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Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

cjauvin.github.io

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Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#81

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 disagree (but also with the prestige theory) it's not really a thing in other countries with significant amounts of Persians such as Sweden or Germany, there the exonym is still more dominant and no-one tries to push "farsi" out of pride or anything.

I think it just was a random occurrence / perfect storm in the US where some Persian speakers moving there didn't know there was an English word for it, and where the local population were more used to hearing names of unknown languages, and it happened to stick around and start spreading. And _then_ it maybe became a cultural pride or whatever thing with media following suit like you said

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#82

I could learn Danish with Anki, YouTube, ChatGPT and a teacher in evening school. I think Danish is even harder to learn then Persian. ;-) Anki is a great concept!

How difficult a language is to learn is very subjective. My mother language is Danish and therefore learning German was relatively easy for me (relatively because it is always difficult to learn a new language!) Manchmal, wenn ich ein Wort noch nie gesehen habe, kann ich die Bedeutung herausfinden, weil ich das entsprechende Wort auf Dänisch kenne.

Åh, du skriver en rigtig god tysk! Du hast Recht mit der Ähnlichkeit der Wörter im Dänischen und Deutschen. Sind ja auch beides germanische Sprachen. Man muss aber aufpassen, es gibt einige "falsche Freunde". :-) Z.B. Bier/bier, Kind/kind, Tag/tag, osv.. Har det godt!

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's not because it's technically right that it's not funny. Your english example isn't particularly funny so you wouldn't have the same reaction, but you could easily imagine plenty of sentences using "cock" or "pussy" that would be.

I know that some cultures consider it rude to laugh at this sort of things when it's not the speaker's native language (brits don't even correct me when I misuse/misspeak english because they think it's rude), but for many (most?) cultures it's really not, that's not being a jerk

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#85
Maybe its the enthusiastic indi-developer in me, but it feels like this is an opportunity for someone to make a better version of Anki specific to language learning. I see it as a hybrid of Babbel + Anki.

I see some individuals creating LLM generations of the cards which is definitely helpful at times, but also a double edge sword when it comes to learning. But I don't see anything taking in the users voice as an input which would be immensely beneficial

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#86

I could learn Danish with Anki, YouTube, ChatGPT and a teacher in evening school. I think Danish is even harder to learn then Persian. ;-) Anki is a great concept!

If you know English danish/swedish/Norwegian is absolutely one of the easiest languages to learn. People do underestimate how much a good teacher and putting in the work can make a difference. Money well invested if you actually NEED to use the language and will have opportunity to.

I'd say Farsi is too. I'm finding it easier than Spanish much to my surprise.

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#87
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't trash it, but for me, anything that means i'm using a screen/app means my retention is lower than if i just pick up a pencil and write on a flashcard. The flexibility of being able to dynamically generate a ton of Anki cards using a script is trumped by just using ChatGPT to generate and grade answers. This will not work well for advanced language learners but for German it works really well - as much repetit…

There are two problems with physical flashcards: 1. The lack of a good spaced repetition algorithm. 2. You'll end up with an order of magnitude fewer flash cards. When it's easy to copy/paste, there's no way you can create all the flashcards you need by hand in a decent amount of time. > The flexibility of being able to dynamically generate a ton of Anki cards using a script is trumped by just using ChatGPT ... I wou…

What works for one may not for another. Content on screens just doesn’t tickle my memory mechanisms in the same way. I wish it did.

Part of it, for me, is that “magnitude fewer” is a benefit, not a drawback. Mastering a bounded scope and then intentionally expanding it by hand writing new cards keeps me focused on the rock face that I need to practice and internalize. Having the next 1000 words be two clicks away, and then dozens more decks waiting after that, makes the whole enterprise seem incredibly daunting.

That may not be your experience, of course, and I wish Anki were effective for me.

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I've come to the general conclusion from experiance that people whom only know their native language are at best moderately hostile towards other languages and multi-lingual people.

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#89
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two problems with physical flashcards: 1. The lack of a good spaced repetition algorithm. 2. You'll end up with an order of magnitude fewer flash cards. When it's easy to copy/paste, there's no way you can create all the flashcards you need by hand in a decent amount of time. > The flexibility of being able to dynamically generate a ton of Anki cards using a script is trumped by just using ChatGPT ... I wou…

What works for one may not for another. Content on screens just doesn’t tickle my memory mechanisms in the same way. I wish it did. Part of it, for me, is that “magnitude fewer” is a benefit, not a drawback. Mastering a bounded scope and then intentionally expanding it by hand writing new cards keeps me focused on the rock face that I need to practice and internalize. Having the next 1000 words be two clicks away, an…

I think a happy middle ground exists.

Most of my cards are manually typed - not copy/pasted. And yes, it totally sucks, so I don't produce as many.

I've been doing it since 2018, and the total number of cards I have is a few thousand - probably under 5000. If you review daily, you'll often end up with days where you have nothing to review. Very manageable.

I recently got back to coding in C++. I'd forgotten some aspects of the language, and also needed to come up to speed with many of the newer features in C++23 (I was mostly an 03 and a bit of 11 person).

It's a lot of cards to create! I'm doing it slowly, but this would be totally infeasible if I had to do it by hand. Still mostly manual typing, although I do copy/paste code snippets.

Re: Learning Persian with Anki, ChatGPT and YouTube

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It's not because it's technically right that it's not funny. Your english example isn't particularly funny so you wouldn't have the same reaction, but you could easily imagine plenty of sentences using "cock" or "pussy" that would be. I know that some cultures consider it rude to laugh at this sort of things when it's not the speaker's native language (brits don't even correct me when I misuse/misspeak english becaus…

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