hello,
i would like to listen to english words - preferrably in different "dialects" such as british english, scottish, welsh, irish and american english and which can be downloaded.
any idea, where such online dictionaries can be found?
thanks for any help
hello tom,
thanks for your advice on this matter. it looks as if it's a great web page/ idea, unfortunately it doesn't work on my computer, i.e. there was no sound.
by the way, i have read your articel about yourself which i liked and found quite interesting, especially your experience with supermemo and the various and sometimes painful stages you have been through. but now you it seems as if you have done it: you must have mastered the programme after 9 years of hard work. congratulations!
do you know anybody who knows a bit more about supermemo ce - especially with importing of files - as i want to create a collection with english words?
i can definitely support you with german, if you like...
servus
Rainer,
Thanks for the kind words about my article.
I think you need to have the Flash Player to use the website. You can get it from
http://www.macromedia.com/flash, if I remember correctly. The download is quick and painless, so it might be worth the trouble.
There is a small forum for users of SuperMemo here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/supermemo/
Perhaps the people there will be able to help you.
I've also found this address: smce@supermemo.com
Hoffentlich bekommst Du die Antwort auf Deine Frage.
Bis bald...
hi tom,
i see you don't need that much support in german, so let me just continue in english:
you are right, in order to be able to listen to the sounds one needs flash as plug-in for the browser. tim bowyer, director of fonetiks from australie has already replied to my query.
it's a great project, unfortunately only 3500 words for 10 languages have been recorded so far.
let me say thank you again for your great effort and your further help on supermemo you've provided.
i'm sure there will be someone out there to provide the right answers
bis zum naechstenmal...
ps: in terms of supermemo may i ask you 2 more questions -
1.how many new items would you recommended to learn per day based on a daily effort of 20-3o minutes at the beginning and 1 hour per average at the end of a year?
2.i understand that you have already created a collection of english words which is based on collins cobuild 'english dictionary for advanced learners' - a top reference book indeed which is also available on cd rom by the way!
was it necessary to type the entries in manually or could the words be scanned om via ocr? and is your collection called 'advanced english 2002?
<<<<
1.how many new items would you recommended to learn per day based on a daily effort of 20-3o minutes at the beginning and 1 hour per average at the end of a year?
>>>>
Does the 20-30 minutes include the time to create the items? Or do you have a lot of items that you just want to memorize?
In high school, my average was not high: something like 7 items / day. One reason was that I was adding everything myself -- before I could memorize 30 items, I had to spend an hour making them.
I think regularity is more important than the amount of time you invest. Piotr Wozniak of SuperMemo World reports that many users learn too much in the beginning, and then they get so many repetitions that they drop out completely... So my advice is: start small. (If you make your own items, you probably won't be able to add them too fast, so that's a good safeguard.)
<<<<
2.i understand that you have already created a collection of english words which is based on collins cobuild 'english dictionary for advanced learners' - a top reference book indeed which is also available on cd rom by the way!
>>>>
I have some items with example sentences from Collins COBUILD in my latest English collection.
BTW, we've written a review of the CD-ROM version.
<<<<
was it necessary to type the entries in manually or could the words be scanned om via ocr?
>>>>
No, I copy items from the CD-ROM version. (The copy & paste mechanism is seriously broken, but still better than typing.)
> and is your collection called 'advanced english 2002?
No. "Advanced English" is a collection by SuperMemo World. BTW, I don't think too highly of this product... The items are a lot worse than the definition-word items in my high school collection.
(NOTE: Actually I saw the 97 version, but I don't think the 2002 version is much different...)
tom, thank you for your advice again,
as with the data input, i am thinking of adding everything myself, and this would come additionally to the mentioned time. i was thinking of doing it once a week (preferrably at the weekend) to create all the new items for the next week...
in order to save time, how is it possible to copy items from collins cd-rom, as you've mentioned? and is there also a way for the sound files?
ps: what is the meaning of "BTW"? and where can i find the review of the cd-rom?
I'm not sure you'll be able to add enough items to fill up 7 x 1 hour of repetitions. I used to spend a lot of time on adding items, but I never managed to add that many. Then again, if you add sentence items, it might be possible. Right now, I have over 100 pending items in my German collection that I added in 2 hours or so...
Once again, I encourage you to spend less time on SuperMemo. Read a book instead, or watch a movie. It'll do you more good.
I think an hour a day would drive me nuts -- I don't even want to think about a beginner like yourself.
The copying is described in our review. I wonder why you haven't been able to find it. Perhaps there is a problem with navigation on Antimoon? The review can be found here:
http://www.antimoon.com/how/dict.htm
You can't copy the sound files, but of course you can use transcription in the ASCII phonetic alphabet.
"BTW" = "by the way"
P.S. Could you write a little bit about yourself? I'm trying to build a psychological profile of a serious English learner...
it's really good to have some practical feedback from an experienced user of supermemo like you tom - it gives a better idea of what is feasible and not...
my idea was though just to spend 20-30 minutes per day at the first months and the reason why i thought to use supermemo because it praises to be the most efficient way of memorizing words - and unfortunately my memory is not the best one.
btw, i do read english books, newspapers, magazines, view tv and listen to english speakers all the time as i have been living in england for a couple of years now. of course i have made progress since i came over here, but i feel not that much i should have as i am still struggling. have a look at kids how fast they pick up any new language. isn't it fascinating? on the other hand sometimes it can really be frustrating when i look at myself and when i look at adults and make a comparison of the speed of the learning process. i would love to talk to mr wozniak who seems to be an expert in brain research and who should know much more about this.
in terms of english - expressing myself is quite important in my profession as designer, a small talk doesn't always work. and i have realised that just knowing the meaning of eg. 10000 english words is not sufficient. there are eg so many phrasal verbs, there is so much connotation and context of words and even different ways of intonations we have to be aware of before we can make a proper conversation with native english speaking people in order not to be misunderstood - living in a foreign country is quite different to "only" visiting it and having the typical conversation of travellers.
in terms of learning a new language - i feel that people have quite different abilities/built-in strategies on how to best learn a language: 2 of the most obvious ones in my view are visually oriented people who learn best when they eg. can see words - and others who are more receptive to sounds and learn better when they can listen to words.
in my case i am trying a mix of both as i feel that looking at words whilst listening to them would best suit me - i am a multimedial personality with visions. and that's why i would like to create a text and sound based dictionary, ideally combined with supermemo.
i hope this has helped you shape a clearer profile of myself. otherwise, if you need more input you would need to provide me with your email address.
ps: your review of collins cd-rom: to be honest with you, i only was aware of the review of the printed version, the other one i hadn't seen so far. sorry about that - nobody is perfect.
