Stefan wrote:mercutio wrote:One massive annoying feature is you basically have to guess the word THEY want. Not necessarily the right word. For example I can't remember exactly but there was one I remember when it asked for school and it wanted instituto whereas of course escuela also means school, but I had to remember which one it wanted! This sort of annoying feature eventually drove me away.
This isn't completely true since I've used synonyms on multiple occasions but I agree that they could add more. They probably will but it's still a relatively new-developed tool. I wish a
leave feedback function would be prioritised. The character limit and text field width tend to be good giveaways on which word they are looking for though. If they force me to learn a synonym, then so be it.
mercutio wrote:It's basically to me like repeatedly typing out a dictionary the mental equivalent of repeatedly walking into a wall
The
memorize part is basically
cloze deletion of a frequency list with L1 translations. That's Anki which is one of the most recommended tools within the language learning community. You get a few extra features such as char limit, text field width, explanations, goals, stats, audio, translations, srs and red highlighting on specific characters if you make spelling mistakes. It also accepts ü for u, ö for o and vice versa.
They also offer
reading and
listening for some languages such as French.
Reading is a regular text (dialog, literature, article, joke, misc) with a built in popup translation when clicking on a word and a percentage of how many of the words you have memorised.
Listening is identical but with added audio.
To summarise:
- srs tool with frequency list
- reading with popup dictionary
- audio for shadowing
So far they have English, Spanish, German, French and Russian.
As
Xmmm points out, the main issue is the slow development. Don't expect them to add anything in the near future although they did launch their new
list with known words last week. If you're looking for an improved srs frequency list, then I'm sure you'll enjoy it. I find it extremely satisfying to learn a new word only to stumble upon it a few days later when doing my extensive reading.