English
18 May 2009
Since I enjoy learning languages, I often need to learn quite a few words.
I have used Linux (Ubuntu 8.10, to be specific) quite extensively, and it is through it that I came across the spaced-repetition program Mnemosyne (named after the Greek goddess of memory). This light-weight program functions almost like traditional flash cards, except that the questions are timed so that they are not asked until the user is likely to forget it soon. Thus it does not waste your time on words you know well.
The great thing about the program is that thousands of cards are freely available from the web site, including vocabulary words for English, Spanish, Latin and Esperanto.
Today I decided to try another similar program, called Anki (from 暗記, the Japanese word for ‘memorizing’). This program has more features, although the interface is a little more complicated. One thing I have against the program is that its repetitions are calculated using the hour rather than the day; however, this is not a big problem. Anki also associates related cards (for example, the same word Latin–English and English–Latin) so that you are not asked a question and then its vice-versa right after.
Anki has different flashcards available for download. While Mnemosyne has all forty chapters of Wheelock’s Latin grammar, Anki has all the Greek words found in the New Testament as well as quite a few Biblical Hebrew words. Anki can also import Mnemosyne database files (*.mem), so that if you have been using Mnemosyne you can switch to Anki with no trouble.
Both Mnemosyne and Anki can be run from a USB flash drive; Anki also has free server space so that repetitions can be done anywhere where there is Internet access. Right now I will be using Anki almost daily for Bible memory, Chinese, Esperanto, Greek, Hebrew and Latin.
Let me know if you need help with using either program!
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