The intersection between language and technology is one of my personal and professional interests. I use technology quite heavily, and I’d like to hear how technology affects your language studies?
What software do you use? Do you use, and if so how do you use, various online language learning tools? Are there any “best kept secrets” for sites or tools you’d like to share? If you were somehow totally cut off from your tools, how would you cope?
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- AJATT for Chinese
- Using your iPhone to create a language immersion environment
- Organizing foreign language listening material with iTunes
- Introducing Global Maverick Tools
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow – where to start.
First of all getting material in the first place. I studied Chinese in Sweden in 2001, and then we didn’t have easy access to anything more than the university library offered. No children’s books, no DVDs, no music CDs, no cartoons, etc. Now, the internet is incredible. Even rarely spoken languages have Wikipedias and Youtube videos, blogs and twitterati!
Then communication – being able to keep in touch with my friends from Indonesia through email, blogs, and increasingly Facebook (roughly half of the updates on my status line are in Indonesian right now).
A huge category is what I call ‘clutches’, to help you access original material… Online dictionaries of course. Things like Perakun and Wenlin for Chinese, which provide mouse-over dictionaries (also AdsoTrans etc). Google Translate can be extremely useful – for Hindi, the sentences it produces are messed up, but for translating individual words, it’s very good.
For learning Indic languages, Google scriptconvert (scriptconv.google.com) is very helpful! As well as Google transliterate (http://google.com/transliterate) – I use it to input Urdu. (Hindi is easier input through my Mac devanagari qwerty input method).
I’ve recently began using Anki flashcards. I try to keep a tab separated text file with all the entries I look up when reading text online (or when reading a book, but using the computer to look words up), and then Anki let’s me do spaced repetitions.
There’s lot’s more of course! Although Canadian cell-phone companies are all quite messed up, I do like the tagline from Telus: The future is friendly.
I’m at work right now so I can’t go into much detail but when I saw the question, the first thing I thought of was that technology has, in some ways, hindered my learning of Chinese. When I rely on technologies such as the MDBG Chinese Reader (or the cheaper Pera-kun FireFox plugin), which translates Chinese characters for me, I find that I am not really learning how to read Chinese characters. I am of course learning grammar and how to decypher Chinese in general but I’m not really learning to read the characters.
Another hinderance is the use of the Google Pinyin IME. Of course how else would I enter Chinese characters into the computer but I find that rather than learning how to write in Chinese, I am only reinforcing my usage of Pinyin. Then of course there is the dictionary lookup softwares and websites available, which are just quicker ways to access dictionaries, these hinder me again by making me too lazy to think on my feet and try to come up with my own sentences using perhaps the wrong words or phrases but we learn through our mistakes.
If I am without these tools, I suddenly find that I am lacking in many of the skills I take for granted when I have those tools available. I can’t actually read much Chinese, I can hardly write any Chinese and my Chinese sentence construction is also quite woeful. So.. all in all, these tools are great in that they allow me to express myself and understand others (ie. communicate) in Chinese sooner than I would have without them, I find that I am not learning nearly as much as I did when I just went out in the frontier of China, by myself, and started to use Chinese in the real world.
I don’t have the same experience as the previous poster. Wenlin and Perakun really helps me learn to read characters. Whenever I come to a character that I’ve read before, but don’t remember, I spend a few seconds trying to recall it. If I come across it three four times I try really hard. In a way it’s similar to spaced repetitions. And I read a lot of Chinese – partly because of their help.
It’s also true that I have given up writing by hand. This is a choice people have to make – I made it back in 2002 when I was living in China. I simply realized that it was falling way behind, and also that I wouldn’t be able to keep it up. After I learnt Chinese, I’ve learnt three more languages, lived in several countries, etc. I still often watch Chinese movies, email my friends in Chinese, and talk Chinese to my wife. (In fact, I’m flying to Beijing tomorrow, looking forward to it). But I can’t write more than my name and a few other characters… Then again, I also realized that even in English I almost never write by hand. So forcing myself to write Chinese by hand every day for the rest of my life just to keep it up was just too much. Whereas watching a Chinese soap opera or reading some blog posts once in a while is easy…
And it is true that there are many Chinese characters I am not that sure about when they stand by themselves, because I am used to my pinyin input system figuring it out for me, or seeing them in context when reading a book. I’m fine with that. I am much more concerned about raising my reading speed in Chinese, and becoming more eloquent, than passing the HSK.
People have different goals with learning a language though.
I’m just starting to gather my thoughts for a blog entry of my own about the use of technology in language learning. Here are some of the things I was thinking about:
- For someone learning a language with pictographic text like Japanese or Chinese, a firefox plugin like Rikaichan or Peraperakun is vital.
- Anki is great for reviewing. I like that I can sync the same deck up on multiple computers and on an iPod touch or iPhone.
- Podcasts are a daily source of fresh learning material.
- Something I find really helpful is, after I watch a TV show, rip the audio from it (I use Adobe Soundbooth) to listen to it again and again. It makes for great background listening.
- For Japanese at least, you can get a TON of useful feedback on your writing, pretty quickly, at Lang-8.
- Watch videos on YouTube. They just added an auto captioning feature as well. Not that I expect it to be very accurate.
- I don’t have a language tutor, but if I did, I think Skype is almost a better way to do a lesson in person. You can not only speak and listen, but also shoot back and forth written text, links to websites, etc. and the notes are all there, ready to be copied and pasted into Anki.
I do agree withlight487 that the technology can become a crutch and a hindrance. It’s important to balance computer time with real-world interactions with humans, whenever possible.
Thanks for mentioning Lang-8. Didn’t know about it, signed up, and corrected a cute story about Santa Clause in Norwegian. Might try to write something in Hindi or Urdu!
I’m a luddite when it comes to language learning. I really don’t like flashcards on the computer, but I still force myself into SRS software. It’s a great method. I just like having flashcards in my hand and not just on my phone.
That said, I regularly use Pleco on my phone, Wenlin sometimes but more often Dimsum (same features, but free and runs on my Mac w/o a reboot). I hate MDBG and love nciku, but I think it’s a graphical thing, not any feature issues.
Wacom tablets are a must for things like Skritter and general character input when you’ve got no freaking clue what it is otherwise.
LingQ is decent for listening practice. Most podcasts (popupchinese, chinesepod etc) are too cut up for me. Lang-8 is cool but like LinkQ I’m never on there a week after signing up.
Pimsleur mp3s are good for refreshing languages you’ve already learned. I use it to brush up on Arabic when I can find time.
The biggest thing I’ve gained in shifting language learning from paper to pixel is something that had only become relevant when I started learning Chinese. That would be character input. It’s a friggin’ snap. That said I’m still teaching myself 四角号码 and Bopomofo because my power gets cut off a lot so quick ways to look things up in books are always welcome. 文言 dictionaries are also not so readily available online, so for that I’m almost exclusively paper based. The second nciku lets you limit searches to category that will likely change.
Technology — I’m wary as hell about it. Seriously, like a cruel bitch every blessing she grants she also takes away in some other way. So many things that ostensibly have seemed like a pure blessing have come back to bite me:
(1) SRS – Between data loss here and there, investing untold hours back in the day trying to get Chinese input on multiple platform versions (Windows, Windows Mobile, Palm), and just using it on a computer where I have the temptation to instant message or flip to a web page for useless browsing in a split second, I really can’t be sure that I’ve come out ‘ahead’ of flashcards in the long run.
(2) How-to-learn-any-language forum – If I just sat down with a book about language learning like Barry Farber’s, there would be no questioning whether or not the paltry 3-4 hour reading investment was worth it. With online forums you can get a much greater diversity of ideas, including ones off the deep end which may be valuable but which most people just don’t have the stamina or curiosity to try, but, you can also get addicted and read rambling useless nonsense /in place of/ language learning for 2-3 hours a day without even noticing until it has gone on for months. You also have to work hard to prevent that noise/signal ratio from getting to you.
(3) Wenlin or other dictionary-assisted text reading – When I first head of it it sounded like the greatest thing since sliced bread. Have I read more than a few pages in my life that way? No. It’s just not satisfying emotionally, and gets boring 10x quicker than reading even text which I can follow barely 10% of the time. Every Chinese book I’ve finish in my life has been printed on paper. I only was able to read them by forcing myself to sit far out of reach of a distracting computer.
(4) Podcasts, etc. Again, sounds like an awesome idea but I guess my subconscious hates them (and all pedagogic material) because I’ve started 100 times and never stuck with it to a second consecutive day. It seems the only thing I’m interested in ‘hearing’ in another language is actual friends speaking to me and movies/tv shows.
I forgot the most important thing. When I was studying languages in school I had maybe 40 people with whom I could talk about things. But they were normal people. They weren’t linguaphiles like you nerds. Technology has given me a means to find other people as stupidly obsessed as I am. That’s one benefit of tech I really wouldn’t want to do with out.
Technology Pros
- Anki manages a vast amount of information that would take countless hours to manage myself.
- Sites like Reviewing the Kanji bring together the creative faculties of hundreds, if not thousands, of individual minds to streamline the character-learning phase of Japanese and Chinese.
- A feeling of community and an endless supply of motivational stories, interesting theories, anecdotes, and such.
Technology Cons
- I spend way too much time learning about learning languages instead of learning my target language.
- See previous. It’s THAT important. Without proper restraint, having access to the internet on your language-learning platform can set you back far further than you would be with an offline approach.
What I’ve done is cut myself off from language sites between 10AM and 10PM- this has vastly improved my productivity, while letting me check my favorite blogs at least once a day (shout out at YOU).
My overall judgment? I just learned 2,042 Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana in 3.5 months, greatly aided by online stories, all managed by Anki, study methods from various internet resources. I can’t help but take technology’s side here, as long as self control is maintained.
Technology has completely transformed how I learn languages. I used to scour book stores looking for language readers with word lists because I hated looking things up in a conventional dictionary, only to forget them. I had some language tapes but there was a limited range of content available.
Then I discovered the minidisk player, then the online dictionary, then the MP3 player (and threw away my minidisk player).The amount of authentic content, often with audio and text, available on the internet just about makes text books obsolete, and certainly makes the old language labs obsolete.
I have been learning Russian and Portuguese at LingQ. I spend most of my time listening and a little bit reading and reviewing words and phrases. I am not a user of other SRS systems since I prefer to review my words in the context of what I am reading or listening to.
Overall, I prefer the old school of book, pen, and paper. I have paper dictionaries that still get regular usage. That doesn’t mean I don’t use any tech.
If I’m online, I tend to use MDBG. I’ve never liked and still don’t like NCIKU. At one point, it was due to my preference for traditional vs simplified characters. That’s no longer an issue. At this point, I just prefer the clean simple interface of the former vs the mess of the latter. YMMV. If I’m offline, I typically have my electronic dictionary w/me, a Besta and/or my iPhone. On the iPhone, I use ‘dianhua’. It’s quick and works for most simple tasks.
I’ve become a huge fan of Anki. It does a wonderful job of keeping track of what I’m forgetting. It also excels at reminding me how much I suck.
I have Wenlin. I tend to have it open when I have Anki open. If I’m having issues remembering a character(s) of confusing it w/a similiar character, I’ll look them up in Wenlin and get some clarity/reinforcement.
If I’m reading online material, I don’t use plug-ins for assistance. I find them annoying, much like Pinyin or tone marks beneath/above characters in a book.
I watch tons of video online such as tv shows, movies, music, and anime. I prefer Chinese w/Chinese subs. English subs will distract you from truly listening.
Podcasts.. I’ve found to be of limited use. Yes, they’re short and convenient. However, I feel they’re too short for the most part.
In the end, there is no substitute for talking with and listening to native speakers. Even if you can’t say much, just listen. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn.
You mention you watch a lot of online videos. Can you expand on where you find them? I wouldn’t know what to search for to watch a Chinese TV series online.
Sugoideas, which Lin pointed me to, is a fantastic resource. I personally watch online video from Youku and Tudou, but that doesn’t help you very much if you’re outside of China.
Thanks John. Will have a look at Sugoideas now.
I’ve always said I need a VPN going the wrong way.
The biggest problem I have with technology is being so overwhelmed with resources that I don’t know where to start and end up not doing much at all, but I think this is my own problem with organization!
I also get distracted by learning about language learning instead of practicing my languages.
Other than these two problems, technology has opened up the world to language learners and will change the way languages are taught. I’m excited to see what the future will bring for language studies and I will try to wrap my brain around the infinite online resources and become more productive in my actual language learning. (I like Matt’s idea of restricting language learning websites between 10am-10pm, but I’m already breaking that rule right now!)
It’s awesome to read these comments and realize I’m apparently not the only one with the problem of ending up doing nothing because of wasting to much time in the planning-to-learn / learning about language learning part.
As for the last comment: “I’m excited to see what the future will bring for language studies and I will try to wrap my brain around the infinite online resources ” With the perspective I’ve gained reading all the comments here — I’m thinking that is EXACTLY the dangerous thing which is to be avoided. Infinite resources are what gets in the way of learning. There is no reason on earth anyone should need more than one or two WELL-CHOSEN courses or books to learn a given topic systematically and thoroughly.
Every day, theoretically, you wake up and have to choose from an infinite variety of potential options as to what to do with your day. But you have habits, routines, patterns that make it easier to get through the day. Language learning is no different. In fact the whole process of learning a language consists of naturally acquiring new patterns, in your brain.
I am much happier going to my favourite podcasts and downloading sound and text files, importing them and studying them at LingQ. I tend to stay with one subject for a while.
When I need to specialize in a particular field I search for content in Google. This morning I searched for content on the forest industry in Russian, imported it, read it, saved words to my database and I can now look forward to reviewing these new words in Flash Cards. I could try to contact an online tutor to talk about the forest industry in Russian. All of this is significantly more satisfying and effective than attending a class with 15 other people.
Yeah that’s exactly what I need to do, pick one or two sources and just focus on those. Even though there are nearly endless resources out there doesn’t mean I have to use them all (although I would love to absorb every resource out there!)
I would tend to disagree — having a really wide variety of input to me seems essential. Otherwise, you’re stuck with whatever a few textbook compliers decide is important.
Of course, only having a few sources at one time, and switching them up serially as you finish them, is probably not a bad idea.
Yeah that seems like the best plan, having a few resources at one time, reeaally using them, but switching them up after awhile.
What you call “indecision paralysis” is /exactly/ what I get from having too many sources. I go around the web “collecting” awesome URLs for this and that, and instead of ever settling down with any of them I think “well what if there is material which is better/more compelling for my current level?”. Every step prior to near-native there is “very interesting” material just out of one’s reach, so I find myself forever looking for the material I can handle that is “90% as interesting as the stuff I’ll be able to enjoy at the near-native level”. On the very rare occasion I luck out and find something which is quite easy but so very compelling that I am immediately enabled to cease my endless searching (余华).
Honestly I really don’t understand your concern about “blind spots” which you will inherit by focusing on one course/book etc. Blind spots can only be subjectively defined! Prior to the native level (which is even subjective as as natives we have better and varying abilities in certain domains), there will always be “blind spots” as there are no objective “levels” which upon being reached allows one to “perfectly access” all materials Tv shows, books classified at that “level”. Prior to the native level no matter how simple the dialog in a TV show the creators are always free to throw in a completely unexpected very rare vocabulary or grammar feature.
If you were training with FSI to listen to Arabic terrorist radio chatter it is conceivable a focused course could enable you to follow 99% while completely ignoring some domain like “teenage slang”. This is not a blind spot at all in so far as you gain the ability to understand 99% and do your job in a much shorter time frame than spending hours learning things you would only hear on the street.
I’ve seen a number of students really get into one reading genre or another and get fantastic results out of it. It may be due to the benefit of seeing the same vocabulary again and again until it’s solidly incorporated into their repertoire. Understanding the genre would also make more of the text comprehensible in much the same way that background knowledge helps people understand anything.
On the other hand, the results are a bit odd at times if a student never ventures outside their preferred material. One student, for example, got a bit obsessed with detective stories. He read every Sherlock Holmes story at my school, the Murder at the Rue Morgues, other Conan Doyle books, such as The Lost World and everything he could get his hands on. The result was a massive improvement in his grammar and speaking skills, better listening comprehension than any of his peers… and a tendency towards odd 19th century diction– “fantastic rubbish”, “my good man”, and “positively uncivilised” among other similar phrases kept popping out of his mouth at the weirdest times. Since the kid was only 11, I still have hope that his continued exposure to modern English since then has mellowed him out a bit.
I think your idea about focusing on one source at a time but switching them up is a good compromise.
Thanks so much everyone for the terrific comments! I’ve certainly learned a lot. It seems that I lean a little bit more toward the “reliance on technology” side of the spectrum than most of you, but I tend to see it in terms of technology reinforcing existing behaviors — I would still do most of what I do now if I didn’t technology helping, but it would be harder or slower or less effective. Two things that I really wouldn’t want to give up, though, are easy content distribution (i.e., downloaded movies, easy tools to convert DVDs into MP3s, etc.), and, as Kellen said, the ability to connect with other people that share the same interests.
One thing that a couple of you have touched on that I totally agree with is the tendency for some people to spend more time learning about learning than actually learning, though. It’s something I’ve certainly been guilty of myself from time to time, and technology makes it easier to do. I suppose that’s the downside of the “being able to connect with other people” thing.
You can start here: http://v.youku.com/v_playlist/f3372445o1p0.html – it’s one of the most well-known series in China right now, about the difficult situation for people who need to buy apartments. It was actually banned, but the series is still available on Youku in good quality. (You can full-screen it). If you are not based in China, you might have to pause it for a while first, to get play-back without stutter.