Immersive language learning with Emacs

Sebastian Dümcke (he/him) - https://sam-d.com, code@sam-d.com

The following image shows where the talk is in the schedule for Sun 2024-12-08. Solid lines show talks with Q&A via BigBlueButton. Dashed lines show talks with Q&A via IRC or Etherpad.

Format: 10-min talk; Q&A: Etherpad https://pad.emacsconf.org/2024-language
Discuss on IRC: #emacsconf
Status: Waiting for video from speaker

Description

Immersive language learning helps acquiring a new language by surrounding oneself in environments where the target language is used naturally, rather than learning through traditional instruction or translation methods. Short of travelling to places where the language is native, one can also emulate this digitally: Watching movies, listening to music, podcasts, or radio shows, and reading books, newspapers, or websites in the target language.

I will present a framework in Emacs to achieve the typical tasks in language learning: increase vocabulary and comprehension (both written and aural) to achieve faster fluency, better retention and ideally cultural competence. We will investigate how to read written documents and websites, watch movies and listen to music/learn lyrics all while collecting new vocabulary and concepts. Then we will present a spaced repetition framework for improving retention of these concepts.

About the speaker:

I am a curious person, interested to learn. I started using Emacs as a project management tool through org-mode 8 years ago. I has really helped my stay on top of things while starting my own company. Now my use of Emacs is slowly expanding. I was always interested in learning new languages: I believe they are the key to other cultures.

Questions or comments? Please e-mail code@sam-d.com