[Course Forum] Basic Slovak by loeiten

Have not done the course for a while. I am not sure about level 19 anymore. However the error is still present in level 15. The audio for “zapamätať si” simply says “si”

Dear @Uzivatelka

Thanks for your feedback.
That’s correct. Some of the audios are missing simply because I haven’t been able to find any good audios. Luckily, Slovak is pronounced as it is written (to a very high degree). It is possible that I find a good audio in the future, until then, level 2 can give you hints on the pronunciation.

All the best
loeiten

Then I think it would be better to remove audio altogether from such words. The app features listening tests, and when one hears only “si,” one should not be expected to select zapamätať as the answer.

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I see…that can be annoying indeed.
I’ll get around to fix it once I get time.
Thanks for reporting :wink:

I’m forcing myself through this Course but find myself quite often annoyed by a number of topics.
– Audio missing / half - complete (see above discussions)
– too many student related words that any other person will hardly need (e.g. ziacka, jednosmerny, prednazka etc.)
– pronunciation lessons for individual characters (e,g, ch, l, a, o) are simply unneccessary and nerve-wrecking
– the same applies for some declination lessons, e.g. ja mám, tu más, oni / ony sa neusmieva and so on … what is this for ? and with one question it even makes a difference even whether you put the ( ) or not , this is just annoying
– some words are simply too easy e,g, auto, pizza and others of very little relevance to everyday life, e.g. nocny stolik, polica, bohac, kniezatstsvo …
– on the other hand, I would really appreciate to learn and hear more entire phrases that are helpful in everyday life, without having to type them character-by-character. This ability to type may come at a very later stage, most probably after or outside of Memrise. What matters more now, would be to get a simple understanding of what you hear on the street. I had a very good experience with this kind of learning during my first Memrise course in Basic Russian.

Greetings,

Bruno, Vienna / Austria

Dear Bruno

Thank you for coming with suggestions that could make the course better. I will address your suggestions one by one below.

  1. The missing audio: In general there are quite some audios missing from this course. Originally I meant the audio as a help for the written learning, and not something to be prompted. I will remove the audio which only contains “si” and “sa”. However, I strongly discourage learning from the audio, simply because there are too few words with audio. Unfortunately, memrise does not give me an option to disable the audio prompt (it is disabled, but there seems to be a bug with the memrise API as noted here).
  2. Student related words: Indeed, the ratio student words to other words may be a bit high. Luckily, you can disable those words as explained here.
  3. Pronunciation lessons: I find this lesson valuable as the pronunciation of almost all Slovak words can be derived from this (i.e. it lessens the need for audio). Memrise also gives an option to ignore whole levels.
  4. Declination lesson: Maybe I do not get your suggestion here? Declination is a part of the Slovak language, thus I find it beneficial to include in the course. If you know about a better way to introduce this (which sure it is), I’m open for suggestions :slight_smile:.
  • Regarding the reference to parenthesis (), it looks like memrise changes the behavior of signs like “()”, “,” and “/”. If you know what words which depends on the parenthesis, please let me know :slight_smile:.
  1. Easy words/little relevance: Yes, some of the words are “easy”, and some may appear to have “little relevance”. Be aware, though, that you might be surprised of what words which are relevant when conducting an actual conversation. Feel free to skip them in the same manner as indicated in point 3.
  2. Phrases: Phrases would be nice indeed :slight_smile:. Especially for the advanced users. However, this is currently out of scope for this course (i.e. there are some phrases, but they are not being emphasized). If I do not remember wrong, @ian.hiett’s course All-Encompassing Slovak contains more phrases. Maybe you can pick-up some good phrases from the street there :).

A final tip: If you feel like forcing yourself through a lot of courses, check that you are not falling into the sunk cost fallacy ;).

In any case: Good luck with your learning, and keep them suggestions coming!

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So…I finally had some time to look at the problem with audios containing “si” and “sa”.

Is it still an issue?

I downloaded the app today, and tried to access the “listen skill” button, but it seems to be disabled (which is also the intention).

After thinking a bit more about the problem, the option of removing “si” and “sa” may be a bad idea after all, as the meaning usually change whether “si” or “sa” is present. For example, consider the following:

  • Učiť sa - to learn
  • Učiť - to teach

Thus, if you are prompted for “učiť” in the listening phase and “sa” is removed, either “to teach” or “to learn” would be correct. Things becomes worse for verbs like “nechať” etc.

Finally, as I find it better to have some audio than no audio, I would like to keep “si” and “sa” unless you all think that it should be removed (you can vote by “liking” the options below).

I would like to keep the audio as it is.

It would be better to remove “si” and “sa”.

Disable the audio all together.

I’m very new to both the language and to Memrise. For me, the more audio the better, as I would really like to learn the correct pronunciations. I haven’t been involved with this nearly as long as the majority of the other learners on here, so I really have little idea what would make the course better as a whole yet, I’m just going by what would help me learn.

On memrise, I find the Slovak Phrases with Audio course helpful. https://www.memrise.com/course/416264/slovak-phrases-with-audio/

Though I would recommend getting off memrise and finding a better course. On the internet, there is slovake.eu, and e-slovak.sk.

It would be best to find an acutal person to talk to

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I’m familiar with slovake.eu though I haven’t used it yet, and e-slovak.sk
is completely new to me. I of course agree conversing with a real person
would be the best way to go but unfortunately the only Slovakia natives
that I know live far from me. Learning by myself is better than nothing
though. I’ll check out the link you’ve given me. Dakujem!

Yes most Slovaks are far away, but I was able to find a Czechoslovak League
in the previous city I lived in. My current city has nothing. Therefore I
find the app Hellotalk great for speaking to Slovaks.

napísal:

I do have one friend from Kosice in America but she lives in Denver, which
is about 6hrs away. She’s the only Slovakian friend in the same continent
as me. :slight_smile: She told me there is a Czech/Slovak tavern in Denver with a lot
of native speakers working there. I’m sure she loves it.

On the alphabet questions, the audio question for dz is impossible as two of the options sound identical.

https://vimeo.com/328938404

I’m having the same problem with de/di, ne/ni and te/ti as well

Dear AverageJoe313
Apologies for the late reply, and thank you for notifying me (even with a video, nice :blush: ).
In fact the two sounds you hear are distinct. The first one is “dz”, and the second one is “c”.
As with “de/di”, “ne/ni” and “te/ti”, they are in fact identical.
Don’t worry. I had a hard time distinguishing these for a while, and it was a period where I constantly mispronounced my wife’s name as I couldn’t hear the difference of some of the syllables.
Best wishes with your learning

Pronunciation mistakes:

Doing the alphabet learning and I came across with “de” and “di” pronunciation mistake. It sounds like d’.

Regards,

Felipe

Hi Felipe

Both “de”, “di” are pronounced like “ď”, just as “te”, “ti” are pronounced like “ť” (at least in the first part of the syllable). Refer to https://slovake.eu/en/learning/intro/pronunciation for more details.

Happy learning :slight_smile: