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TAC 2011, Team KEN: M. Medialis - RU JP | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6152 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French | Message 105 of 113 29 October 2011 at 9:41pm | IP Logged |
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Team Tac 2011 - Team KEN - Log #23
@aloysius: Yeah. Doing L-R, even if it's only 50 minutes a day, is magical. French seems to be the L-R paradise because they have so much great literature, e-texts AND audiobooks. *a bit jealous* :) @Teango: You're free to jump onboard the wagon whenever you want to! And if you need to find the warp zone, you can just punch the invisible box on level 2 and climb the secret beanstalk. ;D Technical interlude - Programming mania I've spent the last week coding a little vocabulary tool (in C# - but it's probably buggy because I've been in a hurry) for helping me learn Japanese. Since I always love to read about new methods and tools I thought someone might be happy if I share the ideas in my log. So I hereby proudly present WordShower™ - Flashcards without SRS Repetitions, repetitions One problem with trying to learn vocab from native media is that it's hard to remember all the words that flashes by, unless you use SRS. I did an SRS experiment earlier this year, and concluded that I absolutely loved the sentence mining aspect, but thought that it was just too dull doing 75++ repetitions every day. Text-files with words When I watch anime and recognize a new word, I usually look it up on the fly. This whole year, I've had a habit to put the words I've looked up, together with their kana readings in a notepad file. It's just a number of text-files with a list of Japanese words (just Japanese, no translations), like this: ------- 客先 きゃくさき 調べる しらべる 止める ------- There's an obvious problem here, because i never bother to go back and look into those text-files once I've created them. They just lie alone forever on my harddrive, just waiting to get attention and tender love. Let's use a Randomizer! So I wrote a program that automatically goes through the words in all those text-files, and present them in a list in random order. It's pretty nice, because every time I start the program I'll see a new collection of words that I know I've learnt before. If I press the 'Shuffle!'-button, the ordering of the words is randomly changed (note that there could be thousands of words in the list. Only 22 of them are shown at the same time). Right now, the only way of adding new words is to put them in a text-file. :) 
Get pronunciations and example sentences If I click one of the words in the list, two things happen: 1. The program will search for available pronunciations and present them in the list to the right. By clicking in the list I will hear the audio for the word. (I have a collection of 17000 mp3-files with Japanese words recorded by natives). 2. Also, another window will open at the left side that shows all the example sentences I have created for that word. (if you look closely, you see that there is green filled rectangle to the left of some of the words in the list. This indicates that I've created example sentences for that word): 
And voilà! When I hover over a sentence with the mouse, the translation appears: 
Adding new sentences By clicking the window, I can create a new example sentence, together with its translation (works like a flash-card). 
Why do I like it? I'm quite excited about this application, because it's designed to be used as a time-kill (browsing through Japanese words instead of checking the news every second minute). By simply opening it, I'll see a random list of words that I know I've encountered before. If anyone of them catches my attention, I can listen to its pronunciation and take a quick look at the flashcards I've created. And if I'm inspired, I can spend a few minutes to create more flashcards for words I'm confused about (and this is quite fun). Or in other words: It encourages sentence mining and casual repetitions, without building towers of "expired cards" that you have to plow through. :D ----------------------------------------- Team KEN - M. Medialis Edited by M. Medialis on 29 October 2011 at 10:16pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5351 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 106 of 113 30 October 2011 at 2:58am | IP Logged |
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Absolutely superb - it looks like those magic C# beans paid off after all! Thanks for sharing the screenshots, and I look forward to hearing how the new software works out. Big thumbs up all round for WordShower!! :D
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Adrean TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member France adrean83.wordpress.c Joined 5963 days ago 348 posts - 411 votes Speaks: FrenchC1 | Message 107 of 113 03 November 2011 at 11:33am | IP Logged |
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Word Shower looks fantastic. Enough said.
I'm totally with you in regards to SRS systems and how the cards kind of just build on you. And you're right at some point flash cards are absolutely necessary. It's seems hard work but big benefits. Aesthetically I haven't see an SRS system which looks so pretty. You are certainly onto something there Medialis. Everyday I'm Shuffling! (flash cards) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6152 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French | Message 108 of 113 16 November 2011 at 7:12pm | IP Logged |
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Team Tac 2011 - Team KEN - Log #24
@Teango and Adrean: Thanks for the compliments guys! :) I've not had the time to try it out too much yet, but only having it in the background helps. I catch a glimpse of the shuffled word list, and start thinking "hmm, what was the meaning of that word again?". The last weeks I've been totally overloaded with work. Every waking hour (except for some relaxation at the piano) was spent in the robotics lab or trying to do assignments in other courses, or do other commitments. I've only been able to squeeze in a few minutes of Japanese podcasts on the train or when walking to the store, but that's all. Don't know when this inferno will end really, but I can at least make a little update: Japanese update I just got a copy of the Japanese novel "I am a cat" translated to English. I tragically lost my Swedish copy one year ago, and it turned out that it is virtually impossible to find a new one. I don't know how many times I've read this book, it's a brilliant little masterpiece and it's becoming better and better each time I read it. :D Anyways, I started to LR it again yesterday and noticed how much better my Japanese understanding has become. When I last LRed it (14 months ago) I could basically catch names, sentence starters and the verbs at the end, so my understanding looked like this: そこから。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。。 。ミケくん。。。。。。。。。。。。。。と 笑った。 Now I can follow along in the complete thoughts and catch words anywhere in the sentence. Oh I wish I had some more time on my hands so I could do a full-scale attack on the vocabulary. :) Japanese TV-shows I also started to watch Japanese drama (don't know the genre, it's probably not drama) without subtitles. I watch it in "siege-mode": Hands on the keyboard to instantly look up every word I catch from the dialogue, and put them into WordShower. I can extract at least 15-20 new words per hour, and I think it's a fun little recognition-transcription exercise. Watching this TV-show has made me ponder an important existential question: Who on earth is this guy: 
He seems to be the main character of the show. No words can describe how macho he is. He is more than macho. He is machoness incarnated; surrounded by a bunch of normal nobodies. Is he good or bad? Is he a yakusa? How does he manage to look so awesome in every darn pose he makes? Does he ever take off his ultra-expensive suits? These important questions occupy my thoughts right now. Who said you need to understand all the details in the dialogue to enjoy TV-shows in foregin languages? :D ----------------------------------------- Team KEN - M. Medialis Edited by M. Medialis on 17 November 2011 at 12:10am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Adrean TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member France adrean83.wordpress.c Joined 5963 days ago 348 posts - 411 votes Speaks: FrenchC1 | Message 109 of 113 17 November 2011 at 10:21am | IP Logged |
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God damm, that guy looks so macho and suave. I've only seen two pictures of him but he
oozes a certain je ne sais quoi... It doesn't appear to me to be the kind of show where it's important to understand the details to enjoy either. "Siege mode" GReeeeatt! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Topsy Turvey Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4549 days ago 18 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* | Message 110 of 113 20 November 2011 at 9:47am | IP Logged |
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As I mentioned in my off-HTLAL message, I love your C#.NET app. That is sooo cool :)
As for San Mancho and his expensive suits, I think he looks seriously like a hero ready to save the world. In fact, he looks like could put the character Hiro Nakamura from Heros to shame who was always trying to save the world - LOL! Formerly the user Buttons 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6152 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French | Message 111 of 113 14 December 2011 at 5:37pm | IP Logged |
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Team Tac 2011 - Team KEN - Log #25
This year is coming to an end, and it's time to sum up the Team TAC of 2011. :) Firstly, I have to say that I'm really happy about Team KEN. We've had a great and positive atmosphere throughout the TAC, and it's always been inspiring to visit this forum and read the great posts and comments by my lovely team members (Adrean, Buttons and Teango). 2011 Progress This year has been saturated with course work, which has demanded too much of my attention. So I was physically unable to make the progress that I hoped I would do in the beginning of the year. But at least I kept a steady slow pace throughout the whole year, with two specific turbo runs that I'm particularly proud of: Japanese Summer Progress In the beginning of the summer, I leveled up in my Japanese reading and listening skills, and I can now safely say that I can follow the gist of many podcasts. It's interesting to suddenly being able to understand some expressions that I've listened to >30 times. "Ahhhh, so this guy was saying that the thing he finds the most attractive of women is the "shape of their back" - Wait a minute, this is a weird discussion!". ;D Russian 6WC Progress I had a wonderful Russian 6WC in August, where I managed to level up to "Natural Reading". If I just get into my Russian zone, reading Russian cyrillic is almost as natural as reading latin characters. My vocabulary also increased a lot, and I look forward bringing it to the next level in 2012. Watching TV shows I've also gained the ability to enjoy watching TV series and dramas in Russian and Japanese without subtitles. I can follow along in the story without too much confusion (although I miss many details). I also look up all the words I don't understand on the fly, giving me about 10-20 new words/hour. So what exactly did i do? I thought I could list some of the books that I have LRed. Russian: Fyodor Dostoyevskij - Crime and Punishment Michail Bulgakov - Master and Margarita (2 times) Ernest Hemmingway - The old man and the sea (2.5 times) Yevgeny Zamyatin - We Japanese: Takiji Kobayashi - The Factory Ship (>2 times) Osamu Dazai - The Setting Sun Lewis Carrol - Alice in Wonderland Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - The Little Prince Natsume Soseki - Botchan Natsume Soseki - I am cat (Part 1 and part 2) E.C. Tubb - The winds of Gath A large number of short stories. Just to name a few that stood out: Stories by Kenji Miyazawa Nankichi Niimi - The Fox Boy In closing Apart from all this, I have had loads of fun during the whole year. Learning languages has been transformed into a childlike game, and I too often find myself longing for language study while I plow through my heavy course work at the uni. For 2012, my schedule will be completely different, which hopefully will allow me to go into constant warp-speed. That's all folks! ----------------------------------------- Team KEN - M. Medialis 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5351 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 112 of 113 14 December 2011 at 8:31pm | IP Logged |
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You've made great progress in listening to Japanese and reading Russian this year, and even developed some very interesting software along the way. All hats off to you, Medialis, you make the TAC a helluva lotta fun, and it's an honour being on the same team with you, Adrean, and Buttons. And next year, once we've safely navigated all the dreaded asteroid debris of work and exams, I'm looking forward to us punching that light-speed button and bringing our game to a whole new level. Gambatte! @u@
1 person has voted this message useful |
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