From the Villages of India to the Suburbs of America - the Book that Can Help Millions to Read
BookBox, the long-awaited innovation from a team of Stanford social entrepreneurs, promises to revolutionize the way we read and learn. Find out more at bookbox. com
Mountain View, CA (PRWEB) April 20, 2005
If your idea of learning a new language means plowing through endless stacks of cassette tapes, think again. Thanks to BookBox, the innovative brainchild of a team of Stanford University students, a language - learning revolution is about to begin.
In a nutshell, BookBox is a digital "jukebox" of animated books, each available in multiple languages ranging from Spanish and French to Hindi and Chinese. Based on the science of Same Language Subtitling (SLS), BookBox synchronizes the text, audio, and visual media so that your 4 year-old child can now read a story on his own -- simply by listening to the narration and following it word by word in the subtitles. Or if your child wants to learn Spanish, she can simply turn on English and Spanish subtitles, and listen to a Spanish audio narration.
You get the idea: www. bookbox. com
Non-English speakers in the US, especially young children, will find BookBox particularly useful as a language-learning tool. With its beautiful illustrations, dynamic animation and colorful narration, BookBox essentially turns a regular storybook into an educational cartoon that kids can "watch."
At the same time, Bookbox is very much a global product, where children from all over the world can learn to read, in any language they want.
The BookBox innovation comes at a particularly propitious time, when globalization is the new buzzword and multilingualism can be worth more than a college degree.
Yet the beauty of BookBox lies not just in its multi-lingual interface, but in its simple ability to make reading truly universal, in a way never before experienced.
It gives rise to a reading revolution, where the illiterate who have traditionally been helpless with books, can now proudly carry one in hand and be able to read it - on their own.
"The educational problem of the world is not that we don't have enough top-notch scientists and engineers, it's that we have over a billion people who cannot read the headline of a newspaper," says Brij Kothari, BookBox co-founder.
Armed with the brilliantly simple idea of subtitling animated books, Brij rounded up a team of Stanford University undergraduates in early 2004 to help develop BookBox.
It has only been a year, but BookBox has come a long way. Currently BookBox is available online at www. bookbox. com, and all of its 6 original stories can be downloaded for free. In the future, BookBox stories will also be released in DVD, mp3 formats, and even TV!
Within the 3-month launch of its young website, BookBox has already generated a buzz with users around the globe. As one BookBoxer describes: "Finally, a book without boundaries - from the language enthusiast in France to the illiterate peasant in China. BookBox is truly universal."
Contact:
Lavina Tien
BookBox, Inc.
1030 El Monte Ave
Mountain View, CA 94040
650 996 7880
E-mail: lavinat@gmail. com
Www. bookbox. com
# # #
