Kxo!: learn Basque from your smartphone

Elhuyar, a private non-profit organization dedicated to the popularisation of science and the Basque language, has launched Kxo!, an application for learning Basque adapted to iPhones and Android mobile phones.

The application, which costs 3.00 euros at the iTunes store and Google Play store, aims to provide a first approach to Basque, and sets out to provide anyone with only a limited knowledge of Basque or none at all with the tools for managing in Basque in everyday situations.

The application allows one to learn basic Basque vocabulary on getting going (numbers, calendar, alphabet, etc), greetings, meeting people (introductions, countries, professions, family, etc), weather and time (days of the week, months, seasons, weather, etc), addresses and locations (places, personal objects, shops, transport, public services, finding one’s way, etc), food and drink (soft drinks, meals, desserts, paying, etc), and shopping (clothes, footwear, colours, paying, fruit, quantities, etc).

The methodology to teach these phrases and dialogues is as follows: each topic starts with a presentation of the basic vocabulary. So the user will be able to see how the vocabulary items are written, and listen to them to see how they are pronounced. This is followed by listening, speaking, reading and writing exercises which the user can do to enable him/her to assimilate the language

Other applications published by Elhuyar include an English-Basque dictionary, a Spanish-English dictionary, a French-Basque dictionary and a thesaurus (dictionary of synomyms).