Enhancement to My Vocab?

One of the weaknesses of My Vocab, to my mind, is that it is hard to navigate especially when it contains a large number of items.
There are various sort options and you can skip forward a number of pages, but these don’t really help much.
The search option is nice, but it would help greatly if it was possible to select by module. The module information appears to be held in My Vocab as it is displayed, but it is not accessible via the search box.

It would really help with revision if it was possible to select only items from a particular module.

Hi Simon, 

Thank you for your feedback. I will forward the message to our Product Development team for their review. 

Kind Regards!
 

Thanks MarieG
I wonder how people actually use My Vocab.
Personally I use it for phrases either because the phrase is useful in its own right, or because it demonstrates usage of a new word or how a sentence is constructed. I put additional information about new words in the notes.
I tend to use the flash cards for individual words.
However I can see that My vocab might be used for individual words so they are highlighted when they appear in the lessons. For me this is less useful than flashcards for revising as you can see both languages at the same time when using My Vocab.
 

I really only use it to capture words for flashcards but I use that a lot. I also tend to add words that I find elsewhere so I can put them in my flashcard decks. I also used to use it almost entirely for single words but now often add phrases too as I'm finding that useful for flashcards. 

Drew

Thanks for the tip about importing flashcards from my vocab, I haven't tried that feature, I have been importing from csv files. My "my Vocab" has several hundred items in it now, so it it is pretty unmanageable. I have been using it as a quick way of focusing on useful phrases over a complete module. I like that I can use the speech recognition that way which you don't get with flash cards. Maybe I should rethink my strategy as doing it your way allows grouping into modules or whatever.
Simon

Hi Simon, I first started trying to get them from My Vocab into flashcards in some logical order but there aren't really any tools to help so it quickly became unmanageable. Instead, I just imported them from My Vocab into flashcards in lots of 100 and just use them for revision. I still use the regular lessons as my primary learning tool but just use the flashcards at the end of the day to make sure I remember everything (or most things).

What I really wish we had with the flashcards was a way to have pictures on them like some other flashcard tools. I'm aware that when using flashcards in the way I do, I'm still translating from an English word in my head when what I really want to do is see a picture or object and immediately think of the Italian word.

I discovered the usefulness of the Anki spaced repetition flashcard system from the book Fluent Forever  by Gabriel Wyner. The SRS is supposed to be a superior system of learning through flashcards as they only reappear just before you are likely to forget the information. Also, Wyner highly recommends using pictures rather that native language words so that you are connecting target language words and phrases to concepts and ideas without the intermediate step of your native language word. Wyner has helpfully provided sample cards in his blog that aid in making the cards. So whenever I come across a new word or phrase in Rocket Spanish, I make a card in my Anki deck to study.

Hi Dan, you'd recommend Anki then? I haven't actually used it. Can you buy sets of cards with pictures?

Drewster: Yes, I highly recommend Anki. I used Quizlet before that, but the Anki SRS is a great feature. I don't know if you can use other cards, but according to Wyner, making your own cards, with pictures that have meaning to you, is very important.

I recommend the book. It is very informative and I think helpful for anyone who is serious about language learning.
Dan
 

Anki looks really interesting, I have used Quizlet which is not bad and has a simple rating system that allow you to study difficult words, but Anki sounds more advanced.
Simon

Dan, just trying Anki today for the first time. I remember now that I was put off once before by the crude interface but it seems to work well so I'll stick with it for a while to try it out. I'll get your book too. Cheers, Drew

Hi all - Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. The one that sticks out to me is the ability for members to add pictures to FlashCards, which then can be toggled to display/not display depending on what you want to do. 

A couple of other books worth a read; Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer, and Babel no more by Michael Erard.

Hi @Dan-H24,

I've bought the book and I'm half way through it, and I've started on my Anki journey. It makes a lot of sense and, although I've only just started, it seems to be just what I need.

After a year on Rocket and literally doing every lesson 20-30 times, I've become a bit bored with it. I'm not finished with it yet, but I need something else to add to my toolset. I have an italki tutor I work with twice a week and I do a face-to-face class, but I feel like I've hit a bit of a wall with Rocket. Over the last few months I've started using the flashcards a lot, but the Anki system looks to make a lot of sense.

As a long-termer, what's your mix of tools? How much do you use Rocket after a few years and what else do you use?

Cheers,
Drew

Drew: I don't spend as much time each day on my Rocket lessons as other people apparently do, but I am consistent. My routine is to study Rocket Spanish intensively for at least 1/2 hour every day, without fail. Rather than focusing on "completing"a lesson so that I can move on to the next, I concentrate on getting the most from each lesson: I write as well as speak each phrase as I study the lesson and do the tests, and lately, inspired by Steven, I have been making sure to clearly speak the English translation as well.

Most of the words or phrases I put in Anki come from the Rocket lessons. I really like the new cards that Wyner describes in his blog; they do a great job of associating verbs with their associated inflection forms, nouns, etc. So I study my cards every day.

I watch a video on Yabla every day.

I have 1 or 2 Skype partners, and attend a small group session once a week.

I torment every person I encounter that has a Spanish accent.

I listen to CNN en Español on my vehicle radio when I am driving.

That's it for me.

I would be interested to hear others' strategies.

Dan
 

Vocabulary words don't bother me too much since I read a lot of manga and watch a lot of Japanese videos.  Its just a matter of repetition to store the information into long term memory.  I also find that writing helps to store the vocabulary into long term.

Something else that I've also done is use Google translate and try to speak random sentences and words.  This is useful for conjugations (which is essential no matter what language you are studying), and helps me to understand the core word better.

I can't speak for everyone, but I know that for myself, what would help my vocabulary is actually conversing with someone in person, but meeting people and setting up times is difficult on my end.

Without doubt, the best thing for me (apart from Rocket, which is definitely the foundation) has been finding a tutor on italki. That has made a world of difference. 

I haven't tried yabla so I will. I also use a "slow" news service, newsinslowitalian and there's a really good web site called Alma TV which has Italian lessons intended for teachers but are equally good for students. I've never found a regular TV show that was at a level (sufficiently low) that I could use, and the regular news is just comical for me: they speak so fast it's like I'm no better at understanding than someone who has never studied the language!

Something else I do with vocabulary.  I visit restuarants and establishments of the language I am studying, and then converse with the owner/manager.  Almost all the time they are willing to work with me on my vocabulary and smile at an outsider trying to understand their culture.

The really important thing I find is that whatever you do, you need to be engaged. Going through a routine mechanically doesn't lead to good results.

Dan - I just checked out Yabla after reading your comment. Looks really interesting. How long have you been doing it for? Do you find it's worth the price?
 

Trutenor: I agree, at least in my experience with native Spanish speakers. They seem to be genuinely happy that I am trying hard to learn their language and are more than willing to help me.

Steven: I have been using Yabla for several months. I try to use it every day, reviewing the vocab and then watching the video. I usually watch a video once all the way through with the subtitles turned off, just trying to absorb the message to see how well I comprehend. Then I watch it again, repeating sentences several times if necessary, turning on the subtitles if I am just not getting it, or to make sure I comprehend every word.

There are a great number of videos by many different presenters on a lot of different subjects that are rated by difficulty. I really like how the videos are divided into sentences so you can repeat a sentence as often as necessary. I don't really like the slow feature, but use it if I have to with a really fast speaker. The videos help me work on the listening and comprehension piece, which for me is the most challenging, which makes the cost worthwhile to me. 

Dan,
Thanks for mentioning that Gab Wyner has a blog.  I just checked it out regarding the new flashcards.  I will have to give that a go.  
As you know I started using Anki a little over a year ago.  Unfortunately I did something wrong with an Edit on Anki and lost 254 flashcards!  Oh well...
I have started again making a new set (after de-installing and re-installing Anki).  Hopefully I won't mess this one up.

Karen, that hurts to lose so many cards! I'm sorry for you.

I really like the new cards that Wyner developed. They seem to incorporate all of the previous cards into a really supercharged one. I also like how the root form of the verb can be incorporated. I am using that feature even for nouns and adjectives, if there is an associated verb form. I have long thought that verbs are the heart of the Spanish language, and these cards work right into my thought process.

I have had Anki for a few days now and it seems pretty useful, I like that it repeats cards that I found difficult, but I haven't explored the more advanced options.
I found importing a bit tricky at first as UTF8 encoding is required, I was doing it from CSV files created from Quizlet and these don't have UFT8 encoding. The help suggested using libreoffice to convert, but there is a trick. You have to check "edit filter settings" on the save dialog, then later you get the option to select the encoding.
I found it more convenient to use a little free program called Notepad++ which will convert the encoding from the encoding menu.

I started using it when Dan suggested it too. I'm doing Italian and there's a brilliant downloadable library of 15000 short sentences with audio. I haven't yet started to create my own cards as I'm still reading the book that he suggested but the audio cards have been great. I can feel that my comprehension has already grown.

Thanks for the suggestion drewster, I am studying German and also found a big list of short sentences with audio which happend to be the top rated set so I am trying it out.
I got into importing sets first as I already had several sets in Quizlet which I wanted to transfer.