> this is a bit tangential but does anyone know > if there are any wiki-like projects out there > for an audio based international langauge > learning dictionary? If not, why not? Somthing > like this shouldnt suffer as badly from the > same kinds of problems which wikis dealing > with more rarified/uncommon knowledge are > experiencing.
Hi --
That's actually what I (the author) am working on next. I want to use the resources at www.wikibooks.org and some other systems to create free Pimsleur style materials. Contact me if you're interested. ( ravip (at) mit (dot) edu )
It's a little complicated... you need to download the file, change the extension from.xpi to.zip, extract it, go into the chrome directory, change the.jar extension to.zip, extract that, go into the/content/langwidgeThrobber directory, open the file helloworldOverlay.xul, fine the line " " and change the height to 90. Then rezip everything with the same directory structure and change them back to.jar and.xpi. Then install in firefox
> To me, the most practical of all the ideas in the > article is this one suggesting the replacing of > web advertisements with language study flashcards. > Is there a Firefox plugin that allows for the > replacement of ads with, say, an iFrame that > contains external content? If so, this would be a > piece of cake to implement...
There's a throbber replacement at http://langwidge.mozdev.org/
> I tried to learn chinese. Took some classes, but > gave up. There needs to be romanized ( pinyin ) > books to practice with so that westerners can > learn the language BEFORE they learn to write it.
See the Pimsleur section of the article. Mandarin and Japanese have been some of its most successful languages for precisely that reason. Completely sidesteps the problem.
> For instance, every child in Belgium is > accostumed to read subtitles with some cartoons.
What's proposed in the article is a little different in that it's not just playing the game in the other language, but creating a hybrid of both languages with each chosen for specific areas of the game (following incidental learning guidelines created for annotating reading passages). That being said, the success of foreign language learning via popular culture in Europe versus the horrible failiure of U.S. foreign language classrooms was certianly the inspiration for the article (I started thinking about it when I was living in Sweden).
> They could expand this further, beyond just > "language".
> Are there games that are more dependant on > actually being able to communicate? Fun games, > that is.
I was originally considering using The Curse of Monkey Island, but figured the Sims would more be at the level and content needed for a first or second year high school class.
> If anyone knows of work being done to deal with > learning the sounds of a language, I'm all ears.
Read down near the end of the article where it discusses problems with trying to learn a language out of a textbook and discusses audio solutions like the Pimsleur series.
> can do in a foreign country when all I can say is > "take out the garbage", "Go to work", and "Eat > some food". The game play would have to be changed > to allow me to actually do something
Unfortunately, that's more than most first year high school students are able to say anyway:(
Being able to read the popup menus describing things like careers and such is a little more advanced though.
Can't one just have one server with Microsoft Office install, dedicated to accepting requests from OO clients with.doc files which opens it, converts it to something more usable, sends it back and goes on to the next person's conversion request?
Perhaps unlikely, but couldn't Deepz0ne work at Microsoft?... then even if (s)he got Microsoft to legally purchase the software and entered that as the username, it would have the results shown in the screenshot.
Of course it's kind of a conflict of ideologies for DeepzOne to work there, and far more likely they pirated it.
Or else you'd know all we have to do is plug a couple cables into Daryl McBride and, combined with an advanced form of fusion, we can have an infinite self-renewing energy source.
Then again, perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to at least try...
Slashdot Mirror
> a good thing, no matter how evil Cendant may be.
They were Blizzard's parent company during the StarCraft days. Does that get them any browny points?
Yeah -- and don't forget 'Friends'!
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/04/ 1324215
Slashdot | Learning a Foreign Language with The Sims
Learning a Foreign Language with The Sims -- article related to Education and Games.
Am I going to have to buy a gbrowser invite off ebay to be able to use this stupid thing?
> this is a bit tangential but does anyone know
> if there are any wiki-like projects out there
> for an audio based international langauge
> learning dictionary? If not, why not? Somthing
> like this shouldnt suffer as badly from the
> same kinds of problems which wikis dealing
> with more rarified/uncommon knowledge are
> experiencing.
Hi --
That's actually what I (the author) am working on next. I want to use the resources at www.wikibooks.org and some other systems to create free Pimsleur style materials. Contact me if you're interested. ( ravip (at) mit (dot) edu )
> I'd love to get that extension that replaces the
o ws e.html
> throbber by word-learning stuff, but those links
> don't work. Anyone has a mirror or something?
http://www.langwidge.com/langwidge_while_you_br
http://langwidge.mozdev.org
It's a little complicated ... you need to download the file, change the extension from .xpi to .zip, extract it, go into the chrome directory, change the .jar extension to .zip, extract that, go into the /content/langwidgeThrobber directory, open the file helloworldOverlay.xul, fine the line " " and change the height to 90. Then rezip everything with the same directory structure and change them back to .jar and .xpi. Then install in firefox
> To me, the most practical of all the ideas in the
> article is this one suggesting the replacing of
> web advertisements with language study flashcards.
> Is there a Firefox plugin that allows for the
> replacement of ads with, say, an iFrame that
> contains external content? If so, this would be a
> piece of cake to implement...
There's a throbber replacement at http://langwidge.mozdev.org/
> I tried to learn chinese. Took some classes, but
> gave up. There needs to be romanized ( pinyin )
> books to practice with so that westerners can
> learn the language BEFORE they learn to write it.
See the Pimsleur section of the article. Mandarin and Japanese have been some of its most successful languages for precisely that reason. Completely sidesteps the problem.
> For instance, every child in Belgium is
> accostumed to read subtitles with some cartoons.
What's proposed in the article is a little different in that it's not just playing the game in the other language, but creating a hybrid of both languages with each chosen for specific areas of the game (following incidental learning guidelines created for annotating reading passages). That being said, the success of foreign language learning via popular culture in Europe versus the horrible failiure of U.S. foreign language classrooms was certianly the inspiration for the article (I started thinking about it when I was living in Sweden).
> They could expand this further, beyond just
> "language".
See http://www.educationarcade.org
> Are there games that are more dependant on
> actually being able to communicate? Fun games,
> that is.
I was originally considering using The Curse of Monkey Island, but figured the Sims would more be at the level and content needed for a first or second year high school class.
> If anyone knows of work being done to deal with
> learning the sounds of a language, I'm all ears.
Read down near the end of the article where it discusses problems with trying to learn a language out of a textbook and discusses audio solutions like the Pimsleur series.
> can do in a foreign country when all I can say is
:(
> "take out the garbage", "Go to work", and "Eat
> some food". The game play would have to be changed
> to allow me to actually do something
Unfortunately, that's more than most first year high school students are able to say anyway
Being able to read the popup menus describing things like careers and such is a little more advanced though.
> How about foreign language sites on the Internet
m l
> as well? Any recommendations?
Another article in the same Journal deals with that:
http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num1/emerging/default.ht
For anyone who would prefer to listen to the article, there's an audio version availible at:
http://www.langwidge.com/llt/not_studying.mp3
Can't one just have one server with Microsoft Office install, dedicated to accepting requests from OO clients with .doc files which opens it, converts it to something more usable, sends it back and goes on to the next person's conversion request?
Perhaps unlikely, but couldn't Deepz0ne work at Microsoft? ... then even if (s)he got Microsoft to legally purchase the software and entered that as the username, it would have the results shown in the screenshot.
Of course it's kind of a conflict of ideologies for DeepzOne to work there, and far more likely they pirated it.
Or else you'd know all we have to do is plug a couple cables into Daryl McBride and, combined with an advanced form of fusion, we can have an infinite self-renewing energy source.
...
Then again, perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to at least try
1. Find highly illegal idea you normally wouldn't be able to advertise through traditional means.
2. Submit story to slashdot
3. Profit!!!
Expansion module??? 7+/-2 Ought to be enough for anyone!
Compile Error: Semicolon missing on line 1
Well, this is slashdot ... I'd be careful what attempt to use as sarcasm.
or "XP Recompiled" ... they could be honest about their levels of innovation for once.
Can't they just say "look at lines x-y in file z"?