How Can AI Help Kids Learn New Languages? (Middle+)

Join us for an exciting new episode where we dive into the world of artificial intelligence and education! We're thrilled to have Noemi Rodriguez, founder of Lo Logramos Consulting, share her passion for blending language learning with technology. Growing up bilingual, Noemi developed amazing ideas like using virtual reality and AI to help kids learn languages in fun, interactive ways. Together, we'll explore how AI chatbots can give students personalized practice, boosting their confidence in a tech-filled world.

Keeping learning both safe and engaging is important, and with tools like Mizou, teachers can customize AI tutors that respect student privacy and learning styles. Tune in to learn why being a smart digital citizen matters, how to handle data privacy, and what those digital platform terms and conditions really mean. Noemi also shares tips on how students can use tech responsibly and help shape a future where AI and education work together smoothly.

We also explore the cultural side of learning languages, like how listening to Quechua pop music from Peru can make studying a new language more fun! We talk about the awesome benefits of being bilingual, from improving your brainpower to opening up new career options. Plus, we share tips for sharpening your language skills using apps like Duolingo and fun reading materials like Easy Readers. To top it off, we chat about Halloween traditions, the perks of dual citizenship, and dreams of running an animal rescue, all while inspiring young minds to get creative in solving everyday problems.

Resources:
Mizou
Duolingo
Quechua Pop (Q-pop)
ChatGpt
Midjourney

Chapters

• 0:00 AI for Kids
• 13:54 Empowering Students With AI Education
• 20:48 Multilingual Benefits and Learning Resources
• 28:01 Halloween, Spanish Heritage, Animal Rescues

Transcript

Amber Ivey: 0:29

Welcome to the AI for Kids podcast, where playtime, learning and creating collide bit by bit. Ever wonder how your phone recognizes your face. How does a game learn to get harder as you get better? This is AI. This podcast is designed for kids like you and your human parents, making the complex world of AI easy to understand and, most importantly, fun. So are you ready to unlock the mysteries of artificial intelligence? Subscribe and join us on AI for Kids. Hi everyone, Welcome back to AI for Kids. Today we have an amazing guest. Please welcome, Noemi Rodriguez. She's the founder of Lo Logramos Consulting. Noemi, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to work in language learning and technology? Yeah, so I've. Can you talk a little bit about yourself and what inspired you to work in language learning and technology?

Noemi Rodriguez: 1:16

Yeah, so I've always been a big fan of technology, ever since I started teaching and my upbringing. I was raised in a bilingual household, so I was really lucky that I learned English and Spanish at the same time. So that is what led me down the path to want to teach other children languages and to want to work in schools supporting families as well. That maybe English is not the primary language.

Amber Ivey: 1:41

That is amazing, and thank you for explaining what bilingual means. I wish I would have grown up in a household where I learned more than one language, and I think we all should be in environments like that. When you think back to your childhood, what was one of your favorite subjects when you were a kid? Did you always love learning different languages, especially since you started that way?

Noemi Rodriguez: 2:01

I do. I've always loved languages. I will share that. I really only speak fluently English and Spanish. I'll dabble in Portuguese, Italian and every now and then I try my hand at French, but my pronunciation just isn't there. When I was growing up, I loved reading. I love to sit in the classroom and just immerse myself in a book and get lost in it. So still to this day, as an adult, I really, really love reading and do you love reading paper or listen to audio books as well?

Noemi Rodriguez: 2:30

I like to have something in my hands and I am, I guess, older in the sense that I like to fold the corner of my book to hold my place and I still go to the library and I'll take out books, and I'm doing the same now with my daughter.

Amber Ivey: 2:46

That is so awesome. I think libraries are so important and I'm glad they're still being utilized. I live in Baltimore City. We have so many amazing libraries here with so many awesome programs. Glad to hear that you are both in those corners of those books. I do want to ask one more question before we jump into our main interview. If you could build an AI tool to help kids learn languages or anything, what would it do and why?

Noemi Rodriguez: 3:09

I would love to create something that involves virtual reality and having students really immerse themselves in the country in an authentic situation where they have to use the language spontaneously. I think that many students that I've taught in the past, whenever they travel or they have interactions with someone else in another language especially when it's in the moment that's where they get the most excitement and they come back to the classroom and they share with me oh wow, I learned so much. Or I didn't realize I knew so much, but then, when I was in this situation, look at how far I went with the language. So, something with virtual reality, you know, putting on the glasses, being somewhere else and having the opportunity to dialogue with other people and to practice and hopefully, you know, find success in doing that.

Amber Ivey: 3:59

I think you need to like create a pitch deck today and go sell that. That's an amazing idea, because right now we're using virtual reality in work and things like that. So I could imagine myself in my head. I literally just went to a country where I'm getting to work with maybe other AI or maybe other people from the country want to learn my language right, and everyone just plugging in. That's such a cool idea. So you're an expert in both language learning and technology. Can you explain how AI can help kids learn new languages?

Noemi Rodriguez: 4:27

So I think right now, in this new age of artificial intelligence, we're just starting to scratch the surface in terms of possibilities for our students.

Noemi Rodriguez: 4:38

So I've been really excited to play around with chatbots and to have students in a situation where, yes, they are speaking to a machine and they are not speaking to a person.

Noemi Rodriguez: 4:50

A machine can never be a person, right, but it does give students a really neat practice experience and myself, as the teacher, I can program or train the trainer in such a way that the students have a somewhat authentic communicative experience with this chatbot. So they can go right on and it's free, which I also appreciate, so there's no barrier with finances. So everybody can jump on and dialogue with this chatbot in the language that they're learning to hopefully build some confidence and also build resilience when you're practicing and using another language, because there's a lot going on in your brain, you don't even realize it. But how exciting that you can practice with another really intelligent individual quote unquote, I'll say because these chatbots, what I find so cool is that they can be anyone. So if your students want to talk to someone famous right from history that maybe they've read about but they didn't think they could have a conversation with. Here's that chance, here's that opportunity to practice and also learn a little bit about someone who maybe is no longer with us.

Amber Ivey: 6:05

That's a really good point. I like that idea, like I totally understand, like AI personas, but didn't think about it from the aspect of learning from a historical figure. I think that's super cool. Can you talk a little bit more about what this thing is called personalized learning? How does that help students to see, particularly in the learning languages space?

Noemi Rodriguez: 6:25

Right. So teachers have for many years been trying to figure out great ways to tailor instruction and to tailor the learning experience to each individual student. So I found that, wearing my teacher hat, I can create materials and resources that are specific to my students, their interests, their reading levels, things that are maybe current, that they enjoy. I feel as if anytime I throw Taylor Swift into the mix that always gets a great reaction.

Noemi Rodriguez: 6:55

So finding ways to connect with my students on an individual level but then also make sure that what they're listening to or what they're reading is at their language level, which can be difficult for students who are just starting off because their language may be a little bit limited. But with that in mind, it's exciting to see how artificial intelligence can help teachers create resources for students, and then students will, fingers crossed, benefit from being able to either read in the language or listen to the language in a fun, engaging way that's personalized to them.

Amber Ivey: 7:34

I love the whole idea of personalized learning. I know, like you said, teachers have been trying to do this for a very long time, but with AI it almost takes it up a notch for teachers to get that true like personalized focus on the person, based on what they're doing. So that's super cool. How can teachers and students use technology to make learning languages more fun and interesting?

Noemi Rodriguez: 7:53

Yeah, there's so many ways. I think it always goes back to what is it that you want the students to achieve skill-wise? And the cool thing about learning a language is you can see right away if a student is understanding the language, can use the language, can potentially set something up to present or to share, so language classes are truly performance-based. So right away we can see if a student can use it or not use it. So, with that in mind, I love having students play games. I love having students listen to music, students reading short stories, even if it's poetry. I love using poetry with the students. And there's now different generative AI tools that can make songs for students and very catchy tunes and then hopefully, write that hook, that rhythm. You're like oh, I like this. And here I am singing in another language. How beautiful is that?

Noemi Rodriguez: 9:00

Like simple stories, if I can create digital stories with my students, 20 years ago, when I first started teaching, I would do a digital storytelling project with my students using Microsoft PowerPoint, right, antiquated ways, and my students would always struggle with oh, I have this main character and I have to design this main character, but it just doesn't exist unless I draw it right, unless I take the time to draw it and take a photo, which was fine at the time but to really bring it to life in a cartoon way. How cool is it that? Now, if I'm envisioning, let's say, an elephant wearing a pink tutu riding a bicycle, and that's the main character of my story I can bring it to life through design tools that exist within generative AI. So I love dabbling with Canva. Canva is one of these tools that's free for educators, free for students to use and it's also safe, which I appreciate.

Noemi Rodriguez: 9:50

And here I can bring all of these really fun images to life about my story. Or I can use an image as the spark to write a story. So maybe I'm looking at like a really fun image and I'm thinking, okay, what happened before, what's happening in this picture, and then what's going to happen after to this character. So from a narrative, descriptive standpoint, here I can tell like a really fun story just using that now, ai generated picture.

Amber Ivey: 10:15

That is so cool and I can relate. I have had different interactions with AI in my past life. I'm the voice of an AI and I fully jumped into this. But Dahlia wasn't as interested in when it first came out. But Mid Journey I thought it was super cool and I spent a lot of time prompting in Mid Journey and I was playing around one day and I prompted an image that led to me then creating a book about that image. I wanted this little girl to meet a robot in Baltimore city where I live, and then I was like, wait, this can be a story. So I took that image and I actually have that image in the back of the book to say, hey, this is what sparked the idea and the book is called AI meets AI, but it's literally about that. And then it allowed me to work with a human illustrator then take my story beyond. So I so agree with you that it unlocks a part of creativity where human is still in the loop and able to be a part of it. Like the book is not an AI book, but that one image sparked my brain to think about all these things. So I really appreciate that and can resonate that that actually happened to me, kit. That's amazing.

Amber Ivey: 11:10

Go out there and do it. We have a fun segment. Well, I think it's fun because I'm asking the questions called text trivia. I'll ask you a few fun questions about technology, ai or maybe even language, who knows? And you'll have to answer them as quickly as you can. Are you ready? I'm ready.

Noemi Rodriguez: 11:33

What are some of the top spoken languages in the world. So English is definitely up on the list, Spanish is also very high up there and I feel that Mandarin, Chinese, Portuguese, because of the populations right. So in China and Brazil we have these big populations of folks that live in these countries, so naturally these are very widely and commonly spoken.

Amber Ivey: 11:58

Good job, you got that right, and she's the language person, so of course that was like the softball, so thank you for that. Now I'm going to take it to technology. What is the language that computers use to talk to each other?

Noemi Rodriguez: 12:10

So computers use lots of numbers to communicate with each other and there are systems of coding that takes place behind the scenes, so computers are able to talk to one another through numbers and through different codes and symbols.

Amber Ivey: 12:29

I love it and I love the way you broke that down. That's exactly right. They talk to each other through coding. Kids you all have heard about things like binary, and that's what Noemi is talking about, as it relates to the numbers. So great job on that. Last question you all have heard about things like binary, and that's what Noemi is talking about, as it relates to the numbers. So great job on that. Last question you kind of brought this up already, but I'm saving it here for you to walk through it. What is a chatbot?

Noemi Rodriguez: 12:49

So a chatbot is generative artificial intelligence, in this case that we're talking about it, and it's the means of communicating with a machine, and in many cases, you can customize your experience with your chatbot, similar to how OpenAI's chat GPT works. You can create custom GPTs based on the prompt. It all goes back to a well-designed prompt.

Amber Ivey: 13:17

Oh yeah, that is also right. Thank you for also bringing up the idea of personalized chatbots, because I don't know if everyone knows. If you have the paid version, you can build your own that literally does only what you want it to do. I've been playing around with this with some of the stuff with our podcast and some of our characters. Our robot in the story is named Jazz, so we have a Jazz chat bot that allows kids to talk to it only about learning about AI, so literally it only can answer questions about what is AI in a way that's friendly to kids. But kids and parents and teachers you all can build that stuff too.

Amber Ivey: 13:49

So thank you, noemi, for bringing that up as well. You passed the trivia with flying colors, thank you. So I want to talk about this idea of you helping teachers prepare to use AI in a classroom, especially in a world where, depending on who I'm talking to, they're either like ban it or bring it on board. So can you share some tips of how kids can use AI tools to learn better, or even I'll take it to the next level how kids can be advocates for helping their teachers adopt these new technologies?

Noemi Rodriguez: 14:24

Well, I think it's really important to have these conversations in our classrooms and to be able to feel comfortable talking about generative AI.

Noemi Rodriguez: 14:27

So the first thing for everyone is to really understand what it is and what it can do and then make decisions based on what you're looking to do in the classroom and whether or not technology would be beneficial in that particular assessment. Or whatever it is that we're creating or doing or designing. Would technology help or hinder our progress? So I think that's the important first step and then from there, if students are using technologies that are safe for them to use, where their data is not sold right, and that we're protecting the student's privacy, that's really important. And also, from the teacher end, to set students up for success and to make sure that you in fact know what those data policies are with whatever technology tool you're using, with the students making sure that they're safe and also you, as the teacher, are safe when you're using that AI. I have played around with a tool called Mizzou it's spelled M-I-Z-O-U, and that idea of customizing your GPTs for free exists within this platform. They do have a level of free and premium right, as most of these technology companies do.

Noemi Rodriguez: 15:46

But you can do a lot under one umbrella with just playing and experimenting and setting up these figures or these individuals for students to communicate with in a safe way.

Noemi Rodriguez: 15:58

What I love about this platform is that it doesn't require any identifiable information from our students, so our students log in using whatever name they wish to use to identify themselves, so maybe it's just their initials and, let's say, their class period, or maybe just their first name or the first few letters of their first name, and then the teacher can see the interaction between the teacher and the student, which is nice.

Noemi Rodriguez: 16:24

So we as teachers know that, okay, this was a good conversation, and we can always go back and revisit both the audio and the written exchange between the student and the chat bot. I recently created a mindful bot that I thought was neat. Okay, so then, that way, if students want to practice deep breathing techniques and calming themselves down, they have this online tutor, so to speak, to walk them through mindfulness and meditations, which I was like oh, I didn't think that this was possible, and here I can create a mindful bot for my students to use whenever they want. The other cool thing is I don't necessarily have to be logged into the platform Once the students have the URL or the code to access it, it's always accessible 24 hours a day. The same with a Spanish tutor. If the students needed access to a tutor, I can use Mizzou or similar platforms to set up a tutor for my student to access at any time of the day.

Amber Ivey: 17:23

That is so cool. I hadn't heard about that technology. So super excited about that. Kids go with your parents to the show notes. The link will be there, teachers, you know where it is as well, so check it out. But I love the idea and I'm thankful that you gave like a free place that allows people to do that, because I think it's so important in this space. I also love how you talked about data. We did an episode some time ago called D is for Data, so kids know about that. But one thing we haven't talked about and you started to get into is like someone selling your data and what does that mean? Like when individuals are doing that, can you dig in a little bit deeper why you want to know what's happening with your data?

Noemi Rodriguez: 18:03

Well, ultimately, anything that you put online, you don't know where it's going to end up, so you have to be really careful. That just goes with the idea of being a good digital citizen. So, if I'm posting a picture, if I'm posting a video, I don't know who is going to have access to it unless I make it private. Right? I'm hoping that if it's private, it's only for my friends or my family to see. So we're not entirely sure sometimes how technology is being used or how, let's say, our information is being used.

Noemi Rodriguez: 18:33

I have, unfortunately, received letters in the mail oh, we had a data breach and your social security number has been sold, or your credit card number has been sold, and that's really scary to know that my identity is now potentially in the hands of someone else, and my hope is that that's not going to be used in a not good way. Right? Please don't take my identity. Please don't try to buy a car with my identity, because I wouldn't authorize such a purchase, but that's where we, as adults, need to talk to our kids about. This is why it's important to be aware, and this is why it's important to know when you're online, when you're communicating, when you're sharing. When you're online, when you're communicating, when you're sharing who is your audience and making sure that things just don't, you know, get out there, and then all of a sudden you're thinking, wait a minute, I don't want my information out there so publicly. That's not, that's not what I was hoping for.

Amber Ivey: 19:33

Oh, yeah, for sure, and there are things like terms and conditions that are supposed to tell you what's happening with your data, but sometimes they don't let you know if there was an update to those terms of conditions that now say your data can be used in a different way. So thank you for calling that out and at all times, kids remember online is like strangers in real life. Treat it the same way. You wouldn't share information about where you live to a stranger in the street. You don't want to do it online either. So those things are super important. So thank you for mentioning that and walking us through what data means and how it can be shared and used in the wrong way. What advice do you have for students who want to become better language learners?

Noemi Rodriguez: 20:13

Practice, practice, practice as much as you can. I also really believe that reading holds a lot of value. So when you're reading in another language, if it's comprehensible for you and it's at the right language level, if it's engaging, it's a story that you really want to read and you're really excited to see how the story ends I think reading is one of the best things that you can do to increase your language abilities and then, as a result, hopefully you'll be able to use the language more, maybe write the language, because you're seeing the language in context. Another really great way to immerse yourself is to listen to music. Listen to as much music as you can. There are so many incredible musicians and groups that are all around the world Speaking of beautiful Spanish.

Noemi Rodriguez: 21:01

I just discovered this new Peruvian artist Well, I don't know how new they are, but there was a spotlight on them and they're called Q-pop, for Quechua pop, so the indigenous language of Peru. I thought how cool that they're now using pop and also Quechua to create this genre of music. So there's a lot out there, don't, I guess? Don't limit yourself. Try to put yourself into situations where you can use the language If you have friends or family that you know happens to speak the language. Why not practice with them if the opportunity arises and just keep having fun with it? So you're practicing, but at the same time, hopefully, you having fun with it. So you're practicing, but at the same time, hopefully, you're enjoying using it and creating some neat experiences with the language.

Amber Ivey: 21:45

I like how you brought up the whole idea around song. I lived in Germany as a kid but there were songs where people wouldn't speak English but they knew the song in English, and this happens in other places. There are songs I know that are in Spanish that I can sing fully. I don't speak a lick of Spanish because I took French in school, but I can sing the song because it's like repetitive and I've learned some of the words in that song. So I love the idea of using song to help along the language journey and I appreciate you for also calling that out. Why do you think it's so important for kids to learn different languages and how can it help them in their future, whether it's their future lives?

Noemi Rodriguez: 22:21

I think that being bilingual or trilingual opens up your world incredibly, so it almost sets you up on a path that you are exposed to a different language. You're also immersed in a different culture because they're so connected. So to allow a student to be globally minded at a young age, I think is a very cool thing. Minded at a young age, I think is a very cool thing. And to be able to experience another culture and communicate with people in their language, I think also for me, it pulls at my heartstrings. If someone is having difficulty speaking to me in English and if I can assist and I start to speak to them in Spanish right away, I see their eyes light up and their whole demeanor changes, and it's almost an incredible, I think, superpower that you can connect with so many people around the world just because of knowing at least two or three languages. So I encourage all students. I happen to love learning languages. I'm trying to raise my daughter bilingual as well right now and I think that anything that you can do is great. It's great.

Amber Ivey: 23:32

Oh yeah, I wish kids that I had multiple languages in my tool belt. I took French, but you don't use French really in the U? S and I couldn't take Spanish because the classes were filled. I transferred like in the middle of the year. But I recommend, especially where I work with a lot of people who have English and Spanish and it's also required on a lot of job postings now, because we have a lot of people in the country who speak a lot of different languages they want you to have that extra language. So kids, especially if you're in middle school and going into your like your first language classes or even before this, make sure you take those language classes seriously and listen to Noemi about how you can really enhance that and use that in conversational language, just beyond reading it and learning it in the classroom.

Noemi Rodriguez: 24:15

They say, too, that students who are bilingual and children that are bilingual always test higher on standardized testing, and just their intelligence is stronger. So in that, if you want to be a little bit smarter, learn another language.

Amber Ivey: 24:27

I'm glad you said that, because it does work different sides of your brain and it does help you to do that. So, kids, there's no reason why you shouldn't be learning multiple languages and I also need to get Duolingo and start again myself I was going to mention.

Noemi Rodriguez: 24:40

Duolingo is one of those really fun tools that has game aspects to it, that has a lot of cool practice components where you can earn your XP's Teachers if you're not yet using Duolingo for schools and they've recently embedded lots of different artificial intelligence on their platform, but I know that it requires that paid tier. So they released, I think, just this week, Adventures, so that idea of being one of those cartoon characters and having those interactive, spontaneous experiences in a video game. I thought that was a really neat way to practice your language in an immersive way, like we started off chatting before. So Duolingo is definitely one of those very neat tools to check out if you're interested.

Amber Ivey: 25:30

Super cool. Thank you for that, because I did not know. I will actually now download it again for the third time and try to use it. Can you share about any fun activities or resources where kids can learn more about language and technology? You're already starting to get there with Duolingo. Anything else that they should be thinking about?

Noemi Rodriguez: 25:46

I think if you're making it a daily practice experience, if you're finding ways to either read, listen, use the language, that's going to go a long way. A tool like Duolingo will remind you on a daily basis about how far you've gone with your streak. So I know that that can be very motivating for students to want to keep your streak going for like 30 days, for 60 days, and if you do have a cell phone, it's one of those easy downloadable apps like you were just talking about before. And I also want to mention that I don't work for any of these companies, I just happen to be a fan of what they do, so I think that's a really good starting place.

Noemi Rodriguez: 26:25

If you're looking to dig a little bit more, and if you can find a book that's easy to read. Amazon sells a ton of. They're called Easy Readers and they're made for students who are learning, whatever the language is French, german, spanish as a second language. If you can find one of those books and the storyline kind of speaks to you when you read about it, I would definitely order one and give it a go, or you can ask your teacher as well if they. Hopefully you have a classroom library in your world language classroom and you can maybe peek and see what books are there that you want to borrow from your teacher.

Amber Ivey: 27:04

I did not know about those easy readers and we'll definitely be checking those things out and sharing those resources for sure. We have another fun segment that I like to do, called two truths and a dream, so we're going to do something fun and hopefully it's fun, but this time it's fun for you because you're putting it on me and I had to figure this out. You're going to tell us two true facts about your life and one dream you had as a kid, and we'll try to guess, along with the audience, which one is the dream. Whenever you're ready, feel free to throw them out, and I will try my best.

Noemi Rodriguez: 27:33

The first thing about me is that I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday. The second thing about me is that my family is originally from Spain, so I have dual citizenship. And the third thing about me is that I own a dog rescue and I have lots of incredible land where 80 dogs run around and love life.

Amber Ivey: 28:01

Okay, cool. So the first kids, is that she loves Halloween. That's her favorite holiday, that's first. Second is her family's from Spain and she has dual citizenship. I want you all to think about the nuance she is adding, or the extra information she's adding, because that's where she may be trying to catch me up with the dream. So I'm saying that out loud for a reason. And then, third, an animal rescue with 80 dogs. So think about her history, think about her background, and I want you to go through this with me as well. So for the first one, you love Halloween.

Amber Ivey: 28:33

That feels like an easy one, so it could be either you could have just thrown that out. You also were smiling a bit when you said it. That may be something that's actually true. So let me hold on to that one. I'm not going to decide on that one just yet. The second one around your family's from Spain and having dual citizenship. I believe that because you did say that you grew up in a household where your parents spoke English and Spanish. So I'm going to definitively say that one is true. Kids, feel free to scream and yell that I'm wrong in the background. And then the last one is the animal rescue and 80 dogs that are running on land. I just had a situation where I actually had to help an animal recently and took it to a place where there was an animal rescue for wildlife and she literally had 200 animals. So that could be real as well, but I'm going to say I'm going to go with the animal. Rescue is a dream. Halloween is coming up and you can't wait to put on your outfit.

Noemi Rodriguez: 29:30

You are correct, I was hiding my Halloween decorations.

Amber Ivey: 29:37

For kids who are listening to this, make sure you go look at it on YouTube. She has a spider web in the background that I did not see, and so she turned her camera around. So share more about Halloween, share more about your Spanish upbringing We'd love to hear more about that and your whole dream of having an animal rescue.

Noemi Rodriguez: 29:53

Yeah, so I've always had a fascination with Halloween. I don't know if it was the candy as a child or the idea that I can dress up for a day and be anything or anyone else. I love the creativity of Halloween. I don't necessarily love the scary aspects of Halloween. Oh yeah, we love to do a family costume. I've already picked out what we're going to be. I like to keep it as a surprise. I get very excited for Halloween every year. It's kind of my Super Bowl.

Amber Ivey: 30:19

Nice, I love it my family.

Noemi Rodriguez: 30:22

I was lucky where my grandmothers. They're actually both still alive. They live in Spain, and I was able to spend summers there, and when I was first born we spent some time there as well. So I think I was like a baby. Up until about the age of two I lived in Spain and then we moved back here to the United States.

Noemi Rodriguez: 30:39

So I'm lucky that I have dual citizenship, kids who are listening to passports, which is like what? Why do you need two passports? I'm not totally sure why, but I have them and the dream of owning a dog rescue. I do live in New Jersey and land is not necessarily easy to come by here, but perhaps if we ever moved to New York or Pennsylvania or maybe even head back to Spain, we can own an animal sanctuary in the future where we can hopefully take care of animals and give them lots of love. I've always been an animal lover. I think I actually get it from my grandmother, who lives in Spain, who we want to take care of them, because animals only have us. They don't have voices, so we have to be kind to those that are always in need and need us as humans to keep them fed and to keep them happy, and lots of love.

Amber Ivey: 31:29

That is so great. Yeah, we had an incident this weekend. We were walking in our neighborhood and there was a crow that didn't fly away. So we got an opportunity to go to an animal rescue center that actually focuses on wild animals only and she has 200 animals. She works with like 3, like 3000 animals a year and she even has things like monkeys that people aren't supposed to bring into the country that she now has to like take on forever and it's just. Yeah, it's so important that if you have an animal, take care of it. If you see an animal in need, there are so many resources out there to help and we were able to get the crow to a safe space where she was able to fix its wing and we'll hopefully check in and learn that it's doing okay. So I really appreciate you for calling that out.

Noemi Rodriguez: 32:11

Yeah, if you can rescue an animal and give it a wonderful home, that's also something to consider, because there's plenty of animals out there that need great homes.

Amber Ivey: 32:20

We have three all rescued, so I'm like, I'm like, no more.

Noemi Rodriguez: 32:25

We have one, but we're always tempted. We have one.

Amber Ivey: 32:29

Oh yeah.

Noemi Rodriguez: 32:30

Once you open that door.

Amber Ivey: 32:31

it's so hard to close it back. First dog and then now two cats. My first animal was a cat when I grew up, but we have two rescue kittens. One was a kitten, one was a cat. They've been great and cats tend to live their own life and do their own thing, so it wasn't as much of an added pressure. But yeah, the first was a dog, but now we're at three. We're done. Everyone else has to go on to live with another family. But yes, so before we go, do you have any advice for kids who want to learn more about language and technology?

Noemi Rodriguez: 33:00

So I think the important thing to keep in mind as a student or as someone who's up and coming in this age of artificial intelligence, is to keep thinking about the possibilities that exist thanks to this technology or if you think of something, can you build it?

Noemi Rodriguez: 33:18

And holding on to those ideas and seeing how maybe those ideas can turn into reality. I keep reading about young students who invent things or create things, especially with, if they see that there's an issue or some sort of problem, having that solutionary mindset. And how can I address this in an eco-friendly you know, positive way to hopefully be a great impact on our global society. So I would love for you all to think big picture and to think about how language can serve in a way that you can connect with more people. Regardless of what you invent and what you do later in life, languages and cultures will bring you or help immerse you into the world around you. So keep doing what you're doing, keep making things amazing, and I can't wait to see what the future holds thanks to what you all create and what you make it.

Amber Ivey: 34:15

I love that. Anything else you want to share with our listeners, or anything else you want to share that I didn't ask that. You want to make sure you had the opportunity to talk about today.

Noemi Rodriguez: 34:23

I do hope that they all study languages and I look forward to potentially hearing back from some students in the future with what they do with the language, what they invent. I guess, as busy as our lives always are, I always cross my fingers hoping that I'll hear back from former students or I'll hear back as adults, like what it is that they're doing. So if there's any adults maybe that I had as students that would like to reach out and tell me all the wonderful things that they're doing now as adults, I love hearing, hearing back from students.

Amber Ivey: 34:52

I absolutely love that, and you'll be able to contact Noemi through our show notes. So make sure you check it out with your parents or adults who are happening to hear this, and you can go back to Noemi to share how she helped you to get to where you are and to just share your story. That would be great. Thank you so much for joining us today, noemi, and thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. Don't forget to subscribe, rate the podcast and stay curious. Thank you for joining us as we explore the fascinating world of artificial intelligence. Don't keep this adventure to yourself. Download it, share it with your friends and let everyone else in on the fun. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, or on YouTube. See you next time on AI for Kids.