Post: #1

I'm pretty sure some of you guys are aware of this, but there's this awesome program I use to brush up on my language skills.

It's called 'anki'.

Basically, it's a cross platform unit (I use linux) that has flash cards. It shuffles them intelligently. There's thousands of decks already made, for all sorts of languages. Enable a deck, view the flash card, commit it to memory, and grade on difficulty. You can modify existing decks or make your own.

The way I'm using it now, I study English vocab for the GRE for twenty minutes.
Then I run through 100 German words from their "2500 Most Frequent German Words List".
Then I roll through 20 cards of "Russian Alphabet".
For the hell of it I also go through maybe 10 cards of "Andy's Math". It's really easy but good review.

Hope you guys enjoy the tip. I always thought physical flash cards were a pain in the ass and always had trouble focusing on anything.

You can also use this in conjunction with the "Pomodoro Method" for kicks.

Post: #2

Yeah, I've put a deck up for Russian. Its pretty solid. Anki is great because it uses the spaced repetition algorithm so you don't see the card for да everyday, just the newer and harder words.

The real key with Anki is to download the Google Text-to-Speech plugin. It allows you to select a mass list of cards and annotate them with an mp3 pronouncing the word you're trying to learn. Their pronunciations are actually pretty solid, I'd say 95% of the time it sounds the same way you'll hear natives speak it.

Without hearing and mimicking the correct pronunciations you'll waste a lot of time and effort. Audio helps you memorize too.

Post: #3

Anki is the shit. I have the android version and use it to review every morning on the tube on teh way to work. Set to 20 new words/day, I've just finished learning a 3000 word italian vocab set. It's probably the single greatest tool towards fluency I've used so far.

Post: #4

Anki is great.

Do you have any site where I can download libraries for it? The way I've used it, I always had to write my own cards.

Post: #5

Go to File -> Download -> Shared Deck and then search. File -> Download -> Shared Plugins for plugins like Google TTS.

If you can't find it in shared decks, find it on google and then copy and paste it into an excel sheet and then import it as a deck.

Post: #6

Thanks OP, downloading android app now

Post: #7

edit

Post: #8

Yeah I checked out Rhinospike, the main issue is that I like huge sets of cards i.e. 1000 most common words so to get a native speaker to say each one of those and then put it on a card would be way too much work on both ours ends. Google TTS saves a lot of time.

What I'm really looking for now is a grammar-checker. I want to make example sentences of all new words I learn myself, but have some kind of program check the grammar for me. Anyone know how to do this?

Post: #9

edit

Post: #10

edit

Post: #11

(03-30-2012 05:58 AM)NuMbEr7 Wrote:  I don't know any proper app that checks grammar but this is like the text version of rhino spike, http://www.lang-8.com

Thanks man I think that might be exactly what I'm looking for. I was just bout to call my tutor again just to have her check grammar.

Post: #12

I cant seem to get it to install in Ubuntu.

By any chance, does anyone knows of a good online tutorial?

Post: #13

Nevermind, i had a python package missing, and managed it trough the synaptic package manager.

Post: #14

Thanks a lot for that tip. I've been in Indonesia for over 7 years total and never got around to learning the language. That program lets me study at my speed and leisure and I love how it allows me to choose when the word should be reminded. It always pisses a tutor off when I have to see the same card 100 times, but with Anki I can just go back to it as web pages load, or take ten minute study break between tasks.

I keep a browser window with google translate open when I use anki, and in my mind try to use the new word in a sentence. Google translate helps when I get stuck making sentences.