Hello, I know my help files aren’t that complete, and I’m sorry it’s taken you so long to try to use it.
Readlang is NOT equivalent to Language Immersion for Chrome, it’s actually the opposite. e.g. In your case:
- Language Immersion for Chrome: you read English websites, and some parts are automatically translated to French.
- Readlang: you read French texts or websites, and parts are converted to English ONLY when you click on them, to help you understand.
It’s intended for intermediate and advanced learners, who feel ready to read entire French texts, and the way you should use it is to find French websites or texts to practice reading. Ideally they should be interesting to you and at your ability level.
Here are the steps you should probably take to get started with learning French:
Prepare
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- Go to http://readlang.com and log in or sign up if you’re not already.
- At the top of the page, change the languages to say: “I know English. I’m learning Français”
Option 1: Read within Readlang
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- Click the “Library” tab, followed by the “Public Texts” tab beneath. This will give you a list of texts and videos that people have uploaded to Readlang, pick one and click the title to open it.
- When within the reading interface, try reading the French and if you don’t understand a word or phrase, click on it.
Option 2: Read any webpage
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- Install the Readlang Web Reader extension for Chrome if you haven’t already: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/readlang-web-reader/odpdkefpnfejbfnmdilmfhephfffmfoh
- Go to any French website. e.g. http://www.lemonde.fr/ or there are more recommendations here: http://readlang.com/fr/links
- Find an article you want to read
- Click the green & white “R” button to open the Readlang Web Reader
- Once the green Readlang toolbar opens at the top of the page, click any word or phrase within the article to translate it.
Practice flashcards
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- After you’ve read for a while and translated a lot of words, go to the flashcards page to practice: http://readlang.com/learn
I hope this is helpful. I’ll work on some better help files once I’ve done more work on improving the actual app.
I’m very keen to make it as easy to use as possible, and I’m very willing to help you out over Skype. If you want to get help in person, you can reply to the email I sent when you signed up and we can arrange a Skype call.
ron
Thanks for your very timely response.
I can see from what you say what I am trying to do is not within the scope of Readlang. Undoubtedly, that is why there is no explanation available on how to do it.
Basically, I am trying to get Chrome Language Immersion functionality with a single click link to an inline, well built accessible flash card system such as yours. Recently, when using Language Immersion to translate thirty percent of the words on a site, I was offered the French word hongros.
With my current system, I right click hongros to get the translation Hungary, copy hongros, open Anki flash card program, find and open the appropriate deck, click on add, paste in the target word on the front card, enter the translation on the back card, open and check a dictionary function to very the accuracy, close the dictionary, close the card, close the deck, close Anki and return to the web page. It will take very little work with the Anki card to lock in this particular translation into my mind. As you can see Readlang simplifies this whole procedure.
I can read sites like People magazine in French with only occasional help. But to read about parliamentary procedure, Radio electronics, in depth Geopolitical material etc., I need a translation service. I look at those sites in English in which a portion of it is rendered in French. One difficulty I have with Language Immersion is that for me with my setup it jumps from translating thirty per cent to translating one hundred percent. Thirty percent is too easy, a hundred per cent is way too hard with that kind of material.
Now that I see how your program is intended to be used, I will see how I can use it. Spending time on irrelevant sites that are not themselves very informative (to me) but are in the French language will probably improve my French but take away from other things. Being able to talk about MIley Cyrus in French would enhance my French without a doubt. But missing an in depth background on a major pipeline cancellation that affects international energy markets will leave me vulnerable to media treatment of the event which completely misses the point of what happened.
I understand that my intentions are pretty narrow compared to what most users would want, which is good practice at speaking their target language. I want to use it to learn a target language in material that is already functioning as a learning process.
I can readily grasp the idea behind (no pun intended) twerking without any difficulty. Bernoulli's principle? For that I want it in English first, then go over to French. Then memorize the French terms.