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Hi ChiewPang - it looks like there are a lot of useful words on this course. Iāve been studying for a while so itās not really suitable for me as Iām working at B level but I notice you have a mixture of words with definite articles and without and that you have written ātheā in brackets in the English. In lots of courses I have done when words are in brackets you donāt often actually translate them. Iāve also done a lot of courses where sometimes you have to put the article and sometimes not and some have some of each or even mixed definite and indefinite articles This is a nightmare when it comes to reviewing words further down the line when you have several courses. Personally I think it is best if you always include the article as it helps in future use to be confident you know the gender especially with those Italian words ending in e and those that break the usual rules. At the least allow the noun with the article as an alternative. Of course you may have already done this! Another useful thing which you may have already done is to record the type of word - eg noun adjective verb as they can be the same word in English but different in Italian. I hope you donāt mind these suggestions which may not all be relevant.
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Hi Sandslane,
Thanks for your comment. To address your pointsā¦
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I have a few more levels to complete for this course. Come August/September, Iām hoping to create the next level up, which will be based on Vivace Intermediate, bringing us up to B1 level. That may be more up your street perhapsā¦
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I put in a lot of thought with the articles. Itās the same with the Spanish course. I finally decided to do away with them because, after some time, it gets to be a nuisance (for me). So I went for the brackets in some of them, so they are optional. If you type them theyāre correct but if you donāt, theyāre ok, too. Sometimes I think I should include the articles but at other times, Iām glad I didnāt. So, Iām still in 2 minds about it.
In my Spanish course, I believe I didnāt put the articles in brackets but accept them as alternatives until I discovered that if I put them in brackets, they are optional.
- The part of speech appears as attributes. I decided not to display it in tests (on the app) because Iād combined art of speech with the phonetic script and it would have made the tests to easy. This, in part, was to work around the appās weakness of not showing all the attributes, you know what I mean? Ideally, Iād have part of speech as one attribute and the phonetic script as another, and display the part of speech in tests. But Memrise doesnāt listen to its users. The gender appears as another attribute but can never be seen in the app. A severe weakness. But, Memrise prefers to worsen the app with psychedelic epileptic bad-for-learning colours rather than make useful constructive changes.
In some words, where there is possibility of confusion, I include the part of speech within brackets.
But re-reading your comment, you may actually telling me to include the part of speech in the audioā¦ is this so?
Cheers,
Chiew
Hi Chiew, Thanks for replying. No I wasnāt suggesting you add the part of speech to the audio. It was just that for example there is a course with television 3 times - televisore, televisione and televisivo and no indication as to which to put. so you end up having to ignore words.
Re the articles if you have just put the noun in English and no the in brackets does it still accept the article? For example level 2 receipt - scontrino will it accept lo scontrino? or just the ones where you have put the the in brackets? It can be a bit tedious but if you are hoping other people will use your course it will make it easier.
The possible other recommendation would be to have a synonym column which you may have done as well. Receipt could well be la ricevuta. You can add words as alternatives but if you specifically want to have only one correct word that wonāt work. However you canāt add columns to a course once you have added levels! I wish memrise would change that. Unfortunately the more you study a language the more possibilities you know which is great for making you more fluent but not good for the majority of memrise courses,
I have got so many courses Iām doing that I have had to make a word document which I have up alongside detailing when I review a course whether I put articles or not and notes where there could be more than one answer like 3rd out of 4 alphabetically. Having the synonym column makes this latter unneccesary.
Iāve now got to the stage where I have a pretty good vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. Iām reading books translated into Italian reasonably well. What I need is to make the effort to listen more as the normal speed of Italians speaking is what I find hardest. Iāve bought a couple of films and have to force myself not to put the subtitles on even in Italian as I donāt concentrate enough!
Anne
Funny you should mention scontrino. I actually have 2 entries for this: scontrino AND lo scontrino. Yea, perhaps I should combine them. Why I have 2 of them is because in level 2, we still havenāt seen the definite article, which appears later in level 4. So, lo scontrino appears here (in level 4).
I know this works fine if youāre going from level to level, especially if youāre using the book, but later, when you start reviewing all together, it may be confusing. I will have a rethink when I start the B1 course. Mind you, by B1, the learner should be familiar with the basic grammar so I can be more exigent.
I think I may have to accept with/without articles in both languages. Have alternate answers in all of them, which currently they donāt always do.
Re: synonyms. This is another problem for most creators. Since Iām learning as I create the course, I have gone for the (not xxx) option. When I get to a word which has a synonym already in the course, then Iāll search for it and append the (not XXX) part. Some people donāt like this but it has worked all right so far for me. They donāt often come together in the multiple choice options. So, in your example of televisore, televisione and televisivo (which I donāt have in this course), I would have put either television (not telivisore) for TELEVISIONE or television (the medium): televisione; and television (the appliance): televisore. Televisivo, Iād put television (adj).
Iām still bad, especially in listening and speaking. This is why I try to include sentences in the course. The idea is to practise saying it before and after you answer the questionā¦
Chiew
Sounds like you are linking the course well to the OU one and the book! I considered an OU course but decided it was too expensive. So got lots of books and self taught up to GCSE level. Then joined an evening intermediate class at the nearby uni and this year did the advanced one. I have also had some private lessons to practise speaking especially. Memrise was great for learning vocab for me but other than revision and making a couple of courses on particular verb constructions Iām now finding it less useful and probably am spending too much time revising the vocab which would be put to better use reading and listening. Still creating a course in itself can be helpful.
Hope your future learning goes well!
You have my admiration. The problem with OU (apart from its ghastly course) is the lack of oral practice. Iāve also enrolled in a govt-sponsored language school here (I live in Spain) starting Sep to get some oral fluency going.
Iām more of a proactive learner, I guess. I need to create, do something with the language - I donāt have good memory, so, yes, creating the course helps me. Also, I need to research a lot to get some points clear and that helps. OK, Iām still bad at it (Italian) but Iād be far worse otherwise! I think, if we donāt get a lot of exposure to a language, Memrise does help us retain stuff.
Iām also doing Indonesian on Memrise (several of them) and Iām certainly recalling a lot of forgotten memoriesā¦
I hope to catch up with you soon! Your level, I mean. Haha.
Happy learning to you too, Anne.
Chiew
This course includes some image testing. Currently, the app version of Memrise discriminates against courses with images and youāll get the message that you canāt speed review at this moment should you attempt to do it.
However, you can do a speed review at level stage (as long as there are no images, which, in this course, is the majority of levels - if I remember correctly, images are restricted to 2 levels, at time of posting).
So, if you wish to speed review, choose a level, then select speed review, and away you go!
Grazie.
Hi ChiewPang,
Thanks for the course and for giving us the opportunity to communicate with you. Iām not sure if this is where to post a commentā¦I could not find a āpost new topicā button so I clicked on the reply button on your opening post instead.
I recently finished AttivitĆ 1.5.1 Jobs and professions and noticed that āwaiterā was given as ācamariereā instead of ācameriereā. Can you please correct it on the word list for Level 15 so that I donāt have to keep on typing it in the misspelled way every time it comes up for review?
Thanks,
Aleida
@sonoaleida OMG! And no-one has spotted it before! Grazie mille! How embarrassing! Itās interference from my Spanish, which is my second language. 
āCamareroā.
Since Memrise never syncs modifications to existing words, you may have to log out and back in again. (Iāve been asking for a āforce syncā button ever since I started). And, watch your settings as (yes, another of Memriseās peculiarities which they donāt want to address) they tend to get reset to the default when logging in anew. Iām referring to the app.
Thanks again!
Youāre welcomeā¦Iāll be on the lookout for any others.:
There are still a few levels left for me to create in this course. Meanwhile, the next one up is startingā¦ 
Do join in: http://www.memrise.com/course/1197939/open-university-italian-level-a2-b1-full-audio/
A presto!
Thanksā¦Iām in:slight_smile:
Hi Chiew,
I had a frustrating experience today with the word āstripedā in AttivitĆ 2.6.2 Colours, fabric and patterns in Level 34. The word appears twiceā¦first as āa righeā and then as āa strisceā which created a problem when āstripedā came up for review because I had to guess which of the two answers they wanted. Is there any way for you to change it so that either answer is considered correct?
Aleida
@sonoaleida, no need to get frustrated! 
Iām surprised that it hadnāt posed problems to anyone (including me) before! Iāve patched it. Youād need to log out and back in again because Memrise sucks at this and, in spite of putting pressure on a āforce syncā feature, itās still not happening. 
Thanks for spotting it!
Chiew
Hi again, Chiew,
Thanks for the quick response and for the quick fixā¦and now while I have your attention, another frustrating thing happened today in a review session. When āI study languages at the universityā came up for review, I answered correctly āstudio lingue allāuniversitĆ ā but the answer was not accepted until I removed the final accent in āuniversitĆ ā Is this an easy fix too, or should I just get used to spelling āuniversitĆ ā without the accent in order for it to be accepted as correct?
Aleida
@sonoaleida, that is not an easy fixā¦ because the accent is already there!
Iām not sure what the problem is. What device are you using? Or are you using the web? Are you typing using the appās keyboard or your deviceās?
It would accept without accents because I havenāt enabled strict testing. This is because I need the app to ignore brackets as I use it quite a lot. This is the problem of having to work around Memriseās weaknesses and find that something else gets affected.
In any case it doesnāt explain your problem. Try to use the appās keyboard and it should be all right, I think.
I am using a desktop computer. Thanks for explaining the acceptance of words without accents. Iāll keep that in mind for future encounters with words like āuniversitĆ ā
Aleida