WebPolyglot
The word polyglot has a number of meanings, but they all refer to something or someone that's multilingual.
WebPolyglot is a web based open source tool for learning new languages. The technique used to help you retain the new language in your memory is simple - repetition.
The work of Hermann Eddinghaus pioneered the study of how our brains worked. "Ebbinghaus' work clearly showed a value in trying to encode the information into long term memory via repetition and rehearsal. His experiments clearly showed that recalling ability was vastly improved by repeatedly reviewing the material to be remembered. It took a smaller and smaller amount of effort to memorize things so that the recalling ability would remain at higher levels for longer times." -- www.memorylifter.com
Technical Summary
- Web Based
- C#
- MVC
- jQuery
- Ajax
- XML
Description
So what exactly is WebPolyglot
WebPolyglot is an open source project consisting of 3 technical components which work together to help you learn a new language or any other pool of ‘things’ you want to remember. The 3 components are:
- A library which randomly or sequentially selects the 'tests' from the XML 'test files'
- A web service that uses the library to expose the tests to the internet
- One implementation of the front end using ajax to allow for very quick repetition by the user.
What this means is that you're free to make your own front end (another web site, a console app, etc) without having to throw everything away and start again.
Motivation
I recently moved to the beautiful city of Copenhagen in Denmark and to help me in my own personal challenge of learning Danish I wrote this web application.
While repetition isnt the holy grail to learning a language it helps a lot - especially at the start. Make sure you step away from the computer and talk to some locals though if you want to learn a new language :)
How to get it
Subversion
Since this is still in beta Im not making builds - check it out from SVN for now. Click Here