emb

joined 2 years ago
[–] emb@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Much appreciated, thank you!

[–] emb@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Can I grab that Xcom2?

[–] emb@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Still, it's hard to tell what you mean. Games that players engage with to be perceived a certain way? Games so expensive only people of a certain status can afford them? Games about attaining social status? The various ways people pursue social status IRL?

What do you think of when you say a 'social status game'?

[–] emb@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Yep, narratively Undertale uses the exact concept you're talking about.

It's not much of a mechanic for most parts of the game though.

[–] emb@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Hope you find someone!

If no one gets to you here, I'd recommend HelloTalk for language exchange. It's an app that pairs up native speakers of different languages. Has annoying nags about subscribing, but generally it's free. Connected me with several Spanish speakers that I was happy to have talked to.

[–] emb@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

Yeah, it is really hard to know how to best divide your study.

I think paper books are really nice to have. Textbooks are literally from someone sitting down and saying, "What's the best way to teach these things to someone", so those are good for structure.

Textbooks aren't a whole picture though, and I think that's why some people are hard on them. They mostly wind up focused on analytical approaches, which to an extent should follow exposure and intuition.

To get that exposure, I think it's important to listen. Listening and speaking are just harder than reading and writing. So IMO a good plan should have at least a few minutes (maybe 5) where you deliberately, attentively listen to native speakers with no subtitles.

Paper books are great for extensive reading too, but I wish I had libraries around me with more non-English books. Can get a limited selection of Spanish, but Japanese is unlikely. I don't necessarily want to keep stacks of random easy books around the house just because they're in another language.

In general I'd also say it depends a lot on what you enjoy and what you're willing to do. In your case tho, you seem pretty disciplined and I'd pretty much trust you to make some kind of plan and follow it.

[–] emb@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Yeah, seems like it is extremely fragmented.

I can't offer real advice, but these seem like OK starting points:

Don't know, but I'd say focus more on the immediate areas you plan to be in. Really surprised there's not an international or at least EU standard, but I'm not seeing one recommended at a quick glance.

[–] emb@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Not sure what best practice is broadly, but in general display: flex is the first tool I reach for if I need to position child elements a little more carefully.

It's good for most things more complex than just margin/padding/text-align. If it gets too complex for flexbox, dig into CSS grid.

[–] emb@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Check out Flexbox!

[–] emb@lemmy.world 25 points 6 days ago (4 children)

I've already seen it replaced in some applications. Don't like that.

I know it's "if you have to", but if I have any choice at all, the floppy icon stays.

[–] emb@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Hash functions only work in one direction. By design, the outputs are not unique, so you can't reverse it. For example, a simplified version might take any number and map it to a 1 digit number. So if you saw the result was 3, you can't know if the original number was 976 or 2265.

Everything in security does just move the goal posts though, you're right.

You can't really use the hashed password to impersonate, because whatever server logic is there to authenticate users will hash it again. But the output from that, a token or cookie or whatever, can sometimes be grabbed and used maliciously. They usually have short lifetimes before they need to be refreshed, but beyond that I don't know how the mitigations work tbh.

Another potential problem is attackers getting the hash, and comparing it to hashes of common passwords, dictionary words, etc. They apply 'salt' (changes to password before hashing) to try and make this harder.

6
Comprehensible Input Wiki (comprehensibleinputwiki.org)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by emb@lemmy.world to c/languagelearning@sopuli.xyz
 

This website collects a wide variety of resources for a wide variety of languages. Mainly it's the Comprehensible Input flavored Youtube channels and podcasts. In some cases they have other input-focused stuff too, like children's material or easier native content. Overall, super useful!

As always, the less popular languages have less resources available; but at least in this case, many languages are represented. Here's the ones that at least have a page:

spoiler

  • American Sign Language
  • Arabic (Standard)
  • Armenian
  • Basque
  • Biblical Greek
  • Biblical Hebrew
  • Bulgarian
  • Cantonese
  • Catalan
  • Chinese
  • Cook Islands Māori
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • English
  • Esperanto
  • Estonian
  • Finnish
  • French
  • German
  • Greek
  • Haitian Creole
  • Hakka
  • Hebrew
  • Hindi
  • Hungarian
  • Indonesian
  • Irish
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Latin
  • Lithuanian
  • New Zealand Sign Language
  • Niuean
  • Norwegian
  • Occitan
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Samoan
  • Sanskrit
  • Sardinian
  • Serbo-Croatian
  • Sicilian
  • Slovenian
  • Slovak
  • Spanish
  • Swahili
  • Swedish
  • Tagalog
  • Te Reo Maori
  • Thai
  • Tokelauan
  • Toki Pona
  • Tongan
  • Tunisian Arabic
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian
  • Vietnamese
  • Welsh
  • Yoruba
  • Zulu
  • Åossa

And it's a wiki, so if you know of good resources that are missing, I imagine contributions are welcome!

[–] emb@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

That said, I do think it'd make a pretty cool app to be able to say 'I know this and this language, generate a text in another language that leans towards words adapted from either'. Probably an LLM kinda task (with the associated downsides), but I'd be curious what other approaches you might have in mind.

 

Apparently the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation decides one of these every year.

This year, 熊 (kuma) was selected, meaning bear. For whatever reason, Japan has had a bunch of bear issues lately.

 

I've been trying to do more Spanish listening. I've realized I don't know of many podcasts

Dreaming Spanish kind of sets the standard for comprehensible input videos, so I did look and see that they have a podcast. It's pretty good, but slow. I've listened to a couple of video game podcasts before - Viciados and Reload. The former seemed kinda mumbly and hard to hear, the latter has long episodes but isn't bad.

So give me your recs. I'd like to have something that splits the difference - closer to natural speed than Dreaming Spanish, but still very clear spoken. Don't worry about that tho, throw out any podcasts you like, targeted at native speakers or learners.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39170712

Anki is an open-source flashcard app for Windows, Linux, Mac OSX with versions also available for Android and iOS. Unfortunately, iOS version costs $25, but all other versions are free.

Anki is a self-graded flashcard program / app. This makes it a combination quiz-app + timer system. Unlike Duolingo or other programs, Anki entirely relies upon self-grading, but this is more than sufficient for study.

Anki grabs the top cards from a deck (defaulting to 20 new cards per day. Feel free to customize this to whatever fits your needs best). Then each day, it grabs "scheduled review" cards + shuffles in the new cards, and shows you them one at a time. Once a card is shown to you, you the user click a button to reveal the other side.

After the flip, Anki asks you to self-grade yourself on your performance. "Again" means you grade yourself as "incorrect", and Anki will remember this mistake. Because you were "incorrect" on this card, Anki will show you the card again very soon.

If you choose one of the three "correct" scores (labeled "Hard", "Good" and "Easy"), Anki remembers that you've answered correctly, and will schedule the card some time in the future. I'll get to the difference of the three scores later, but consider all three to just be "correct" for now.

The precise time is calculated based on how well Anki thinks you know the card. If you know the card well, "Good" might schedule the card to be reviewed 1 month from now, but if you've made a lot of mistakes with a particular card, then that card will likely be reviewed 1 or 2 days from now. Its all data collected on a per-card basis.

Above is an example screenshot of Anki's memory: every single self-graded score is remembered on every single card, as well as the date and time of each score.

As such, Anki is a system of spaced repetition. The "better" you are with some cards, the less you see them. The "worse" you are with other cards, the more Anki shows you those particular cards you keep making mistakes with. Timer + self-grading == you only see the cards you're doing bad with, while Anki hides the cards you are doing good with.

The Algorithm

FSRS is a new experimental algorithm Anki is using. There's been 6 versions (FSRS-1, -2, -3,... and of course FSRS 6 today). Fortunately, the overall gist has been the same for all 6 versions. Alas, its a lot of blogposts and technical math that's far too nerdy for most people https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/wiki/The-Algorithm. For the math nerds who want to learn the algorithm, study away. But I'll attempt to do a simpler "translation".

Before we get started, click on your deck's preferences and scroll down to the FSRS button. Ensure it is on.

FSRS is simply three pieces of memory being applied to each and every "card" in your Anki decks. Every single card will try to figure out "R", "S" and "D". R is the probability that you've forgotten a card each day. The longer a card goes without being shown, the worse-and-worse "R" gets (this is the value Anki uses to determine when to repeat a card to you, it wants to show you a card before you've forgotten, but after enough time that you had a chance to forget, defaulting to 10% chance of forgetting).

Every single card tracked by Anki has this "forgetting" curve, primarily defined by the "R" aka Retention variable.

The theory is: if you show a card too often, you never really test your long-term memory. Furthermore, its too much extra work to review so many cards. By waiting days, weeks, or months before showing you a card again, Anki saves you time by not overly-reviewing cards you already know the information of. Furthermore, studies have shown that showing you information "right as you are forgetting about it" is the best way to remember (!!!). Any sooner, and you really aren't learning too well, but instead just temporarily holding things in your short-term or medium-term memory.

"S" stands for Stability. The more "stable" a card is, the longer Anki-FSRS thinks it can stay in your memory memory without review. Most "new" cards are assumed to be forgotten about within a day by default. However, as you get the card "correct" over-and-over again, Anki-FSRS will increase stability, thereby causing the longer review intervals. (Maybe showing you a card once every 3 days, then 7 days, then 1.5 months, then 3 months....).

"D" stands for Difficulty. The more times you get a card wrong (ie: when you click the "Again" button), the worse Difficulty gets. Anki-FSRS remembers that some cards are harder for you to remember... in particular the ones you keep getting wrong.

Even if you get a high-difficulty card correct multiple times, Anki "remembers" that you have been forgetting this card, and will show it to you again sooner. Ex: by default Anki will mature a card within 7x correct answers in a row. However, if a card is "difficult", Anki will keep showing you that card 10x, 15x or more, knowing that you need the extra practice.

Or in more math-nerd terms, "Difficulty" is the derivative of stability. The change-of-stability is determined by the "Difficulty" of a card.

Hard / Good / Easy

Hard / Good / Easy all count as correct (ie: increases the stability of Anki-FSRS), but will do different things to your Difficulty score.

"Good" is the default, and Anki recommends that users hit the "Good" button 80%+ of the time. Lets pretend that a particular "Good" answer will result in 1-month timer for a particular card...

"Easy" basically is telling Anki that you don't want to practice with this card anymore (ie: low-difficulty card). After clicking "Easy", instead of taking a 1-month timer... Anki will likely choose a 1.5-month or 2-month timer on the card.

"Hard" is telling Anki that you want extra practice with this card. It increases difficulty, despite increasing stability. You'll see this card again more-and-more in the future. Instead of 1-month timer, Anki might show you the card again within 2-weeks.

Where Anki fits in language learning

Anki was originally developed to help its original programmer learn Japanese. Its not an end-all be-all app however. Anki is only a piece of any language-learner. You must also buy grammar / theory books, as well as write regularly in the new language... speaking and listening and more.

Nonetheless, "Anki" is your cudgel. A brute-force method to try to force vocabulary words into your brain through raw force. You'll likely never gain mastery of the words through Anki... but you can at least become a beginner and learn how to start reading. There's literally thousands, if not tens-of-thousands of words you must learn to become proficient in a language. And that's spelling, grammar usage (gender / der/das/die in German, or maybe conjugation rules and pluralization rules), definitions and more!!

In all cases, Anki can be used as a way to force this information into your brain, getting it ready so that those words can "begin to be learned" when you watch TV, listen to a foreign language podcast or hear those words in a song.

Yes, Anki isn't enough. But Anki is a great tool to get you started. And getting started is sometimes the hardest step for many people.

Remember: 1000 words is beginner level (near 1st grade level understanding), while 10,000 words is roughly high school level. If you wish to be seen as a competent adult in a new language, you must figure out a system to reach those 10,000+ words known. 10,000 words sounds like a lot in isolation... especially because true mastery of 10,000 words includes spelling, grammar (pluralization/conjugation/gender), meaning, and pronunciation. But think about it: 10,000 words is merely 14 words per day for 2-years. Plenty of people have used Anki to jumpstart that kind of long-term forced-learning of words.

 

https://www.gematsu.com/2025/11/pokemon-pokopia-launches-march-5-2026

The physical edition will ship on a game-key card worldwide, as revealed by a new video about game-key cards (English, Japanese) released today by Nintendo.

I think this is the first big-ish Nintendo release to use a key-card.

17
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by emb@lemmy.world to c/languagelearning@sopuli.xyz
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/38090293

This is a collection of Japanese lessons that don't rely on translation. Instead, it shows a picture to establish a concept, then builds on that.

It's based on the ideas behind Lingue Latina Per Se Illustrata (LLPSI).

I don't know how useful this is compared to other methods, but I think it's a neat thing to check out.

 

This is a collection of Japanese lessons that don't rely on translation. Instead, it shows a picture to establish a concept, then builds on that.

It's based on the ideas behind Lingue Latina Per Se Illustrata (LLPSI).

I don't know how useful this is compared to other methods, but I think it's a neat thing to check out.

 

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/46133193

Happy Casual Tuesday!

彁 is a Japanese "ghost character". Its meaning is unknown and it doesn't appear in the famous 18th century Kangxi Dictionary of Chinese characters. It was most likely just created by mistake during the process of computerizing Japanese writing.

 

Just saw that this web app was available, and I think it seems like a cool idea. It's like a gamified rec engine.

Unfortunately it needs a sign up to start, but looks like there's no email verification right now. And thankfully it runs in web browser, no app needed.

Tried it, and it seems kinda jank. I don't recognize any of the 'experts', and didn't really know what to do with games I already played, and liked, but didn't love. The preferences and special cards didn't seem interesting.

So I dunno. Maybe it'll be useful over time and with more runs. But I thought it seemed neat, anyway and thought this community might be interested.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33886241

What community would you like to see more active on Lemmy?

I suspect most people aren't subbing/following communities on Lemmy. So post the community or topic you want to see pop off. And reader(that's you) if you are interested in that community click the link and follow it.

👏Let's 👏 start 👏 coordinating 👏 people.

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