Inspiration
NativeLeap was born from a shared experience between first- and second-generation immigrants. Our team grew up speaking a mix of English and our heritage languages: Tagalog, Vietnamese, Cantonese, and more. But as we got older, we noticed something: while we could understand or speak in casual conversations, we struggled with vocabulary in real-life topics we actually care about, like healthcare, food, family stories, or cultural traditions. We know how to say "hello" and "thank you." But we often don't know how to describe pain symptoms in a doctor's office, or express deeper emotions in our heritage tongue, or understand traditional cooking techniques from our grandparents. What’s more, the words we do learn don’t always stick, especially if they’re out of context or irrelevant to our interests. We built NativeLeap because we needed a tool that met us where we are, not at the beginner level, and not in formal grammar drills, but in that in-between space where language learning gets hard, messy, and personal.
What it does
We learned how to incorporate external APIs, like Gemini and Eleven Labs APIs, for the first time. We also learned how to invite and ask for advice from mentors. To all the mentors reading this post, we see you, appreciate you, and thank you for your relentless help!
How we built it
We built our application using TypeScript and JavaScript with Next.js, Tailwind CSS, and Phaser.js, and integrated the Gemini API and Eleven Labs API. We broke down our team of four into two groups: the gamers and API consultors. All four members stayed overnight to ensure an MVP of our project!
Challenges we ran into
Choosing the right game platform was a significant challenge. Inspired by our mentor's advice to gamify language learning, we faced a problem: none of us specialized in game development and only two team members had casual Unity experience. After exploring YouTube tutorials and consulting LLMs, we landed on Phaser.js. Its speed and native compatibility with our Next.js stack made it the perfect fit, enabling us to create an engaging game-based learning experience efficiently.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
One of our proudest accomplishments with NativeLeap was successfully integrating ElevenLabs' text-to-speech capabilities to bring our translations to life with high-quality Cantonese audio. This wasn't just a superficial feature, it required working with audio stream formats, error handling, and dynamically triggering playback to support an immersive learning experience. Beyond that, we leveraged Gemini for real-time feedback and actionable suggestions, using carefully crafted prompts that allowed us to go beyond surface-level translations. Through prompt engineering, we were able to offer learners alternative sentence structures, grammar improvements, and vocabulary expansion that felt genuinely helpful and personalized. We also went beyond the typical MVP scope by building a history log so users could reflect on what they’ve learned, customizable flashcards for active recall, and a settings panel that let users fine-tune their experience based on dialect, pronunciation guides, and learning goals. Combined with a clean, responsive UI that includes dark mode support and a consistent design language using gradients and iconography, we’re proud that NativeLeap feels less like a hackathon prototype and more like a thoughtfully built product ready for real learners.
What we learned
We learned how to incorporate external APIs, like Gemini and Eleven Labs APIs, for the first time. We also learned how to invite and ask for advice from mentors. To all the mentors reading this post, we see you, appreciate you, and thank you for your relentless help!
What's next for NativeLeap
We're keeping the app free and making it accessible where it matters most. We want to partner with schools, libraries, and community centers to offer NativeLeap to heritage language programs that struggle to keep intermediate students engaged. Education shouldn't have a paywall.
Right now, we only support Cantonese and Mandarin (well), but we're working hard to expand. Our next priority is adding Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean, and Spanish since those are some of the most spoken heritage languages in North America. We also need to tighten up how our game and translation features work together so the experience feels seamless.
We want to make learning social and fun. Adding leaderboards, friend requests, and the ability to follow other learners will create some friendly competition and build a real community. Language learning shouldn't feel lonely. We're also exploring a "find people near you" feature so learners can meet up in person and practice together, whether that's grabbing coffee or joining a language exchange meetup.
Ultimately, we're not just building an app. We're trying to help second-gen kids reconnect with their roots in a way that actually sticks. Because being able to have a real conversation with
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