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Amazon Kindle and language learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5184 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 25 of 64 09 October 2010 at 10:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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I got a kindle3 about a month ago and I like it a lot. I had scanned a couple Spanish books into my computer both as pdf and txt and I had no problems sending them to the Kindle. I added a cheap Spanish -> English dictionary and set it as the default dictionary (not hard to do in settings) and it works pretty well. That being said I don't use it much heh. I prefer my desktop computer. I just increase the font size to reduce eye strain and I have text to speech voices in Spanish and German which work great. The kindle (as far as I know) is limited to the default American English "Male" or "Female." When using a computer I can also quickly cut and paste new vocab to my flashcard program for studying.
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| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5669 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 26 of 64 09 October 2010 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have both an eInk device (an iRex DR1000) and an iPad.
I used the eInk device for about 18 months, and loved it. Then I got an iPad and haven't touched the eInk device since. The main advantage of the iPad is the speed of interaction: Zooming in, moving around documents, flipping pages, and so on, are all instantaneous. They are, in this sense, better than even real paper as far as I am concerned. The second advantage of the iPad is that it has vastly superior software. For example, I use iAnnotate to mark-up PDF documents, and it has transformed my language learning. Specifically, I read through foreign texts, highlight with a virtual "highlighter pen" the words I don't know, and attach their translations as hidden annotations to the highlighting. When I later touch a highlighted word, it's annotation is then displayed. Once I know a word, I delete its annotation. Finally, I can email myself a summary of all the annotations, and use this as a word- list for later study. With the trickiest words on those lists, I then transfer then to Anki (which I also have on my iPad) for spaced repetition. The whole process is fast and painless - and it is what keeps me coming back to the iPad throughout the day. The one thing that has surprised me about the iPad is that I have experienced no eye strain at all. With my laptop computer I cannot read a book for more than, say, 20 minutes without my eyes hurting. This motivated me to buy my eInk device. When I bought an iPad I expected to suffer from eye strain too, but have not. This may be because I can keep changing the distance and angle of the iPad, and in fact do so without being aware of it. Of course, the iPad is not perfect. Three clear advantages of the kindle are: it is much cheaper; it is much lighter; it works better outside. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 27 of 64 09 October 2010 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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One of the reasons for eyestrain at a computer is a reduced blink rate, causing the eyes to dry out. If you're looking downwards (as you would with an iPad), low quantities of tear will trickle down the eye and keep the blink rate up.
However, you might find your neck gets more tired this way. With a dedicated ebook reader, you will move your posture far more during reading. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5866 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 28 of 64 10 October 2010 at 12:30am | IP Logged | |||||
I read your post last night and went out today and had a look at the 650, and immediately bought one. It is great. It feels and looks very solid, yet is lightweight. The display is very clear and looks remarkably like print in a book. Very easy to change font size, and orientation (800x600 or 600x800). Besides the electronic book formats, it displays pdf and plain test very well. But the best thing for me is the high quality Van Dale Dutch <> English (both directions) very extensive dictionary. It has a nice pop-up mode and a full page dictionary one or two column mode, all complete with a sample sentence. Every word that you look up is saved with its translation, sample sentence, etc. in a dictionary log file in a very nice format. I haven't yet tried the other bilingual dictionaries. It displays jpg images. It plays mp3 files very clearly and loudly. It charges via the USB connection. Adding files from your computer is simple drag-and-drop. Navigating around a large pdf file is a bit more awkward for me, but I am just learning how. I've only had it for a few hours. There is a 900 version that is a bit bigger and has wireless, but I like the size, weight and simplicity of the 650. So thanks very much for the post and the recommendation. I really like it. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6943 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 29 of 64 12 October 2010 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
This description suggests that one can operate in a "language learner" mode or a "reader" mode. The former has more to do with language study and seems well-served by a portable computer device, while eInk devices are closer to an ordinary book and better approximate the experience of 'just reading' a novel, i.e., extensive reading. As always, it looks like one "needs" both. Edited by frenkeld on 12 October 2010 at 10:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Marikki Tetraglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5495 days ago 130 posts - 210 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English, Spanish, Swedish Studies: German | Message 30 of 64 16 October 2010 at 2:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have had a Cybook Gen3 e-reader for almost 3 years. Although I like my reader a lot, I have been dreaming about a dictionary log file for all my dictionary lookups! I’m very pleased to hear that this feature exists in Sony 650. My next e-reader will be one with an e-ink touch screen, good dictionary lookup functions and hopefully also with a dictionary log file. A Sony 650 or 950 will definitely be an option, but I’m also looking forward the release of the new Pocketbook models. They’ll also be loaded with interesting features such as many preloaded dictionaries, annotations, text-to-speech in 4 [edit: just 4, not 14] languages and they’ll probably also have an affordable price. But are they going to have a dictionary log file? ..that’s the question now! I think an e-ink reader with a dictionary lookup function is a must for a language learner like me who wants to read books in her target language as soon as she knows 3000 words and the basic tenses. Edited by Marikki on 20 October 2010 at 4:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5866 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 31 of 64 16 October 2010 at 9:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
Some more info on the word log. There is a separate word log of looked-up words/translations for "each" book you are reading. And there is a master log of all the looked-up words. You can delete the log. But there appears to be no way to save it. I tried to view it from my computer via the USB connection, both in the Sony Reader application and via the file system. And it isn't available. Possibly it exists in one of the cache XML files that are available via the computer but it would be awkward at best. I believe I read that there was a limit to the size of the word log, like 100 or 1000, but I cannot find that info. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5345 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 32 of 64 19 October 2010 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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How technology obliterates a classic
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