the videogame was created, it was tested in the community, with children of fourth and fifth course of primary.
España Jamioy says that the initiative had to have into account that most of the children are interesting in videogames and computers, so the videogame was widely accepted.
According to most recent registers, it is known that there are 65 indigenous languages, spoken by around 400,000 people. However, many of them are in danger of disappearing.
With this tool, users learn the name of objects, foodstuff, animals, or daily activities of this language, which is spoken by 5,539 people in Colombia. The videogame is called Jatsjinyam, which means “learning” in Camëntsá language, according to the University.
The videogame has been created with the programme MS-Visual Basic. The videogame consists of five levels, which correspond to the basic elements of a house, names of some animals or objects, numbers, additions and multiplications, among others. “The user recognises the elements through images and its relation to the word to which it belongs”, explains the student. Once the videogame was created, it was tested in the community, with children of fourth and fifth course of primary.
España Jamioy says that the initiative had to have into account that most of the children are interesting in videogames and computers, so the videogame was widely accepted.
According to most recent registers, it is known that there are 65 indigenous languages, spoken by around 400,000 people. However, many of them are in danger of disappearing.
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