For those who have done Glossika - Should it be Done Actively or Passively?

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For those who have done Glossika - Should it be Done Actively or Passively?

Postby breeda1 » Tue Mar 29, 2022 6:00 pm

By "passively" I mean while you're doing something that's cognitively not straining such as driving, walking, or cleaning.
By "actively" I mean giving the program you're full undivided attention.
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Re: For those who have done Glossika - Should it be Done Actively or Passively?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Wed Mar 30, 2022 5:26 pm

If it's audio only, I don't see why you can't do it passively. When I used the method (→a few years ago), it was text + audio, so I studied in front of the computer / tablet.
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Re: For those who have done Glossika - Should it be Done Actively or Passively?

Postby luke » Wed Mar 30, 2022 6:21 pm

breeda1 wrote:By "passively" I mean while you're doing something that's cognitively not straining such as driving, walking, or cleaning.
By "actively" I mean giving the program you're full undivided attention.

I tried Glossika for a while, but didn't stick with it long enough to say, "I did it and it works".

Glossika is not FSI, although both have translation drills.

I do FSI drills while driving, walking, and giving it my undivided attention. That is, at first, the drill may need undivided attention, like looking at the manual and listening to the audio. Once I know what needs to happen, I may not need the manual very often. I kind of use the "can I do this with relative ease" as a 'test' that, "okay, time to leave this recording behind and move on to the next challenge".

That's different than how Glossika had their schedules outlined. Maybe I couldn't handle the bondage and discipline.

Translation drills are slightly "easier" as the audio will tell you what to say, and then it tells you how to say it. The "what to to" is always "translate".

As far as what we might typically think of as "passive", like, "set the recording to repeat and sort of listen and sometimes try to do it, but at least try and understand the 'call' and 'response'", I've recently found that can be helpful too. I haven't done it much, but when a drill is frustrating and I let it play while I do other things, pretty soon it doesn't seem as hard.
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Re: For those who have done Glossika - Should it be Done Actively or Passively?

Postby Le Baron » Wed Mar 30, 2022 10:19 pm

I have Glossika files for Spanish (I haven't paid them anything) and I've found them useful because they give you things to say and you get to say them with prompting. I like that.

I was going to say 'in my case', but I think perhaps everyone wavers between active/passive when using files like you described. I have them running on an mp3 player or coming out of speakers whilst doing my work (when I'm at home at least or the colleagues would think I've gone mad). So it's not concentrating, but still paying attention. Like when you have the TV on the background and someone says something that causes you to pay attention.

If you're only listening and not repeating/being prompted, then I'd say it's also worth using like that. When you're responding to the drills I'd say you can also sort of half pay attention, but only to drills you've heard before.
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Re: For those who have done Glossika - Should it be Done Actively or Passively?

Postby Valddu » Mon Apr 04, 2022 2:27 am

In my experience: neither. I spent more than a 150 hours with Glossika and did 90k reps. Since then I've switched over to a system where I mine sentences and put them into Anki with audio on both sides of the card--I find that is MUCH more effective for my comprehension and production since Anki gives me the ability to score myself and that input is taken into account when determining the next time I hear that sentence. Glossika's sentence bank is good but the rep system/algorithm is terrible.
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Re: For those who have done Glossika - Should it be Done Actively or Passively?

Postby jackb » Mon Apr 04, 2022 11:51 am

The 'why' should determine the 'how'. Why are you doing Glossika? If doing it passively gets what you want out of it, then do it passively. If doing it actively gets you there, then do it actively. If neither of them will do the job, then Glossika isn't the tool.

...Since then I've switched over to a system where I mine sentences and put them into Anki with audio on both sides of the card--I find that is MUCH more effective for my comprehension and production since Anki ...


It's only more effective after the 150 hours and 90k reps which is not a drop in the bucket. This experience helped in the sentence mining activity. The harder question is if it would be much more effective had those hours/reps not been there.
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Re: For those who have done Glossika - Should it be Done Actively or Passively?

Postby Valddu » Tue Apr 05, 2022 3:12 am

jackb wrote:The 'why' should determine the 'how'. Why are you doing Glossika? If doing it passively gets what you want out of it, then do it passively. If doing it actively gets you there, then do it actively. If neither of them will do the job, then Glossika isn't the tool.

...Since then I've switched over to a system where I mine sentences and put them into Anki with audio on both sides of the card--I find that is MUCH more effective for my comprehension and production since Anki ...


It's only more effective after the 150 hours and 90k reps which is not a drop in the bucket. This experience helped in the sentence mining activity. The harder question is if it would be much more effective had those hours/reps not been there.



I do think that Glossika helped my passive understanding of the language, but it wasn't the most efficient of tools. The Spanish bank had about 7000 sentences, and I repped them all, but realistically only about half those sentences were useful and only I favorited 1200 (and later put those into Anki) in total.
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