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Show HN: Glossarie – a new, immersive way to learn a language

glossarie.app

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Re: Show HN: Glossarie – a new, immersive way to learn a language

#61

Post by jonathanb88 »

Player6225 wrote: post #43

Oh great timing! I was just starting to play with building a toy project ( https://github.com/bpevs/multireader ) for practicing Spanish while reading books with my e-reader, but frankly, I'm just building it because I haven't found an app that works for me, and I'd rather spend time actually actually learning language... Just playing with your app for a bit, and it's pretty cool! had a few questions though: 1. Wonde…

Thanks for the feedback!

1. I would love to get it to work all the way from a few translations in the target language to a full translation, with a sliding scale in between. 2. It's not connected to the book content. One idea I have is an optional quiz at the end of a session to reinforce new vocabulary/grammar seen. 3. I'll see if I can remove the animation when using the page ahead/back buttons on Android.

Re: Show HN: Glossarie – a new, immersive way to learn a language

#63

Post by jddj »

toddmorey wrote: post #53

"I believe apps like this, which use AI to enhance or scale functionality rather than simply acting as a wrapper over APIs, will be the major beneficiaries as LLMs improve." Can you elaborate a bit more? Are you training your own model? Or do you mean this is a task that uniquely needs AI to solve and couldn't be accomplished with traditional APIs?

I think they were differentiating themselves from their competitors by hinting that they put more work into this than just coming up with a UI and prompt for gpt4.

Re: Show HN: Glossarie – a new, immersive way to learn a language

#64

Post by jonathanb88 »

toddmorey wrote: post #53

"I believe apps like this, which use AI to enhance or scale functionality rather than simply acting as a wrapper over APIs, will be the major beneficiaries as LLMs improve." Can you elaborate a bit more? Are you training your own model? Or do you mean this is a task that uniquely needs AI to solve and couldn't be accomplished with traditional APIs?

Some apps rely upon ongoing LLM API calls for their core functionality. Some require a lot of human editorial work up front. i.e. either high variable cost or high fixed cost economics.

This app lies in a sweet spot where no ongoing API calls are required, everything is pre-calculated (at moderate expense!), but LLMs can scale some of the more 'human' work like explaining translations or checking accuracy. Albeit with the quirks and inconsistencies inherent with the current generation of models.

Re: Show HN: Glossarie – a new, immersive way to learn a language

#65

Post by ximeng »

Shout out for an app called Language Transfer that I just came across via Reddit (https://www.languagetransfer.org/). It teaches languages speaking first through a simple audio course. Developed by one guy, completely free and without ads.

From what I’ve seen so far has a very clear focus on quickly getting up to speed with a different angle than other courses. It talks about how to build vocabulary by looking at general patterns for shared vocabulary between languages.

Re: Show HN: Glossarie – a new, immersive way to learn a language

#66

Post by phiresky »

Neat! I had a very similar idea recently: https://seamlang.app/ (the sign up button doesn't work yet)

The main difference seems to be that I start with text in the foreign language, and then translate the difficult vocabulary back to the known language (English). That way you always ensure you have the correct grammar of your goal language even if you don't know most of the vocabulary yet. This can be a bit confusing at first because you have mostly English text with Spanish word order, but just trying it a bit it works pretty well. It also makes the difficulty an easier problem because the grammer stays the same.

I haven't gotten around to finishing it yet, especially judging which vocabulary to translate and ensuring each translated word still makes sense in context isn't easy.

Re: Show HN: Glossarie – a new, immersive way to learn a language

#67

Post by jonathanb88 »

yaj54 wrote: post #32

I hate browser plugins - but this needs to be a browser plugin. Then I would use it while reading HN. ;-) I would suggest tackling dynamic difficulty and algorithmic selection of what words to learn, when, and how often, and then let improving LLMs handle accuracy improvements.

Definitely an idea on the roadmap. I know most people do most of their reading in a browser and not eBooks.

I'll see how easy it is. I get palpitations thinking about developing on another new platform. Java and Swift were a challenge enough to learn!

Re: Show HN: Glossarie – a new, immersive way to learn a language

#68

Post by gardenhedge »

jonathanb88 wrote: post #41
vaughnegut wrote: post #35

Looks great! I'd like to try it but the play store link has this error: > We're sorry, the requested URL was not found on this server.

A few people have raised this. I'll take a look. Unfortunately the App isn't available in all locations.

Got the same. Was about to sign up for a month to check it out

Re: Show HN: Glossarie – a new, immersive way to learn a language

#69

Post by jonathanb88 »

whycome wrote: post #57

UX things. Let me click anywhere to close the popup. Having to target a small button when reading means I have to stretch my thumb to reach it as it can be far from the word I clicked. Don’t make me have to think about the targeting. Eg when reading I never want to think about HOW to turn a page or where I need to swipe. Make the scroll bar stay visible or at least make it big enough to easily grab! Not sure why the…

Thanks for the feedback, very helpful!

I'll look to fix the first tomorrow, and add the rest to my list.

Re: Show HN: Glossarie – a new, immersive way to learn a language

#70

Post by igeligel_dev »

yaj54 wrote: post #32

I hate browser plugins - but this needs to be a browser plugin. Then I would use it while reading HN. ;-) I would suggest tackling dynamic difficulty and algorithmic selection of what words to learn, when, and how often, and then let improving LLMs handle accuracy improvements.

https://jointoucan.com/ - hope you enjoy it
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