Xmas experiment (Anki + material above my level)

[juman]

I have been studying French for quite a bit now but never really made any progress (a lot of restarts). My main reason is impatience and that I find the dialogs in textbooks incredibly boring.

So as an experiment I took the first two chapters from a book (L'empire des loups by Jean-Christophe Grangé) and aligned the text with the audio (WorkAudioBook to the rescue) and then I used Subs2srs to split up the audiofiles into smaller files as well as getting a list of sentences. In the end I created a script that went through those sentences clozing any word it found (up to three times) and importing that into Anki.

Code: Select all

Example sentence from Anki :
{{c16::L}}’{{c22::expérience}} {{c21::ne}} {{c20::présentait}} {{c19::aucun}} {{c18::danger}} {{c17::mais}} {{c16::l}}’{{c15::idée}} {{c14::qu}}’{{c13::on}} {{c12::puisse}} {{c11::lire}} {{c10::à}} {{c9::cet}} {{c8::instant}} {{c7::dans}} {{c6::son}} {{c5::cerveau}} {{c4::la}} {{c3::troublait}} {{c2::en}} {{c1::profondeur}}.

One of the cards generated from this text  :
L’expérience ne présentait aucun danger mais l’idée qu’on puisse lire à cet instant dans son cerveau la troublait en [...].


So now I have 249 soundbits in anki with 249 notes generating 1645 cards. Where each card plays the audio and shows the clozed sentence with translation as the question, and then shows full sentence with the translation and plays the audio as the answer.

I'm approximately half way through the deck and will finish it by christmas and so far I have noticed the following from this little experiment :

* My listening skills have skyrocketed
* Even though the sentences are far above my level I reach a point after a while where I know the whole sentence and by doing that my brain fills in the gap (the clozed word) just by the "melody" of the sentence
* This makes me ask questions as I have started to notice patterns. So instead of following the text books from start to end I jump around trying to get answers to my questions which have made me use the textbooks more then ever before.
* I can almost listen to the first chapter end to end completely in French fully following the story (once again the brain fills in quite a few gaps in regards to not hearing words/fully understanding words)

So far this have given me the most in regards to different experiments I've done when it comes to my language learning so I just wanted to share it.

[MorkTheFiddle]

In the end I created a script that went through those sentences clozing any word it found (up to three times) and importing that into Anki.

Could you be more specific about the script?
What language did you write it in? Python? Bash?
What does the result of the script look like before you upload it to ANKI?
Are you using the very latest version of ANKI?

[juman]

In the end I created a script that went through those sentences clozing any word it found (up to three times) and importing that into Anki.

Could you be more specific about the script?
What language did you write it in? Python? Bash?
What does the result of the script look like before you upload it to ANKI?
Are you using the very latest version of ANKI?

Sure, I wrote the script in Ruby (it is just a quick hack) but what it does is the following :

* Read the output from Subs2srs
* Split the french sentence into words
* Starting from the end of the sentence cloze all words (but also count how many times a specific word is clozed so max times a word is clozed is three)
* Output this into a new file I then imported into Anki (yes, latest version of Anki)

So it takes something like this (which is tab separated):

Code: Select all

loups_1_01_0.0.38.790   [sound:loups_1_0.0.38.790-0.0.40.189.mp3]       L’empire des loups      Empire of wolves
loups_1_02_0.1.15.533   [sound:loups_1_0.1.15.533-0.1.20.470.mp3]       — Rouge. Anna Heymes se sentait de plus en plus mal à l’aise.   - Red. Anna Heymes felt more and more uncomfortable.
loups_1_03_0.1.20.744   [sound:loups_1_0.1.20.744-0.1.28.555.mp3]       L’expérience ne présentait aucun danger mais l’idée qu’on puisse lire à cet instant dans son cerveau la troublait en profondeur.        The experience was safe, but the thought that one could read her brain right now troubled her deeply.
loups_2_175_0.12.08.045 [sound:loups_2_0.12.08.045-0.12.14.027.mp3]     — Personne ne touchera à mon cerveau, répéta-t-elle d’une voix qui s’affirmait. No one will touch my brain, she repeated in a voice that asserted itself.
loups_2_176_0.12.14.027 [sound:loups_2_0.12.14.027-0.12.20.514.mp3]     Je préfère perdre complètement la mémoire, ou crever de ma maladie. Je ne remettrai jamais les pieds ici. I'd rather lose my memory altogether, or die of my illness. I will never set foot here again.
loups_2_177_0.12.20.514 [sound:loups_2_0.12.20.514-0.12.24.633.mp3]     Elle hurla soudain, prise de panique : — Jamais, vous entendez ?        She screamed suddenly, panicking: - Never, do you hear?


And creates something like this which I then can import into Anki :

Code: Select all

loups_1_01_0.0.38.790   [sound:loups_1_0.0.38.790-0.0.40.189.mp3]       {{c4::L}}’{{c3::empire}} {{c2::des}} {{c1::loups}}      Empire of wolves
loups_1_02_0.1.15.533   [sound:loups_1_0.1.15.533-0.1.20.470.mp3]       — {{c12::Rouge}}. {{c11::Anna}} {{c10::Heymes}} {{c9::se}} {{c8::sentait}} {{c7::de}} {{c5::plus}} {{c6::en}} {{c5::plus}} {{c4::mal}} {{c3::à}} {{c2::l}}’{{c1::aise}}.        - Red. Anna Heymes felt more and more uncomfortable.
loups_1_03_0.1.20.744   [sound:loups_1_0.1.20.744-0.1.28.555.mp3]       {{c16::L}}’{{c22::expérience}} {{c21::ne}} {{c20::présentait}} {{c19::aucun}} {{c18::danger}} {{c17::mais}} {{c16::l}}’{{c15::idée}} {{c14::qu}}’{{c13::on}} {{c12::puisse}} {{c11::lire}} {{c10::à}} {{c9::cet}} {{c8::instant}} {{c7::dans}} {{c6::son}} {{c5::cerveau}} {{c4::la}} {{c3::troublait}} {{c2::en}} {{c1::profondeur}}.  The experience was safe, but the thought that one could read her brain right now troubled her deeply.
loups_1_04_0.1.29.351   [sound:loups_1_0.1.29.351-0.1.41.799.mp3]       — {{c26::Bleu}}. {{c25::Elle}} {{c24::était}} {{c23::allongée}} {{c22::sur}} {{c5::une}} {{c21::table}} {{c20::en}} {{c19::inox}}, {{c18::au}} {{c17::centre}} {{c6::d}}’{{c5::une}} {{c16::salle}} {{c15::plongée}} {{c9::dans}} {{c14::la}} {{c13::pénombre}}, {{c12::sa}} {{c11::tête}} {{c10::insérée}} {{c9::dans}} l’{{c8::orifice}} {{c7::central}} {{c6::d}}’{{c5::une}} {{c4::machine}} {{c3::blanche}} {{c2::et}} {{c1::circulaire}}. - Blue. She was lying on a stainless steel table in the center of a semi-dark room, her head inserted into the central opening of a white circular machine.
loups_2_175_0.12.08.045 [sound:loups_2_0.12.08.045-0.12.14.027.mp3]     — {{c4::Personne}} ne {{c3::touchera}} à mon cerveau, {{c2::répéta}}-t-elle d’une voix qui s’{{c1::affirmait}}.   No one will touch my brain, she repeated in a voice that asserted itself.
loups_2_176_0.12.14.027 [sound:loups_2_0.12.14.027-0.12.20.514.mp3]     Je {{c10::préfère}} {{c9::perdre}} {{c8::complètement}} la mémoire, ou {{c7::crever}} de {{c6::ma}} {{c5::maladie}}. Je ne {{c4::remettrai}} {{c3::jamais}} les {{c2::pieds}} {{c1::ici}}.        I'd rather lose my memory altogether, or die of my illness. I will never set foot here again.
loups_2_177_0.12.20.514 [sound:loups_2_0.12.20.514-0.12.24.633.mp3]     Elle {{c7::hurla}} {{c6::soudain}}, {{c5::prise}} de {{c4::panique}} : — {{c3::Jamais}}, {{c2::vous}} {{c1::entendez}} ?  She screamed suddenly, panicking: - Never, do you hear?


As you can see it clozes far more words in the first few sentences then in the last as it hits my limit of three. So in the first sentences every single word is clozed off.

[juman]

Continuing on seeing 30 new cards per day which creates a total of about 70-80 cards reviewed per day taking about 15-20 minutes to complete. Have added in that I am writing down every word which have increased my recall but also slowed down the overall review time a bit.

It is unfortunate that Anki doesn't have Notes stats so I did another quick hack and can now see that I have seen all the words in 92 sentences and have 65 sentences where I haven't seen any words yet.

[FrenchBull]

Hello
Thank you for the post! I want to try this out but
Do you mind explaining what the point of the {{cX::text}} format and how I can use that Anki?

Thanks!

[rdearman]

Hello
Thank you for the post! I want to try this out but
Do you mind explaining what the point of the {{cX::text}} format and how I can use that Anki?

Thanks!

That is how anki stores cloze deletion. I put a link to the section in the anki manual.

https://apps.ankiweb.net/docs/manual20. ... -templates

[FrenchBull]

Amazing thanks! I’ve been making my own cloze deletions manually in anki all this time this is so much better thanks!