Interview With The Founder of The First Nubian App To Teach Nubian Language

Nubi App is the first Nubian project interested in the Nubian heritage and educating the Nubian language in its two dialects (Kenzi and Fadicca) using the technology facilities currently used in the world.

“We’ll get the Nubia at your doorsteps” is the Nubi app slogan. The application contains audio lessons to teach the Nubian language. And it also contains songs, popular Nubian proverbs, and some history content.  “We would like to let the Nubia reach all the people through the current technology used,” Mo’men Talloush, founder of Nubi App, said.

We’ve interviewed Mo’men to know more about the new app, and here is what we talked about:

Q: How did you get the idea of the app?

The problem is that the Nubian language is fading away with the old people. When they die, the language dies too. So, what happened is that one day I was trying to teach my little cousin the Nubian letters and numbers, but he was just holding his tablet without giving me any attention. So I thought ‘Why don’t I transfer the message I want to deliver to him – which is the Nubian language – through the technology he’s dealing with?’ From here came the idea of developing a mobile application that reaches almost everyone to teach the Nubian language.

Q: What is the goal or the aim of Nubi app?

Our main aim is to protect the Nubian language and the Nubian heritage. The language is dying, and Nubi app is trying to let it reach the world and be known for everybody.

Q: Is the Nubi app done mainly for the Nubian people?

Of course not, the app is for everyone who is interested in the Nubian language and Nubia in general. We’ll also add a part of our app for the internal tourism in Nubia and Aswan, it will be a place for the Nubian vendors to put up their products and places and it will provide our users with all the information they need while visiting Aswan like the hotels, restaurants, bazars, and different unique places to visit. This will support internal tourism in Egypt, and it will also help marketing the Nubian vendors who have a great talent in the handmade crafts.

Q: When did you launch the app and what did you achieve till now?

The app was launched in February on GooglePlay, and it had around 8,000 downloads. It’ll be launched on IOS later this year, but we still need to see success on GooglePlay and then start working on the IOS version. We’re actually still developing our app, we launch a new version every month with new updates and features. Hopefully, by the end of this year the final version of the app will be developed.

Q: What about the funding? Are you looking for investment?

Nubi App project is totally self-funded. Of course I wish to find someone to give us the support we need but the problem is that all investors and businessmen are looking for someone who offers a product or a service, they don’t pay much attention to the cultural projects such as Nubi App; it’s impact in on the culture and the heritage but it doesn’t offer a product or a service.

The Nubi app project is divided into stages; the first stage is a mobile application for Nubian language education that was launched on GooglePlay in February. While the second stage is programming chatbot on Facebook messenger with translated Nubian words and phrases. And the third stage is adding the Nubian language on Google Translate using Google Translate Toolkit that allows the users to add regional languages and dialects. Finally the last stage is building a website to be a smart gate for Nubia and Nubians all over the world containing all the above stages as well as a database for the Nubian history, Nubian language and all services related to the Nubian society.