Free Reading, Listening and Vocab Practice Software

[Keys]

I've added links to the demo's of Hungarian Short Stories, Italian Short Stories and Russian Short Stories in the main post (first page top of this topic). This weekend I'll add Spanish and Swedish Short Stories demo links, and after that eventually I'll add the links to the full software products for short stories... Patience is the mother of all virtues ;p

[Edit:]
Added Spanish and Swedish as well...

[Keys]

Post Update

For people that get the following error when trying to start, and where the filename of the executable doesn't contain (1) or another number:
"Executable filename has changed or Config file is corrupted. Please remove any (numbers) behind the filename if you downloaded multiple times."
There seems to be an issue on some computers with the characters read from the datafiles during decryption time. I've now created product versions that have this issue resolved. Thanks for bringing this issue up!

Added fixed version for all the fairy/folk tales to the download list in the main post on the first page of this topic, I'd advise everyone to first try the original link if they didn't do so yet, then if you get above error, try the fix. Thanks!
N.B. There might still be an issue with the audio in this version, once that's solved, I'll let y'all know and upload it again. Would need some feedback for it though as I don't have the error myself or with others that I know running the software.

I uploaded the full versions of the Short Stories software including fix versions for those people that have issues with "multiple filenames or corrupt config" error when trying to start it. Please try the original first and if you have the issue and don't have a number (1) or higher in the download then try the fix. See the main post on the first page of this topic for all the links.

Thanks for trying it out! I'm now shelving further development on it and apart from any bugfixes I'm going to work on a new App, preview following later this week.

[Edit 24-02-2016:]
I noticed that with the "alternative" version that fixed the software not starting on some Windows environments, the flash card testing in the "My Words" list works, but when you try to select a drag and drop test from the test menu the software crashes. So I'll try to find the time to bugfix that new error.

[sjintje]

I listened to German Fairy Tales. The reader's voice is very pleasant, and the pages were a nice length to be able to maintain concentration. The word matching game is fun.

bugs/comments/style

Why does the software prohibit use without registering?
Pages 65 to 80, the audio is one page out of sync with the text (second half of Daumesdick).
Didn't get the SRS to work. Yet.
It's not really "flash cards" it's a "word list with SRS testing" (or something).
"Teachermode ON/OFF" is confusing (especially "supervised learning" in the help pages - completely misleading). I would say something like "Learning mode" or "Word acquisition mode" and "Browsing mode"
The book's layout is quite nice, but the controls are a bit crummy looking (e.g., it would be nice to have arrows/triangle at the sides to indicate page advance/back, put the page numbering at the bottom like a real book, change the "ear" icon to a "play" icon)
Sometimes the end of a chapter is just an additional superfluous doubleside of blank pages.
An "audio export" of the page to a wav/audacity file would be handy. It's a bit boring when you want to relisten one word, and have to keep replaying the whole page.

Some of the stuff I mentioned is quite trivial, but just thought I should mention everything that occurred to me. Many thanks for all the work, and making these available. I will try another with a language I know less well, to see how effectively it works as a learning tool.

[Aozora]

Thank you for this resource! I'm only a beginner, but this material for French is at a level I can use

[Keys]

I listened to German Fairy Tales. The reader's voice is very pleasant, and the pages were a nice length to be able to maintain concentration. The word matching game is fun.

bugs/comments/style

Why does the software prohibit use without registering?
Pages 65 to 80, the audio is one page out of sync with the text (second half of Daumesdick).
Didn't get the SRS to work. Yet.
It's not really "flash cards" it's a "word list with SRS testing" (or something).
"Teachermode ON/OFF" is confusing (especially "supervised learning" in the help pages - completely misleading). I would say something like "Learning mode" or "Word acquisition mode" and "Browsing mode"
The book's layout is quite nice, but the controls are a bit crummy looking (e.g., it would be nice to have arrows/triangle at the sides to indicate page advance/back, put the page numbering at the bottom like a real book, change the "ear" icon to a "play" icon)
Sometimes the end of a chapter is just an additional superfluous doubleside of blank pages.
An "audio export" of the page to a wav/audacity file would be handy. It's a bit boring when you want to relisten one word, and have to keep replaying the whole page.

Some of the stuff I mentioned is quite trivial, but just thought I should mention everything that occurred to me. Many thanks for all the work, and making these available. I will try another with a language I know less well, to see how effectively it works as a learning tool.

Hi Sjintje,

Many thanks for the comments!

I originally put in encryption and registering to prevent people from copying and selling it without my knowledge.
It should register automatically when starting for the first time, and it doesn't allow a first start offline.
I guess I can skip that bit now. Not sure when I get to it as it is a pretty complex little bit of code which I have to remove.

I've uploaded a version and pasted it over the German Fairy Tales link in the original post (not the "fixed" version however as with that one the audio didn't seem to work for the people with issues on Windows anyway) that has the audio of DaumesDick in sync, however, page 17 (page 65) seems to be missing even from the audio the professional (and paid) voice resource gave me, and I'll have to get it from her again, so for now that page has no audio, but at least the following pages are in sync.

Here's an example where I set SRS in the German Fairy Tales and then change the <german>=<english> wordlist to a <german> only wordlist, where you have to click each word to see it's meaning, and then click whether you knew that meaning. It's sort of flash cardish, ok no physical or on-screen cards, but the idea of flash cards, and the SRS as well.



1. the .gif starts at a regular "My Wordlist" with <german>=<english>.
2. I leave the wordlist and go back into my book, just to show you that sound has now shifted and page 65 is without audio
3. then I go to settings, and turn "My Words" to flashcards option on
4. I also set the SRS timer to 1 minute for this example's sake
5. I go back to "My Words" list, there's no meanings visible now! I turn "Teachermode" on to make sure my actions are recorded...
6. I start my "flash card" practices, I click a word that's up for practice (red timer at 0, or orange timer if you have set margin at x % of interval)
7. When I click a german word the English meaning pops up behind it, and I can check whether I knew that word or not
8. Whether I "knew a word" or not, the timer for that word is reset and it is moved back in the list.
9. For the words that I knew, the "number of tests" is changed.

The philosophy (maybe not 100% accurate) is that you only have to practice words an X number of times (where X is optional too!) and the software checks the stories to see how many times the word occurs, and has a simple algorithm to calculate how many times you'll have to test the words.

There's an option to keep tested words in your list as well, in case you don't agree with the software removing words that it deems tested enough times...

Using "Learning Mode" and "Browsing Mode" is probably better, I think I explain it like that in the tool's help screens as well, it's either "free reading" or "progressing through testing".

The buttons are indeed amateurish, and the in-book page ones are missing (added that option to just click left and right of the book at the last minute, should be some mouseover picture showing up maybe, just like with a reader App). I put in the "ear" for audio as I didn't want to have the same button for next page as I had for "play audio", but a "play" and "stop" sign at that spot is probably more user friendly I'm not much of a designer unfortunately so if someone reads this and feels her/his calling contact me

You can get the audio by going to the software's user path:
C:\Users\<your Windows username>\BermudaWord\German\FairyTales
when you play a page's audio, the mp3 appears in that path as "tmp.mp3".

Originally it was done internally, but someone had an issue with playing the files from memory, so they're now actually played from disk so they need to be exported It's a bit of a workaround, but if you want I can also send you a zip file with all the audio with drop box.

The empty pages at some chapters are an issue with the automated output of the e-books I have. Somehow there either needs to be an empty page before the next chapter starts, and because I want the chapters to start on an uneven page the automation adds another empty page in that case, producing two empty pages Since it was a bit of a style low priority issue I didn't look at it yet In the PDF's of the interlinear versions that are on Amazon to fund the project, which are also produced via the automated environment that I made, blank pages are left out.

Sincerely thanks for all the comments! I hope I'll find some time and or help to change stuff here and there... At the moment I'm busy with a cross-platform App version with both pop-up and interlinear, and the testing added, so it would be nice to know if you users see the advantage of having a word list version without meaning where you can click "I knew the word" or "I did not know the word" like in the current software:



The advantage of going through a list of words this way is that it is pretty fast. Another way would be to show the word as a separate screen filling "German Word", and when clicked add the meaning, plus a "yes I knew", "no I didn't know" check.

I hope I get some feedback on this so I know what would be best to incorporate into the cross-platform App version...

Thanks!

[sjintje]

..... At the moment I'm busy with a cross-platform App version with both pop-up and interlinear, and the testing added, so it would be nice to know if you users see the advantage of having a word list version without meaning where you can click "I knew the word" or "I did not know the word" like in the current software:

The advantage of going through a list of words this way is that it is pretty fast. Another way would be to show the word as a separate screen filling "German Word", and when clicked add the meaning, plus a "yes I knew", "no I didn't know" check.

I hope I get some feedback on this so I know what would be best to incorporate into the cross-platform App version...

Thanks for the tip about the tmp.mp3 file. You can actually extract the audio from the exe file using audacity (with FFmpeg) but it produces one file for the whole book, reather than being able to extract audio for each page.

I wasn't criticising the principle of the SRS word list, it's just that I was looking for "flash cards" and not finding them. I was also a bit mixed up between the word list and the other word matching test.

"smallwhite" apparently uses a spreadsheet as an SRS list, which may be similar to your app. I couldn't find where she explains it, but there is an example dowloadable excel file in Rdearmans post. Of course, then there is the question of whethte ryou should have L1->L2...

http://www.forum.language-learners.org/ ... =14&t=1595

On my rather feeble computer, there was a time lag of about 8 secs from clicking on the green arrow, to the list renewing itself, so unfortunately not very efficient for me in practice.

[annie25]

Keys, these are great, thank you.
I have just downloaded Swedish Fairy Tales and Short Stories; only had a quick look so far but I think they are a really nice idea.

[Individual_Grammar]

Hi All!

Help

...contact me if you want to create material like this that can be displayed in this software but also as interlinear book on Amazon or in a not-too-distant future in a cross-platform App. You'll be the copyright owner of any material you created and you're free to take your stuff and go to InterlinearBooks for example and put it up there instead, if you don't like the free co-operation model after all. We can also help you to put it on Amazon as interlinear stuff for your own profit or by us for funding the project...

Hi Keys,

I am interested in contributing to your site with Latin-English, and Latin-Spanish translations, and exploring how your initiative could be more accessible to language teachers, and I am chiefly thinking in classical languages, who are the ones that benefit the most from copyright-free books. Let me know through email, Twitter or PM what you think, and / or how we could arrange a Skype meeting.

[Keys]

Hi, thanks for the interest and contacting me!

For anyone not familiar with the project, it's an attempt to get more interlinear literal word-for-word translated material out there.

We now almost finished with creating paperbacks for all the material:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ahyplern+interlinear

If you go to the Microsoft shop in the link below or search for HypLern in the microsoft shop:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/search/apps?q=hyplern

For Android devices:

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hyplern+app&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Ahyplern+app

Apple still a struggle as per missing Apple device to develop on.

For people interested in creating interlinear material, we have developed a great interlinear editor! More about that shortly as well.

Cheers!

[blaurebell]

This looks really nice! Can't try it myself since I'm on mac, but I think you're really creating a cool resource there. The only issue I have with it is that the user can only actively engage with the words with flashcards. Personally I hate flashcards. I do a lot of intensive reading with Learning with Texts instead, where you have to type in your own translations and actively look up the word. Of course, it's totally tedious at the beginning when you have to look up every word, but over time it gets more and more like extensive reading. Looking up the words can be annoying too, especially when you can't always find the right infinitive for an irregular conjugated verb. Still, this active typing and searching makes it much more engaging and your brain has more incentive to remember the word next time, so that you don't have to spend so much time on looking it up. The appearances of the word in different word forms in the text are already built in SRS too. After reading about 5000 pages like that with LWT I could read without a dictionary and I didn't have to use flashcards at all in the process.

So, what would be really cool for your program would be an option to guess unknown words. You could mark words as known like in Learning with Texts and Lingq, but also have a type interface for new words with different content guessed - infinitive or nominative, translation, I always type both in my LWT practice. If you guess right a certain number of times / mark as known it can appear in a tool tip like you're doing it now, but if not you have to guess again. I don't know whether this change would be easily doable in your program design, but I think it could be really helpful for the learning experience. Or maybe consider it as an option for the mac port?