# Expanded Quote Corpus — April 2026 **Purpose**: additional real parent quotes collected during methodology rework, supplementing the 93 verified quotes in `parent-voices-analysis.md`. All verbatim, sourced, dated where available. **Collection date**: 2026-04-16 **Status**: raw corpus, pending open coding in `../coded-quotes.md` --- ## A. English-language EdTech parent voices (from EdSource, 2023) Source: [EdSource — Parents of English learners in the dark about their children's language progress](https://edsource.org/2023/parents-of-english-learners-in-the-dark-about-their-childrens-language-progress/697989) Context: not Novakid-specific but directly parallel — parents with kids classified as English learners in US schools, unable to understand their child's language level. **Exactly the problem space of Value Hub.** > "Why hasn't my daughter reclassified?" > — **Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón**, Pomona Unified parent > "I couldn't understand it. My son was the first born and he only spoke Spanish when he entered school. But why would my daughter still be an English learner, if she had had a harder time learning Spanish?" > — **Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón** > "For the first time, someone explained to me the exam that they have to take once a year and that they have to learn how to write, listen, speak and read. The teachers had never told me that my daughter had a 3 in reading, for example, or a 2 in writing." > — **Yosadara Carbajal Salmerón**, on finally understanding the assessment > "I think the most important thing is explaining to parents what the classification of English learner means, why their kids are being placed there, and what steps they need to take to pass the exam before they go to middle school. It's about communication." > — **Maribel Bautista**, Long Beach Unified parent of triplets (one reclassified in 2nd grade, another in 3rd, third still unreclassified in 8th) > "Parents often rely on report cards to monitor their children's academic progress. If they're getting A's and B's, they don't look at anything else. If you don't know how to navigate that, then essentially years go by without you receiving a note about your child's progress on the test." > — **Araceli Simeón**, Executive Director, Parent Organization Network > "She was a teacher that really wanted everybody in the class to reclassify, and she put in the energy and time to really create a connection with every single one of us. I feel like personally it's all in the teacher. If they motivate you and make you see that you personally are capable of doing and achieving and reclassifying, it's the greatest compliment ever." > — **Mia Mirón**, reclassified student (daughter of Yosadara) **Key pattern across EdSource quotes**: parents consistently rely on **letter grades** as proxy for language progress. When letter grades are OK (A/B), parents stop looking deeper — and can miss years of slow progress on structured language assessments. This is the *school-world equivalent* of the Novakid dashboard invisibility problem. --- ## B. Novakid Russian parents (otzovik.com, progbasics.ru, tbank.ru) Source URLs: - [otzovik.com](https://otzovik.com/reviews/novakid-obuchenie_onlayn_angliyskomu_detey_4-12_l/) - [progbasics.ru](https://progbasics.ru/schools/novakid/reviews) - [tbank.ru](https://www.tbank.ru/reviews/company/novakid/16630/) ### Progress & outcomes framing > "Дочь за полгода занятий с нуля уже может немного разговаривать" > — **Надежда**, tbank.ru, 27 ноября 2022 > "Моя дочь занимается в этой школе английским языком. Прогресс на лицо" > — **Александр**, tbank.ru, 2 ноября 2022 > "Сын занимается третий год, очень довольны и он и мы." > — **Ирина**, tbank.ru, 24 сентября 2022 > "ребенок свободно читает и пишет на двух языках" > — **Мария**, progbasics.ru, 16 июля 2025, 4.4/5 > *Context: adds that she wants more parental monitoring tools due to material repetition* > "заметно улучшила свои языковые навыки" > — **Антон**, progbasics.ru, 7 июля 2025 > "программа построена логично, материал подается последовательно" > — **Ева**, progbasics.ru, 7 июля 2025 > "ребенок начал уверенно строить простые фразы" > — **Светлана**, progbasics.ru, 1 июля 2025 > "ребёнку интересно, преподаватели внимательные, прогресс заметен" > — **Егор**, progbasics.ru, 26 июня 2025 > *Primary concern: "высокая стоимость обучения"* > "дочь одна из лучших по предмету в школе" > — **Анжелика**, progbasics.ru, 14 июня 2025 > *4-year student; values conversational practice emphasis* > "ребёнок лучший в классе" > — **Наталья**, progbasics.ru, 28 апреля 2025 > "В Novakid сын занимается более 5 лет... уроки по 25 минут, самое подходящее время" > — **natkash2005**, otzovik.com, 23 апреля 2021, 5★ ### Recording / self-tracking infrastructure > "Все уроки записываются на видео, можно посмотреть, что проходят на уроке" > — **Лунатик175**, otzovik.com, 13 декабря 2023, 5★ > "Удобный сервис, можно посмотреть запись урока, закрепить результат заданиями" > — **Анастасия**, tbank.ru, 15 октября 2022 > "Хорошо, что можно уроки и преподавателей можно самим выбирать, менять" > — **Октябрина**, tbank.ru, 9 октября 2022 ### Price / value tension > "Достоинства: Уроки только на английском... Недостатки: Цена" > — **IrishaTarasova**, otzovik.com, 17 декабря 2023, 5★ > "чем больше вы углубляетесь в программу, тем выше цена" > — **Nashorn1**, otzovik.com, 17 декабря 2023, 1★ > "Дороговато без акций" > — **Margaret8**, otzovik.com, 5 декабря 2023, 5★ > "Цена обучения выросла значительно. Проблемы с оплатой." > — **Галина**, tbank.ru, 13 октября 2022 ### Curriculum / depth concerns > "не хватает более углубленного изучения грамматики" > — **Елена**, progbasics.ru, 24 января 2025 > *Appreciates platform usability but seeks deeper grammatical instruction* > "игровой формат занятий и индивидуальный подход" > — **Маргарита**, progbasics.ru, 26 января 2025 > *Concerns: inconsistent scheduling; limited teacher continuity* ### Scheduling > "Отмена урока не меньше чем за сутки" > — **Vkysnaya03**, otzovik.com, 16 декабря 2023, 5★ > "Занятия удобно можно переносить, отменять или добавлять в другой день" > — **ЕкаЛиман**, otzovik.com, 18 февраля 2024, 5★ ### Negative, low-star > "преподаватель часто опаздывал на занятия" > — **Эмиль**, progbasics.ru, 6 февраля 2024 > *Major frustrations: unreliable instructors, outdated materials, payment issues* --- ## C. Turkish parents — Ekşi Sözlük (informal parent forum) Source: [ingilizcetavsiye.com/blog/novakid-yorumlari](https://ingilizcetavsiye.com/blog/novakid-yorumlari) > "Veliye gelen bildirimler hep pozitif. Ders kötü bile geçse her şey tozpembe. Gerçekçi yorum yapmaktan kaçınıyorlar... Veli olarak öğretmenle diyalog kurmak mümkün değil..." > *[EN: "Notifications to parents are always positive. Even if the lesson went badly, everything is rose-coloured. They avoid giving realistic feedback... As a parent, it's impossible to have a dialogue with the teacher..."]* > — **realjaew**, Ekşi Sözlük > "Her bakiye yüklemede bir sıkıntı yaşıyorum... kalan bakiyeyi siliyor. İtiraz ediyorum kayıt oluşturduk diyorlar sonra dönüş geç oluyor..." > *[EN: "Every time I load balance, there's a problem... it erases the remaining balance. I complain, they say they've opened a case, then the response is late..."]* > — **ayisigialtindaoturanaksakboga**, Ekşi Sözlük > "Müşteri hizmetleri etik çalışmıyor. Onlar bana ulaşacağına ben ulaşmaya çalışıyorum ona rağmen ulaşamıyorum..." > *[EN: "Customer service doesn't work ethically. Instead of them reaching me, I'm the one trying to reach them — and even then I can't get through..."]* > — **swarovsky**, Ekşi Sözlük --- ## D. Pan-market parent-facing review aggregators Source: [easyesltips.com/novakid-review-2025](https://easyesltips.com/novakid-review-2025/) > "After 3.5 years, my 4-year-old expresses herself freely—thank you, Novakid!" > — **Janice**, Hong Kong > "Shy at first, but now she chats confidently. The teachers are pros!" > — **Ysaline**, Taiwan > "My daughter's avatar collection keeps her begging for more lessons—it's genius!" > — unnamed mother > *Gamification as engagement driver* Source: [goodairlanguage.com/novakid](https://www.goodairlanguage.com/novakid/) > "After first trial lesson something has started to get wrong. We have paid for 12 lessons...the system doesn't allow you to have the lessons only with the teacher you prefer, there were no free time slots available of our teacher after 4 lessons, so we were told that we have to choose others." > — **Ksenia Karelina**, May 2020 > *Acknowledges teacher was "GREAT," but system forced teacher changes, lost 7 of 12 paid lessons, support unresponsive in Italian or Russian* --- ## E. Structural observations across this expanded slice These are **raw observations**, not coded findings. Coding happens in `../coded-quotes.md`. 1. **"Positive-only feedback" trust collapse** (TR: realjaew) — the strongest new signal. When all notifications are uniformly positive, parents stop trusting them. This is a design-level failure of the notification system, not just a tone issue. 2. **"External validation > platform data"** (RU: Анжелика "одна из лучших по предмету в школе", Наталья "лучший в классе") — Russian parents frame progress through **school ranking**, not through platform CEFR levels or lesson counts. The platform is not where "progress" is measured; school is. 3. **"Grades as shortcut"** (EdSource: Simeón) — parents globally use **letter grades as the single proxy**. If grades are OK, they don't look deeper. This is the canonical mental-model shortcut that a Value Hub must either replace or supplement. 4. **"Asymmetric communication"** (TR: realjaew, ES: Carmentxu existing) — parents receive feedback but cannot send it back. This is a structural property of the product, not a dashboard fix. 5. **"Price escalation over time"** (RU: Nashorn1, Галина) — multiple Russian parents report feeling that prices climbed over their subscription lifetime. Retention math is not just "am I getting value today" but "is the value growing faster than my cost". 6. **Depth request from power users** (RU: Елена wanting grammar depth) — not every parent wants simplification; some want more structure. Design must serve the ladder, not just the entry point. 7. **Children's voluntary return as strongest signal** (RU: Наталья "independently chose to return after relocation", Anon mother "keeps her begging for more lessons") — the child's own demand is the parent's #1 retention signal. Not a dashboard metric.