We collected 10k hours of neuro-language data in our basement
https://condu.it/thought/10k-hours
#HackerNews #neurodata #languagelearning #basementresearch #dataanalysis
Sylvia Wenmackers 🦉🍀
boosted
Sooooo... thinking about the possibility and feasibility of big life changes, namely studying opera seriously in Europe. Would love to connect with other #Blind language learners, especially those using #braille as a component of their learning. Currently learning #French. Am particularly interested in chatting with people who have taught themselves grade 2 French Braille as well as those who are either conversational or fluent and/or who have worked in or currently live in a #Francophone European country. If this is you or you're in any way adjacent to this world, please reach out. Would love to talk to you. Would also love to chat with people who use #MusicBraille / #BrailleMusic in Europe.
#Francophonie #ClassicalMusic #Opera #LanguageLearning #Languages #Français #LowVision #VisuallyImpaired #BlindMasto #BlindMastodon #BlindFedi @mastoblind
PS: if I missed any hashtags or groups, please let me know and I'll add them.
Hey, friends learning #Spanish or #French:
Kwiziq is 40% off for the next week!
This is a fantastic tool with great grammar explanations that uses spaced repetition for grammatical concepts, mostly having you fill in the blank for sentences with the correct word (but also sometimes, multiple choice "which is the correct translation?" stuff).
This is how I plugged the gaps in my Spanish grammar left after doing Duolingo. This is how I passed the DELE B2.
Sooooo... thinking about the possibility and feasibility of big life changes, namely studying opera seriously in Europe. Would love to connect with other #Blind language learners, especially those using #braille as a component of their learning. Currently learning #French. Am particularly interested in chatting with people who have taught themselves grade 2 French Braille as well as those who are either conversational or fluent and/or who have worked in or currently live in a #Francophone European country. If this is you or you're in any way adjacent to this world, please reach out. Would love to talk to you. Would also love to chat with people who use #MusicBraille / #BrailleMusic in Europe.
#Francophonie #ClassicalMusic #Opera #LanguageLearning #Languages #Français #LowVision #VisuallyImpaired #BlindMasto #BlindMastodon #BlindFedi @mastoblind
PS: if I missed any hashtags or groups, please let me know and I'll add them.
All Europeans 🇪🇺
boosted
Apart from #Polish, in the top 4 we see 3 neo- #Latin languages. This isn't so surprising imho. Latin is highly logical after all.
"The top 10 most effective languages for conversational AI were as follows:
- Polish 88%
- French 87%
- Italian 86%
- Spanish 85%
- Russian 84%
- English 83.9%
- Ukrainian 83.5%
- Portuguese 82%
- German 81%
- Dutch 80%
"
[Polish to be the most effective language for prompting #AI, new study reveals]
Kathy Reid
boosted
Sena needed surgery, but she couldn't understand her doctors
By Lily Nothling
Sena Husic left a war-zone in Bosnia 30 years ago for Australia, and went on to suffer debilitating spinal pain because of the language barrier she struggled to overcome. Now she's finally received treatment, but there a calls for translators to bridge the gap.
Sena needed surgery, but she couldn't understand her doctors
By Lily Nothling
Sena Husic left a war-zone in Bosnia 30 years ago for Australia, and went on to suffer debilitating spinal pain because of the language barrier she struggled to overcome. Now she's finally received treatment, but there a calls for translators to bridge the gap.
Apart from #Polish, in the top 4 we see 3 neo- #Latin languages. This isn't so surprising imho. Latin is highly logical after all.
"The top 10 most effective languages for conversational AI were as follows:
- Polish 88%
- French 87%
- Italian 86%
- Spanish 85%
- Russian 84%
- English 83.9%
- Ukrainian 83.5%
- Portuguese 82%
- German 81%
- Dutch 80%
"
[Polish to be the most effective language for prompting #AI, new study reveals]
Still mildly interested in learning Toki Pona. (You know, among the 99 other things I'm interested in learning right now but who knows if I'll ever make time for any of it.) Debating how much effort I should put into learning 
.
I rarely see it used, but then I also haven't looked very hard and mostly base that on Toki Pona posts on fedi and gemini.
On the other hand, it's just kinda neat.
#TokiPona #LanguageLearning
Things I have learned the hard way: take every opportunity to actively retrieve from your memory that you can find.
Just because your app gives you multiple choice doesn't mean you can't try to remember then check against the choices.
Corollary: do the thing you find hard. If you read better than you listen, listen to the audio then read the text. Don't read and listen at the same time, as all you'll actually train is reading.
My wife would like to quit Duolingo (Italian) for something better now that they're effectively limiting lessons per day in the free version with the new "energy"-logic.
So what non-AI-first alternatives can you recommend?
#italian #duolingo #languagelearning #alternatives #enshittification
maco
boosted
Things I have learned the hard way: reviews in spaced repetition systems accumulate fast and haunt you for months.
Pace your study according to your capacity to manage the reviews over the next two months, not the amount of study time you have today.
Things I have learned the hard way: reviews in spaced repetition systems accumulate fast and haunt you for months.
Pace your study according to your capacity to manage the reviews over the next two months, not the amount of study time you have today.
Mre. Dartigen [maker mode]
boosted
Duolingo just gave me a free preview of one of their ad-free tiers again (after getting wise to me starting and cancelling free trials repeatedly)
And holy shit this is actually usable without the enshittified free tier.
I need to switch to something else to keep my progress up because god knows I am not going to continue doing this for fun when this preview thinger ends.
Anyone have an alternative they like? Possibly a free one at the beginning of the enshittification cycle?
Duolingo just gave me a free preview of one of their ad-free tiers again (after getting wise to me starting and cancelling free trials repeatedly)
And holy shit this is actually usable without the enshittified free tier.
I need to switch to something else to keep my progress up because god knows I am not going to continue doing this for fun when this preview thinger ends.
Anyone have an alternative they like? Possibly a free one at the beginning of the enshittification cycle?
Ulrike Hahn
boosted
My former PhD sister, Anna Fankhauser, and I are organising a one-day symposium on "The Language of Foreign Language Teaching Materials and Reference Works" on Friday 7 November in Osnabrück. If you want to join us, we are doing a last call for posters: https://elenlefoll.quarto.pub/textbooklanguage2025.
We have a great programme of exciting talks and a promising podium discussion featuring a textbook author, a schoolteacher, an English language teaching professor, and two textbook editors.
#LanguageTeaching #textbook #LanguageLearning #EFL #TEFL #TESOL #Romanistik #DAZ #DAF
maco
boosted
Driving to the school football game.
Wife: So the spoken directions on your phone are in Chinese.
Me: Yes.
Wife: But the text is in French.
Me: Yes.
Wife: Jesus Christ you’re a nerd.
My former PhD sister, Anna Fankhauser, and I are organising a one-day symposium on "The Language of Foreign Language Teaching Materials and Reference Works" on Friday 7 November in Osnabrück. If you want to join us, we are doing a last call for posters: https://elenlefoll.quarto.pub/textbooklanguage2025.
We have a great programme of exciting talks and a promising podium discussion featuring a textbook author, a schoolteacher, an English language teaching professor, and two textbook editors.
#LanguageTeaching #textbook #LanguageLearning #EFL #TEFL #TESOL #Romanistik #DAZ #DAF
Driving to the school football game.
Wife: So the spoken directions on your phone are in Chinese.
Me: Yes.
Wife: But the text is in French.
Me: Yes.
Wife: Jesus Christ you’re a nerd.
Language learners! I need your help!
I’m going into the classroom this week with 8 year olds to introduce them to French and want to impart some wisdom from all of us who have learned more than one language (all languages matter - also open to programming languages!)
What is something you’ve learned through learning a language - that is not about the language itself, but about learning it?
An example follows! 🧵