Forum Rocket German German Feedback and Comments How is the recent change to the writing portion an improvement?

How is the recent change to the writing portion an improvement?

Frederick-tB

Frederick-tB

I've been doing Rocket German for a while now and occassionally I notice changes.  One change not too long ago was the change to the writing portion where you hear the German sentence verbally and then you write out the German in the rectangular field in the lower portion of the screen.  

 

It used to be that your errors were shown  in that lower rectangular writing field.  You saw the errors in that writing field until you went to write out the next new sentence with the next sample.  

 

Due to some update, now you only see the writing errors above in what had been reserved just as the phonetic indication of what your speech errors were.   No longer are the changes shown in the written portion of the exercise.   Not only that, you always get a  score of 95, which is meaningless since you never pronounced anything. 

 

I can see no advantages whatsoever to this change to the writing section and a lot of disadvantages.  If I want to practice my pronunciation and memory of that sentence, especially if I found the writing of it difficult, then the next time when I practice the pronunciation, the record of what my errors had been completely disappear because the upper field will now only show how I did on that particular pronunciation.  I can still figure it out because I can compare what I wrote below to what is correctly written above, but the convenience is all gone.   If I practice the pronunciation for a while, I may even forget if I got it right or not.   I  may want to practice to prepare for the next speaking section by practicing the pronunciation or mentally firm up what the correct spelling was.  So it's better to keep the errors showing in the writing field where you'd intuitively expect to find the writing errors.  

 

The way the system was originally designed for the writing portion got it right from my viewpoint as a user.  The writing errors were restricted to the writing portion and the pronunciation portion was not involved.  Each section stayed true to its original function and eveything made sense.  That is intuitively where I'd expect to see how I did with the writing, namely on my writing sample - not up in the pronunciation guide.  Doesn't Rocket German want their course to be intuitive and to make sense to the user?   This change makes absolutely no sense to me.    I do not understand how this change improves anything. 

Margaret-RocketLanguages

Margaret-RocketLanguages

Hi Frederick-tB,

 

Thanks so much for your feedback, it's sincerely appreciated. I have forwarded a copy to the tech team for their consideration, and will post again if there are any updates. 

 

If you or anyone else has any further feedback, please don't hesitate to post it here, or email us directly on support@rocketlanguages.com

Frederick-tB

Frederick-tB

Thank you, Margaret, for looking into the problem.  It is still there.   Another negative to this change is that the text for the phonetic rendering is the smallest text on the page and is thus more difficult to see.  In addition, it is blue which makes seeing the missing letters, now shown in black, hard to see.  

 

In the way it used to be, the errors were shown in the writing portion where the text is largest and easiest to see.  For example, today I misspelled the word “solltest” by only writing one “l”.  I didn't even see the error in the phonetic field because the written  ‘’l' of the correction in the phonetic portion was so inconspicuous.  Why not make the missing letter some version of red or other bright color so that you can see it in the writing portion itself where you'd expect to see it? 

 

In addition, if you practice the sentence a few times like I do, the record of what your spellings were are erased after the initial display because the phonetic text is doing double duty showing writing errors and pronunciation.   

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