Hey HN! I'm from Brazil and I created Term Typer to help my little brother learn other languages while practicing his keyboard typing skills. We've found it super helpful and fun. Feel free to try it out and let me know your thoughts and feedback. Thanks a lot!
It might be helpful to provide a way to hide the L1 definition as a way of encouraging thinking in the target language where possible.
When I took German at the Goethe-Institut, they were extremely committed to immersion and moderately discouraged the use of bilingual dictionaries, while the teachers would almost always attempt to explain vocabulary in German (or by example, like by acting something out or pointing to it). This is harder if you're very new to a language and don't have a live teacher present, but at some point it probably switches to being a benefit for many or most learners.
The German teachers also encouraged students to try to explain vocabulary (to each other) in German, on one occasion literally having us play the game Taboo (in which you have to get people to guess a word without saying that word or a few closely thematically related terms).
As an example from your site, when I tried it out with EN→PT, I encountered the defined word "joelho" 'knee' (which I already knew), and the definition used "coxa" 'thigh' which I had encountered in the past but mostly forgotten. It was helpful to me to see the Portuguese definition and possibly less helpful to see the English definition (because relying on it would have been a missed opportunity to refresh my knowledge of "coxa"). As an analogy, if I watch a movie with English subtitles, I almost always end up ignoring most of the spoken foreign language even if it's a language that I'm fairly familiar with, because the subtitles just make things too easy.
I definitely think having the L1 definition easily available is important (in particular, in case the user doesn't understand all of the L2 definition!) but I suggest at least allowing people to choose not to see it every time, so that they can practice thinking in the target language.
Yes! I learn from listening to podcasts and such, and it's somehow more fun, instead of being told "floob means chair, now say floob after me" (one new word out of eight) and being in language-learning-mode, you're just listening to someone talking about something interesting and they're trying their best to convey the information – but it happens to be in a language you don't really know. The https://www.russianwithmax.com/ podcast does this very well (though you need a bit of basics, e.g. Pimsleur, first) – I'm still trying to find comparable podcasts for other languages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TPR_Storytelling seems to be an adjacent method, TPRS .
I'm bilingual and the importance of understanding a language though itself can not be understated. It's like bootstrapping the compiler for your language. If you don't, then you never really learn it, you just translate.
This looks really great, but I wish there was a setting for "SAT level English". That could've really helped me improve my own vocabulary. Also "used in a sentence" so I could actually type something in a sentence.
And... maybe ignore typos, spaces, commas etc in the non main word? The main word is important for sure but the rest is less, just forces you to focus on what you're learning.
Yeah that makes sense, some people complained about the definition punctuation. I'll remove the validation of the definition. We have only 20 words for now, but I'll make sure to update it and add levels. Thanks!
Thanks for this. Instead of a definition it’d be fun to type out an example sentence so you can learn the surrounding words. That … and highlight the place you are typing in the source language so you can immerse yourself in both languages.
I’d also enjoy paying $5 a month to nag me to spend X minutes or X words learning each day.
I can think of adding this paid feature for me to keep supporting the tool. Added to the backlog.
Highlighting the current place you're typing would be hard as the construction of sentences can be completely different between languages, but I agree that it would be awesome to have.
From the title I thought it was teaching programming languages - that would be a nice extension as well. Just type out some linux source code to learn C :)
Some years ago, I read a programing book, and it explained, paraphrasing:
> There is no disc included with the book. All the code printed on the page will have to be typed in, by you. This is deliberate. Typing is sloppy, but programming is precise, and it is imperative that you develop attention to detail if you are to program successfully. The intent is that you develop increasing attention to detail along with the programs in the book, which are in order of increasing complexity.
Very nice site, it looks and functions great. However, autocorrect still works for me on MacOS, unlike other typing practice sites. Maybe not that important, but it does somewhat diminish the typing practice you can get :)
I don't know where the German definitions are coming from, but they shouldn't all be lowercased -- all nouns in German start with a capital letter, so "verständis", rather than "Verständis", is actually a mistake.
Clean and pleasant interface! I'd suggest a possibility to create your own "decks", so that users could have more flexibility, as well as reduce the manual workload off of you. I'd personally be interested in Finnish and would love to add words that I am still learning.
De qualquer jeito, o projeto tá top. Mandaram bem demais, boa sorte!
This is awesome! I enjoyed typing out the 20 words available, and would love to type more! Why are the majority of the words in the word list [1] commented out?
Also, I would appreciate if the word & its description is automatically pronounced (or maybe there's a setting to do so). This way I would be able to train audio perception, which is oftentimes challenging with French.
Right now, clicking the "speaker" icon speaks out the word, not definition, and also steals focus from the input field.
I use monkeytype everyday between some stressful tasks or pomodoros to keep my touch typing in check.
Few things:
Why do I need to complete 20 sessions? Can I do only a few? That's the only time I have between tasks.
The line breaking is weird, sometimes the reference is on the line below, but what I'm typing is on the line above. Maybe it's a difference with the shadow or font-weight.
At least here I can see a bit of a shadow with the reference behind.
Anyway, awesome idea!
Now I can train something that is not English using an existing habit. Thanks!
Hey my carioca friend! We currently have only 20 words (and the list is random), the progress bar is just to give the sense of progress hahah, also, I'm not saving any state, so if you do 3 words and refresh the page, it will reset everything.
About the reference below the text, It's like another div with the text below the textarea, that's why it breaks sometimes. I have to think of something better.
I've used keybr.com to learn the Cyrillic alphabet while learning Russian. I would love to use this to practice typing and learning Russian words and phrases.
Looks like a great idea! It doesn’t support languages I am interested in right now but I will be sure to go back and check it out again. One suggestion, for words that break a line, the effect of typing perfectly on the background disappears. It might be a hard problem to solve but if the word is going to be on the next line when written completely, it should be in the next line when I start typing.
I noticed an issue when typing multiple lines (for example: english->spanish `adaptar`) wouldn't detect the correct input unless typing shift+enter first.
Also, is there a way to make it easier to type accents on a windows computer? Maybe an on-screen keyboard? Or a tooltip that pops up with a character map?
Depending on your level of interest in really typing those letters after leaving the game, Windows does ship with an International keyboard layout (e.g. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/keyboards/kb... ). It can be annoying to leave it in place since there is a small delay when typing single quotes, for example, as it is waiting for the "chord" of 'e to make é (macOS does this too via option-e putting ´ on the screen and then waiting for the letter to which the accent will be applied), but if you find it annoying then Windows-spacebar will switch between your normal layout and the International one usually just for the window in focus. That can be good or bad depending on your expectations :-)
I also have to switch to it to play a lot of games on Windows since developers are absolutely atrocious about distinguishing between the keyboard scan code and the layout scan code, so my day-to-day Dvorak makes the normal wasd in games all over the keyboard. Well, I'm cheating you a little since I could actually switch to just the English US, skipping the International part, but since I already have to have a 2nd layout for gaming, might as well get the accents for free
hmmmm, currently, I'm not validating the accents, only the punctuation. I don't know exactly how to solve the problem of many different keyboards but I'll take a look. Thanks for the feedback!
it's a good idea but in practice i'm find it really annoying. i typed out the full definition and it highlighted it red and won't say why. does it expect me to type the accent marks? :/ it's also weird that i have to hit enter instead of the line wrapping automatically.
It does wrap automatically if you keep typing. I agree the user experience is not great with that, the word you're typing should always be directly over the guide text.
The German is just wrong, due to the lack of proper capitalization. This is an error in German and makes it very difficult to read and is unacceptable for a learning site. Pls fix :)
[+] [-] schoen|1 year ago|reply
It might be helpful to provide a way to hide the L1 definition as a way of encouraging thinking in the target language where possible.
When I took German at the Goethe-Institut, they were extremely committed to immersion and moderately discouraged the use of bilingual dictionaries, while the teachers would almost always attempt to explain vocabulary in German (or by example, like by acting something out or pointing to it). This is harder if you're very new to a language and don't have a live teacher present, but at some point it probably switches to being a benefit for many or most learners.
The German teachers also encouraged students to try to explain vocabulary (to each other) in German, on one occasion literally having us play the game Taboo (in which you have to get people to guess a word without saying that word or a few closely thematically related terms).
As an example from your site, when I tried it out with EN→PT, I encountered the defined word "joelho" 'knee' (which I already knew), and the definition used "coxa" 'thigh' which I had encountered in the past but mostly forgotten. It was helpful to me to see the Portuguese definition and possibly less helpful to see the English definition (because relying on it would have been a missed opportunity to refresh my knowledge of "coxa"). As an analogy, if I watch a movie with English subtitles, I almost always end up ignoring most of the spoken foreign language even if it's a language that I'm fairly familiar with, because the subtitles just make things too easy.
I definitely think having the L1 definition easily available is important (in particular, in case the user doesn't understand all of the L2 definition!) but I suggest at least allowing people to choose not to see it every time, so that they can practice thinking in the target language.
[+] [-] unhammer|1 year ago|reply
See also LINGVA LATINA PER SE ILLVSTRATA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_%C3%98rberg#LINGVA_LATINA... / https://archive.org/details/lingualatinapers0000oerb_x3i0/ :)
[+] [-] precompute|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] bironran|1 year ago|reply
And... maybe ignore typos, spaces, commas etc in the non main word? The main word is important for sure but the rest is less, just forces you to focus on what you're learning.
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] semireg|1 year ago|reply
I’d also enjoy paying $5 a month to nag me to spend X minutes or X words learning each day.
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
Highlighting the current place you're typing would be hard as the construction of sentences can be completely different between languages, but I agree that it would be awesome to have.
[+] [-] croemer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] myself248|1 year ago|reply
> There is no disc included with the book. All the code printed on the page will have to be typed in, by you. This is deliberate. Typing is sloppy, but programming is precise, and it is imperative that you develop attention to detail if you are to program successfully. The intent is that you develop increasing attention to detail along with the programs in the book, which are in order of increasing complexity.
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] johnnyanmac|1 year ago|reply
It's a very large ask but I do look forward to other (spoken) languages being expanded. Could definitely use this for Japanese practice.
[+] [-] david_allison|1 year ago|reply
Constructive feedback:
* the 'typed' word should be discarded in a few cases if you change the L1/L2
* No 'success' feedback after submitting my email for notifications
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] rickcarlino|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] janetmissed|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] ji_zai|1 year ago|reply
Neat project though!
[+] [-] sandbach|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] schoen|1 year ago|reply
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/denken#German 'to think'
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Denken#German 'thinking'
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] Rembargo|1 year ago|reply
De qualquer jeito, o projeto tá top. Mandaram bem demais, boa sorte!
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
The project was made in 2 days, so there are a lot of things to improve.
Thank you so much parceiro!
[+] [-] aslushnikov|1 year ago|reply
Also, I would appreciate if the word & its description is automatically pronounced (or maybe there's a setting to do so). This way I would be able to train audio perception, which is oftentimes challenging with French.
Right now, clicking the "speaker" icon speaks out the word, not definition, and also steals focus from the input field.
1: https://github.com/agencyenterprise/Term-Typer-Words/blob/ma...
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
Thanks for the feedback! If you click on definition, it will speak (I need to improve the ux here)
[+] [-] rodrigodlu|1 year ago|reply
I use monkeytype everyday between some stressful tasks or pomodoros to keep my touch typing in check.
Few things: Why do I need to complete 20 sessions? Can I do only a few? That's the only time I have between tasks.
The line breaking is weird, sometimes the reference is on the line below, but what I'm typing is on the line above. Maybe it's a difference with the shadow or font-weight. At least here I can see a bit of a shadow with the reference behind.
Anyway, awesome idea!
Now I can train something that is not English using an existing habit. Thanks!
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
About the reference below the text, It's like another div with the text below the textarea, that's why it breaks sometimes. I have to think of something better.
Thank you so much for the feedback!
[+] [-] peersa|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] stkai|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] metayrnc|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] brlewis|1 year ago|reply
Minor bug report: the pronunciation button pronounced Spanish "adaptar" as "ajaptar".
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
It worked here, what's your browser?
[+] [-] bear-_-|1 year ago|reply
If you could put a WPM counter on there, this would be a great way to test your typing speed and learn some new words.
Nice job. :)
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] acupofjose|1 year ago|reply
Also, is there a way to make it easier to type accents on a windows computer? Maybe an on-screen keyboard? Or a tooltip that pops up with a character map?
[+] [-] mdaniel|1 year ago|reply
I also have to switch to it to play a lot of games on Windows since developers are absolutely atrocious about distinguishing between the keyboard scan code and the layout scan code, so my day-to-day Dvorak makes the normal wasd in games all over the keyboard. Well, I'm cheating you a little since I could actually switch to just the English US, skipping the International part, but since I already have to have a 2nd layout for gaming, might as well get the accents for free
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] windowshopping|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] mactrey|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] lionkor|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] jeanmayer|1 year ago|reply