Prajwal Reddy develops new app to make Kannada learning easy

Bangalore : In keeping with the vibrant intellectual and creative traditions of Greenwood High International School, 12th grade student Prajwal Reddy has developed a mobile application, known as KannadaDisco, for non-Kannada speakers to learn Kannada and its culture. The app is available on both Android and iOS App stores.

The story behind the development of the app is when Prajwal first moved to Bangalore from the US, his parents took him on road trips around Karnataka. They visited many historic and cultural sites such as Belur, Halebidu, and Hampi. These historical places of cultural significance sparked curiosity and interest in Kannada language and culture in Prajwal.

During his research, he also got to know that Kannada literature had received the second highest number of Jnanpith awards and was amazed by this recognition, hence began his interest in Kannada. Being a lover of languages, he self-learned Kannada employing fundamentals of linguistic theory (for language acquisition) and through completing expansive modules over a period of 6-8 months.

Prajwal presented his app to the Minister for Kannada and Culture, Shivaraj Tangadagi, and his team (The Kannada and Culture Department and The Kannada Development Authority) at the Vidhana Soudha recently.

They appreciated his efforts, provided him with structured feedback on how to make the app even more interactive and comprehensive and encouraged him to continue with his mission of preservation and promotion of Kannada language and culture. Prajwal was also felicitated by the Secretary of the Kannada Development Authority, Santosh Hangal.

“In my journey of learning Kannada, I spoke to other Kannadigas who were in a similar position as me - people not brought up in India who didn’t have early exposure to the language. I was surprised to notice that many of them expressed minimal interest in learning the language because it was not required, while the interested others didn’t know where to start.

That’s when the moment of inspiration struck and I got the idea of combining my interests in programming and languages to develop an application that teaches Kannada to non-Kannada speakers and thus integrate better into their adoptive homes in Karnataka,” says Prajwal. His friends found the word Disco more appealing and hence he named it KannadaDisco as Disco in Latin means ‘I learn’.

“The app serves to help users gain spoken fluency in the language through bite-sized courses along with the aid of a guided full-length dictionary. Also, with this app, I aim to provide a platform for NRI kids (with their roots from Karnataka) to not only learn Kannada in a fun and engaging way but to also appreciate and be proud of their culture in the process,” adds Prajwal.

The app has garnered positive response and many have liked it for its details on vocabulary and the possibility of learning a new word every day. Many users found the app very useful and easy to learn from.

Niru Agarwal, Trustee, Greenwood High International School said: “We live in a multi-cultural world and it is essential that we have knowledge and understanding of other languages and cultures other than our own. In this context, this initiative by Prajwal to help people learn Kannada is commendable.”

Prajwal is extremely passionate about all kinds of languages, including programming languages and natural languages, spoken ones as well as self-constructed languages (called ‘con-lang’).

He loves computer science and has even implemented his own compiler for his programming language named “Pulsar”, as well as for another language called MIDILang that generates music from procedural code with the aim of teaching people how to code via music.

As far as the future is concerned, Prajwal looks forward to collaborating with schools to integrate KannadaDisco into the curriculum for primary school children in line with school syllabuses and the teaching pedagogy suitable for early learners of language.

He plans to add interactive exercises and learning modules in the app. “I am hopeful that KannadaDisco would help embrace and preserve the use of the Kannada language and culture locally and worldwide,” concludes Prajwal who in the recent past, had developed an AI model to predict the Karnataka State Election results.