Solved: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

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Solved: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

Postby neumanc » Wed Apr 04, 2018 10:19 am

Dear fellow language learners, I would like your advice.

I've been doing a lot of Glossika again lately (the old format). I like the course very much despite its flaws and shortcomings. Above all, I think it is very good that the sentences are drilled until they are ingrained in your mind.

One aspect that I find problematic, though, is that the course unfortunately teaches little advanced vocabulary. Another aspect is that the course is designed from the English language, which is why idiomatic phrases, which are taught e.g. by Assimil courses, are missing. I am aware that Glossika should primarily train syntax. However, I believe that it would be beneficial to have a course which, like Glossika, consists of sentences that are to be translated orally as quickly as possible from the language of instruction in alternating order, but advanced vocabulary and idiomatic expressions should also be taught.

That's why I came up with the idea that I could create my own Glossika-like course. I have plenty of audio in the target language. I could split these files into separate sentences and number them consecutively. I could also record the translation in my native language with a microphone and split this audio file into individual numbered sentences. All this would be easy to do with a program like Audacity. The only problem would be to generate mp3 files from them, which would contain the sentences in different order similar to the GSR files.

Anki could be used to solve this problem. However, the repetition intervals would quickly become too large, so that the overlearning effect, as Glossika achieves it, would be missed. It would therefore be better to write an appropriate computer program that is capable of automatically creating GSR-like audio files from numbered audio files in the teaching language and in the target language. Each day 10 new sentence pairs would be taught and 30 already known sentences from the last three days would be repeated. Such a program would certainly not be too complicated.

Does anyone of you know if such a program already exists? Or would any of you be interested in writing such a program? If not, I would like to try programming myself. As a child I had extensive experience in programming my Commodore 64 in Basic (and later also in Pascal). I therefore have a basic understanding of how coding works, even though I have not coded in the last 25 years. In particular, I have not yet programmed a Windows computer. I'd like to try it, though. Therefore I am looking for a programming environment for Windows 10 with the following features: It should be free, based on Basic (or Pascal), have a good tutorial and above all be able to manipulate mp3 files, especially to merge them. Is there such a thing? Or would you advise against this project? Am I overreaching myself? Thank you for your input in advance.
Last edited by neumanc on Mon Apr 09, 2018 7:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Wed Apr 04, 2018 10:38 am

I'm sure I've see threads on this topic. I'm also sure that I've seen the algorithms, but I can't remember where.

Axon has done some experiments:
SRS MP3 software
Real-life Glossika

There's also the Gradint software (mentioned in the SRS thread):
http://people.ds.cam.ac.uk/ssb22/gradint/
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Re: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

Postby Kraut » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:03 am

I'm using an old Sony Minidisc Player JE 530 and I think its functions come close to what you intend to do.
It can split up an audio that you have recorded into up to 250 chunks of any length. The chunks are numbered from 1 to 250 automatically and can be selected via the remote.
They can be edited: removed, moved, merged, further divided etc
There is an endless repeat function, an A-B repeat function on the remote ..
When you transfer the audio to the Sony player you only press a button on the remote to place the markers.
Here's the manual.
https://www.manualslib.com/download/242 ... Je530.html

The Ebay price for a Sony is round 50 Euro.
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Re: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

Postby neumanc » Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:50 am

@jeff_lindquist: Apparently, there is nothing that has not yet been discussed on this forum. :D Thank you for letting me know about Axon's experiments. This is really helpful. It seems that he succeeded in writing the Glossika-emulating program I am looking for. His files on soundcloud are impressive. I will contact him asap. Maybe he wants to share his code. The best would be to have a small executable file, however. At least I know now that the program I want to have can be coded in Python with the pydub library. Never heard of that, but maybe I could try it out. Gradint, however, is not really what I have in mind. The last time I played around with this program, I didn't really like the experience. Furthermore, I remember that Gradint emulates the Pimsleur spaced repetition intervalls. What I am looking for is Glossika-like overlearning, not graduaded interval recall.

@Kraut: Thank you very much for your input. Apparently, the Sony Minidisc Player JE 530 can be programmed, which might be used to emulate Glossika. I will look into it. If it is necessary to buy another technical device, I will certainly buy one. It would be much easier, though, to have a Windows executable file on my computer.
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Re: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

Postby neumanc » Thu Apr 05, 2018 11:04 am

Meanwhile Axon has been so very kind to share his Python script with me. Thank you so much, Axon! To someone like me who hasn't coded for about 25 years, it really looks complicated, but I am willing to put in the effort of learning the computer language Python in order to be able to create costum-made Glossika-like learning material, if this is what it takes. I really hope that it doesn't take too long, since my free time is quite scarce and I really would like to advance with my target languages.

Thinking about easier alternatives, I considered if it might be possible to alter Anki's preferences in a way so that it emulates Glossika. Until now, I have not much experience with Anki. I succeeded, however, in importing target language mp3 files and typing in teaching language translations as cues. It is also possible to have Anki read the cues to you so that Anki can be used for aural/oral translation practice just like Glossika. But I really don't like the spaced repetition feature. For me, Glossika-like overlearning works better. Translating (or better: recalling) a sentence 18 times within 4 days really lets sink it in. After that, I don't want to see the sentence again for a very long time. Furthermore, I don't want to have to rate the audio flashcards as hard, easy, unknown, etc. I just want to have sentences read to me and a small pause provided to translate them into my target language. After that, I want to be quizzed on the next sentence pair without having to press any button, just like the old Glossika works. Is it possible to emulate this with Anki in any way? Does anyone know? Thank you in advance for letting me know.
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Re: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

Postby rdearman » Thu Apr 05, 2018 12:05 pm

You can use cram mode to just keep doing reviews on a custom deck. Someone describes it here.
https://hiyoshinosaru.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/14/
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Re: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

Postby kelciour » Thu Apr 05, 2018 1:55 pm

neumanc wrote:Furthermore, I don't want to have to rate the audio flashcards as hard, easy, unknown, etc. I just want to have sentences read to me and a small pause provided to translate them into my target language. After that, I want to be quizzed on the next sentence pair without having to press any button, just like the old Glossika works. Is it possible to emulate this with Anki in any way?
Maybe Automatically flip cards add-on:
This add-on automatically flips cards based on the lengths of the audios in the cards. If a card has no audio, this add-on will wait for 3 second before flipping card.
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Re: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:12 pm

neumanc wrote:But I really don't like the spaced repetition feature. For me, Glossika-like overlearning works better. Translating (or better: recalling) a sentence 18 times within 4 days really lets sink it in. After that, I don't want to see the sentence again for a very long time. Furthermore, I don't want to have to rate the audio flashcards as hard, easy, unknown, etc. I just want to have sentences read to me and a small pause provided to translate them into my target language. After that, I want to be quizzed on the next sentence pair without having to press any button, just like the old Glossika works. Is it possible to emulate this with Anki in any way? Does anyone know? Thank you in advance for letting me know.


Instead of editing the algorithm intervals, I give each card a lower rating (never Again, because that will eventually result in a leech; Hard makes the card appear relatively soon ( ! ); Good is possibly too long into the future and Easy is definitely too long). When I flip a card, I also see when it's due - usually that tells me how new a card is, and if I "should" send it to the future by choosing a better rating.

In short, Hard is what I sometimes use to (kind of) mimic overlearning. It may defeat the purpose of the software, but again, we can never know if the SRS is "perfectly" adapted to our own forgetting curve.

Or just don't use Anki at all. People have learned languages before. You can cram the material in a number of ways. I think Ari created playlists full of ChinesePod lessons and just deleted stuff as he got tired of it.
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Re: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

Postby neumanc » Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:38 pm

rdearman wrote:You can use cram mode to just keep doing reviews on a custom deck. Someone describes it here.
https://hiyoshinosaru.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/14/

Thanks, this might help, especially with the automatically flip cards add-on suggested by kelciour. The only problem would be that each session I would have to manually mark the cards I want to "cram". Not so convenient as gsr mp3 files, but much easier than learning a programming language first.
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Re: How to create your own Glossika-like GSR files?

Postby neumanc » Thu Apr 05, 2018 5:44 pm

kelciour wrote:Maybe Automatically flip cards add-on:
This add-on automatically flips cards based on the lengths of the audios in the cards. If a card has no audio, this add-on will wait for 3 second before flipping card.

This seems to be an excellent add-on for Anki to emulate Glossika. Thank you so much for letting me know, kelciour! However, I have the impression that this is only available for Anki, not for Ankidroid. Am I right?
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