Songs of Cultures
A musical journey for kids across all devices
Website
Awards
Media Award LEOPOLD interactive 2024
Games4Change: Games & SDG Summit 2023
Finalist Deutscher Computerspielpreis 2022
Unity for Humanity 2022, Imagine Grant Winner
Media Award LEOPOLD interactive 2021
The world is growing closer together than ever and our society faces challenges. Different countries have different customs, songs and rituals. To promote a better understanding of languages, cultures and empathy for each other’s perspective we need to apply design thinking and social entrepreneurship towards technology.
“Songs of Cultures” unfolds as a symbol of unity and intercultural dialogue. As a user-friendly WebXR experience, it offers more than just an interactive game – it is a bridge connecting languages, cultures and hearts. Here, children embark on a musical journey around the world. In captivating 3D songscapes filled with charming animal bands, kids not only learn about cultural nuances through singing and dancing but also foster openness and respect for life’s diversity. The app extends learning beyond the screen by providing creative materials such as sheet music and cross-media coloring pages. This offers the opportunity for valuable follow-up communication, significantly supporting the social integration of children and migrant families.
“Songs of Cultures” represents not only emergent gameplay but also a powerful manifesto for education and social solidarity – a clear stance against the storms of intolerance and an anthem to the colorful diversity of our world. The entire game is free and accessible as a browser-based WebXR experience in numerous languages, regardless of the device. It can be played and shared via a link, without the need for app downloads, on devices such as PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones, or VR/AR glasses. Thus, it becomes a handy tool in families, daycare centers, schools, or women’s shelters.
As a non-profit project born out of collaboration between educators, musicians, parents, and creatives, “Songs of Cultures” combines playful learning with the promotion of core competencies of the 21st century: social, intercultural, and digital competence.
Recommended age: 3-10 years
Highlights
In our music kindergarten, we use Songs of Cultures to welcome children of Arabic and Ukrainian origins. A Ukrainian girl, who barely spoke German, found her voice by singing a Ukrainian rain song with us. The app connects children, their families, and our kindergarten, fostering cultural identity and language learning – a valuable tool for our work.
It was easy to understand how the app works. Everything is easy to use. The characters and worlds are child-friendly and well-designed. The vocabulary mode is very cool, allowing kids to learn simple words in a foreign language.
Yes, we need ideas, energy, imagination and a vision to shape our future! Songs of Cultures is definitely an innovative, creative and groundbreaking language learning app. Absolutely worth seeing and experiencing!
Behind the scenes
Funding
The development of the first app in the “Songs of Cultures”-Series is supported by the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRE) within the context of the Digital Creativity funding programme of the Saxony-Anhalt Investment Bank. App Realease is expected to be completed in December 2020.
Funded by the Art Foundation of the State of Saxony-Anhalt and the Kloster Bergesche Foundation.
