Nombre de resultats 3
per a Languages
28/05/2011 - Anki and Language Learning: The Spaced Repetition System
I first heard of spaced repetition software around 5 or 6 years ago, while browsing around the net. Read about it, found it unappealing and moved on. You know, there are times when you learn about something and dismiss it as not necessary... and after a while you are lead into it again to find it is wonderful. This is one of such instances.
I have only written two highly visited posts about languages: The Language Switch and How to Train Your Brain to Flip to a New Language (in Bitesize Irish Gaelic, it also appeared in Hacker Monthly, April 2011) and a lot of the commenters suggested me using Anki, Mnemosyne or Supermemo. Three instances of the same theory, spaced repetition paired with flashcard based language learning. So far, so good. Let's check it someday.
The underlying principle behind spaced repetition is easy. Once you learn something, you don't need to refresh this knowledge for a fixed time span. If the knowledge was easy (like the fact that bók is book in Icelandic) you only need to review it every once in a while, at most. On the other hand, if you have very hard to fix knowledge (like knowing that hústökumaður is squatter), you need to be reminded of it more often. This is where spaced repetition software comes into the playfield.
You pick a deck of virtual flashcards you want to learn and gauge the quality of your answers (from "Don't know" to "Too easy"). The algorithm now plays with this quality. Based on it, you won't be shown again these cards until enough time has passed. This has a twofold effect. On one hand, you don't need to review everything every day, you only need to review what you are more likely to have forgotten. On the other hand, even well-known knowledge gets tested at some point. A lot of people say it works wonders to learn languages, and I decided to give it a try.
I decided to use Anki, basically because it is free and has cross-platform solutions in addition to an online syncing feature. So far I'm more than happy with my learning of a corpus of 1500 Icelandic words, and even more when I discovered I could get it to work (somehow) in my iPod Touch.
There is a native Anki iPhone/iPad application (affiliate link), costing 20€, which I found a little on the high side, but in addition to being able to use (for free) the online version if you have an available connection you have another free option. If your iDevice is jailbroken, you can install AnkiMini, which runs a local webserver running Anki on your device. Just point your Mobile Safari to localhost:8080 and you can keep on learning, being able to sync to your desktop too. Just wonderful.
I will probably end up paying the paid version (reviews I've read say it is even better than the desktop version, which is very good), but so far I'm happy with this solution. Only 1300 words left to "see".
I'm also implementing my own version of the SuperMemo algorithm for fun, to use in my Ben Nanonote. In a few weeks I'll try to post an update on how it is going.
I have only written two highly visited posts about languages: The Language Switch and How to Train Your Brain to Flip to a New Language (in Bitesize Irish Gaelic, it also appeared in Hacker Monthly, April 2011) and a lot of the commenters suggested me using Anki, Mnemosyne or Supermemo. Three instances of the same theory, spaced repetition paired with flashcard based language learning. So far, so good. Let's check it someday.
The underlying principle behind spaced repetition is easy. Once you learn something, you don't need to refresh this knowledge for a fixed time span. If the knowledge was easy (like the fact that bók is book in Icelandic) you only need to review it every once in a while, at most. On the other hand, if you have very hard to fix knowledge (like knowing that hústökumaður is squatter), you need to be reminded of it more often. This is where spaced repetition software comes into the playfield.
You pick a deck of virtual flashcards you want to learn and gauge the quality of your answers (from "Don't know" to "Too easy"). The algorithm now plays with this quality. Based on it, you won't be shown again these cards until enough time has passed. This has a twofold effect. On one hand, you don't need to review everything every day, you only need to review what you are more likely to have forgotten. On the other hand, even well-known knowledge gets tested at some point. A lot of people say it works wonders to learn languages, and I decided to give it a try.
I decided to use Anki, basically because it is free and has cross-platform solutions in addition to an online syncing feature. So far I'm more than happy with my learning of a corpus of 1500 Icelandic words, and even more when I discovered I could get it to work (somehow) in my iPod Touch.
There is a native Anki iPhone/iPad application (affiliate link), costing 20€, which I found a little on the high side, but in addition to being able to use (for free) the online version if you have an available connection you have another free option. If your iDevice is jailbroken, you can install AnkiMini, which runs a local webserver running Anki on your device. Just point your Mobile Safari to localhost:8080 and you can keep on learning, being able to sync to your desktop too. Just wonderful.
I will probably end up paying the paid version (reviews I've read say it is even better than the desktop version, which is very good), but so far I'm happy with this solution. Only 1300 words left to "see".
I'm also implementing my own version of the SuperMemo algorithm for fun, to use in my Ben Nanonote. In a few weeks I'll try to post an update on how it is going.
If you want to keep reading:
01/05/2011 - Focus in Language Learning: Doing Two Languages at Once Is a Bad Idea
Last February I set myself a goal for these next three months (February, March and April): to learn Gaelic. The time is up and I must confess I have not made a lot of advances. The reasons are plenty, and most are shared with whoever wants to learn a new language. They are even harder for people learning a few languages at once, the kind of language nerds that have way too many Teach Yourself books on languages. I also have some solutions to approach the problems... Now I just need to apply them wisely.
Lack of time
As you may remember, I'm doing my PhD in Mathematics. I'm close to its end (or at least it looks so), and this means it eats even more time than before. In addition to this, I write regularly (or semi-regularly) here in mostlymaths.net and 100perZen.net, I'm learning to play guitar and have picked drawing (to have some more non-thinking time) again. I'm also attending a course on how to make your own shoes (yes, really). And together with Laia we are opening an Etsy shop. All quite time consuming!
Learning a new language can be split in really small steps: one word or declension a day, even. But I'm not hard-wired into doing so little with languages, and as such I try to do at least half a lesson a day, when time permits. But time never does!
Solution: I'm currently trying to use memorisation techniques (like memory palaces and mental associative chains) in my language learning experience. It is not easy, as memory palaces are not very well suited for language learning, and abstract data (like foreign languages) are hard to code in its images. But I'm still trying. This would mean that if I could find one or two hours in a week, I could advance steadily. A forthcoming post will explore this with more detail as soon as I have more experience with it.
Learning a new language can be split in really small steps: one word or declension a day, even. But I'm not hard-wired into doing so little with languages, and as such I try to do at least half a lesson a day, when time permits. But time never does!
Solution: I'm currently trying to use memorisation techniques (like memory palaces and mental associative chains) in my language learning experience. It is not easy, as memory palaces are not very well suited for language learning, and abstract data (like foreign languages) are hard to code in its images. But I'm still trying. This would mean that if I could find one or two hours in a week, I could advance steadily. A forthcoming post will explore this with more detail as soon as I have more experience with it.
Mild lack of motivation
My trip into Gaelic came from a guest post in Bitesize Irish Gaelic and several emails I exchanged with Eoin, who runs the site with his wife Saša. I got hooked into the language and the site, and for a while was very excited by the prospect of learning a new (and quite unknown) language.
Then I started to realise how much time a language needs. It's not that I didn't know before, its just that I was trying to learn two languages at once. This is usually a recipe for failure, unless the languages are very close. A few days ago I picked again my Icelandic book and I realised I had been telling myself to learn Irish without wanting to do it in that precise moment: I'm currently craving Nordic languages. When I opened my Swedish book it was like Hey, how fun is this!, the same went with Norwegian.
Solution: Concentrate on Icelandic for now. After all, one of my New Year resolutions is to learn enough Icelandic to read Egil's Saga (and The Little Prince before it). Let's do it, and then I can go for another language branch with Gaelic.
Then I started to realise how much time a language needs. It's not that I didn't know before, its just that I was trying to learn two languages at once. This is usually a recipe for failure, unless the languages are very close. A few days ago I picked again my Icelandic book and I realised I had been telling myself to learn Irish without wanting to do it in that precise moment: I'm currently craving Nordic languages. When I opened my Swedish book it was like Hey, how fun is this!, the same went with Norwegian.
Solution: Concentrate on Icelandic for now. After all, one of my New Year resolutions is to learn enough Icelandic to read Egil's Saga (and The Little Prince before it). Let's do it, and then I can go for another language branch with Gaelic.
There's always something else to do
On my commute, reading RSS feeds or drawing. At home, blogging, drawing, laundry, chores. In my office, thesis.
If there is always something else to do that has a biggest lead (like getting more visits to my blog, or having clean clothes), it is very hard to do something "just for fun" in our free time, if it is something that needs a big time expenditure.
Solution: Fixed schedule. Set a specific moment in the day or schedule a few hours in the week for your language learning, just like if you were in a classroom. Two hours in a week, if bearable can do wonders. You can split it in two lessons per hour, or one lesson and one hour of reading with a dictionary, or one hour of online chatting. Do it enjoyable!
If there is always something else to do that has a biggest lead (like getting more visits to my blog, or having clean clothes), it is very hard to do something "just for fun" in our free time, if it is something that needs a big time expenditure.
Solution: Fixed schedule. Set a specific moment in the day or schedule a few hours in the week for your language learning, just like if you were in a classroom. Two hours in a week, if bearable can do wonders. You can split it in two lessons per hour, or one lesson and one hour of reading with a dictionary, or one hour of online chatting. Do it enjoyable!
What are your language learning problems? And your solutions for my problems?
12/02/2011 - February, March and April Challenge: Language Learning Applied to Gaelic
As a byproduct of The Language Switch, I was invited to send a guest post to Bitesize Irish Gaelic, a wonderful site where you can learn Irish gaelic online.
Last year I decided to learn Icelandic because we were going to Iceland, this year I was learning Gaelic... Thus we decided that Ireland might be a good place to visit this summer on holidays, encouraging me to learn better this new language. As I began my course in Bitesize Irish Gaelic, I saw it is an interesting language (but for me most are), more so, it was a well-planned course with friendly people in the forums, I decided to get a little more serious about it.
In addition to all this, for my birthday, Laia bought me a book titled Teach Yourself Gaelic, from my beloved Teach Yourself series (the same collection where my book on Icelandic sits). We were very surprised when we discovered it was a book on Scottish gaelic!
I was challenged with a new language, somehow as a dialect of another I am learning currently. It is not formally a dialect, but the two languages are very closely related. If I can learn one of them, I can learn the other... And probably at the same time. How could I miss this language train?
I've been thinking lately about effective ways of language learning applied to languages with not so many speakers, where you can't count on immersion (some of which I wrote in the guest post I was talking before), and I'll try to implement them to learn Scottish gaelic with the help of this book (as a source of grammar and vocabulary). Maybe we'll end up going to Scotland?
These next three months I will blog here about the process of learning a new language from level zero without any language immersion whatsoever and see how far I can take it in three months. I'll share with you all my tips and tricks along the way. Stay tuned for new updates, and if you know Gaelic feel free to contact me and tell me how easy it should be!
For those of you who know my background, I won't stop learning Icelandic in the meantime: one of this year's goals is to improve my Icelandic to the point where I can read Egil's saga. I'll just devote more of my time to this new language for the next three months, while still honing my skills in Icelandic when the chance comes.
Last year I decided to learn Icelandic because we were going to Iceland, this year I was learning Gaelic... Thus we decided that Ireland might be a good place to visit this summer on holidays, encouraging me to learn better this new language. As I began my course in Bitesize Irish Gaelic, I saw it is an interesting language (but for me most are), more so, it was a well-planned course with friendly people in the forums, I decided to get a little more serious about it.
In addition to all this, for my birthday, Laia bought me a book titled Teach Yourself Gaelic, from my beloved Teach Yourself series (the same collection where my book on Icelandic sits). We were very surprised when we discovered it was a book on Scottish gaelic!
I was challenged with a new language, somehow as a dialect of another I am learning currently. It is not formally a dialect, but the two languages are very closely related. If I can learn one of them, I can learn the other... And probably at the same time. How could I miss this language train?
I've been thinking lately about effective ways of language learning applied to languages with not so many speakers, where you can't count on immersion (some of which I wrote in the guest post I was talking before), and I'll try to implement them to learn Scottish gaelic with the help of this book (as a source of grammar and vocabulary). Maybe we'll end up going to Scotland?
These next three months I will blog here about the process of learning a new language from level zero without any language immersion whatsoever and see how far I can take it in three months. I'll share with you all my tips and tricks along the way. Stay tuned for new updates, and if you know Gaelic feel free to contact me and tell me how easy it should be!
For those of you who know my background, I won't stop learning Icelandic in the meantime: one of this year's goals is to improve my Icelandic to the point where I can read Egil's saga. I'll just devote more of my time to this new language for the next three months, while still honing my skills in Icelandic when the chance comes.
Related Posts:
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