Rocket 2019 Wishlist

teacup

April 8, 2019

As I use Rocket, which I think is fantastic, I often think of little things that IMO would make it better. I've mentioned some here and there in other threads, but I'm creating a "Wishlist" thread to keep them centralized. (It's also possible that there are already ways to do some of these things—please point them out if so.)

Add the ability to take 'notes' outside of a module.
Add the ability to view only threads a user is currently participating in.
Provide quick navigation to the top and bottom of pages for multi-page items (like forum threads or vocabulary lists).

Specifically for Rocket Japanese:

Add the ability to use furigana/Ruby text.
Add ability to quickly show/hide individual English / kana / kanji lines in transcripts (without affecting 'global' settings).
Teach the kanji for vocabulary words in the modules where words are introduced.

jason-oxenham-founder

April 9, 2019

Hi 夫婦茶碗 - Your ideas are noted and will be passed onto the development team! Thanks!

teacup

April 9, 2019

If I may add one more request: make the the full text editing toolbar available in forum reply windows.

When I start a thread or reply, I have only a few options: bold, italics, underline, ~~strikethrough~~. However if I edit my post I'm given options for creating bulleted lists, indentations, block quotes etc. I wish I could access those options without having to post then go back to make edits.

Peter--252

April 11, 2019

I have another possible item for the wishlist (I've been thinking of this for some time):
At the end of each module would it be possible to add some text or audio in the target language, tailored to the level completed, for entertainment and consolidation? It probably shouldn't count to the points?
(This is more of a 'language' type wish than a technical wish.)

For the first two or three modules it might be simply some variation on the dialogues, perhaps with any new vocabulary presented up front, but for the later modules it could be authentic French (or whichever language) from a novel, newspaper, or whatever (which might involve copyright issues), again chosen for the level currently achieved.

An example of a theme where it could be useful (from my own French studying) is after reflexive verbs are introduced: examples of sentences are provided, even related, but some more instances would surely help.

I realise this could mean a lot of work for the tutoring staff rather than the technical guys, so I accept I might be disappointed in this!
Apart from this I agree with the OP, Rocket Languages is excellent!

Peter--252

April 11, 2019

To clarify: the extra text or audio would be a sort of stand-alone 'lesson' after the main lessons.

ClaudiaR27

April 13, 2019

I would love if the latest post in a forum would be placed first instead of having to go to other pages to find it. Thanks.

sfpugh

April 14, 2019

How about making it possible to mark a post as helpful if a forum member answers a question and it helped.
This would provide positive feedback to encourage people to help, and maybe they could also get a few extra points.

jason-oxenham-founder

April 15, 2019

Hi Peter - Good idea, but there is a bit of work in it!

Hi Claudia/Sfpugh - Will add these to the forum list!

Muchen7092

April 17, 2019

Maybe add to the end of each lesson a short story that would develop reading ability and introduce some new vocab. I have found that reading short stories in German has helped me develop proficiency in understanding the language beyond what is in the lessons.

Erubar

April 26, 2019

I really like your idea, 70Augsburg! I would love to have some "baby" stories to read in Vietnamese. I really wish Mango had a forum like this one, because it (meaning the forum) has been so helpful!

teacup

May 20, 2019

Another one: periodic forum clean-up.

Threads that are outdated (up to nine-years-old and refer to features that have been discontinued) pop-up all the time when using the search feature. Getting rid of them would help streamline search results and free up server space.

JayG-zyUo

June 8, 2019

Is it possible to download The Conversations and Reviews? I'd like to get a more immersive experience by listening to just Japanese, especially the completed lessons so I can follow along without hearing a bunch of unknown vocab. Should be easy to do. Thanks!

jason-oxenham-founder

June 8, 2019

Hi JayG - These tracks already exist and can be found in the last Module of each Level. So, for Japanese, have a look in Module 7 for the various tracks.

JayG-zyUo

June 10, 2019

There they are!
Thanks Jason!

DmBaker

June 16, 2019

I do have a suggestion.

Please add the ability to rewind the audio in segments of 15sec. As it is, when you are listening to a lesson and want to repeat something you have to use the slide bar. It's really easy to either go back way too far or not enough. It would be really nice to be able to rewind or fast forward 15sec at the push of a button. For an example just look at Apple Podcast.

Other than that, more audio in each lesson would be great.

teacup

July 1, 2019

I like dennis-b899's suggestion.

teacup

July 24, 2019

Would it be possible to have our Rocket certification level added to the forum (ideally to the right of the avatar, under the forum name)? That way one doesn't have to repeatedly say what level he or she is at when posting. Maybe a little country flag followed by the certification level?

Peter--252

July 28, 2019

At some point, either in the Language and Culture lessons or perhaps as an extra survival kit lesson, it might be interesting to have a map of the country where the language is mainly spoken (or originates), with regions and major cities marked.

Also perhaps a city map of the capital, assuming that's where the main dialogues are presumed to take place.

jason-oxenham-founder

July 29, 2019

Hi all - Just letting you know that all of these suggestions are getting viewed and added to a discussion board we have for future development!

teacup

August 6, 2019

Thank you for the update Jason.

Would it be possible to have the search function specify the module where something is taught/explained? Right now if you do a search on a word(s) it shows the modules where the word(s) appear. The results seem random as they're not in numerical order, and the lowest module number is not necessarily where the grammar is explained.

Tony-S10

August 6, 2019

I have a few ideas regarding the format as in text display of characters and meaning such as making them larger, centred and more clearer in a way that stands out more when being read. I might have to send an email with examples of other stuff I use in programs to show what I mean.

Steven-W15

August 23, 2019

I would find it useful to have a button that would selectively hide all English and/or all of the target language text on a given page. What I'm looking for is how well I'm translating entire conversations. The way it's set up now, I'm automatically seeing the translation for the person I'm not playing in the conversation "qui fausse le jeu" (wrecks/distorts what I'm trying to do).

VidyaMS

September 2, 2019

I also vouch for enabling learning with certification in mind. I think this would be a very big plus to the software and may add more learners ( hence more revenue) . As we finish the modules, we should be knowing how much prepared are we towards certification . Even a rough estimte would do . Currently , we have no idea . Other wise , I am just loving learning German .
Ich mag gerne Deutsch.

teacup

September 2, 2019

You can try asking others on the forum who have taken certification tests in the language you're studying to get an idea of which modules equate to which test levels.

ChrisM108

December 16, 2019

Hi Jason

I’ve been reading consistent, helpful feedback from many of your customers regarding software deficiencies on all the forums. The standard response is ‘over to the development team’.

The product isn’t cheap, and in the case of iPad-only users, it’s been taking retrograde steps, e.g. the withdrawal of stars for ‘my vocab’. That’s not to mention the inability to use Rocket Certification, etc.

Users need to know what the target date is for implementation of app upgrades, or at the very least, the ability to use all functions on iOS. Otherwise, it feels like our feedback is disappearing into a black hole, and that we’ve been sold only part of the product at the going price.

Rocket looked promising until the deficiencies became apparent. With customer feedback implemented asap, it would be the market leader, IMHO.

Kind regards

Chris

jason-oxenham-founder

December 16, 2019

Hi Chris

Thanks for your post.

I understand the frustration with the perceived lack of progress. We have actually completed quite a few large projects in 2019, and have a couple more are close to being complete.

The most major one was changing our backend system over to the cloud. Without getting too technical about it, not having our system in the cloud was causing major development issues. Having been around since 2004 we ended up with a bit of a spaghetti junction system when it came to the code base, whereas now we are in a much better place going forward to implement a lot of the things we would like to.

A lot of the suggested changes that you are referring to revolve around the UX/UI of the site. To that end, we have just finished Stage 1 of our UX/UI project, which involved adding literal fields and notations (currently live on Rocket French and Spanish), as well as rolling out subtitles on the Interactive Audio courses (also currently live on Rocket French and Spanish). The literal and notation fields are live on the apps, and the subtitles will be early next year.

We have much more planned for next year, including addressing many of the suggestions in this post, and rolling out the notations and subtitling to all courses.

Best
Jason

ChrisM108

December 16, 2019

Thanks, Jason. How about my suggestion regarding updates on target dates re each suggestion? It keeps customers in the loop. Chris

teacup

December 16, 2019

I agree that I would like to be able to see a list of what's being worked on, but I don't find dates for each suggestion necessary. I'd rather something be implemented well, than implemented poorly to meet a deadline.

To the Rocket Team, thank you for the 10 second skip forward & backward buttons for the interactive audio lessons!

"rolling out subtitles on the Interactive Audio courses (also currently live on Rocket French and Spanish)"

I have access to the Spanish "Trial" but I did not see subtitles for the audio. Is there something that the user needs to do to view them?

jason-oxenham-founder

December 16, 2019

Hi all - Ah yes, I forgot to mention the skip backward/forward functionality!

The subtitles for Level 1 of Rocket Spanish were being put live this morning. Certainly the first Module is up, so you should see that from your trial account.

I will work on a product development list that I can post here. I am probably not going to put timelines on things as it is notoriously hard to accurately estimate development time!

ChrisM108

December 17, 2019

Thanks, Jason.

teacup

December 17, 2019

Hi Jason,
I saw the subtitles today in Spanish Module 1.1 and they look great, but I would suggest giving users the option to turn them on and off.

Thanks for the continued improvements to Rocket. ☺

DmBaker

December 19, 2019

Jason - Thank you for the skip forward/back function. I have already put it to good use! It's good to know that you take the feedback of your subscribers seriously.

Have a Merry Christmas

jason-oxenham-founder

December 19, 2019

Hi there - We will be adding a "close caption" function in the New Year, as well as a whole bunch of new stuff, some of which have emanated from this post!

All the best for the festive season. Merry Christmas to you all!

ChrisM108

December 19, 2019

And to all at RL! Buon natale

LeonieM4

January 16, 2020

I'd love to see an improved version of the current French keyboard, which is incredibly cumbersome to use - so much so that I still haven't figured out how to use the circumflex function. Would it be possible to have the keyboard entirely (and only) consist of letters that are not used in the English language? For instance, have a separate key for each letter that requires an accent circumflex etc...?

jason-oxenham-founder

January 20, 2020

Hi Leonie - Funnily enough we are looking at this right now. Certainly for the romantic languages (and German) we will be rolling out something within the next week or two.

jason-oxenham-founder

January 21, 2020

Hi Leonie - Further to this; Rocket Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese now have keys for the special characters that should make using Write it! a lot more user friendly!

teacup

February 1, 2020

New posts and my conversations are now at the top of the forums. AWESOME WORK TEAM! Thank you!

Rocket 2019 Wishlist

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