Language Learning FlashCard games: Update!

jason-oxenham-ceo

January 26, 2016
Updated: April 5, 2022

Hi to all

I am excited to announce that we have just released a significant update to the FlashCard system. The major changes include;

The ability to set what you see on each side of the FlashCard. For example those members using the Chinese FlashCards can choose to see any combination of Hanzi, PinYin or English on the FlashCards.
You can also play the audio associated with each phrase. And you can toggle that audio on and off as you wish.
You now have the ability to rate the FlashCard words and phrases using a similar system to that used in the Testing on lessons.
Words and phrases that you rate as anything other than "Easy" are automatically put into a separate list, so you can tackle just the harder words and phrases.
Your FlashCard ratings carry over to your FlashCard dashboard do you can see what FlashCard sets you have done at a glance.
And last but not least, you will accumulate points for using the FlashCards. At the moment we have set it at 2 points per FlashCard, with 25 points awarded for completing a set.

So, what's in the future for the FlashCards?

Over the next few months we will be working on;

Adding in hot keys so you can cycle through the FlashCards faster.
Letting members have the ability to create and share their own FlashCard sets with other members.
And adding the FlashCards to the Android and iOS apps.

On a more minor note, we have retired "Rocket News" from the sidebar and will now notify members of the more important news by using a small red notifier on the "My Forum" link.

So, please use the FlashCards to advance your language learning and feel free to comment on how you find it below.

All the best with your language learning

Jason Oxenham
CEO
Rocket Languages

Diana-S1

January 27, 2016

I like! A rating system and sound -- wow! I hadn't been using the flash cards as much as I could have because of there being no sound. Now I will used them a lot. I also like the fact that words and phrases that became easy months ago will come up less often. I can see that I'll like this.

Tatjana-L

January 27, 2016

It seem to be great news - flash cards with sound! I like it! Will for sure use it often. Thanks!

Steven-W15

January 27, 2016

Adding hot keys to go faster through all aspects of the course would be a very welcome addition.

It's great that Rocket Languages continues to improve an already terrific learning tool / experience. Bravo, Jason and all.

Dan-H24

January 27, 2016

I just gave the new flashcards a quick test drive, and I agree with the comments above.

I finished the Premium Plus course awhile back and started working on the Platinum Course. But I felt like I had not learned the material in Plus well enough, and decided to go back and repeat it. This time I am concentrating more on working out the phrases in my head instead of writing them down, and I think the flashcards will help me a lot. I am also looking forward to the other coming enhancements.

To echo Steven, ¡Bravo!

floribon

January 27, 2016

That's a wonderful piece of news, and just one day after I sent a feedback asking for a way to train reading Hanzi alone and keeping harder words in a separate list!

I'm just wondering if I am facing a bug as in the main FlashCards page I still see all lists as boing full "to do" although I did review some and have all the words checked as Easy. Am I missing something?

Deborah-S

January 27, 2016

Seem like good updates.

jason-oxenham-ceo

January 27, 2016

Hi all - Thanks for the comments!

Hi Florian - There are 2 columns on the main FlashCard page for each lesson. The right hand column shows the total amount of words/phrases in the FlashCard set. Clicking that box starts the FlashCards for the entire lesson.

The left hand box shows the amount of words/phrases that have been marked anything other than "Easy". The idea being that you could go through just the harder words/phrases on a lesson.

Or am I not understanding you and there is something else going on here?

Robert-C7

January 27, 2016

I like this new feature. I suggest if the card order is not already randomized that you add a randomize option. Also, after completing a set, I don't think I received the 25 points so you might want to check on that.

Now, if you can consider implementing games (Quizlet style) and quizzes (also like Quizlet), that would be very useful.

jason-oxenham-ceo

January 27, 2016

Hi Robert - Thanks for the feedback. The card order is randomized. And you should receive 25 points upon completing a set. It works here!

I am not actually that familiar with Quizlet. Although, at this stage I can say that we don't have short/medium term plans for additional games.

floribon

January 27, 2016

Hi Jason,

Thanks for your explanation. I get it now, although I think the tooltip when we mouse over the second bucket is confusing as it says "To Do".

I'd expect at least something like "To do or mastered". But for a better polish I would imagine a first bucket "To Do" followed by two others "Need work" and "Mastered".

That way the feeling of accomplishment would be higher: first step is to sort all words between the ok and not-ok categories (so the to-do one could even be removed), second step is to actually master them all.

I may be weird but it's important to me to eventually mark everything in green on this website, and not being able to distinguish done and to-do is making me 不好.

Here's what I have in mind (just for the thoughts):
http://postimg.org/image/8c6rmqzhx/

PS: Glad to see you master French when hovering your Avatar :-)

Diana-dep1

January 28, 2016

I was hoping for updates like this but I could have used them last week when I was going through all the flashcards for section 12 of Rocket Spanish. Well, as they say, better late than never. they were still effective in my studies. Thanks for the updates and I look forward to the updates to Adroid soon!

Diana-S1

January 28, 2016

I love the flashcards, and especially the randomization. It's also great to be able to grade my ability with each card. That way, I can also look at the rating scale and see how I'm progressing with a set. Being able to open up the flashcard list and see the ratings beside them is also very nice. Having a visual representation of my ability with a set, and its lesson, tell me when I'm ready to move on.

I give the new flashcards a rating of 5 out of 5.

M-L

January 28, 2016

I like the new flashcards very much especially the rating and sound system. I stopped using it a while ago. The only minor thing that I would suggest to add/change - give the beginners or just me a hint when there are 2 ways to say the same thing like in the lessons, formal or informal.

Thank you for all those who were involved in the improvement!

M-L

January 29, 2016

Addendum: after trying a few I found that some were marked formal or informal but not the one I encountered. I gave the formal answer but the correct one was informal. I was never taught the informal way a long time ago and that seemed to have stuck.

Sorry about jumping the gun.

Dan-H24

January 29, 2016

M-L: formal or informal typically refers to the tú (familiar or informal) conjugation, while formal is the usted, formal form.

You will find that, just as in English, there is often more than one way to say something. If I have understood or conveyed the meaning of a sentence, I give myself credit.

M-L

January 29, 2016

Dan-H24,

Thanks for the advice. I'm trying to learn, not to score points. When I gave the formal version while the answer was informal I consider myself "wrong". Now that you have pointed it out I should have given myself an "easy" but I didn't. It was such a short phrase that there was no way of telling the situation was calling for formal or informal, really. It's a personality flaw on my part. :-(

I don't write; only journal papers. They were dry and matter of fact. That's why I am so hesitant to even try at this point. My goal is after I started Module 2 assuming I have a better grasp of the grammar or when I start thinking in French, whichever comes first. Right now I have nouns and verbs that I don't know how to put them together into sentences.

Merci mille fois!

Grant-K1

January 29, 2016

Thanks for that update Jason but I don't know what happened to the flashcards you used to have when you were able to print them off and cut them out to use on the go. I was using Rocket Spanish back then (trial version) and I thought they were great. I still have them.
Whatever happened to those?

Dan-H24

January 29, 2016

M-L: when I responded I did not realize you were studying French, and answered from a Spanish student's perspective. Maybe formal and informal applies differently in French.

But I suspect my point that sentences are not always translated verbatim applies in all, or at least most languages. Here is an example I noticed while studying this morning:

The tutor said, "Tú crees," which was translated as "you think." In Spanish creer means to believe while pensar means to think. So the literal translation of tú crees should have been you believe. In my mind there is a difference between thinking and believing. To me, believing is a more deeply held conviction, whereas thinking can be fleeting, irrelevant, or less deeply held. Of course, in ordinary conversation we English speakers use those two words interchangeably, and the meaning is understood by others. I imagine the same holds true in Spanish.

So, I might have responded "you believe" to the statement when "you think" was the given response. I would have counted myself correct since I understood the meaning.

As I have often said, language is an art, not a science, so there is room for flexibility.

floribon

January 29, 2016

Hey, in fact I still think there is a bug somehow.

I validated all words as "easy" in the first two chapters, yet the first one is still greyed out as "To Do" while the second chapter is green as "all Easy". I'm still confused about why there is a difference.

http://postimg.org/image/u0ub2kchj/

Steven-W15

January 29, 2016

Dan, M-L:

Just for info, formal (usted/vous) and informal (tú/tu) is very similar between French and Spanish. I have a "feeling" that French tends to be more formal. I have also seen commercials in Spanish where the (adult) audience is addressed using "tú". In France, you would only see that if children were the audience.

btw, an example I gave in a different thread in Spanish regarding difficulties in translating actually comes from the title of a song by Patricia Kaas: "Je te dis vous". Short of a paragraph, there is no way you are going to translate that...

Saludos / Salut,

Steven

p.s. Dan - I think / believe what you are saying about the usage of think and believe in Spanish and French is true. :-)

Diana-S1

January 29, 2016

I agree, sometimes it would be nice to know what is wanted, but the flashcards aren't a test so it's not a big deal. I simply think out the two ways to translate the word/phrases: It gives more practice. This could apply to the formal/informal as we find in languages such as French, Spanish, or German. It could also apply to situations where an English word translates to more than one word, depending on the context: e.g. the English to know translates to the French word savoir or connaître.

M-L

January 29, 2016

Diana-S1,

I agree too. Just plaisir confused me to no end (I'm on Module 1, lessons 6 and 7). I know the simple plaisir: pleasure, enjoyment and favor but with prepositions they have different meanings. Take parfait as another example; I know it as perfect but in Module 6.7 C'est parfait was translated as "consider it done".

I remembered on my 1st day of middle school; I received a Webster Collegiate Dictionary and a Collins French Gem Dictionary. The former was 4 times in size and 4 times in thickness!

Steven-W15, I listened to Patricia Kaas' "Je te dis vous" on You Tube.She has a very pleasant voice

M-L

January 29, 2016

Dan-H24,

I forgot to tell you I plan to make a plague or a giant poster on my wall with your motto, "language is an art, not a science, so there is room for flexibility" to remind myself to loosen up and be flexible. Unfortunately adult brains are not pliable like children. As Diana-S1 and I talked about we have thin skin and are also afraid of being a laughingstock, 2 hurdles to overcome at least.

Dan-H24

January 30, 2016

M-L: ¡Chévere! I always wanted to be on someone's poster like a rock star!

You are right, adult brains are not as pliable, but I think we are better able to analyze and understand why things might be different than we expect.

I can recall at least one person who began the Spanish course, and here in the forum expressed extreme frustration with things such as idiomatic phrases that just don't translate literally. He wanted to be able to work out and understand exactly why things are said a certain way. He was not able to accept that some things just are the way they are, for no apparently logical reason. Needless to say, he disappeared soon. I suspect he got frustrated and quit. Maybe he took up a science course instead.

M-L

January 30, 2016

Dan-H24,

I'm not as inflexible as he was; it's not about accepting and not accepting the rules of the land (grammar rules). At this point I have a bit of verbs (99% present tense, HaHa), nouns, prepositions, etc floating at sea and not being able to put them together in a meaningful way. Phrases, I can manage a few.

It's too early to tell but I have never been a quitter. I'm sure I'll stick around and ask a lot of simple questions for a long time after most people have moved on. If we were to believe the absolute right and left brain then I am definitely a left brain person with little to no imagination.

Merci mille fois

Janice-D14

February 1, 2016

I will have to give the new flash cards a try...sounds like they are helpful.

Karen-B1

February 1, 2016

I am very much enjoying the Flashcards!

Ph0t0n

February 9, 2016

I don't get it... I want ONLY english on the front and ONLY the foreign word in the foreign alphabet on the back, but the radio buttons in the settings are set up in a mutual exclusive arrangement such that I can't do that :-(

M-L

February 9, 2016

Ph0t0n,

I'm not clear what you mean by "the radio buttons in the settings are set up in a mutual exclusive arrangement such that I can't do that".

I'm assuming the radio button is the round thing on the upper right hand corner after you click open the FlashCard. When I click on that round wheel-like button I have 2 options of how I want the front and back of the FlashCard. I only signed up for French so it is quite simple: on the left the option on the front and on the right option on the back and my check boxes are English and French. I'm sure some people may have more than one languages then they may have more boxes to check.

I'm like you I like English on the front so I can think first in my head 2 forms, formal and informal (Diana-S1 suggested that and I thought it was such a good idea, more practice) and then practice saying it out loud and when I'm happy that "it was my final answer" I flip the card over to see if I am right about the French bit. The description take longer than the actual practice.

Ph0t0n

February 10, 2016

M-L,

You might not have the same issue as me since French uses the same alphabet as English. Basically I want to turn off the "romanized" version of the foreign language on both the front and back of the card. The way it's set up now, I can disable it for the front or I can disable it for the back, but it won't let me disable it for both!

To me the "romanized" text is a waste of time and a distraction. There's no standard spelling and they have to substitute a bunch of numbers for letters because the Latin alphabet doesn't have the proper sounds. I prefer to learn using the REAL alphabet the way it was intended to be used! :-)