Anyone using Glossika? Let's discuss resources

[Nabeshima120]

I am wondering if anyone here is using “Glossika mass sentences” for Mandarin or other languages. I am most likely going to buy it soon for Mandarin and Japanese. If you are a Glossika user, how has your experience been? How long have you been using it? Do you use the SRS or the Mass Sentence files? How much time per day do you dedicate to Glossika?

I personally like to use many different resources for studying languages, helps me stay engaged and not get bored. I have also become a big fan of learning language through listening while doing other tasks, and Glossika looks promising for this style of studying.

Also, I would like to ask everyone what other products are they using in conjunction with Cpod?

Here’s what I have been using thus far:

Abc’s of Chinese

Pimsleur 1-3

Learn Mandarin while you drive pt 1

Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar, Claudia Ross and Jing Heng Sheng Ma

Common Chinese Patterns 330

Lingq

Far East 3000 Character Dictionary

Hanban New Practical Chinese Reader textbook 3

Arch online chinese dictionary

I’m interested in what people are using, what they find effective and how they go about their studies? Let’s add on.

[psamet]

I recently bought Glossika and plan to start using it tomorrow, actually. I’m hoping it will help with my speaking, as that has fallen behind my listening/reading ability. I like the idea of drilling sentence patterns into my subconscious. In the past, I’ve used the “Chinese Sentences and audio, spoon fed” premade Anki deck, which spits out sentences like Glossika, and I’ve found those sentences have become the easiest for me to say. Sometimes I find myself mumbling some random sentence in Chinese, like humming a song that gets stuck in your head, only to realize that I’m repeating verbatim a sentence from Anki that I had heard weeks earlier. So I figure, if Glossika is a more regimented version of this Anki deck, I’m sure it’s going to be productive for me.

I’m gonna do the mass sentences (since I believe that was the original concept for the system) and see if I could keep up with the schedule. Maybe I’ll dip into the SRS if I have time on my commute.

Other than ChinesePod, which is my main source of listening, I’ve also used YoyoChinese for basic instruction; Pimsleur for speaking; Mandarin Companion, Chinese Breeze, and Chairman’s Bao for reading; iTalki for tutoring; Lang-8 for writing. I often read HackingChinese and John Pasden’s Sinosplice blog for tips and tricks. At some point soon, I want to switch all my OS’s, browsers, and goto websites to Chinese so I can create an online immersion environment. And I want to start doing language exchanges with Chinese speakers on HelloTalk.

[leurne]

I tried several other app but honestly, everytime i’m coming back to chinesepod. Basically I prefer to be focus in one app that to be spread on lot of different app. I had the feeling i’m losing time by this way.
But i’m still looking for some other app ^^ I will have a look for Glossika.
The other app that i’m using is more radio app to listen chinese (i understand nearly nothing but its good to listen chinese ^^), or streaming app (viki etc…)

Otherwise, i’m reading more book. It’s easier for me. I have two book from the same editor. Often the evening before to sleep I’m reading one lesson of each. Couple with cpod, it’s quiet helpful

[podster]

Your post and the thread that followed caused me to evaluate Glossika. They sent me some SRS sample files from 2014, though I think they have recently re-recorded them. One could probably learn something from them, but honestly it seems like brute force phrase repetition. It certainly is a departure from CPod’s “top down” approach, given that every utterance is first in English and then its translation in Chinese. I’d rather have something that tries more for an immersion experience like Rosetta Stone if I am going to be faced with a lot of repetition. As for being “spaced repetition”, since it is not interactive, it is going to repeat the phrases from the recording without any input from the user to indicate the degree to which the material has already been mastered. Every other SRS package I have seen is software-based and modifies the repetition based on calculated need (or optimal sequence and timing.) Still, I will try to stick with Glossika for a few more days to give it a fair trial, and also see if there is an updated sample. By the way, there is a link at the bottom of their website that says “Try Glossika” which just reloads the page. You would need to write to them to request a trial.

To supplement CPod I second the recommendation of The Chairman’s Bao for reading. Especially if it is about current topics, you may find a topic in both places, so you get some additional reinforcement. The same goes for another site I like, Slow Chinese, which I use for listening practice. For writing I like Skritter, and the fact that it is integrated with CPod is an added benefit. I’ve done Pimsleur I-IV, and I find them motivating, but some people think they are a bit slow. I would say the trade-off is you get little content spread out over a long time, but you learn it really well. I don’t use technology to communicate with native speakers explicitly for language practice because I have enough opportunities in the city where I live to meet native speakers. And that, of course, is the best resource of all, and the reason why most of us endeavor to learn this challenging language in the first place. So don’t be 宅男 (or 宅女 ) ; get out there and use the language! 加油，and best wishes.

[Nabeshima120]

I have still yet to purchase glossika, not because I don’t understand how it works or that I doubt it works, but because I can’t decide what language to get it for. I first discovered about glossika while searching for Cantonese resources. The price is fair and it seems straight forward what they are offering. To add on, as far as I understand there are also files provided that have only the target language, which is ideal because the book will have the translations anyway. I like exploring languages, what can I say? Every product works in its own way, the reality is you still have to make it work. Sure I could thoroughly study every single chinesepod lesson but I enjoy doing different things at different times. Funny you mentioned “slow chinese” because I have gone through some of his lessons that a user uploaded on lingq, they’re pretty good, but some are actually too “slow” for my liking, regardless, they have still been valuable. If I gets iPhone6s and one of those stylus things I’ll sign up for skritter, but damn that 15 a month though, I’m already paying here and at lingq… until then I’ll continue to manual skritter haha

I am also lucky enough to speak with native speakers in my city and sometimes even at work, but I also have used conversationexchange.com for practice here and in Taiwan. I agree the best resource is actually using the language with natives but that doesn’t only mean speaking, there is a lot of books to be read… And plus, the more you read and the more vocabulary you accumulate the more interesting conversations you can have, even if you know all the common words, you can’t really gage how well you are expressing yourself if your missing a good portion of the less frequent ones out there, and thats not even thinking about idioms, historically references in speech etc… anyways, I gotta go watch a episode of 瑯琊榜 before sleep, 下次再聊