Lingoo Chingoo empowers refugee communities through accesible, multilingual English learning tools—designed with empathy, inclusivity, and real-life needs at the center—so newcomers can learn from home, navigate daily life, and thrive in their new communities.

A note from Gabrielle:
​

Lingoo Chingoo is my love letter to refugees/newcommers.

 

You are seen.

You are heard.

You belong here.​​

​

THE NAME:

Lingoo Chingoo - "Lingoo" is a play-on-words for the word "language" and "Chingoo" (Chingu or 친구) means "friend" in Korean. Using "Chingoo" is my way of paying homage to South Korea; I spent the first three years of my ESOL teaching career in South Korea, which is where I fell in love with teaching.

The true meaning behind "Lingoo Chingoo": the language of our friends.

​

THE HISTORY:

This idea came to me in Fall 2024 as a response to the presidential election. I, like many people serving marginalized communities, was about to be faced with a challenging year of funding cuts, executive orders, and possible layoffs. I remember asking myself, "when I'm no longer an ESOL Coordinator serving refugees, what do I want to leave behind? How can I continue to serve refugees? What change IS within my power?"

​​​​​

I took these thoughts and many feelings to two friends and with their encouragement, help, and support, we started the audio recordings. 

 

Throughout 2025, I watched executive orders take effect, funding pauses, funding cuts, retraction of Food Assistance programs for our refugee neighbors. I saw first hand the devastation all of this had on our neighbors... our community. 

​

In Spring of 2026, I look back and recognize a lot of time, effort, sweat, and tears went into this project. So, much has changed from the beginning of this project to now. One thing that I know is, we are here; we are surviving. I still have the privelage of serving our refugee neighbors and I work along an incredible team that continues fighting, advocating, and serving.