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Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

cjauvin.github.io

71–80 of 96 posts

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#71

I've had some successful sprints using Anki, but I always get fatigued making cards for it after a few months, even when leaning on LLM tools to speed up the process. One app I used early on when beginning French was Clozemaster, set to keyboard input (instead of multiple choice). The largest benefit was I didn't have to make all the decks, they progress you through the most common words (used in context), and there…

I ran into the same wall, and I built a browser extension to solve it for myself: https://pickvocab.com/features/anki-integration

Now I just click any word or phrase when browsing the web, and it shows me the exact meaning in context, thanks to an AI-powered dictionary that works for any language. I save the word along with the sentence, add a quick note if I want, and later export everything straight to Anki.

It’s cut out all the friction of card creation for me. I use it daily for English and Chinese, and it’s made sticking with Anki sustainable again.

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#72
post #33

Always fun to see two of my worlds collide! I studied Dari own my own and at college as an elective, and ended up taking a job with the ICRC to investigate ISAF war crimes in Afghanistan right after I graduated These days Dari is my most comfortable second language (and I have quite a few of them) I'm not sure if, given I had to start from scratch again, I'd go down this route - the description and screenshots seem v…

Let me ask: what sort of background is necessary to get jobs based on your skills in a second language? I'm very into language learning as a hobby, but would it be necessary to get a degree before applying to these sorts of jobs? Where would one even look for jobs?

Keep in mind this was over a decade ago -

What happened for me was that the ICRC was so desperate for Pashto speakers in Afghanistan for this sort of work (they weren't allowed to hire people for the war crimes investigation work from Pakistan or Afghanistan due to neutrality stuff) that for a time they ended up accepting people who had learned Dari (ie. demonstrated the ability to learn) and gave them 3 months in-country to work with a Pashto teacher and learn enough to be able to be functional in their jobs

This was right after the financial crisis, I had just graduated with a liberal arts degree and had no other job prospects, and I had an interest in Afghanistan, so being paid to learn Pashto and possibly having a job afterwards seemed like a very lucky break to me at the time

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#73

I find it interesting that despite the relationship between Iran and various Arab countries being pretty hostile, there is no move towards stop using the word "Farsi" and revert back to "Parsi". Anyone know why? Seems like a easy political win for a besieged regime.

You might be interested in this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsis

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#74
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using the word pistan instead of sina when talking about "chicken breast" (the cut of meat)

Well you got another good laugh out of it from me LOL As an Iranian-American, I've made similar blunders in trying to communicate with my Mexican friends and colleagues. "Hey amigo, do you need a chauqeta?" I would ask to the eruption of laughter. If you look up "Chaqueta", translation services will happily tell you it means "Jacket". Don't trust it. Apparently to some Mexicans it also means jerking off.

I think your friends were just being jerks. The primary meaning of the word is indeed "jacket". It'd be like saying to someone "I need a blunt tool" and them making fun of you because you just said you need a tool to make cannabis cigarettes.

https://dle.rae.es/chaqueta

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#75
post #19

I'm on year 10 of learning my second language and passed through a variety of teaching/learning methods. Intensive FSI courses, immersion including output as early as possible, self guided based heavily on reading and vocabulary, etc. While I get by mostly fine and now live in my second language, my listening is definitely my weakest skill. Anki is probably my most beneficial single tool. Though if I were to do it ov…

Just kicked off my third language after reaching B2/C1ish in my second (~5 years in), we'll see what the C1 test determines this fall, and Anki has been the consistent thing that stayed through all the other learning experiments. It's amazing just investing in Anki right out the bat how much quicker I'm moving on the new language. Especially considering it's way harder as it's not like any language I know (rich decle…

I'm building a service that generates audio streams about subjects and vocab of your choosing, currently notebookLM based. If you have intermediate listening skills its pretty useful for deepening regular vocab and acquiring specialized jargon.

I dumped my 400 hardest recurring anki words in it and listen to the stream whenever doing chores or driving. Then sync with my deck again after a while.

Can you help me out and give it a try, you seem like the target audience and i'd value your feedback. If your target language is not available or want to upload an anki deck I can help you out.

https://listen.longyan.io

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It used to be called Persian in English, the media changed it to Farsi to reduce it's "prestige". If you knew English and you are old enough you even remember the shift (1990s–2000s).

> the media changed it to Farsi to reduce it's "prestige" This is not true. It happened after the 1979 Iranian revolution, when Iranians abroad wanted to call it Farsi out of cultural pride, using the same word in their own language, rather than Persian which is the "foreign" word for it (from Greek/Latin). It was literally reclaiming the name. Then the media followed suit out of respect. It was cultural sensitivity…

I don't know how much you and I both care about this, and arranging the evidense is going to take some time. Specially since I don't know if I'm going to live in a warzone or not starting tomorrow. Sorry.

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#77
post #41

Trying to learn a language by anything other than going through the process of constructing grammatical sentences in the language is my favorite genre of hackernews posts This is a fine way to bring the material into your "cache" but you aren't doing the work required to learn a language: Communication!

I share your skepticism. The approach you mention seems to be not only the most efficient, but maybe actually the only one that works. This is probably more about neuroscience than personal preferences.

The approach presented in the post is not necessarily on conflict with that, but it seems like extremely laborious preparation stage. And despite expectations, learning the different alphabet is usually unnecessary until fairly late into the learning process.

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#78
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using the word pistan instead of sina when talking about "chicken breast" (the cut of meat)

Well you got another good laugh out of it from me LOL As an Iranian-American, I've made similar blunders in trying to communicate with my Mexican friends and colleagues. "Hey amigo, do you need a chauqeta?" I would ask to the eruption of laughter. If you look up "Chaqueta", translation services will happily tell you it means "Jacket". Don't trust it. Apparently to some Mexicans it also means jerking off.

Own using "chaqueta" instead of "chamarra".

This is a regional bro distinction. I have certainly heard chaqueta used by respectable people in Jalisco. This joke is a reflection of people that don't travel.

In Jalisco y Nayarit the normative word for the large beer bottles is caguama. In central MX that word is ghetto.

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#79

I find it interesting that despite the relationship between Iran and various Arab countries being pretty hostile, there is no move towards stop using the word "Farsi" and revert back to "Parsi". Anyone know why? Seems like a easy political win for a besieged regime.

Not only just a superficial change, and if anyone calls it parsi in iran they just come across like a literary person, it’s that Classical persian literature as we know it is from after arab era until 1300s. Persian imported arabic words and used them widely in its literature. Maybe an analogy is english should be called Anglish.

The difference between Persian and Farsi matters in english world because it is political. In english, Farsi doesn’t carry prestige, same way iran doesn’t carry Persia. But they do for those in iran. I’m not familiar enough with afghanistan to know first hand, but perhaps same can be said for Dari. I might be wrong though on this last one.

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#80
Persian is such a beatiful language. Sounds like singing. Like the french language of the middle east. And Anki is a super effective tool. I learn all kinds if things with it. Technology like AWS, new concepts, infos about colleagues, infos about my city, just about everything. Love it.
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