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.'.:::::::`. Petros Katiforis (Πέτρος Κατηφόρης)
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;.:: / _~~_ Want to ask any question or perhaps share your thoughts?
; | C ..\ Feel free to contact me! <pkatif@mail.com>
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\ | / \ This post was published on the 21st of July, 2023
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Language-learning requires lots of dedication and patience. Before I found out about the world of GNU/Linux and libre software I used to probe the web in search of specialized applications. After numerous failed attemtps, I quickly became disappointed and concluded that a personal language learning teacher is presumably mandatory. That is before I figured out that all I needed was a simple text editor.
From my experience, grammar usually arrives naturally to the learner. On the other hand, vocabulary can only be taught after regular, daily reviews and tremendous memorization. When I want to challenge myself to learn a new language, I look up books online (you can pirate them too). I start up with vocabulary lists, fundamental grammar structures and only afterwards do I move to numbers and simple stories for children. Once I get all these out of the way, I move on to random literature. Not only do I enrich my vocabulary, but I also get to read the works of my favourite authors and improve my language-independent knowledge on various topics and facts.
When I'm studying I've got just two windows open: A pdf viewer for the book I'm currently reading (zathura) and Emacs. My new vocabulary is stored in separate files under ~/languages/english/*.en. Every single day or so, I create a new file (say 15.en) and insert new words throughout the whole day. Later on, I review some of my old lists and the cycle continues. Emacs eliminates the need of a web browser! I've installed sdcv with a popular english dictionary of over 170,000 discrete words. I've bound 'C-c d' to look up the current work under my cursor and show me its definition. Here's the code snippet:
(defun find-word-definition ()
"Finds the definition of the current word under the point.
Will use the sdcv terminal program, so the user needs to make
sure that he has already defined and installed a dictionary"
(interactive)
(let ((current-word (thing-at-point 'word)))
(when current-word
(shell-command (concat "sdcv -n " current-word)))))
(global-set-key (kbd "C-c d") 'find-word-definition)
And that's about it. If you're desperately looking for free versions of books you can check out Anna's Archive[1]. If the author of the book that you're enjoying is alive and you can afford a donation, then go for it!