Young designers show off their smartphone apps in Hong Kong contest
Smartphone programs developed by children to help make life a little easier - for young and old - put to the test in local competition
Coding is often said to be like a second language to today's youth - and 16 young designers proved that point yesterday at a competition to showcase their smartphone apps.
Now in its second year, the AppJamming Summit showcased work that could help young people - and those much older.
Among the young competitors was nine-year-old Sebastian Doe, who created a smartphone app to help language learners practice writing Chinese characters. He moved to the city from Australia with his family last year and started learning Putonghua.
"Writing the characters is the hardest part [of learning Chinese]," said Doe, explaining where he got the inspiration to create such an app.
According to Michelle Sun, founder and chief executive of competition organiser First Code Academy, Doe's innovation showed how different the world was now to when older generations were growing up.
"Back then we'd learn Mandarin as a second language ... nowadays coding is learnt like a second language for this generation," said Sun, whose academy runs coding classes and camps for children.