1. Nina
  2. Using Language Mentor
  3. Tuesday, 29 October 2019
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Hi,
in the ‘Select Mode’ button within the app, German Language Mentor, I am a little confused with the mode ‘English to German Learning’. What does it mean, what can I expect from it? It isn‘t clear to me.
I was also confused about the ‚Repeat German‘ mode because I was expecting the German sentence to be repeated to me but it wasn’t. Can you explain the modes to me more? Thank you.

Nina
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Hi Nina,

Thanks for your post. I've been wondering lately whether the names we use for Language Mentor's learning modes are clear enough. Reading your post, it seems that perhaps they aren't.

> ‘English to German Learning’. What does it mean, what can I expect from it?

This mode is intended to be used when you are initially studying a lesson. At this point, you probably don't know much of the German in the lesson, so this mode plays each chunk in English (to let you know the meaning), then in the target language (German in this case), then pauses so that you can repeat the German. It's meant to be an "introductory" mode.

> also confused about the "Repeat German" mode because I was expecting the German sentence to be repeated to me but it wasn't

I can see how you would think this. This mode simply plays the chunk in the target language (e.g. German), then pauses so that you can repeat it. Based on the name, you thought that the app would repeat the German, but actually the app wants you to repeat the German.

Naming these modes is difficult. It's hard to come up with names that are both short and clear. Also, we're thinking of adding some new modes, and are finding it difficult to come up with appropriate names for them.

So we're considering changing our mode names so that they simply describe what each mode does, rather than attempting to explain each mode's purpose.

So, for example, instead of using names like these ...

  • English to German Learning
  • Repeat German
  • English to German Translation
  • German to English Translation
  • Listen to German


... we're thinking of using names like these ...

  • English ~ German
  • English ~ German ~ Pause
  • English ~ Pause ~ German ~ Pause
  • German
  • German ~ English
  • German ~ Pause
  • German ~ Pause ~ English ~ Pause


... which detail what Language Mentor plays for each lesson chunk.

What do you think - would this be clearer?

Douglas
  1. more than a month ago
  2. Using Language Mentor
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