It all started with Dad's research stay in the Czech Republic.
"A year of research in the Czech Republic" sounded interesting, so the whole family decided to move.
For our three kids — two of school age and one preschooler — we chose a local Czech school and kindergarten. They only attended for six months, but being surrounded by Czech every single day, they somehow ended up speaking it.
Two months after returning to Japan...
"Wait, how do you say 'yellow' again?" Even Mom couldn't answer that one right away anymore.
As someone who doesn't speak Czech myself, I'd assumed the kids would just... keep speaking it. But day by day, the Czech was slipping out of their heads.
Czech books and videos gradually stopped feeling familiar to them, so I started looking for a way to practice Czech that was fun and sustainable in the long run.
There were plenty of English-language apps out there, but I couldn't find a single one for Czech...
So, as a complete beginner who had never programmed before, I ended up building my own playful Czech-learning app. I know all too well just how hard Czech is.
It started out mainly as a tool for our own kids, but once I'd made it, I wanted everyone else learning Czech — and every Czech person who wants to learn Japanese — to enjoy it too, playfully and with a smile.
If there's a specific app you'd like to see, please let us know.
Koshim Studio: A Short Timeline
Dad's research stay became the spark that moved the whole family to the Czech Republic.
The kids started at ZŠ Mariánka elementary school and MŠ Červený vrch kindergarten in Prague 6.
Returned to Japan.
Both kids took part in a Czech speech contest (and won the audience award). Not long after, though, their Czech started fading fast.
Even as a total programming beginner, I started building my own app.
As Koshim Studio, we started releasing apps for everyone to use.
THE TEAM
App development & operations
Ideas & testing
Support across the board