What can we improve?

#1

Thanks for trying out The Great Translation Game! What can do to make it more useful and more fun? What can we do to help you learn to write and think better in your target language?

Any and all feedback is very much appreciated. Feedback so far:

  • Buttons for accent characters. Added!
  • A way to toggle whether sentence text-to-speech audio auto-plays after answering. Added!
  • A “next letter” hint button. Added!
  • A way to choose the text-to-speech used if multiple available. Added!
  • Save partially translated sentences on page refresh.
  • Delete button on each sentence. Added!
  • Global/overall leaderboard.

What else? We probably won’t be able to add everything, but if enough people think something would be useful we’ll figure something out. I’ll update this list as we go. Thanks again!

4 Likes
#2

a way to switch between the Spain voice and the LAm voice

2 Likes
#3

Hello Mike!

This tool is quite interesting.

My feedback is as following:

  • Turkish language please :tr: :upside_down_face:
  • When the user refreshes or leaves the website and comes back again, in the middle of translating a long sentence, it would be nice to have that partially translated sentence saved, so that the user can continue the translation later.
  • I’d like to also reinforce the “next letter” hint idea.

Bugs detected:

  • I translated the following sentence:

"El Real Madrid C. F. y el Chelsea FC han acordado (…) en la noche del viernes.

"Real Madrid CF and Chelsea FC have agreed (…) on Friday night.

image

And nothing happened. I translated everything, including the last character (dot). It’s not counting has translated, nor did it give me the “success” sound.

That’s it so far!

1 Like
#4

Thanks for the feedback!

  • Turkish language added :+1: :tr:
  • Saving partially translated sentences - added to the list.
  • Next letter hint button added!

I’ll look into that bug, thanks for letting me know. I realize you’ve probably since closed the tab and we don’t yet have support for saving partially translated sentences :slightly_smiling_face: but if possible and it’s still an issue could you please post the answer you’re trying to submit?

Anything else please be sure to let me know! :slight_smile:

Also @aaronrowe220 - a way to change voices (when there are multiple available) has been added.

1 Like
#5

When I start playing a sentence, the original text should be set to display: none; instead of color: white; to prevent me from highlighting the original text and seeing the answer. Also, I’d like to see Danish language, please :slight_smile: :denmark:

Thanks for the work you do!

1 Like
#6

consistently having trouble importing articles in spanish

#7

@aaronrowe220 what are the articles you’re trying to import and what’s trouble you’re having? Is there an error message, are they not importing fully or not split into sentences correctly, or some other issue? Could you send some of the urls? Thanks for any further info!

@cody I disabled text selection :slight_smile: Will work on getting Danish added. Thanks for the feedback!

#8

Having lots of fun with this tool! Here’s some more feedback:

Bugs:

  • Whenever I finish translating a sentence in Turkish, all sentences disappear. I need to click the Dashboard and then click the article to be able to see the sentences again.

  • I’ve had an issue importing an article (it gave an error, no sentences were imported). I no longer remember which article was it, so I can’t give a link. If I come across this situation again, I will remember to send you the URL.

Request:

  • Delete button on each sentence. Since some sentences may not be very helpful, an option to delete individual sentences would be useful. It could be just a small X on the top right corner of the sentence card, for example. (Along with a confirmation dialog, just incase the user pressed the button by accident).
1 Like
#9

Glad to hear! :slight_smile:

For the disappearing sentences issue - what operating system and browser are you using?

I’ll add the “Delete button on each sentence.” idea to the list above and will see what I can come up with. How are you currently using the app? Are you repeating articles multiple times? Do you feel like having a way to favorite sentences and then practice just those favorited sentences later would be useful?

Thanks for the feedback!

#10

Windows 10 with Google Chrome.
Also happens on mobile. Android 7.1 with CM Browser.

Right now, I have just one article imported. I am at a level where doing this type of exercise is still a little bit challenging. Therefore, I am only translating about 3-4 new sentences a day. I may do more than that in the future, but right now, I am happy with this pace. Before starting translating new sentences, I reset a few of my latest translations, so that I can redo them and revive my memory, and only then I start translating new sentences.

My plan is to finish this article and move on to another one afterwards, while repeating this approach if I still find it beneficial.

As for favorites, yes it sounds like a good add-on! For someone working with really long articles (e.g., books), it would be interesting to have a favorite section within each article. So the user can practice their favorite sentences within that article, therefore there is still a common theme “unifying” those sentences.

A global list of favorites across all articles will also have it’s merit, despite losing this common theme effect.

The way I think about it is like this: As the user adds/removes a sentence to the articles favorite list, the sentence would automatically be added/removed on the global favorite list.

If most users, however, prefer to work with shorter articles, having a list of favorite sentences within each article might not be that useful, and therefore one global favorites list would be enough to cover most use cases.

1 Like
#11

I’ve had a lot of fun uploading a couple of blog posts in German on wool and spinning. They’re fun to translate because it’s a topic I love, and I get to learn vocabulary that’s specific to fiber arts. (Dictionaries are often useless with most spinning, fiber preparation, and knitting terminology.) I’m learning this vocab better with TG2 than I was with reading alone. Thanks, @mike!

I second @Punk’s request for a delete button on each sentence.

2 Likes
#12

@Punk thanks for all the feedback! That’s all really helpful to know. I’ll work on getting that bug sorted, and will see what I can come up with favorites. How do you think you might like to review global favorites? Perhaps an option to view them all in a list and another option to play through random selection presented like an article?

@Kaspian glad to hear and thanks for the comment! Noted on the delete button :+1: Do you see any need for a way to favorite sentences and/or review them later? Or do you think it’d be a nice-to-have-but-not-critical feature? Anything else that might make TG2 more useful?

#13

@mike
I think you nailed it, having both options to review sounds perfect!

1 Like
#14

For the way I’m using TG2, I don’t think I’d use a favorites button. My plan at the moment is to upload blog posts, read/translate them, and then move on to the next one without ever looking back.

It might be fun to have a global leaderboard. Then we can all be impressed by @holachicos2! :wink:

On Clozemaster, I’m also learning Dutch, Danish, and Swedish. Of the three, I’d say Danish is most important to me, so here’s another vote for adding Danish soon.

Thanks again for another great language-learning tool!

1 Like
#15

To add to the idea of repeating sentences…

…Yes I think it would be good to be able to favourite sentences to review later.

…also.it might be nice to know how many times you’ve completed a sentence. So a counter of some sort for each sentence. You could then order your sentences when you wanted to review by the least/most times you’d played that sentence.

I also wondered if you had considered an overall leaderboard for total played as well as the weekly? I would find it helpful and motivating.

1 Like
#16

I would just like to add my support for the suggestion that you add a ‘delete’ button on each sentence. Depending on the format of the source material we choose to add, there can be elements that are not wanted/relevant and it would be nice to be able to remove them.

On the subject of ‘repeating’ items, do other users think that these should be included or excluded from our word/sentence count scores in the leaderboard? Currently, they are double counted. On balance, I think I would prefer single counting but this may be difficult to programme.

1 Like
#17

@cody @Kaspian Danish added! :denmark:

@Punk @Kaspian @ALANH delete button added!

@Bex @Kaspian I’ll see what I can come up with for a global/overall leaderboard.

Thanks for all the feedback! :slight_smile:

#18

Hello!

First of all, thanks a lot for all the work you have been doing so far. I remember discovering Clozemaster on my first year of studies and I have been IN LOVE ever since. Many people had asked me what my key to success was, as I was able to speak many languages fluently at a relatively young age. I had always told them that putting the word in a context is a way to completely revolutionize the way you learn a language. Imagine me discovering Clozemaster back then. It was 100% what I needed. I even remember the exact moment. Okay, that’s the end of my love letter (at least for now). :heart:

A couple of things that I see after a quick first run:

  1. Can you add Italian, pretty please? :heart:

  2. What about a ‘bulk’ mode? Like randomly choosing a specific number of sentences (10?) from the whole database of a given user to mix it up a little? (from the articles I have practiced so far?)

What I have in mind is that when I’m translating an article on a given topic, it’s easy for me to remember the specific vocabulary, but if I got the same sentence out of the blue, it would probably take me a while to remember the words. Having a sentence about politics come up, followed with one about economics, one about technology, one about history etc. would probably be more beneficial in terms of making those words stick. All in all, when you’re translating “live”, you don’t have that much time to remember words from a specific field. Drilling down a single article is good when you want to stay in the topic, but if you really want to be flexible and form different connections in the brain - at least in my opinion - the vocabulary shouldn’t catch you off guard. It now seems easy for me to remember e.g. “cryptocurrency” in Spanish, as I got that word in every sentence or so, but I wouldn’t be so sure of myself if I needed to use that word in a conversation about art or politics (and not finance, tech or economics).

I hope you’re getting what I’m trying to say. I know that there’s a way to favorite sentences and review them, but I would also love to see an equivalent of playing all the songs from my Spotify library in a random order. :slight_smile:

  1. Another idea to reconsider is a “test” mode in a specific article. The sentences would load as they do now, but with no translation (or maybe a simple “Hide All Translations” button would suffice?). Before I hit “Play”, I get the chance to see the words. My willpower isn’t strong enough to ignore the Spanish translation completely. Having them blanked out all at once would force me to come up with them, no peeking.

  2. What about some ways to organize the articles I have added so far? Right now I see the titles of the articles, but speaking of the fields they belong to, it would be nice to be able to sort them after a while (Economy, Law, Technology, World News, Politics, Hobbies etc.). I imagine it may get crowded after some time, especially for someone who works on a lot of topics.

I am sorry if my ideas are too far from what you had in mind. If you wanted to keep TG with a single-article view, as a tool that’s suited for reviewing articles one by one, that’s fine. I’m just constantly looking for ways to challenge myself in terms of language learning/testing and to force myself to do more. :slight_smile: Mixing it up would be one way of doing that. :wink:

Keep up the good work! Fingers crossed!

EDITED: I have spotted a bug. Language: Spanish, article: " EE UU enviará 1.000 soldados más a Oriente Próximo ante “la amenaza” de Irán" (from the El Pais RSS feed).

Sentence number 3: I am trying to translate “The recent Iranian attacks…” as “Los recientes ataques iraníes”. I was stuck and asked for a hint. Instead of providing me with one, the letter simply doubles - e.g. if I write “iran”, it gives me “irann” and immediately stops me from continuing. Could this be a problem with the accent?

1 Like
#19

Thanks for the kind words about Clozemaster! That’s awesome to hear :slight_smile:

And thanks for all the great feedback!

  1. Will do!
  2. This is an interesting idea! I’m working on a review mode where you can practice sentences selected at random from articles you’ve added. Will comment/post once it’s up to see if it matches what you have in mind.
  3. Here I think you mean hiding the Italian sentence (when learning Italian / having uploaded an article in Italian) leaving just the English translations - does that sound right? That should be doable, will see what I can come up with.
  4. Hm perhaps being able to easily tag the articles you’ve added and then view by tag? I’ll also add sort by alphabetical and date added/played.

I’m just constantly looking for ways to challenge myself in terms of language learning/testing and to force myself to do more.

That I get - same here! :slight_smile:

Thanks for the bug report as well - will check it out.

EDIT: Looks like you might be missing the first double quote in that sentence, which seems to cause the issue you described. Please let me know of course if that’s not the case. Thanks!

#20
  1. Thanks for adding Italian, you’re a wonder. Getting down to testing! (and studying!)
    EDIT: But why oh why /dashboard/italian isn’t working? :sob:
  2. Yeah, that’s probably what I had in mind, but I had to explain it more… extensively.
  3. And again yeah, to start only with the English translations. That way, I can test my skills before seeing the Italian version.
  4. Tagging sounds lovely and simpler than adding folders. :slight_smile:

As for the bug, yeah, when I add the double quote, it works, but on the other hand, I guess it shouldn’t have let me get anywhere without typing it.

1 Like