Today we’d like to introduce you to Ronit Shiro
Hi Ronit, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Caracas, Venezuela. My parent were imigrants from Israel and barely spoke any Spanish; my first language was Hebrew. I started going to school and communicating with my friends in Spanish, leaned English at school and continue speaking with my parents and grandparents in Hebrew.
It was sometimes confusing as I miss match words; but my parents didnt give up on encouraging me and my sister to continue our bilingual journey.
Growing up speaking more than one language felt odd. In a country where the vast majority of the population just spoke one language, it not only felt rare to communicate in another language but didn’t seem to have any advantage.
As the time passes i started to be more conscious that the languages I spoke gave me opportunities. I was able to communicate with cousins, i was able to understand a TV cartoon VHS that my grandma brought to me from Israel.I was able to watch a movie in English without subtitles. I was able to communicate while traveling. Although there were sparks of feel good about knowing more than one language, it was not until i was a professional and I had my own kids that I understood the gift my parents gave me raising me bilingual or trilingual.
As the Venezuelan political and economical situation stated to deteriorate we decided that it was time to emigrate and start a family in the US. Being a daughter and granddaughter of immigrants my story seems to repeat. Moving to another country implies automatically communicating in another language. All of a sudden what used to feel like a privilege of understanding other languages, became a crucial part of my adaptation.
For the first time in my life I was living in a city where people speaks in different languages. Although English is the official language in the US, Miami is a unique melting pot from immigrants from around the world, specially Latin America. All of a sudden being bilingual seem to be one of the greatest advantage. I started to realized that what it seems to me like normal, it was a great resource.
I soon realized that being able to speak in Spanish to people who don’t speak English and viceversa made me more empathetic. Sometimes it’s not enough to understand the literal meaning of the words in another language; it’s the feelings and emotions behind the words that an online translator system cannot provide.
Professionally wise I saw how doors started to open easier, just because I was able to speak more than one language.
I came to the US with our 6 month old son Elliot. A year and a half later we welcomed our daughter Gaby. As a family we decided to talk to them in Spanish; they will pick up the English fast when times comes to go to school. While raising them in Spanish I was on constant look for books, videos and games in Spanish. I rely on my family and friends from Latinoamérica to send me content in Spanish. Those Books, CDs and DVDs were precious to us. We read and listen to them so many times that we knew them by heart. We kept them as a treasure and five years later we continued to enjoy them as our new Baby Dana completed our family. We even passed them down to cousins and friends who, like us, were very motivated to expose their little ones to Spanish.
I soon realized that although is was possible to find in the US some books and games In Spanish, not every household can manage to read books In Spanish if parents are not familiar with the language and even if they are interested in giving their children another language, they cannot contribute when they don’t speak it themselves. The solution was I front of my eyes. We need bilingual books that can offer parents both languages.
At the same time the retail scenery was changing in the market. Big bookstores and toystores were starting to shut down. The e-commerce was gaining market share forcing a lot of brick and mortar stores to disappear.
Buying books and toys online became more popular but parents will complain that they were missing the actual browsing experience in the stores and if they didnt know the name of a book or a toy, it became very difficult to discover it.
After studying the market and listening to parents, I recognized that I was lucky to be able to speak Spanish to my kids and to have my family gifting me books and videos from abroad . I also realized that young kids learn the best while they have fun and exposing them to a new language with stories, songs and games works wonders.
I realized that Parents that dont have the ability to expose their kids naturally to another language experience difficulties finding bilingual content in the market. All that fueled my idea to create Feppy; A solution for parents looking for bilingual content curated and delivered right to their doors.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
During the development of our books and games, we maintained rigorous standards regarding the quality of our products. We recognized the significant responsibility associated with creating educational materials for children.
Our bilingual books (Spanish-English) were initially designed with side-by-side text. However, we encountered a significant challenge: not all parents or caregivers were proficient in both languages, which hindered their ability to comfortably read to their children. As a result, while the books offered bilingual text, they did not fully achieve our mission of exposing children to both languages. To address this challenge, we developed an Audio-Video companion for each book in both languages.
Now, each story features a QR code at the beginning of the book. By scanning the code, parents can read the story to their kids in the most comfortable language, and simultaneously, they can play the same story in the other language, aiding in pronunciation and fully achieving our mission of exposing children to both Spanish and English. We like to call this feature “where the magic of bilingualism happens.”
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Feppy – Trilingo Kidds?
Feppy believes that children learn best through play, and we’ve created bilingual Spanish/English books, games and more so that children can grow in language development at their level in a natural way.
Our mission is to raise the next generation of global citizens, one moment, one story-time, one fun game at a time.
Feppy was founded by Ronit Shiro, a mom and champion for multilingual education, and Feppy products are designed entirely by bilingual education professionals.
Feppy makes Spanish & English language learning fun, playful, and accessible to kids at every developmental and language skill level.
We offer something for every family, from single books and games to bundles and subscription boxes. Our main priority is adapting to every kid’s needs.
All kids, no matter their Spanish Level, can learn with Feppy. Every single Feppy Book comes with exclusive access to a companion video audiobook of every story. Kids can use it as a pronunciation guide while also being entertained. It also helps because it can be listened to on a road trip or when parents are not bilingual themselves.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
I’m thrilled by this question as it resonates deeply with our brand, which is rooted in the concept of happiness!
Our brand name, “Feppy” is meant to embody bilingual happiness; it originates from the Spanish (FEliz) and English (haPPY). We believe kids learn best when they are having. What makes us the happiest is creating social emotional learning resources that help other families who also want to raise bilingual families and they don’t know where to start. Creating resources that are fun and engaging for kids, that makes our little ones learn without even realizing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://feppy.com/
- Instagram: @feppykids
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FeppyKids
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@feppykids
Image Credits
Alex Vainstein (Lifestyle-Products)
Lalo Hernandez (Products)
thelunchboxphoto (Ronit’s portrait)
