Cool Things To Try

As should be obvious, my current language learning is focused on Flash Cards, but with the drawbacks:

1. I can’t convince my Brazilian friends to record audio for my flashcards.
2. Once you input something into a flashcard, you lose the source of the word added.
3. Spending time in front of a computer doing flashcards is tedious.
4. It would be cool to analyze a text for words that aren’t already in my flashcard list.

So, there are actually some tools that can help with these issues.  Admittedly, I’m a noob using these tools, but I certainly will be exploring them (see my comments in the future for updates).  I’ll explore them in the same order presented above:
(I must give a lot of the credit to StreetSmartLearning blog)

1. You can submit text and have it translated for free at RhinoSpike.  Simply pasting the URL of the mp3 into (the latest version of) Anki will automatically download the mp3.  See also Lang-8 and other community based learning sites (see my list of language exchange sites on left panel) which also offer writing correction.
2. The site LingQ lets you add words to a flashcard list based off texts you study on the site.  All texts are accompanied by audio recordings.  The context for each flashcard is saved making it possible to review the text again to test comprehension.
3. This is still an open issue.  It would be great if my Anki set for the day was automatically uploaded as audio to my phone every morning, but LingQ does offer a mobile app (so does Anki).
4. Again, LingQ partly covers this.  You can import texts and any words that you haven’t already marked as “I Know” will appear in blue highlighting.  But to my knowledge, nobody’s created a browser plugin for analyzing any text you read on the internet against a “known” word database.  Or, perhaps even better would be a plugin which assigns colors based on their frequency index.

I’ve given a lot of references to LingQ, so it’s fair to link to a mostly negative review to balance out your opinion.  Overall, it is one of the best free tools available and should not be overlooked.  Whether or not it is well suited for beginners is another issue.

More Things To Try

For iPhone users, I’ve seen some nice videos on the internet for Word Lens (translates text from camera video in real-time).  See also Google Goggles.

I mention this because I’ve always seen the future of flashcards evolving towards photos (and/or short video blurbs).  For example, real life situation in Brazil: You need to scan some documents, so you walk into a LAN house and they have a sign listing their services with prices.  Ok, so this could make a great flashcard.  Simply take the photo, use some software to highlight the words of interest, and on the backside have the same picture except with English cleverly placed over the areas of interest.  You could have hundreds of real-life experiences documented as flashcards.

Back To Basics

If I were to start all over again learning Portuguese, I would definitely incorporate SRS learning software such as Anki (See a good post here).  However, in more of a backup role; I think an absolute beginner would be better served just listening to MP3′s (like Pimsleur).  This gets you in a good habit of putting time aside each day, you can do it while you drive/exercise, and get plenty of practice speaking and building confidence.  If you have any intelligence at all, your natural curiosity will lead you to explore grammar (for which flash cards aren’t very good at teaching) and how to spell all the words you hear on the mp3‘s.  Next, you’ll want to try out your new language with real people (speaking is very important!), and that’s when flashcards can help your vocabulary explode (by downloading lists, adding new words from your real-life conversations, mp3 recordings of texts from exchange sites, etc).

Sorry for ranting.

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