Hello
I am looking for (block) coding apps for Primary that change their language to the iPad language (in my case French). My students don’t know any English and would like to start coding in French.
Hi and welcome?
what do you mean by Primary?
There is a French version of Codea, if that’s what you’re looking for.
And we have French users who may be able to help, @Jmv38, @toffer.
she means primary school
@nathaliebalduck all languages are in english for concision
les mots clés en francais ou allemand ou espagnol ou italien
sont trop longs, ils sont nettement plus concis en anglais
english french
background papier-peint
for pour
text affiche texte
do faire
until jusqu'à
end fin
speech parler
etc…
tu peux franciser toutes les commandes codea sauf function et les commandes de boucles
-- Language
ecrire = print
papierpeint = background
taillecadre = strokeWidth
ligne = line
rectangle = rect
function setup()
ecrire("Hello World!")
end
function draw()
papierpeint(40, 40, 50)
taillecadre(5)
end
-- Language
formatportrait = supportedOrientations(PORTRAIT_ANY)
formatpaysage = supportedOrientations(LANDSCAPE_ANY)
ecrire = print
efface = output.clear
papierpeint = background
taillecadre = strokeWidth
ligne = line
rectangle = rect
dire = speech.say
stopleson = speech.stop
affichetexte = text
afficheimage = sprite
translation = translate
rotation = rotate
echelle = scale
longueur = WIDTH
largeur = HEIGHT
heure = io.time
date = io.date
couleur = color
couleurstylo = fill
teinte = tint
function setup()
ecrire("Hello World!")
end
function draw()
papierpeint(40, 40, 50)
taillecadre(5)
end
@hpsoft, @nathaliebalduck - I think if you made a card with the English names next to the French names, with little examples for things like for…next, or if…end, the students could use them to help with coding.
However, I think there is a problem with using Codea, especially with Primary. You first have to learn to program in Lua (the language behind Codea) before you can start making pretty pictures, and that is very boring for a class of children. Many times, children come onto our forum expecting to make an app in a few days. It is quite disappointing for them to find out that they have to learn to program first.
It may be better to start with an app where you simply drag and drop instructions and pieces. I have seen at least one of these, but I can’t remember its name.
To add to my comment above, there will always be a few children who will be interested enough to learn how to program.
But as a teacher, you have somehow to keep the other children involved, including some who find it very difficult to think in code, and I think that might be difficult with Codea, even though it is probably the simplest way to program graphics on an iPad.
@nathaliebalduck - Hi,
Firsts in mind : hopscotch > https://www.gethopscotch.com and ScratchJr > http://www.scratchjr.org. I don’t remember they exists in french. Scratch is ported on a lot of platforms and I’m almost sure there is a web port localized in french.
I’m agree with Ignatz’s point of view, even if Codea is one of the greatest entry point into “coding” 
Hey Codea folks, stop making Minecraft clones, jump into build a block coding app ! ok ok, bad joke…
My first coding experience was around age 8 or maybe 9, BASIC on a long-forgotten 8-bit computer (a Dragon 32). My first programs were just procedurally drawn pictures. I’d plot out a picture on graph paper, like a kid’s drawing of a house, blue sky, green strip for the ground, yellow disc for the sky, and then implement it in BASIC. The program itself wasn’t interactive in any way, but I enjoyed making little scenes like that, and it teaches you a lot, just in terms of thinking like a computer thinks. Even the realisation that the code does exactly what you tell it to, not necessarily what you’d like it to do, is a fairly big thing for a kid to learn. And the graph paper helped a lot to visualise what the program is doing, as it has cells, axes, an origin etc (it was the sort with large squares subdivided into 10x10 very small squares, so you could actually draw your scene with the same resolution/ pixel density as the 8-bit screen)
But I can’t imagine how it would work teaching a class of kids, unless it was a very self-selecting group (ie all the members more-or-less voluntarily decided they wanted to be in a coding class).
I’ve not tried hopscotch, but it looks awesome. Probably more engaging than graph paper!
French voice is more attractive
The App Store has a nice “learn to code” category (with Codea, hopscotch etc edit: and CargoBot). On the UK store it’s currently on the front page, at the far right end of the “featured collections” strip.