It started with an HTC phone in 2011 — and a promise

I built PunjabiCharm because Punjabi is not just a language to me — it's culture, identity, and emotion. Today it's the home of Punjabi language and culture for the global diaspora: an app, a school, and a community, built over more than a decade. This is how it happened.

2011: the moment it began

During a short official visit to the United States in 2011, I noticed something that stayed with me. Punjabi families everywhere wanted their children to learn Punjabi — but the kids were struggling. The traditional kaidas (primers) felt boring and disconnected from how children actually learn today. The families cared deeply; the tools simply hadn't kept up.

I'm a software engineer, and one question wouldn't let me go: why not use technology to make Punjabi learning fun, interactive, and engaging? There was just one problem — my phone at the time was a Nokia 3300. So I bought an expensive HTC Android phone for one reason only: to teach myself to build an Android app. I still have that phone on my desk today, as a reminder of where this journey began.

The review that changed everything

In April 2012, on version 1.0 of the app, a five-star review arrived from a Google Play user:

“My 3yr old son Mankirat loves this app....”

That single comment made it real for me: this wasn't a side project — it was reaching real families and real children. From that moment I committed fully, and the work never stopped: years of updates shaped by learner feedback, a YouTube channel launched during COVID that has grown to 50,000+ subscribers and 200+ structured lessons, the long-awaited iOS app, and the PunjabiCharm School community. Today the app has 500,000+ downloads and 4,000+ five-star reviews, making it one of the most trusted Punjabi learning platforms in the world.

Why I recorded every voice myself — no AI

The nuances of Punjabi pronunciation are where heritage lives — the retroflex ੜ, the tones, the warmth in how you greet an elder. AI-generated voices flatten all of it. So I made a costly, deliberate choice: every sentence in the app is recorded manually by native Punjabi speakers — four times. A male and a female speaker each record every sentence at slow speed and at natural speed, and speaking sentences come in both masculine and feminine forms, because Punjabi grammar changes with who is speaking. Beginners start slow, get the pronunciation right, then step up to natural speed and match native fluency.

It was an enormous amount of recording work. It's also the reason learners tell me the Punjabi they learn here sounds like the Punjabi their family actually speaks.

What I believe

Language is belonging. Speaking even a little Punjabi changes how you sit at the family table, how you hear the music, how your children see themselves.

Speaking comes first. Real conversations motivate everything else — I teach sounds and sentences before grammar tables, with the script alongside, never as a gatekeeper.

Small and daily beats big and rare. A few focused minutes a day, kept up for months, will outrun any weekend crash course.

An ecosystem, not just an app

Learning sticks better in community. Beyond the app there's my YouTube channel with free structured lessons, the PunjabiCharm School on Skool — courses, live classes, worksheets, and speaking practice with learners like you — plus free PDF guides and the blog. For the youngest learners, Smart Punjabi Kids makes ages 5–12 feel like play. Affordability is a core value throughout: free content first, and paid options at a fraction of private tuition.

PunjabiCharm is not just an app or a school — it's my mission to keep the Punjabi language alive, spoken, and passed on to the next generation.

If you're on this path — reconnecting with your roots, raising Punjabi-speaking kids, or learning for someone you love — I'd be honoured to walk it with you. Write to me anytime at [email protected].

— ਗੁਰਮੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ