6 posts tagged “lingq”

As I wrote previously, there was the Saturday regular discussion with my sincere friends from LingQ last night. Every week I record our conversation for my language learning reviewing purpose. As same as some of LingQ members I guess, I use "PowerGramo" 1.1.0.58 which is a freeware version. Using this, you can record your conversation as long as you'd like. However, every single time when you start this software, it keeps asking you to update the latest version.

The latest version, however, you can only record a 15 min conversation each time you call, unless you purchase $24.95 as a user license fee.

Anyhow, as a stingy (or an economical) person I am, I've been using the old (and free) version of PG last several month, and has resisted or ignored nagging messages.
However, because of my disloyalty demeanor for this great software, it didn't work last couple of times while our convivial conversation with Tomies (which is a nickname of our Saturday regular discussion group on LingQ ). Therefore, I begged Marianne to send me an audio data she recorded right after our discussion was over last week. Thank you so much Marianne!

Unfortunately, PG didn't work last night again. I assume it possibly will not work next time either.
Finally, I took this fact as a cue to buy a license fee, and decided to proceed to click a PayPal button at PG's website. Right before I was doing that, I thought that I might better to search on Google with some keywords as "skype record" to find out which software is more easy to use, just to make sure.

In the end, I found another software called "Pamela" and it offers a 30 days free trial. I guess it's worth a try before I purchase any of them. What a thrifty girl I am! :-P

It's been a while. I haven't written anything here for, how long? Anyway, it's Saturday today, and as always on the weekend mornings, I spent several hours siting in front of my PC, to visited some blogs I like, and post some comments here and there.

Then, after my hubby came back from tennis, we went out for lunch. This time it was a curry restraint called 'ラグパティ' (I don't know how to spell it, so sorry it's written in Japanese).
This is our first time, however, as you can see the Google link I put above, this place seems very popular among people around Koriyama I guess.

There's another curry restraint in the center of Koriyama near the station, called 'New Tajmahal'. We went there several times. You can enjoy quite tasty foods, especially their naan )nan bread) is so great.

After I came back home, I started to read aloud 'The Ultimate Gift' chapter five. Our Saturday group on LingQ is using this book as our reading material for past several weeks. Each chapter hasn't so much volume, but we can learn pretty lively expressions along with some teachings every time. I use this book as one of my vocabulary building guidbook. Every week, when I encounter words and expressions I have not known, I input them into PSS (P-Study System) software, and reviewing them when I have time. I haven't done any asiginements on LingQ these days, but instead I use PSS.

While I'm writing above, I've been feeling of guilt to LingQ where I always enjoy learning with, so, I've checked their store, and imported an interesting subject from there. It's one of ELLO's materials. Have a look.

ELLO
http://www.elllo.org/english/home.htm

I have never listened their contents, but it seems very interesting. They provide not only audio files but also transcripts. I've listened a couple of them, but I guess most of their contents are short, but it's pretty enough length if you'd like to listen over and over.

I must admit that I'm a person who seldom read newspaper on a daily basis. I don't know much about politics or economy. I would say not only ignorant of those subjects, I'm just not interested in them.
How come it's possible if person like me can find interest in topics like that when it comes to English lesson?

Instead, I guess it must be a good idea if I try something more familiar contents to me. Say, "beauty tips"? We can find a lot of articles and videos on CBS News.
Rather than taking "English in News" lesson on EOL constantly, it might be more effective if I do a self-learning, when there's no interesting topics there.

To record video sounds into MP3 format, articles like below, then to import into LingQ.

Makeup Challenges Differ By Ethnicity
Expert Offers Tips For Asians, African-Americans, Caucasians
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/05/earlyshow/living/beauty/main1681079.shtml?source=search_story

Ponytails Key "Beat-The-Heat" Hairstyles
David Evangelista Shares Three To Overcome Summer Hair Blahs
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/21/earlyshow/contributors/davidevangelista/main2830746.shtml

Rise & Shine: Time-Saving Beauty Tips
Morning Beauty Tips To Get You Through The Early Rush
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/23/earlyshow/living/beauty/main1230327.shtml?source=search_story

No videos or sound files, but seems interesting topics I also found at ABC News as well.

How to Live Without Makeup (Or At Least, With Less)
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/BeautySecrets/story?id=2779368&page=1

Beauty News
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/BeautySecrets/

Both, a week ago Saturday and yesterday, our pre-arranged discussion group, named the Tomies by the way, used an Alfred Hitchcock's biography article on FILMBUG as a reading material. (Thank you Marianne to finding this challenging article!)

I have seen one of Hitchcock's films, "The Birds" on TV more than two decades ago, and it was too creepy to watch, I haven seen any of his works since then.

In the article, thirty two words new to me, and some of them are quite familiar but can't remember their definition.

assault / blurring / cat burglar / compelling / droll / dubious / evoke / fetishize / frowned / grapple / grasping / herring / holdover / indictment / intrigued / invariably / kleptomaniac / lodger / manipulate / meager / neurosis / notion / obsession / pursued / reliance / ridiculed / sensual / sustain / vanish / vertigo / vicious / voyeur

I have been thinking that if I'd like to obtain those words, to make my own sentences using those words individually are possibly a good way. Not just to try to memorize its definition.
However, too many words I encounter every single day. It's a pretty ridiculous idea if I make a sentence to every single word, and I definitely can't to do so. If I could do it from now on, I have done it from the beginning.

Maybe, using a Tag function on LingQ, and to prioritize those words by "Sort by" function with "Importance". How about to pick up the first three words or two out of them every day? Hm, let me think about it if it goes okay.

By the way, did you know, "fa" part of "infamous" is pronounced as "fa" as in "sofa"? Not like "fa" of "famous" which  sounds like "ta" of "tape". It's pretty tricky to me.

 

I bought a paperback version of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" today at Iwase bookstore in Koriyama.

It is really easy to read. As a matter of fact, while I was at the bookstore waiting for my husband who was taking dental treatment, I finished reading 20 pages out of 155 pages. As a slow reader, it's a pretty rapid pace for me. If I could keep up this pace, I would finish reading it in a day or two. [CORRECTED TEXT]

...............................................................

[Article of the day]  at ABC News
Maximize Your Exercise Regimen -- in 30 Minutes Flat
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Exercise/story?id=3100559&page=1

[new words]
regimen / agility / cardiovascular / coordination / central nervous system / peripheral nervous system / a base evaluation / allocation / single leg lunges / triceps dips / lat pulls / overhead presses / plank position / lactic acid / interval training / bouts / heart rate

Compare to CBS News cite, which is my favorite, ABC's videos are quite stable. Their screean sizes are mostly pretty small, though.
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[R] "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", etc. 30min
[L] Metpod, ABC news medical minute, etc. 60min
[W] 10min
[LingQ] 30min

What I have read today:

German Supermarkets Become Senior-Friendly
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/28/business/main2738695.shtml

The Plum Pretty Sister
http://www.chickensoup.com/stories/gardener/PlumPrettySisters.html

I started using LingQ from the day before yesterday. It looks much better than the previous site on The Linguist, and this new system is quite user friendly. After imported two contents, I could even add their audio files, and picture images. Saving audio file into our own database is quite useful function, I realized. If you can't find any contexts you would like to try at Store on LingQ, you just copy what you would like to learn from somewhere else, and save it into your WorkDesk.

Anyway, one of the contents I put there today was the short story, "The Plum Pretty Sister"  from "Chicken Soup for the Soul."

The story was used as a reading material among our Saturday discussion group last Saturday. Devided it in four sections, each of us read a portion of the story aloud. In between every one of us finished to read, Julie pointed out if there were any mistakes or mispronunciation we made.
The end of lesson, Julie kindly read the entire story for us.

As always, I recorded our whole conversation. Then I noticed that we can save audio data into LingQ data base as same as text contexts, so I cliped Julies reading part out and converted into an MP3 file, then imported into LingQ.
While I am reading this story on WorkDesk section, I can listen to this audio file as well. This is a very useful function. I really like it!

Same as this way, I also imported an article along with an audio file from CBS News site. I recorded the sound by the microphone while I was watching the video clip there.
German Supermarkets Become Senior-Friendly

To be honest, I had seldom used Read and Review section on The Linguist site, however, with this new LingQ system, I'll probably enjoy to use these function.