Learning English from your favorite TV shows, or How to Hack Memory 2.0

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The method of learning foreign languages from TV series is becoming more and more widespread. You watch your favorite videos in the original language and expand your vocabulary. With the help of the WordsFromText service and the Anki application, you can quickly memorize all the unknown words you encounter while watching your favorite TV series.

Why on your favorite TV shows? Because the words and sentences you have learned will stay with you forever, and you don't want to have memories of a rather mediocre film in your head?

Why hack memory? Because we will methodically "flash" it with spaced repetitions, ignoring such subtleties of assimilation of information as concentration of attention, emotional involvement, and so on. In this mode, you cannot just take and not remember something.

Why 2.0? Because I have previously published articles on. But over time, the services and approach to learning foreign languages change. This is what I want to talk about in this article.

The whole point is to memorize as quickly as possible all the unknown words found in the video so that no problems arise during further viewing. But how to do that?

We'll, of course, use spaced repetition with the Anki app. For those who are not entirely clear on how to work with the application, I recommend that you read the following video:

Working with the WordsFromText service

• First, download the corresponding English subtitles in.srt format. For example, they can be found on the website.
• Open the service in the Internet browser, register.
• We find on the site in the menu the item "Add text", click "Upload file" and select the file of our subtitles.

• Loading subtitles. Open the resulting text.
• We go to the section "Learn words", change the status to "New". Then we mark all familiar positions with the mark “Known”.

In the process, you may notice that sometimes parts of speech are identified incorrectly, so an incorrect translation is obtained.

To avoid this, you should change the part of speech to the desired one. To do this, expand the submenu by clicking on the word, put a tick in the desired position and click "Apply to all text".

If you want to change the lemma itself (the dictionary form of the word), then after editing, I recommend that you select the "Use everywhere" item. This is necessary in order for our changes to be reflected in the table for printing in the future.

After receiving a number of words from WordsFromText, it is advisable to parse them. For example, often a word can be part of an idiom, as in the case below.

There is a sentence: “But it’s really a judgment call, and if she really was that bradycardic, I probably would’ve called the fellow”. WordsFromText singled out in it only the word judgment, which in isolation from the context means “sentence”, “punishment”, “punishment”. The entire idiom has the form of a judgment call, which means a dubious or controversial decision.

By the way, WordsFromText can define idioms itself, but this is also sometimes wrong.

• After the designation of unknown words, we again change the display status to "New" (the page is refreshed).
• Expand the "Print" tab on the right and check the boxes as shown in the screenshot.

Select the resulting words and copy. Since these words have already been learned, we immediately mark them with the mark "Known" by holding down the Shift key

Data processing in a spreadsheet editor

Paste the copied words into any spreadsheet editor (for example Microsoft Excel). It is better to immediately create a table in which you will always enter new words. Add columns and fill in empty cells. You should get it as shown in the screenshot

The Word column contains the word being studied, Definition - its definition, Pofs (Part of Speech) - part of speech, Notes - the name of a movie, series or series, Transcription - transcription, Definition 2 - the second definition of the word, Example - context, example with a word from downloaded subtitles.

WordsFromText can pull up the context itself. Unfortunately, this is only available with a paid subscription. But you can search for words in the text using the Ctrl + F keyboard shortcut and paste where you need to.

Ideally, you should have a “word - translation” pair (you can learn more about how to do this here and here). But it so happens that when looking at a Russian-English card, several options for translating into English come to your mind at once. In this case, it's a good idea to add a second value to the Definition 2 field to somehow separate this word from the synonyms you know. By the way, you can immediately add English synonyms in the Definition column.

Next, we need to get the file in.txt format. Copy the text from the resulting table to Notepad. To avoid import problems, it is better to save in UTF-8. To do this, click "File" → "Save As", enter the name and at the bottom of the window select the UTF-8 encoding option

Working with the Anki app

• Download the Anki application from the official website, install it and open it.
• Click "Tools" → "Manage post types" → "Add". Here we select the item "Main" and enter any name (I have Video).

Select the required record type and press the "Fields" button. Rename the field "Answer" to Definition, "Question" in Word, add the fields Pofs (Part of Speech), Example, Notes, Transcription, Definition 2. The order of the fields should be the same as in the screenshot below

Then, in the same window, select the "Cards" item and rename the template fields as shown in the screenshot. Or better, open the document and copy the text from the "Plain card" plate into the appropriate cells

Next, I recommend creating an inverted deck. For this:

• In the same window on the top right, press "+".
• Copy the values from the same document to the tab that appears, but from the "Inverted card" plate.
• Further, in the same tab at the bottom, click on "More" → "Redefine deck" and enter the name of the inverted deck (I have Inverted_Video).

Now, when adding cards with this type of recording (importing or adding cards manually), all inverted cards will be sent exactly to the inverted deck.

• We return to the main window of the Anki program, create the main deck, enter any name. The file and Anki are ready for import.
• Press the "Import File" button, select a text file, set the type and deck, check the correspondence of the order of the fields in the application and the columns with the words in the text file. We select in the line above "Import, even if the existing record contains the same first field." If something was filled in incorrectly, then this can be changed.

We import files

Speak words with add-ons for Anki

But that is not all. We have to bring the energy of sound to such lifeless and soundless words.

To begin with, you will need to install two add-ons to Anki: advanced_browser and AwesomeTTS. To do this, go to "Tools" → "Add-ons" → "Review and Installation" and indicate the numbers 874215009 and 301952613

Then we press "Browse" and sort the words either by the date they were added, or by the Notes item. Of course, there is no need to sort the first time, but then this function will come in handy

• Hold down the left mouse button or the Shift key and select the desired words.
• Press the keys Ctrl + T.
• In the AwesomeTTS window that opens, select the voice engine (I prefer Acapela Group - Lucy (en-GB)), select Word in the Source Field, and Transcription in the Destination Field. You can create a separate Sound field for voiceovers, but I put it in the Transcription field.
• Click the Generate button.

Go to the "Decks" section on the main Anki window. If you don't have an iOS or Android smartphone, you can use a computer

In order to learn words using a computer, you need:

• Register on the site.
• Log into Anki on your computer. Synchronize with the server (press the Y key on the keyboard).
• Install the mobile application on an iPhone or Android smartphone and log in to it. Synchronize.

You can always edit the card when viewing it in Anki on a computer or mobile device. It's even more convenient on a smartphone, especially if you assign control gestures in the application.

That’s all folks!