But software has disadvantages as well. You won’t be writing a character down physically when you create a card, you will only type it into a virtual computer programme — and as your daily quota of words increases, it might take a while until you finally get to practise those words. I often found myself merely ‘processing information’ rather than learning a language. Software is also rather inflexible. You could take your flashcards anywhere and practice. Heck, you could practice while waiting for the water to boil or at the bus stop. But who wants to boot up a computer every time he wants to run a little piece of software to learn Chinese? Which is why interoperability with mobile devices is important. Unfortunately, except of a few commercial web applications (which require internet access — not good), there are very few options for your cellphone. In fact, there is only one that I know of, called MobVoc — a very young vocabulary trainer that can be installed on Java-enabled mobile phones. Apple also offers a vocabulary trainer for the iPhone which can open files created with iFlash, an excellent Mac OS X vocabulary trainer. I will try to give a short overview over the most popular programmes below.

jMemorize (Windows, Linux, Mac, others/Open Source)

Version tested: 1.3.0
Homepage: http://jmemorize.org/
Opens .jml (jMemorize’s own format), .csv, .tsv
Saves: .jml, .pdf, .rtf, .csv

I will start with jMemorize as it’s the vocabulary trainer I’ve been using since starting university. It’s neither the best application, nor the most versatile. In fact, the longer I used it, its shortages have become more and more apparent to me, but first things first jMemorize is an open source project that has been running for a couple of years already. It’s a Java-based vocabulary trainer, so it will work on a whole lot of different systems, including Windows 9x systems. It is a relatively lightweight application, yet when loading a larger file, the programme seems to slow down a little. The presentation is simple, and the whole application just ‘feels right’. The interface is very intuitive and the graphis showing you your ’stacks’ of flashcards are a nice idea.

The downsides: flashcards only have two card sides, just like the paper ones you use in real life. So its not very suited for studying Asian languages. Unfortunately, this was something I only realized later after spending hours typing my vocabulary into the programme So I admit I’m a little reluctant to switch now. The file format, although XML, looks confusing and a little unstructured. That makes it im- and exporting vocabulary from or to other programmes difficult. Last but not least: depite a very active online community and many feature requests, the programme hasn’t received an update for over a year now. But however you put it, it’s still the application I started studying Chinese with and it has proved very stable for the last three years, longer than most programmes survive on my hard disk, so it deserves its place here

Anki (Windows, Linux, Mac/Open Source)

Version tested: 0.9.9.8.5
Homepage: http://ichi2.net/anki/
Opens: .anki, .mem, .wcu, .xml
Saves: .anki, .txt

This is an application I’ve heard of before from students of Japanese. But my attention was drawn to Anki again through a friend who now uses it to study Chinese. Seems the developers widened the focus of the application a bit The most intriguing feature of Anki is certainly its online capabilities. On the Anki website there is a feature called Anki Online, which is nothing else than a browser-based version of Anki, which allows you to practise wherever you have internet access. Technically, this should also work on more advanced mobile devices, but I didn’t check up on that. You can even synchronize your card decks with the Anki webserver automatically. Certainly a nice gimmick.

The programme interface is very lean and intuitively designed. It’s easy to use, right from that start. Precreated card decks are available on startup through an integrated download manager. It’s clear that Anki is one of the older projects around, which have received a lot of work already. Everything, including keyboard shortcuts, is very well thought through. But even Anki can’t deny where it’s coming from. You will definitely notice that it was originally designed to study Japanese, but that shouldn’t keep you from using it for other purposes. One last issue I have with Anki is that, despite the fact that you can create three-sided cards (character – pronunciation – translation), it looks like it’s not possible to check for the pronunciation separately (or at least I wasn’t able to find the corresponding function), which is a little disappointing. If Anki had that feature, it would be nearly perfect.

Update (2009-10-17): I was told that you can indeel tell Anki to check for pronunciation separately. You just need to create a deck of cards with three sides and then configure Anki the right way. Must have slipped past me when I checked the programme, but it’s good to know it’s there Great feature.

Mnemosyne (Windows, Linux, Mac/Open Source)

Version tested: 1.2.1
Homepage: http://mnemosyne-proj.org/
Opens: .mem, .wcu, various .txt and .xml formats
Saves: .mem, .wcu, .txt, .xml

One application I’ve found on Wikipedia before writing up this post is Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne was the fastest programme I tested. It’s graphical user interface is extremely clean and the whole application feels very very light. The simplicity comes at a price, though. Mnemosyne is not as customizable as the other programmes covered. As much as I liked the coding, though, I have to admit that, similarly to Anki, I don’t quite understand why the author goes through the hassle of creating a system that allows the user to enter three-sided cards, but not to check for the pronunciation separately when memorizing new words. Also, I found the system of storing cards a little confusing. As soon as you enter a new vocabulary, the programme seems to create two cards — e.g. if you study German, Mnemosyne would for each vocabulary create one card English->German and another card German->English, instead of just flipping the card around when needed. I could imagine that this causes a lot of redundancy. Still, I think that this programme would be best suited for casual users, who don’t need a lot of options, but something that just works. Precreated card decks are available on the Mnemosyne homepage.

Parley (Linux/Open Source)

Version tested: 0.9.1
Homepage: http://edu.kde.org/parley/
Opens: .kvtml, .wql, .xml.qz, .pau.gz, .voc, .xdxf, .csv
Saves: .kvtml, .csv

The next programme on the list is ‘Parley’, an application included in Linux KDE’s Education package. Parley is one of the most mature vocabulary trainers I’ve seen by far. Not only does it open a whole bunch of different formats, it also has a very thoughtful designed interface and plenty of settings. You can add as many sides or languages to a card deck as you want. And the programme even handels verb conjugations, in case that exists in the language of your choice I admit I haven’t used the programme much, which is due to the fact that it’s only available for Linux so far — which is also the programme’s biggest disadvantage. HOWEVER, the KDE developers are working on a port of their desktop environent to Windows, called ‘KDE on Windows’, which can be found and downloaded at http://windows.kde.org/. They have made tremendous progress already, but it’s still a work -in-progress and not recommended for everyday use. If you really want to  give it a try, head over to their website, download the installer and choose to install the KDE education package. After the installation, you will find Parley in Start Menu -> KDE – > Education. The Windows version of Parley still shows a few error messages every now and then and it is a little slow. I’ve especially had trouble when running the app in a normal user account instead of my administrator account.

The main reason why you will want to keep an eye on this project, though, is MobVoc. MobVoc, which is available on http://mobvoc.sourceforge.net/, is a small vocabulary trainer for Java-enabled mobile phones. It’s extremely light, fast and responsive and runs on even the most basic Java -equipped phones. The project was only started in 2008 and so far MobVoc basically just flips through the words, but doesn’t save which words you actually learned. So as a vocabulary trainer, MobVoc doesn’t live up to its purpose, but it’s an ongoing project. And it’s free Precreated card decks for Parley and MobVoc are available on the Parley homepage.

Update (2009-11-15): After using Parley for a few days on Ubuntu Karmic Koala, I found that it doesn’t fully live up to what it promises. In spite of all its useful features, the programme in general feels a little buggy and many features just don’t work right. I’m not sure if this is related to my system, but I for my part will stick with jMemorize for now. Having a basic but stable vocabulary trainer counts more than dozens of fancy features.

iFlash (Mac/Freeware)

Homepage: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/home_learning/iflash.html
Opens: .cards, .csv
Saves: .cards, iPhone and iPod projectors

I didn’t really get to test this programme as I’ve never owned a Mac myself., but many of my friends use or used it, and I’ve seen it in action for the whole first semester at Jiaotong University thanks to Kai So I figured I should include it for the sake of completeness. Similarly to Parley, the application looks very mature already. Other than the applications above, the interface looks much leaner, but it doesn’t lack any of the essential features. Very Apple Especially the controls seem very intuitive. You flip through all the card sides with your cursor keys, then use the space key to mark a card as learned. iFlash vocabulary files can also be run on iPhones and other mobile devices, however the corresponding software doesn’t allow the user to mark things as learned, just like MobVoc above, which is particularly disappointing since the rest of the programme looks very well designed. I am sure there will be a fix for this some time, though. So if you’re a Mac user, I wouldn’t know why you would need to change

Other programmes

• Pauker (Windows, Linux, Mac, others/Open Source): http://pauker.sourceforge.net/
  A programme that doesn’t look very up to date anymore, but seems to have influenced later vocabulary trainers a lot. Many programmes presented here allowed for Pauker files to be imported.
• FlashBack (Windows, Linux/Open Source): http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Education/FlashBack-3490.shtml
• BeLearn (Windows/Payware): http://www.beblock.de/produkte/vokabeltrainer/
  First app I used when studying European languages at school. Very nice and intuitive interface. Checks user input. Drawback: bad customer service, see this post.

Conclusions

Choosing the winner is tough. If I had to generalize, I would give the award to Parley and iFlash. Both for their flexibility and their useful features. But the perfect programme for you really depends on your personal requirements and what you’re trying to do. Many people have been happy with Anki or jMemorize just as much The biggest problem is the lack of intercompatibility between different applications. There is no central file format that all applications implement. Even the formatting standards for plaintext .txt or .csv files differ from one programme to another. So choosing an application which can open and save different formats is crucial before you start typing hundreds of thousands of words into your computer.

It’s also a great pity that there are not more mobile Java applications around. MobVoc looks very promising, but hasn’t been updated for quite a while already. And again, interoperability is a problem here. Another feature I would like to see in more programmes is support for multiple card sides. If you want to learn an Asian language or if you just want to compare languages (e.g. memorize English and French words at the same time), multiple card sides just come in handy. This is an advantage that physical flashcards can’t provide and where computers can be a real help.

Last but not least: Remember this post is a work-in-progress. If you come across software that looks interesting or addresses one of the shortcomings mentioned here, please feel free to add a comment and share your findings with other readers. Although I’ve been mainly covering free/open source software, comments presenting commercial software are also very welcome.

• Abschlussbericht 1 – Shanghai Jiaotong-Universität 2008/09

Immerhin: Einer der Zwischenberichte, die wir im Januar gepostet haben, hat es nun doch auf die Seite des DAAD geschafft

Update (2009-10-17): Hier nun auch der zweite Abschlussbericht

• Abschlussbericht 2 – Shanghai Jiaotong-Universität 2008/09

Schon bei Beantragung der Befreiung für letztes Semester erklärten mir die Mitarbeiter überheblich, dass ich eine Studienbescheinigung meiner chinesischen Universtität brauche, die den gesamten Zeitraum des deutschen Semesters abdeckt. Der entsprechende Text auf der Seite des Studentenwerkes lautet:

Die Abwesenheit von Leipzig muss bei Antragstellung durch einen Abwesenheitsnachweis belegt werden, d.h. die Tätigkeit, durch die man an einen anderen Ort als Leipzig gebunden ist, muss mit taggenauen Angaben über 6 Monate belegt werden.

Das heißt, obwohl in China Semester Anfang Juli enden, soll ich eine Bescheinigung vorlegen, die bestätigt, dass ich bis Ende September studiere. Sofern ich eine solche Bescheinigung nicht vorlegen kann, habe ich den ganzen Semesterbeitrag zu zahlen. Zunächst war ich verwirrt. Glauben die Mitarbeiter des Studentenwerkes, dass ich Anfang Juli so schnell wie möglich nach Deutschland fliegen werde, um das Leipziger Mensa-Essen zu genießen?

Diese Forderung ist widersinnig und sogar rechtswidrig — aus den folgenden Gründen:

1. Auch wenn ich in Deutschland wäre, mit welcher Berechtigung fordert das Studentenwerk einen Nachweis, dass ich mich zu dieser Zeit nicht in Leipzig aufhalten werde?
2. Selbst wenn ich in Leipzig wäre, könnte man elektronisch nachprüfen, ob ich die Services des Studentenwerkes nutze. Das Studentenwerk Leipzig behauptete mir gegenüber, dies wäre nicht möglich. Das ist jedoch falsch. Es ist möglich. Ob es das Studentenwerk allerdings macht oder nicht, ist eine andere Frage — aber nicht mein Problem, denn:
3. Die Argumentation des Studentenwerkes ignoriert die Unschuldsvermutung.

Nichtsdestotrotz bot ich dem Studentenwerk an, ihnen eine Kopie des Zwischenmietvertrages für meine Wohnung zuzuschicken. Gesagt, getan. Nach Eingang des Briefes wurde mein Antrag jedoch wieder abgelehnt, mit der Begründung, dass ich eine Bestätigung meines Vermieters beizufügen habe. Wütend setzte ich mich mit dem Studentenwerk in Verbindung und forderte eine Aufklärung. Mittlerweile erschien es mir, als ob mein Antrag willkürlich abgelehnt wurde und es nicht im Interesse des Studentenwerkes liegt, mir finanziell mein Auslandsstudium zu erleichtern. Mein Verdacht war, das mir das Studentenwerk den Antrag auch mit Bestätigung des Vermieters wieder ablehnen würde, denn mein Zwischenmietvertrag endet leider drei Tage vor Semesterende.

Auf den Anruf wurde jedoch pampig reagiert. Auf meine Einwände wurde erwiedert, das 84€ “ja nicht viel Geld ist”. Auf den Vorwurf, dass mein Antrag ohnehin wieder abgelehnt würde, sagte man mir schlicht und einfach “ja”. Resigniert überwies ich das Geld. Einen Monat später sendete ich eine Rückforderung zusammen mit einer Bescheinigung über ein Praktikum in China an das Studentenwerk. Dies ist offiziell möglich:

Die Antragstellung auf Rückzahlung muss vor Vorlesungsbeginn beim Studentenwerk Leipzig vorliegen.

Innerhalb eines Monats ein Praktikum zu organisieren kostet viel Kraft und Zeit. Über E-mail wurde mir mitgeteilt, dass der Antrag am 20.3. und damit zu spät einging. Die Vorlesungen im Sommersemester 2009 beginnen am 6.4., aber ich hatte nichts anderes erwartet.

Ich bin bei weitem nicht der einzige Auslandsstudent, dem ein Auslandsaufenthalt durch das Studentenwerk in dieser Weise erschwert wird. Ich finde es völlig unverständlich, wie man junge Studenten bei ihren Planungen für ein Auslandsjahr so beeinträchtigen kann. Für mich war die Zahlung des Semesterbeitrages immer selbstverständlich. Diese Erfahrung hat mein Bild vom Studentenwerk Leipzig jedoch grundlegend verändert. Ich bin enttäuscht, wie die Mitarbeiter hier gegenüber Studenten auftreten und sich dabei im Recht sehen.

Man trifft sich immer zweimal im Leben. ]]> http://blog.portblue.de/2009/04/studentenwerk-leipzig-erschwert/feed/ 1 http://blog.portblue.de/2009/01/daad-zwischenbericht/ http://blog.portblue.de/2009/01/daad-zwischenbericht/#comments Sat, 24 Jan 2009 05:31:00 +0000 admin http://blog.portblue.de/?p=72 Mittlerweile ist fast ein halbes Jahr vergangen seit ich nach China gekommen bin. Beim DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch-dienst) ist es üblich, dass sämtliche Stipendianten bis Ende Januar einen Zwischenbericht zu ihrem Aufenthalt in China abgeben. Diese Erfahrungen werden gesammelt und für spätere Stipendianten auf der Homepage des DAAD veröffentlicht. Meine Erfahrungen mit diesen Berichten waren jedoch meist gemischt: oft wurden Berichte im Telegramm-Stil abgefasst oder wesentliche Details ausgelassen. Kein Bericht schaffte es, alle notwendigen Fakten an einer Stelle zu vereinen. Diesem Problem haben wir, ein Kommilitone und ich, uns angenommen. Da es gewöhnlich jedoch dauert, bis neue Berichte auf der Homepage des DAAD veröffentlicht werden, möchten wir unsere Berichte auch an dieser Stelle nochmals online stellen.

DAAD-Zwischenbericht Selbstzahlerprogramm 2008/09 Jiaotong-Universität 交通大学, Shanghai 上海:
> Bericht 1
> Bericht 2

2nd May 2008
Leipzig from the City Hall Tower (Rathaus-Turm), opens Mon-Fri 11 A.M. and 2 P.M., 2.50€

1st May 2008
University of Leipzig 2009