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I'm vaguely trying to learn spanish using Duolingo, but haven't been very diligent. I was hoping your chrome extension could be a more passive way of learning t

by pbiggar 11y ago

I'm vaguely trying to learn spanish using Duolingo, but haven't been very diligent. I was hoping your chrome extension could be a more passive way of learning that integrates into what I already do, and which would let me stick with it as a result. Unfortunately, the current version isn't. Unless I'm using it wrong, here's the process of learning spanish with your extension: - I'm on a page - I decide to learn spanish - I click the extension button - i click random words and see the spanish word for it There's a lot of friction (I have to steps 2 and 3) for not a lot of pay off (I can choose to click words and see what the spanish version is). Also, the fact that it gets in the way of every link means I immediately turned it off. May I suggest an alternate version: - on every single page the extension is active - pick some number of words (1% maybe?) to translate into spanish, while keeping the text in english. Underline them in green and let me mouseover if I don't understand - when I'm reading the text, I will come across these spanish words and learn them in context Much lower friction, and doesn't get in the way so I won't turn it off. WDYT?

Nadya 11y ago
So something like this? https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/language-immersion-for-ch/bedbecnakfcpmkpddjfnfihogkaggkhl https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/language-immersion...
- pbiggar 11y ago
  Yes, awesome, thanks! It doesn't get the translations perfect AFAICT, but I think it's good enough to keep activated!
  - StavrosK 11y ago
    Unfortunately, I don't think you can learn, for example, Spanish by translating pages to Spanish. You have to read pages in Spanish and translate from it, otherwise you're learning Google-Translatese, not Spanish. There's a lot of nuance, idioms, etc that translations can't give you, not to mention that they're usually, very, very wrong.
    - yazaddaruvala 11y ago
      At least personally, I've always been horrible at remembering nouns/verbs in Spanish. I never did listen to any of my teachers and spend time memorizing the 10 or so words per week that I was supposed to. Even still I don't listen to Duolingo and practice consistently. My lack of vocabulary is directly related to my conversational fluency. It would definitely be nice to randomly see Spanish words in an English sentence while I'm going about my day. Next time I'm trying to speak to someone in Spanish, I may remember some of these words, be more confident about my sentences, and keep the conversation going longer. Honestly, even if I use the words slightly incorrectly (because they are Googleese) at least I'll have said something and have more conversation experience to learn from.
    - personlurking 11y ago
      In Portuguese, I just used ReadLang (under C2, Master setting, w/o signing up) and saw the word 'conduzisse' which translated simply as 'lead'. The verb conduzir can also be to conduct, to guide, and to drive. The verbal tense is first/third-person singular imperfect subjunctive, which is important in meaning and context. What I wish to say with my comment is that perhaps the app is best for learning before reaching the advanced stage because this is when we pass from Translatese to real fluency. I did try Italian, in which I'm intermediate, and found the app useful. The song section is a nice touch, too.
ghostwriter 11y ago
You may find "QuickTranslate" Chrome extension a good fit. It simply translates either the word your cursor points to or a selected text fragment - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quick-translate/nfomngbnlbabenfnpjagndobadmdfdok https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quick-translate/nf...
steveridout 11y ago
I've had this reaction a few times, especially since a LifeHacker article (http://lifehacker.com/readlang-helps-you-learn-a-foreign-language-as-you-surf-1697991769 http://lifehacker.com/readlang-helps-you-learn-a-foreign-lan...) which compares it to the Language Immersion extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/language-immersion-for-ch/bedbecnakfcpmkpddjfnfihogkaggkhl/related https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/language-immersion...) which works exactly as you describe. Readlang is intended to be used in reverse - you should be using it to read Spanish articles, and clicking on the words and phrases you don't understand to translate them to English. Learning from actual native Spanish texts is vastly preferable to machine translated Spanish. Of course the downside is that you need to: a) have some ability in Spanish already b) develop a new habit of visiting Spanish websites. You can get an idea from the most popular sites visited by Readlang users here: http://readlang.com/es/links http://readlang.com/es/links (I've been thinking of exploring another idea for an extension which hijacks the Chrome "new tab" page to encourage this habit)

by pbiggar 11y ago

Nadya 11y ago

So something like this? https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/language-immersion-for-ch/bedbecnakfcpmkpddjfnfihogkaggkhl https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/language-immersion...

pbiggar 11y ago
Yes, awesome, thanks! It doesn't get the translations perfect AFAICT, but I think it's good enough to keep activated!
- StavrosK 11y ago
  Unfortunately, I don't think you can learn, for example, Spanish by translating pages to Spanish. You have to read pages in Spanish and translate from it, otherwise you're learning Google-Translatese, not Spanish. There's a lot of nuance, idioms, etc that translations can't give you, not to mention that they're usually, very, very wrong.
  - yazaddaruvala 11y ago
    At least personally, I've always been horrible at remembering nouns/verbs in Spanish. I never did listen to any of my teachers and spend time memorizing the 10 or so words per week that I was supposed to. Even still I don't listen to Duolingo and practice consistently. My lack of vocabulary is directly related to my conversational fluency. It would definitely be nice to randomly see Spanish words in an English sentence while I'm going about my day. Next time I'm trying to speak to someone in Spanish, I may remember some of these words, be more confident about my sentences, and keep the conversation going longer. Honestly, even if I use the words slightly incorrectly (because they are Googleese) at least I'll have said something and have more conversation experience to learn from.
  - personlurking 11y ago
    In Portuguese, I just used ReadLang (under C2, Master setting, w/o signing up) and saw the word 'conduzisse' which translated simply as 'lead'. The verb conduzir can also be to conduct, to guide, and to drive. The verbal tense is first/third-person singular imperfect subjunctive, which is important in meaning and context. What I wish to say with my comment is that perhaps the app is best for learning before reaching the advanced stage because this is when we pass from Translatese to real fluency. I did try Italian, in which I'm intermediate, and found the app useful. The song section is a nice touch, too.

ghostwriter 11y ago

You may find "QuickTranslate" Chrome extension a good fit. It simply translates either the word your cursor points to or a selected text fragment - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quick-translate/nfomngbnlbabenfnpjagndobadmdfdok https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/quick-translate/nf...

steveridout 11y ago

I've had this reaction a few times, especially since a LifeHacker article (http://lifehacker.com/readlang-helps-you-learn-a-foreign-language-as-you-surf-1697991769 http://lifehacker.com/readlang-helps-you-learn-a-foreign-lan...) which compares it to the Language Immersion extension (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/language-immersion-for-ch/bedbecnakfcpmkpddjfnfihogkaggkhl/related https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/language-immersion...) which works exactly as you describe. Readlang is intended to be used in reverse - you should be using it to read Spanish articles, and clicking on the words and phrases you don't understand to translate them to English. Learning from actual native Spanish texts is vastly preferable to machine translated Spanish. Of course the downside is that you need to: a) have some ability in Spanish already b) develop a new habit of visiting Spanish websites. You can get an idea from the most popular sites visited by Readlang users here: http://readlang.com/es/links http://readlang.com/es/links (I've been thinking of exploring another idea for an extension which hijacks the Chrome "new tab" page to encourage this habit)