Ubuntu Language Learning (French)

[jsilverman]

Hello Everyone,

I am a first year French student located in Denver, Colorado. I was one of the first customers of the Dell Inspiron 1420n laptop with pre-loaded Ubuntu Feisty. I am using Kubuntu 7.10 and I am aware that the entire OS is available in French.

I am making this post to inquire about Free Software programs that help you learn a foreign language, even those that are specific to French. I want to know what you guys know about machine reading in French, dictionary tools, and even KDE's new linguistic framework which I read about today. The new framework is supposed to be called Sonnet (http://www.linux.com/feature/59963).

What do you guys know about using Linux to help you learn a new language? Programs, tips, ideas, all welcome.

Thanks,

Jonathan Silverman

[sajro]

Personally, I plan to do immersion once I get my laptop (most likely a Thinkpad). I'll set up KDE(mod) to be in Russian and then I'll have no choice but to learn Russian! (Of course, I'll have a keyboard switcher to type in English things.)

So, what I'm saying is...do something crazy: throw yourself into a foreign world. However, with your computer, it's reversible. In a sink-or-swim situation, you learn to swim quite quickly. You'll be surprised about how many cognates there are in the Latin-based languages such as French and Spanish.

[ODF]

I'm a french speaking person, but I mostly use my computer in english ... except for my keyboard.

I don't beleive using a computer in french will really do the job. Since french is very complex ... you better have conversations in french rather than reading some badly translated computer terms.

=)

Ps : I mean english is good in an international way because it's very simple and can be used with quick words. Computer terms in french are just ugly because it looks complicated.

[sajro]

I'm a french speaking person, but I mostly use my computer in english ... except for my keyboard.

I don't beleive using a computer in french will really do the job. Since french is very complex ... you better have conversations in french rather than reading badly translated computer terms.

=)

Obviously, not as an end all for language learning, but a supplement. More things to force into your mind between classes and everyday life. I have to speak Spanish to some degree for school so I read most of my tech news in Spanish and such,

[jsilverman]

I like the idea of Immersion with Kubuntu and Ubuntu because it's an excellent way to force yourself to read a language, so I feel like that's one Ubuntu language learning method that I really support.

The one thing I feel like I don't really know that much about with Linux is other tools that the student can use to learn the language.

For translations, I currently use Google Translate but I get tired of using an HTML form interface to translate words and sentences back and forth between English and French. I wish there was an Open Source translation tool that I could just keep running. This is also advantageous because then I wouldn't need the Internet to use the translator.

I want to know more about TTS (Text-To-Speech) tools that can help the student learn to pronounce words in French especially.

I know of some other tools that you can use like KLettres and KVocTrain but I don't really know how to use this software.

I want to append to this post my knowledge of a great little tool called "Verbiste" which gives you all of the forms of French verbs .. Good tool.

One other idea I had is that we can have dual-language versions of (K)Ubuntu (e.g. French-English) that allow you to quickly change your entire localization and come packed with tools to help you learn one language or the other. What do you guys think? This could be an excellent gift to a language student.

[jken146]

For translations, I currently use Google Translate but I get tired of using an HTML form interface to translate words and sentences back and forth between English and French. I wish there was an Open Source translation tool that I could just keep running. This is also advantageous because then I wouldn't need the Internet to use the translator.
I seriousy recommend that you go out and buy a good English-French dictionary for looking up words. As for translating sentences, in my experience a computer is almost bound to fail. You need to know the language, so read the French language papers online, listen online to French language radio, watch some French films, talk to French-speaking people. It's all down to practice, and I haven't found any good computer programs that help learning languages beyond a very basic level.


I want to know more about TTS (Text-To-Speech) tools that can help the student learn to pronounce words in French especially.
You need to speak to learn pronunciation.
It could be very helpful to to watch films or satellite TV (with subtitles). Use the pause and rewind buttons and repeat what is said out loud. Copy how other people speak.

[Sef]

One other idea I had is that we can have dual-language versions of (K)Ubuntu (e.g. French-English) that allow you to quickly change your entire localization and come packed with tools to help you learn one language or the other. What do you guys think? This could be an excellent gift to a language student.

You can log out and reset the language either as default or a one time option.

[ODF]

It could be very helpful to to watch films or satellite TV (with subtitles). Use the pause and rewind buttons and repeat what is said out loud. Copy how other people speak.

This is how I learned my english, I'm still limited on the writing, but the reading part is perfect. I learned how to understand it by watching movies and american tv shows like grey's anatomy / nip/tuck / desperate housewives :D

Once you're a little better you could try to introduce yourself in a french forum. At least you'll learn the words correctly before speaking it.

My written english isn't that bad because I learned it this way.

[jsilverman]

You can log out and reset the language either as default or a one time option.

Oh wow, didn't know that.