ARTICLES OF APPAREL FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY

Abstract

Provided are articles of apparel for assisting education in learning language vocabulary for the wearer and/or the audience viewing the articles of apparel. In one example, the article of apparel includes a first apparel portion having a first color and a second apparel portion having a second color which is different from the first color, wherein the second color is identified within the second apparel portion in a non-English written language. The article of apparel may assist in teaching English and/or non-English language vocabulary for colors, numbers, shapes, body parts, etc.

Claims

1. An article of apparel for an infant or a toddler, the article of apparel comprising: a first apparel portion having a first color; and a second apparel portion having a second color which is different from the first color and positioned within a boundary having a definable geometric shape that is immediately adjacent the first apparel portion, wherein the second color and said definable geometric shape are identified within the second apparel portion in a non-English written language.

2. The article of apparel of claim 1, wherein said non-English written language is Spanish.

3. The article of apparel of claim 1, wherein said first apparel portion having said first color is substantially the entire article.

4. The article of apparel of claim 1, wherein said second apparel portion covers a foot of said infant or toddler.

5. The article of apparel of claim 1, wherein said article of apparel is a dress and said second apparel portion is a sleeve of said dress.

6. The article of apparel of claim 1, wherein said article of apparel is a shirt and said second apparel portion is a single collar of said shirt.

7. The article of apparel of claim 1, wherein said first color of said first apparel portion is identified within said first apparel portion in said non-English written language.

8. The article of apparel of claim 1, wherein the second apparel portion is detachably attached to the article of apparel.

9. An article of apparel for wearing by a wearer comprising: a first apparel portion having a first color; and a second apparel portion having a second color which is different from the first color and positioned over a definable body part of the wearer when worn by the wearer, wherein the second color and said definable body part is identified within the second apparel portion in a non-English written language, wherein the second apparel portion is immediately adjacent to the first apparel portion, and wherein the article of apparel is for wearing by an infant or a toddler.

10. The article of apparel of claim 9, wherein said non-English written language is Spanish.

11. The article of apparel of claim 9, wherein the second apparel portion is detachably attached to the article of apparel.

12. The article of apparel of claim 9, wherein said first apparel portion having said first color is substantially the entire article.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0021] FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of an infant pajama showing an embodiment of the present invention;

[0022] FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of an infant pajama showing another embodiment of the present invention;

[0023] FIG. 3 is a front elevational view of a shirt showing another embodiment of the present invention;

[0024] FIG. 4 is a front elevational view of a dress showing another embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of an infant pajama showing another embodiment of the present invention;

[0026] FIG. 6 is a front elevational view of an infant pajama showing another embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] FIG. 7 is a front elevational view of an infant pajama showing another embodiment of the present invention; and

[0028] FIG. 8 is a front elevational view of an infant pajama showing another embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS

[0029] The present invention is directed to an article of apparel which assists in teaching English or a foreign language vocabulary to the wearer and to those who view the article of apparel. The article of apparel may be of any type, including pants, shirts, pajamas, dresses, skirts, hats, socks, and infant and toddler apparel, accessories, etc. The language vocabulary taught by the apparel may be any word or words, which may or may not use the Latin alphabet. For example, the apparel of the present invention may assist in teaching vocabulary of English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, or other foreign languages using the Latin alphabet, but may also assist in teaching vocabulary of Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic, or other foreign languages not using the Latin alphabet.

[0030] Referring now to FIGS. 1-8, the features of the present invention will be described in more detail herebelow.

[0031] FIG. 1 shows a front view of an infant pajama 100 showing an embodiment of the present invention. The infant pajama 100 includes a first apparel portion 102 and a second apparel portion (also referred to as a teaching portion) 104. Second apparel portion 104 is located around a foot of the infant pajama 100. First apparel portion 102 has a first color, such as white. The teaching portion 104 has a color that is different from the color of the first apparel portion 102. The color of the teaching portion 104 is identified in a written foreign language 106. The color identification 106 is indicated within the teaching portion 104. In FIG. 1, the first apparel portion 102 is white, and the teaching portion 104 located in the foot portion of the infant pajama 100 is red. The color red is identified within the teaching portion 104 as rojo, which is red in Spanish.

[0032] Referring now to FIG. 2, an alternative embodiment of the present invention is shown. The first apparel portion 202 is white. The second apparel portion (teaching portion) 204 may be located anywhere in the infant pajama 200, such as the front, back, or the side of the infant pajama 200, but preferably in a location easily visible to the viewers of the infant pajama 200. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the teaching portion 204 is located near the chest portion of the infant pajama 200. Further, the teaching portion 204 is shown as having a boundaried shape and is red. In this embodiment, however, the color identification 206 states , which is red in Korean.

[0033] By contrasting the colors of two different portions of an apparel and identifying the contrasted color in a foreign language within the teaching portion, the wearer or viewer of the apparel can associate and recognize the foreign language vocabulary as identification of the color of the teaching portion. The second apparel portion (teaching portion) may be of varying shapes, sizes, or patterns.

[0034] It would be apparent to one skilled in the art for the present invention to have different types of apparels, colors, positions, shapes, and foreign languages. FIGS. 1 and 2 show exemplary embodiments of different types of apparels implementing the present invention.

[0035] Referring now to FIG. 3, a shirt 300 having a collar 304 is shown. The shirt 300 has a different color from the collar 304, which is identified as being red in Spanish (rojo 306). In this embodiment, the teaching portion is the collar 304. However, the second apparel portion is not limited to the collar 304, and it may be positioned at different locations of the shirt, such as the pocket 308. Further, there may be more than one teaching portions such that both the collar 304 and the pocket 308 may have differing colors from the shirt 300 and/or from each other, and each color of the teaching portions may be identified in a same or different foreign language.

[0036] It is also apparent to one skilled in the art that a pair of pants or shorts can be an apparel of the present invention having a first apparel portion and a second apparel (teaching) portion, wherein the second apparel portion is a pocket. The pants or shorts pocket has a color different than that of the first apparel portion, and the color of the pocket is identified in a written vocabulary, which may be in English or a foreign (non-English) language.

[0037] In FIG. 4, another embodiment is shown in a dress 400. Dress 400 includes a first portion 402 having one color and a teaching portion which is a pair of sleeves 404, and which has a different color from the dress 400. The color of the sleeves 404 is identified as being red in Spanish (rojo 406). Again, the teaching portion is not limited to one particular feature of an article of apparel, such as the pair of sleeves 404, and there may be more than one teaching portion in an article of apparel. For example, the waist band portion 408 may be a teaching portion instead of, or in addition to, the pair of sleeves 404.

[0038] In another embodiment of the present invention, an infant pajama 500 is shown in FIG. 5, having a first portion 502 and a second portion 504. In this embodiment, both first and second portions 502 and 504 may be teaching portions such that the colors of both portions 502 and 504 are identified in a foreign language. In this embodiment, the first portion 502 is white, and the first color identification 508 indicates the color as white in Spanish (blanco). Further, second portion 504 is yellow, and the second color identification indicates the color as yellow in Spanish (amarillo 506).

[0039] Referring now to FIG. 6, there is shown a front view of an infant pajama 600 having a first portion 602, a second portion 604 positioned at a foot 606 of the infant pajama 600, and a third portion 608 positioned at a hand 610 of the infant pajama 600. Each of the three portions are teaching portions as each of the portions have a color different from the other portions and the colors of each portions are identified in a foreign language. In FIG. 6, the first portion 602 is white and is identified as white in Spanish (blanco). Likewise, the second and third portions 604 and 608 are yellow and red, respectively, and are identified as yellow and red in Spanish, respectively (amarillo and rojo).

[0040] The present invention may assist in teaching the wearer or the viewer of the article of apparel foreign language vocabulary other than colors. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, foreign language vocabulary for geometric shapes and/or colors may be included. The infant pajama 700 includes a first portion 702, a first geometric portion 704, and a second geometric portion 706. The first geometric portion 704 has a shape of a rectangle and is identified as a rectangle in Spanish (rectngulo) inside the portion 704. The second geometric portion 706 has a shape of a circle and also has a blue color. Thus, the second geometric portion 706 is identified as a blue circle in Spanish (crculo azul 708) inside the portion.

[0041] The present invention may also assist in teaching of foreign language vocabulary related to body parts. FIG. 8 shows an infant pajama 800, which includes identification of certain body parts. In FIG. 8, the portions of the infant pajama 800 covering the heart 802, hand 804, and foot 806, are identified accordingly in Spanishcorazn, mano, and pie, respectively. The body parts may or may not be shown in a boundaried shape, such as the heart shape 808 around the Spanish word corazn.

[0042] Although not shown in the drawing figures, the article of apparel of the present invention may also assist in teaching foreign language vocabulary corresponding to objects, persons, animals, actions, etc. The present invention may also teach foreign language vocabulary for descriptive adjectives. For example, an embodiment apparel of the present invention may include a drawing or shape of an airplane and identify it as an airplane in a foreign language. Similarly, another embodiment apparel may include a drawing or shape of a dog and identify it in foreign language. Furthermore, another embodiment apparel may include a small drawing or shape of a book and a larger drawing or shape of a book, and identify small book and large book in a foreign language to assist in teaching vocabulary for commonly used adjectives and/or nouns.

[0043] The accompanying drawings described above show exemplary embodiments of the present invention for the purpose of assisting understanding of the present invention with the detailed description of the embodiments. The drawings should not be interpreted to limit the present inventions in any aspect. It is apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the type of apparel, positions and shapes of the teaching portion(s), colors, foreign languages and foreign language vocabularies, may be added, deleted, altered, and/or varied amongst embodiments of the present invention. Further, although the use of Spanish is primarily illustrated in the Figures, the language could also be English or any other non-English foreign language.