FrankenTongues (Frankie for short) is a language learning app for more advanced students that works entirely offline and aims to help the student become self-sufficient in their studies (independent of external resources) as quickly as possible.
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It is also an experiment in multi-interface development, allowing rapid development of both front- and back-end features by offering console, TUI, and GUI interface from the same executable. Features are developed first on the command line, then fleshed out in the Tui, along with the back-end features to support them, before finally being deployed in the GUI.
One technique I often use to improve my Norwegian is to create “study blocks”. From a few sentences to a few paragraphs, each block focuses on a specific aspect of the language I want to explore. For example, I have one that demonstrates a spectrum of common adverbial intensifiers that range from slightly (litt) to extremely (ekstremt). But after comparing the text for such a block, how do I then get it into Frankie?
It’s been a month now since I last used LingQ. I didn’t actually intend to switch - it just kinda happened - which must surely count as some kind of validation. But as much as I’ve enjoyed Frankie’s lower-friction experience, it is not completely smooth. And today I begin on the next step.