Learning English vocabularies seems like endless journey. I remember I had to use a variety of strategies and equipment to study new words. In the old day when I was little I had to carry a brick of dictionary with me to school, and it was such a laborious work for an elementary kid. When I was in high school the electronic dictionary came out. This device was once a black and white screen novelty, within 3 to 5 years it became a ubiquitous tool with colorful display. The sources to learn vocabularies didn’t change much before I entered graduate school – books, printed materials, flash cards, and online learning sites. However, this suddenly all changed once I received my iPad.
I like to learn a few vocabularies when I go to foreign countries so I can ask about route, order food, and buy souvenirs. Back at home I have books about Japanese, German, French, Thai, and Cantonese. With my iPad, I no longer have to print out my reading material, I can use the downloaded dictionary to look up translation or use the inbuilt dictionary for English meanings, I can hear the rather robotic pronunciations and best of all don’t have to carry all those books and devices anymore.
Recently I found a website and its app that help me learn vocabularies, the Quizlet.
http://quizlet.com/
Quizlet allows you create your own study set or use other people’s set as study material. Although their website and app’s interface was a bit confusing at first, trying to find other people’s set that fit your needs was a bit challenging, and it seems their mobile app isn’t fully developed yet. What made me really like about their mobile app was their focus on three key things on learning new vocabulary: the vocabulary/term, its meaning, and its pronunciation. It’s organized and easy to use. Unlike you need 2 to 3 steps to define or speak a word on iBook, in Quizlet the word and definition is juxtapose and the audio is just one click away. Literally the main feature is to act as the electronic flashcards.
Unfortunately, not all languages’ pronunciation is supported, such as Thai and Hebrew. I don’t know their source of audio, but on their webpage they said it supported 18 languages.
http://quizlet.com/help/how-does-audio-work-on-quizlet
I would love to have this app in my yet to be seen iPhone so I can study when I’m commuting. I also hoped in the future there will be be some way I could combine the content of the books and audio of CDs to put them all into my mobile device.
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