MensLingua is a powerful Android app guiding the learning and perfecting of language skills, either native or foreign. Unlike many apps for entry level learnings, MensLingua aims to bring one's skills to advanced levels effectively in a relatively short period of time.
"mens lingua" in latin means language of the mind.
Upon getting started, you open/create a discipline, for instance English:French for learning French from English. You can import (at any time) various materials into a discipline: anki files, csv files, text, or even articles from the Internet. Any material imported into a discipline will be intelligently sorted and processed with interrelations constructed and then added into the study plan. MensLingua's study plan is defined by special algorithms that tracks your combined learning of words, phrases, and sentences so that efficiency and effectiveness are achieved. Then you simply follow the plans MensLingua sets for you. As you study, interrelations of the materials are further enriched.
The way to learn is mainly by going through various types of quizzes. You can see your progress in charts and in journal.
For prononciation, if your material includes audio, then the audio is played, otherwise, the default text-to-speech engine of your phone is used. The app also includes easy access to online dictionary and online image searches for words and phrases. And certainly it allows you to use any of your off-line dictionaries.
But the app doesn't include grammar material for your study, you will need to study it elsewhere.
"Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy". There are quite a few apps very similar to Anki for learning languages.
On learning languages (rather than all things as Anki does), while MensLingua covers Anki's functionality by automatically scheduling learning based on level of ease, the mode of operation is different. Anki relies on the user to set the level of ease on each element and MensLingua also provides interfaces for the user to do so, but during regluar learning, MensLingua doesn't trust the user's feeling on the level of ease with the element, and rather, it requires the user to pass a quiz of various kinds to demonstrate his knowledge in order for MensLingua to properly set the right schedule.
More importantly, rather than only for memorizing the materials given, MensLingua focuses more on the full comprehension of an entire language by exploiting the full interrelations of the materials and piquing the user from various angles.
Another clear advantage is that the algorithms in MensLingua allow the user continue moving forward even when there is already a large pool of learned material, a situation where with many other apps the user would be totally burdened even depressed everyday by the endless reviews of old material. As of now, I have of French words 14026 Done, 15108 Easy, and 34 Hard, and my daily words to review is about 400, which is an easy task given the smart algorithm.
Colors of words, phrases, and sentences represent levels of ease. Dark green background color is for the best comfort of the eyes.
I used the app to learn French for 1.5 years as I was developing it. As some francophone acquaintances commented: "you knew very little French in the beginning, and now you can basically communicate with with us. Bravo!". That's very true, but what they don't know much is that my reading comprehension is already in advanced levels. I have now read about 10 French books, including (note these are not children's books nor easy books for foreigners):
- L'Étranger by Albert Camus, 150+ pages
- Mort d'une héroïne rouge by Xiaolong Qiu, 500~ pages
- Circé by Madeline Miller, 570+ pages
- La Vallée by Bernard Minier, 520+ pages
- La muse rouge by Véronique de Haas, 440+ pages
- Victime 2117 by Jussi Adler-Olsen, 600+ pages
The published source codes here are samples. The app is at a fully functional stage, however, the app will be launched later after marketing plans are finalized.
Your contact is highly welcome (by filing an issue here) if you: 1) have substantial marketing prowess; or 2) would like to make a financial contribution; or 3) are a large institution and would consider using the app internally;