Parent Guide 👋

🚀 Getting Started

Language Bridge shows a story in two languages side by side and can read either side aloud. It's designed for multilingual learners who are building English while staying connected to their home language. No account or download is needed.

1. Open Language Bridge. You'll land on the library, showing every book as a cover you can click.
2. Use the search box and filters to find a book that fits your child.
3. Click a book cover. The first time you open a book, a quick setup screen helps you choose languages and voices.
4. Press Play to hear the story narrated, or tap any sentence to jump straight to it.

The library — search, filter by language/level/category, and continue recent books.

🎛️ First-Time Setup

The first time your child opens any book, a friendly Welcome screen appears so you can set things up together:

• First & Second Language — choose the two languages shown side by side (for example, English and Korean).
• Voices — pick a voice for each language and press Try Voice to hear a sample before deciding. Microsoft Edge offers the widest selection of natural-sounding voices.
• Sentence pause — an optional short pause between sentences, helpful for newer readers who need a moment to catch up.
• Skip Setup vs. Start Reading! — skipping just uses sensible defaults; nothing here is permanent, since everything can be changed later in Settings.

The Welcome screen — pick languages and try voices before you start reading.

📖 The Reading Screen

Once a story opens, English and the second language sit side by side, one sentence per row.

• Play / Pause — starts or stops read-aloud narration from the top of the header, or the floating bar in Focus Mode.
• Tap a sentence — highlights it on both sides and jumps narration there. Tapping while narration is playing pauses it so you can jump around freely.
• Speaker icons (above each column) — choose which language is read aloud.
• Chapters (sidebar) — jump to any chapter in the book.
• Search (sidebar) — find a word and step through every match with the arrow buttons.
• Progress bar — shows how far through the chapter your child has read.
• Focus Mode (the square-brackets icon) — dims everything except the current sentence for distraction-free reading.

Reading view — tap any sentence to highlight it on both sides.

⚙️ Customizing in Settings

Click the gear icon any time to open Reader Settings, where the Left page and Right page can each be adjusted independently:

• Language — swap which language appears in that column.
• Voice — choose from the voices available on your device/browser.
• Speed & Pitch — slow narration down for newer readers, or adjust the pitch.
• Sentence Delay — a custom pause (in milliseconds) between sentences for that side.
• Data Management — reset chapter-completion tracking if you'd like to start fresh.

Reader Settings — fine-tune each side's language, voice, speed, and pitch.

The Help (?) icon in the header always has a quick reminder of these controls and keyboard shortcuts.

✨ Tips for Parents

• Try a few different voices together with your child — a natural-sounding voice makes a big difference in how enjoyable narration is.
• Slow the speed down and add a longer sentence pause for newer readers.
• Use Focus Mode to cut down on distractions during narration time.
• Language Bridge works best in Microsoft Edge, which offers the widest selection of natural-sounding voices.
• Headphones are recommended for narration in shared spaces like a classroom or living room.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions