A language learners’ forum

When I returned to my high school German a few years ago, I took notes and wrote a grammar summary in my own words; explaining basic things such as constituents, cases and gender. I never completed it and should really revise it but the main idea was to get down all my knowledge in my own words so I could study and refresh it.

Similarly I have notes on other areas in life such as productivity, marketing and photography. For example, I have a list of 40 productivity methods such as "The Ivy Lee Method" so I can just open my notebook and skim one page to refresh years of reading. Sadly, most of my other notes are a mess - spanning over screenshots, text files, Word, Scrivener, notebooks, highlights, bookmarks, Evernote and so forth.

So I'm considering setting up a private wiki or blog to keep the notes in the same place and format. The main advantage being that I can actually get a decent design. Scrivener and Evernote are great for writing but they are quite awful when it comes to formatting.

Have you done anything similar or do you have a better method for keeping track?

I am like the exact opposite sort of learner. I never took notes during lectures at university and have taken no notes at all during language learning.

Personally I use Emacs in org-mode. I have a directory on windows which I use GIT to keep all my files and all the changes managed on a central server. When I change computers I can just clone the git image on my server and everything is pulled back down at the latest version. Version control is brilliant!

I also happen to use Org-Mode to publish my blog, it works like a content engine, but outputs static html (safer).

So... org-mode:

Org mode is for keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, planning projects, and authoring documents with a fast and effective plain-text system

https://orgmode.org/

Stefan wrote:When I returned to my high school German a few years ago, I took notes and wrote a grammar summary in my own words; explaining basic things such as constituents, cases and gender. I never completed it and should really revise it but the main idea was to get down all my knowledge in my own words so I could study and refresh it.

Similarly I have notes on other areas in life such as productivity, marketing and photography. For example, I have a list of 40 productivity methods such as "The Ivy Lee Method" so I can just open my notebook and skim one page to refresh years of reading. Sadly, most of my other notes are a mess - spanning over screenshots, text files, Word, Scrivener, notebooks, highlights, bookmarks, Evernote and so forth.

So I'm considering setting up a private wiki or blog to keep the notes in the same place and format. The main advantage being that I can actually get a decent design. Scrivener and Evernote are great for writing but they are quite awful when it comes to formatting.

Have you done anything similar or do you have a better method for keeping track?

No but this sounds pretty cool! If you do it please let us know how you found the process and if it was a worthwhile experience

rdearman wrote:Personally I use Emacs in org-mode.

Hmm, interesting - I use Emacs but I haven't come across org-mode before. Thanks.

About 15 years ago I had the idea of keeping my notes on work-related topics in plain text files, and of writing a script to turn them into HTML, and wherever the name of one file occurred in another it would be turned into a hyperlink to that file. It went well, each time I add a note I re-run the script, and by now there are several hundred text files that I can browse using a web browser. It ends up rather like a wiki without the formatting options but with automatic linking. I can imagine this working for language notes too although I haven't tried it in that context.

I have considered it in the past, but I now view my note-taking as a way to clarify my thoughts at a specific time, rather than to record ideas permanently for future reference. So I don't feel the need to keep an organized database of everything I've ever written, expect to occasionally peruse for inspiration.
I'm pretty disorganized. I usually use Evernote to write down my thoughts but I occasionally use a physical notebook or various text files scrambled about my computer.

Neurotip wrote:

rdearman wrote:Personally I use Emacs in org-mode.

Hmm, interesting - I use Emacs but I haven't come across org-mode before. Thanks.

About 15 years ago I had the idea of keeping my notes on work-related topics in plain text files, and of writing a script to turn them into HTML, and wherever the name of one file occurred in another it would be turned into a hyperlink to that file. It went well, each time I add a note I re-run the script, and by now there are several hundred text files that I can browse using a web browser. It ends up rather like a wiki without the formatting options but with automatic linking. I can imagine this working for language notes too although I haven't tried it in that context.

Org-mode will do links into other files as well as hyperlinks. With a plugin you can even us it to do presentations. Like all things emacs it is amazing one you start doing it.

Stefan wrote:Have you done anything similar

A while ago I was looking for a wiki-like solution to keep track of my notes for a project (not related to language learning). I tried several programs and finally ended up using Zim.

It's really simple to use and you can keep several wikis (notebooks actually) for different topics. The main advantage for me was that I don't need to deal with all the technical stuff that would have been necessary to run a real wiki. I've never used Scrivener or Evernote, so I'm note sure how Zim compares to them.

The important thing for me is easy to use, transportable and accessible. I finally settled for a solution that is a combination of apple "notes", dropbox and google docs (depends on work environment). And I use a box of index cards and a sketch book, too.

It does the job.

I tried a private wiki - spent too much time futzing around on the code, the installation, maintenance and formatting.

I keep a bunch of notebooks around for language learning but i'm always losing those. A shared directory that is also part of my backup profile is sufficient.