Selma is an Android app that helps you in learning a new language using the Assimil language training courses' MP3 CDs.
Important notice: The MP3 files that are needed for using this app are not contained. You need to buy the course (book and MP3 CD) separately and transfer the MP3s from the CD onto your android device. The app cannot be used without.
Selma can probably be used with many different Assimil courses, but until now has only been tested with "Turkish with Ease" and Spanish. If you want to try to use the app with a different course, I would be happy to receive your feedback (positive or negative) and will try to make the app work for you.
If you have not already done this, start by copying your Assimil MP3 pack to your Android device.
In Selma it is possible to mark lessons as favourites using the star icon. This allows you to focus on the lessons you are currently trying to memorise. I normally have three or four "starred" lessons which I listen to over and over.
You can tell Selma, if you want to listen only to the lesson texts or also the exercise section. When I'm memorising my "starred" lessons, most of the times I don't listen to the exercises, because it's easier to memorise stories than sentences that have no obvious connection. But when I start learning a new lesson, I also listen to the exercises.
When learning a lesson, you can choose to listen to individual sentences or the whole lesson over and over. You can also manually enter a translation and a literal translation of the lesson texts, so that you can see the translation directly in the app. Unfortunately, Assimil does not provide the translations along with the MP3 pack. Which means you have to enter them yourself. But in my opinion this procedure also helps with learning.
If you have any questions, remarks, or recommendations concerning Selma the easiest way to get in contact with me, is by sending an email to frank("dot")oltmanns+selma("at")gmail("dot")com (please replace ("dot") and ("at") with . and @ respectively).
Selma is for you if you already chose to learn a new language using the Assimil method and own the book and MP3 pack. It is known to work with "Kolay Türkçe" (Turkish with Ease) and the Spanish course, but it might also work with the language of your choice. Don't hesitate to contact the author, if it does or does not work with the language of your choice. Selma needs a device running on Android 2.2 ("Froyo") or above. Please note that Selma comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY (see the license for details).
In order to get more info on Assimil courses, please visit their homepage. In my opinion their courses are a great way of learning a new language. I, the author of Selma, am not affiliated with Assimil. I am simply a fan of their "Turkish with Ease" course.
Here you can find a short introduction into Selma. The example text shown in the video are from the "Turkish with Ease" MP3 packs. Music used under a Creative Commons License from UniqueTracks Inc.
The app is free for everyone who already bought the Assimil MP3 pack and book. (The app of course also free for everyone else, it's just not of any use for anyone that doesn't have the MP3 pack.)
Selma is not (yet) available in the Play Store. In order to install Selma you need to allow installation of apps that were not downloaded from Play Store. Go to "Settings" -> "Security" and make sure that "Unknown Sources" is checked. Now you can download the latest version of Selma directly from your device and install it. Have fun!
The app needs the following permissions for the following reasons:
- Read the contents of your USB storage: The MP3 files and translations are stored on the USB storage/SD card. No other content is read by Selma.
- Modify or delete the contents of your USB storage: The translations that you can enter will be written to the USB storage/SD card. No other content is deliberately written or deleted by Selma.
- Prevent phone from sleeping: When playing back the lessons, the phone will not go to sleep. Going to sleep would stop the playback immediately.
Version 2.1.0 (latest version):
- Added support for even more courses, e.g. "New Greek With Ease" (Thanks Assimil Sprachverlag!).
- Improved start-up time after the first start
- Added possibility to modify/correct the original texts
Version 2.0.1 (latest version):
- Updated help to link to the introduction video
- Updated link to homepage in error dialogs
- Updated license to GPL v3.
Version 2.0.0: Added support for showing/entering translations.
Version 1.1.0: Added support for other languages than Turkish after user feedback (Thanks Marcin!).
Version 1.0.2: Fixed support for Android 4.4 (KitKat).
Version 1.0.1: First official version of Selma.