Saim's log 2017-2019

[Saim]

I just assign each language a hotkey: ctrl+[1-0] for the first ten, and then ctrl+shift+[1-0] for the next ten. (I actually only have 9 languages, though in actuality I really use English (since I have US-international), Tamil, Korean, Japanese, and sometimes Romanian (because I don't know how to do ă or ț easily on US-international)).

Yeah I used to do the same but I've given up. It just keeps randomly undoing itself, it's not worth it if I have to constantly reset the hotkeys.

You can reschedule cards to be in the review queue with a specific interval. See here for more info. Basically you use the browser on the desktop program, and you can set a range of days between when the card should show up. So you should be able to go through and set all your Memrise cards to be in the review queue instead of being new.

Thanks so much!

[voron]

I just assign each language a hotkey: ctrl+[1-0] for the first ten, and then ctrl+shift+[1-0] for the next ten. (I actually only have 9 languages, though in actuality I really use English (since I have US-international), Tamil, Korean, Japanese, and sometimes Romanian (because I don't know how to do ă or ț easily on US-international)).

Yeah I used to do the same but I've given up. It just keeps randomly undoing itself, it's not worth it if I have to constantly reset the hotkeys.

I encountered this as well but damn I forgot what the reason was and how I solved it. I may be recalling wrong but if you're using the Alt (+Shift)+ number combination try changing it to Ctrl.

[Saim]

I've realised that I'm having extreme trouble remembering any of my Basque cards. What I'll do is to add related terms and example sentences (with cloze deletion but also the translation) from es.glosbe.com and elhuyar (euskadi.eus).

So for the word ohar (note, observation) I have the following cards:

ohar - nota, observación
ohartu - avisar, advertir, darse cuenta
_ zaitut, ezazu egin - Ohartarazten; Te lo advierto, no lo hagas. [from es.glosbe]
_ naiz ona dela - Ohartu; Me he dado cuenta que es bueno. [from elhuyar]

I encountered this as well but damn I forgot what the reason was and how I solved it. I may be recalling wrong but if you're using the Alt (+Shift)+ number combination try changing it to Ctrl.

OK I'll give it a shot!

[aaakknu]

I've realised that I'm having extreme trouble remembering any of my Basque cards. What I'll do is to add related terms and example sentences (with cloze deletion but also the translation) from es.glosbe.com and elhuyar (euskadi.eus).

What is cloze deletion?

[Saim]

I've realised that I'm having extreme trouble remembering any of my Basque cards. What I'll do is to add related terms and example sentences (with cloze deletion but also the translation) from es.glosbe.com and elhuyar (euskadi.eus).

What is cloze deletion?

The top of the card is a sentence in the target language with one of the words deleted and replaced with an underscore.

The bottom of the card is the deleted word which you're trying to remember but without ignoring context.

So for Ukrainian it could be something like:

Top (note): Я читаю _
Bottom (recall): книгу

Rather than:

Top: книга
Bottom: book

It's a great method, definitely recommend it.

[Saim]

I've been using this Anki shared deck for German and I've realised I have a lot more troubling remembering the correct case endings than the actual words or word order, which come fairly easily. I think I need to put conscious effort into producing German case endings accurately because my vague passive understanding of them isn't enough, evidently. Doing some declension drills and writing will probably make future passive study more fruitful in the long run.

[aaakknu]

The top of the card is a sentence in the target language with one of the words deleted and replaced with an underscore.

The bottom of the card is the deleted word which you're trying to remember but without ignoring context.

So for Ukrainian it could be something like:

Top (note): Я читаю _
Bottom (recall): книгу

Rather than:

Top: книга
Bottom: book

It's a great method, definitely recommend it.

I like this idea very much. Now I will also use it. Хвала!

[Saim]

Хвала!

Молим. Уживај!

[Saim]

I'm going to start working through the Syrian Colloquial text book, making translation exercises in Anki (sentences, not words) out of the dialogues (including audio, so it'll be a bit of work in Audacity). I'll go backwards from Chapter 8 so I'm not so bored (I can't of only skimmed through the last couple of chapters when I first went through it so...).

[dEhiN]

When you say including audio and working with Audacity, do you mean you're going to record yourself saying the sentences? Or take the audio that comes with the Colloquial textbook, break/clean it up, etc.?

Also, how do you approach Anki? Do you try to funnel all new vocab through it? If not, how do you decide what to add? Do you tend to only use Anki with specific books or resources, so then you're limited to only the vocab found in that resource?

I ask because lately I've been questioning my approach to Anki. I got into the mindset of funneling everything through it, so I tried to write down every single new word (and also some grammar points, such as new verb conjugations, grammar rules, etc.) in my notebook and then transfer it to Anki. But after a while this got tedious and I became unmotivated. So now I'm trying to find a new approach.

[Saim]

When you say including audio and working with Audacity, do you mean you're going to record yourself saying the sentences? Or take the audio that comes with the Colloquial textbook, break/clean it up, etc.?

I mean I cut sentences out from the audio.

So one of my cards is:

Top: I want to go to the doctor's today, I feel sick
Bottom: بدي روح عند الدكتور اليوم, حاسة حالي مريضة [sound:بدي روح عند الدكتور اليوم, حاسة حالي مريضة.wav]

I used Audacity to cut out the sentence "بدي روح عند الدكتور اليوم, حاسة حالي مريضة" and then exported it to sound:بدي روح عند الدكتور اليوم, حاسة حالي مريضة.wav. It's a bit of a hassle to do but it seems to be working pretty well so far.

Also, how do you approach Anki? Do you try to funnel all new vocab through it? If not, how do you decide what to add? Do you tend to only use Anki with specific books or resources, so then you're limited to only the vocab found in that resource.

It's kind of random really. Just words I find in different places, whether they're textbooks, class or native media.

But after a while this got tedious and I became unmotivated. So now I'm trying to find a new approach.

One thing that helps me is adding either audio or using sentences (either for cloze deletion or wholesale translation), or both. I find that especially in opaque languages if you add a lot of vocabulary without audio or sentences it starts to blend together (I find this with Finnish, like I would confuse lots of words starting with v) simply because you're not used to the syllables of the language.

Besides that, flashcards aren't actually a necessity in vocabulary learning, so it may be that you're putting too much into your decks. Maybe try more speaking, writing, or listening practice?

[vijayjohn]

بدي روح عند الدكتور اليوم, حاسة حالي مريضة.wav

Whenever I see any file name with spaces in it, even in English, I imagine my dad, the software developer, would kill me for naming a file like that. I don't remember why, though. I think maybe because he found it troublesome when I was growing up and he used to back up my hard drive.

[Osias]

MS DOS didn't allow it.

[dEhiN]

Websites also don't allow it, I believe.

One thing that helps me is adding either audio or using sentences (either for cloze deletion or wholesale translation), or both. I find that especially in opaque languages if you add a lot of vocabulary without audio or sentences it starts to blend together (I find this with Finnish, like I would confuse lots of words starting with v) simply because you're not used to the syllables of the language.

Besides that, flashcards aren't actually a necessity in vocabulary learning, so it may be that you're putting too much into your decks. Maybe try more speaking, writing, or listening practice?

That makes send about opaque languages; I never thought of that, and would just be frustrated as to why certain words in some languages (i.e., Korean) I'm constantly confusing.

And yeah flashcards aren't a necessity. I initially started using Anki as a way to stop the hemorrhaging I felt was happening with vocab in languages like French or Spanish or Portuguese, mainly because I would have periods where, due to health issues, I wasn't able to practice speaking or listening or do any other type of study. There have been moments this past winter where, when I've dealt with depression, all I managed to do language-learning wise was review Anki.

[Saim]

That makes send about opaque languages; I never thought of that, and would just be frustrated as to why certain words in some languages (i.e., Korean) I'm constantly confusing.

Yeah, I think for those languages learning words on their own doesn't make sense until you have the struture down, so working at the sentence level can help you learn all the different aspects of the language at once. Or maybe not, I've only been doing this recently.

And yeah flashcards aren't a necessity. I initially started using Anki as a way to stop the hemorrhaging I felt was happening with vocab in languages like French or Spanish or Portuguese, mainly because I would have periods where, due to health issues, I wasn't able to practice speaking or listening or do any other type of study. There have been moments this past winter where, when I've dealt with depression, all I managed to do language-learning wise was review Anki.

Yeah, that makes sense. I do find that Anki allows me to feel that at the very least I've done my flashcards for the day, whereas otherwise (obviously this isn't comparable to depression, but you know) with procrastination + having a whole lot of other stuff to do it's easy to feel like you haven't acheived anything in a given day.

[vijayjohn]

MS DOS didn't allow it.

That would be why, then. That's what he used to use to back up our hard drives.

[Saim]

I skipped two days and my cards have kind of built up (I had 51 for Basque and 30 for Finnish today), so I'm going to stop adding cards for the time being. I'll do a bit more reading, do some GLOSS lessons and also write practice sentences based on some of the vocabulary in my decks.

[Karavinka]

One thing about the cloze deletions is that the need to be clear enough for there to be one (and preferably, only one) answer. Personally, I find it work pretty well when it comes to learning case endings:

Das Buch ist in mein[...] Zimmer.
---------
meinem

Whereas if I were to do:

Das Buch ist in meinem [room].
----------
Zimmer

I'll need a longer sentence to make the meaning obvious to preclude responding something like Raum.

Sounds trivial at first, but by the time you're dealing with the cloze deletions you haven't seen for months (which will happen with Anki) this becomes more important. Ambiguous clozes with multiple possible answers can be problematic later on. (And this is why I never go from known language to target language with my Anki)

One thing that helps me is adding either audio or using sentences (either for cloze deletion or wholesale translation), or both. I find that especially in opaque languages if you add a lot of vocabulary without audio or sentences it starts to blend together (I find this with Finnish, like I would confuse lots of words starting with v) simply because you're not used to the syllables of the language.

That makes send about opaque languages; I never thought of that, and would just be frustrated as to why certain words in some languages (i.e., Korean) I'm constantly confusing.

This is exactly why I use longer sentences (even paragraphs), with the expectation that if that word is important, it is statistically inevitable that they will show up multiple times and I will remember it.

[Saim]

Tavsiye için teşekkürler, Karavinka.

--

I've started using Readlang's export function to make cloze deletions, it seems to be working pretty well.

[Saim]

I just found out Bol News translates their news stream to Punjabi, even dubbing over politicians' declarations in Punjabi. Even though it's a translation I find the intonation more authentically Punjabi than Apna News.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B-GuzumfEc