I think the word for intelligence was changed from ευφυές to έξυπνος. Can someone explain the reason for the switch?
Can someone also provide some mems to help me memorize έξυπνος? I can see it is somewhat related to ξυπνητός (awake)?
Thanks
Shaoxuan
Hey, it was changed based on the request here. It would appear that the 2 words are synonyms, but “έξυπνος” might be more commonly used.
I just encountered ισοϋψής (level). I remember seeing επίπεδο which was also “level”. What’s the difference between the 2. Can you add some distinguishing descriptions?
Why not try creating your own Mems for words you are struggling to remember? It might help you cement that particular word.
And the word in the course is “ευφυής” rather than ευφυές - please use the exact words as it makes it much easier to find in the database.
Let me put a bit of thought into how to clarify these today.
I have changed ‘slightly’ the primary translations, and added context sentences to clarify.
ισοϋψής = even (primary translation), level - Τα δύο αγαλματίδια είναι ισοϋψή. (Both statues are even (or level). The implication here is “with each other”). This is an adjective.
επίπεδο = level (primary translation), plane, layer, grade - Το επίπεδο της συζήτησης ήταν πολύ χαμηλό. (The level of discussion was very low). This is a noun.
I have updated these and added context sentences for both.
ευφυής = smart (primary translation) Ήταν ένας ευφυής πολιτικός. (He was a smart politician.)
έξυπνος = intelligent (primary translation) (also means smart) Ήταν έξυπνο παιδί. (He was an intelligent child.)
It is worth noting that sometimes there isn’t a lot of difference and there are multiple words that can mean the same thing, just as in English. What is the real difference between smart, intelligent, clever in English? Not much, depending on how you use them. Same in Greek here, although I think you’ll find έξυπνος more commonly used.
And, perhaps I should also have mentioned that we update this course, and make changes based on recommendations and research from our users and ourselves. Some of the original material was either just wrong or off-base. We work a lot to reduce ambiguities, especially give how testing works in Memrise.
I currently am working with my teacher to review the list of words and get her feedback as a “teacher of Modern Greek to foreigners”. We are looking to identify words that are either obsolete, uncommon, not used and add suitable alternatives. We do not plan to remove a lot of words, just make sure students understand their usage. And we definitely do not plan to reorganize the ordering of words, that is a debate we’re done with, as it would mean rebuilding the entire course into a new course, and we have too many students who use/follow this course to do that.
Here’s another suggestion, for entry δάχτυλο, can you add δάκτυλο as an alternate spelling?
OK, added as Alt.
To reorder the words in a course, you can add new levels and add your words with the new ordering in that. Then ensure that all the new entries are duplicates of words already in the course (they should have the same reviewing interval as the existing entries) then delete the old levels. Of course I have no comment on if you would want to do that. And it might also invite, this is Memrise after all, bugs.
Sure, we could do all that, but I see no real value in it.
There has been quite a bit of debate about this. Some people advocate frequency ordering, which IMHO is a poor way to approach language learning. The “somewhat” randomization of word order is OK with me, and most users of this course.
What we are still working on is trying to at least identify the words we consider “obsolete”, “rarely used”, “old-fashioned”, etc. and mark them as such, then add newer, more useful equivalents probably at the end of the course. Once a word is identified as such, users can choose to ignore them during learning or testing. I am currently working on getting the entire list of words reviewed with my teacher.
I second neal. The order of words in which they appear in the course is not of great importance. As long as all the important words are covered. The set is more important than the order.
Part of the ‘current’ review with my Greek teacher is to identify important, missing words. Example: we had ελεύθερος, but not ελευθερία! As we identify words that are obscure, not used or overly scientific or technical we’ll identify them as such and try to move them to the end of the course and move some of the new words we’re adding in their ‘slots’. Hopefully learners won’t find this too disruptive. I think it will improve things over time. I expect this review to take at least a month. She is kind enough to read through several pages of the list, make notes and then we use 1/2 my lesson time to review her ‘findings’.