The Bell Jar, as Read by Voyant

Voyant is a web-based text analysis tool that summarizes and visualizes multiple trends and patterns in a text entered by users. I passed the entire corpus of the 1961 novel, The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath into Voyant tosee what would happen. The results were telling of both the strength and limits off educational technology tools built on the potential of machine learning.

Wordcloud view of the most frequently occurring words in The Bell Jar

While Voyant provides many visualizations of its results, the majority of its tools seems to build on the analysis of the most frequently occurring words in the text. As I explored Voyant’s analysis of The Bell Jar, it occurred to me that using word frequency as the sole analytical foundation of reading text is a particularly narrow interpretive lens. Moreover, it does not come near to capturing the scope, depth, or arc of the book. Nevertheless, I was surprised at how much more the results could actually reflect about a work’s central themes, characters, and motifs and its capacity to serve as a helpful supplement to the reader and user’s more nuanced and personal interpretation.

Line graph of relative frequencies of most frequent words from the beginning to end of The Bell Jar: Pink = “thought,” Purple = “buddy,” Light Blue = “doctor,” Green = “like,” Dark Blue = “said”

The figure above maps the frequencies of the most common words in the text across the entire novel. I was especially struck by the appearance of characters that were particularly meaningful to the main character, Esther. Moreover, the fluctuating frequencies of the characters’ mentions are particularly insightful indicators of how and when these characters were meaningful in Esther’s perception and narrative. For example, the light blue trend traces the consistent mention of “doctor,” and corresponds to Esther’s constant wrestling with her mental health and various treatments. The spike in the “doctor” mentions represents Esther finally finding some safety and sense of recovery in the psychiatric institution in the last moments of the book. The fluctuations in the mention of “Buddy,” her former love interest, are also particularly interesting in allowing me, as the user and reader, to identify, and further reflect on, moments when he haunted her thoughts or self-perception and moments when his irrelevance may have indicated something else about her sense of healing or growth. The word frequency of “thought” also guided me towards thinking about how the majority of the novel is narrated through self-introspection and the way in which that served as a mode of storytelling.

In a way, the limitations of the word frequency trends and relationships visualized by Voyant also facilitate and emphasize the software’s potential for enabling the analytical process of its users. Given diverse visualizations of a limited word-frequency analysis, I was compelled to use the visualizations to think more creatively about the content before me and trace these ideas through specific points in the text.

SpanishDict: The Best Online Spanish-English Dictionary

SpanishDict is a super helpful English-Spanish Translator website, specializing in helping English speakers learn Spanish. The app is very comprehenisze with its definitions, offering examples, pronounciation help, a conjugation chart, popular phrases, a thesaurus section, and examples from the web. 

The website also has hundreds of articles explaining each type of conjugation, common grammar mistakes, and a range of other issues faced by native English speakers while learning the language. A new section of the website now also offers vocabulary practice.

A screenshot of a popular article detailing the difference between “ser” and “estar”.

Unlike Google Translate, SpanishDict can translate words and entire phrases. When translating a word, the site will pull up a dictionary-styled page explaining each definition for the word and when to use each one. This prevents beginner speakers from making mistakes when translating a word such as “fly,” which has very distinct meanings between the noun and verb form. Additionally, when translating entire phrases, SpanishDict gives you the results of Microsoft, SDL, and PROMT. In my experience, SpanishDict has yet to mistranslate any word or phrase I’ve entered, and it’s my go to for looking up a Spanish word I don’t know. 

The newest addition to the SpanishDict website offers basic vocabulary exercises. The majority of “flashcards” are grouped by topic, such as ‘animals’ or ‘foods’, but may be useful for an introductory Spanish learner.

To access, go to https://www.spanishdict.com/

Easy Videos for French vocab + speech

Get ready to learn some French vocab the fun and easy way!
ladybug imageEasy French Vocab and Phrases 5min: https://youtu.be/fq_4V-Ia1z0.
This video is in French with French and English subtitles. The video covers basic French nouns and phrases, describing them by walking around the town and pointing to objects. Also helpful for pronunciation.
Days of the Week Song 2min: https://youtu.be/Lpwf5N0rfVE.
This video uses a mnemonic device to help you learn the days of the week in French. The song is catchy and easy to remember.
Months of the Year Song 2min: https://youtu.be/KxTsMctlfTY.
This video uses a song as a mnemonic device to help learn the months of the year in French.
Weather and Seasons in French 12min: https://youtu.be/Kq4Luegns8c.
This is a detailed video in English, introducing basic weather expressions, how to describe the weather, and the names of the seasons.
What Not to Pronounce in French 6min: https://youtu.be/NTU-2zvJ92U.
This video is in English and some basic French, and helps with the pronunciation of final syllables in French, including dropping the -d, -p, -t, -s, and -e at the ends of words. 
How to Pronounce the French “R” 2min: https://youtu.be/YCw_lEb1qXk.
This is a slightly silly pronunciation guide given in English on when and how to pronounce the “r” in French. Cognates like ‘horrible’ and ‘métro’ are compared in both languages, demonstrating the throat constriction present in French.
Uses of “Faire” 2min: https://youtu.be/kjni-2B9d4w.
This video introduces the verb ‘faire’ and different phrases in which it is used. A number of French speakers pronounce a variety of phrases in French with English subtitles.
Uses of “Avoir” 2min: https://youtu.be/SaIxCyfowrA.
This video introduces the verb ‘avoir’ and a variety of phrases in which it appears. French and English subtitles are included.

Hindi [Beginning Resources]

Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language given the status of being the official language of India, although other dialects may be more prevalent than Hindi in several areas. It currently has over 540 million speakers, with 425 million native speakers. Hindi is written using the Devanagari writing script, in which fourteen characters are vowels and thirty-three are consonants. There are several dialects of Hindi, including Khadiboli, Haryanvi, Braj Bhasha, Kannauji, Bundeli, Bagheli, Awadhi, and Chhattisgarhi.

Resources [For Beginning Students]:

Learn Hindi with HindiPod.comThis YouTube channel is based off of a separate website (https://www.hindipod101.com) , but it has tons of really helpful videos.

Omniglot WebsiteThis website contains a brief overview of Hindi, including the writing script, and also has several links to other resources.

 

Bayrisch (Bavarian) Dialect

Bayrisch (Bavarian) Dialect

Bayrisch (also Boarisch or Bairisch) is widely considered a dialect of German, although Old Bayrisch actually predates Old German by a few centuries. Spoken widely throughout Bayern (Bavaria) as well as Austria, there are approximately 14 million speakers worldwide. Although written Bayrisch is decreasingly used, as Hochdeutsch or Schriftdeutsch (Written German) is taught in schools, written Bayrisch survives in the form of slang or texting. Bayrisch speakers can understand Hochdeutsch, but the relationship is not mutual. Here are some resources for learning about the dialect, as well as a few guides to the language itself.

Standard German vs. Bayrisch: A funny video comparing the sounds of the two languages.

Dialects of German: A video comparing twelve different dialects of German.

Boarische Wikipedia: Read Wikipedia articles written in Bayrisch.

Why learn Bavarian?: A blog post about why you might want to learn Bayrisch.

Bayrisch Lernen: A grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary guide, written in German and Bayrisch.

Bayriches Wörterbuch: A Bayrisch – German dictionary and pronunciation guide, searchable by letter.

Deutsch – Bayrisch Translator: An online translator from Hochdeutsch into Bayrisch. Unfortunately, it is not reversible.

Practise German on the go!

So you want to practice your German, but you’re always busy. Maybe your regular coursework takes up too much time or you’re not currently enrolled in a German class and are scared of losing the language; maybe you can’t devote precious hours to reading or even watching TV in order to sustain your skills. What do you do? Enter the German language podcast to the rescue! The Deutsche Welle site is a great place to find and download podcasts on a variety of topics that you can listen to at the gym, in the car, or during your other unproductive errand-time. They run podcasts that stream both free from iTunes or an RSS feed.

Deutsche Welle Podcasts (http://www.dw.com/en/media-center/podcasts/s-100977)

FOR BEGINNERS:

If you want something more instructive, check out their course Warum nicht? which guides you in English as well in German. There are four parts, each with 26 episodes about 12 minutes long. The course takes you through many different types of German media while also incorporating German culture. It can get a little pedantic but it is incredibly helpful when you are coming from a background with little to no previous German experience.

The Mission Berlin series also takes place in English and in German and follows various characters around the city as they try to solve crimes. It’s a fun follow-along story that will get you more familiar with the language without being completely immersive or overwhelming if you don’t have a lot of experience in German.

FOR INTERMEDIATES:

The series Wieso Nicht? is the next level up from Warum Nicht? and is completely in German. It is full of short (approx. 10 minutes long) stories about life in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The pacing is slower than some of their other entirely German-language podcasts and so it is easy to follow along if you’re still trying to become more comfortable in an immersed German situation. The stories are often funny and fit perfectly in that 10 minute gap as you walk to your next class!

FOR ADVANCED GERMAN SPEAKERS:

Most of the website is dedicated to space for the 20+ podcasts dealing with a huge variety of topics aimed at a German audience. The same podcasts are also available entirely in English, just in case! Just switch which language you’re viewing the webpage in to access either. Some of the podcasts include a video component but you are still able to just listen to them if you don’t have the time. There is definitely something for everyone on this website, so if you’ve been looking for a new podcast to start, this is a great place to find one!

News in Slow and Easy German

It’s easy to find German-language podcasts, videos, and radio stations that are aimed at either absolute beginners, or those for native speakers. But what if you want to immerse yourself in intermediate German without having to strain yourself or be bored? Here are a few resources for listening comprehension for the intermediate German learner (i.e. German 220).

Nachrichtenleicht by Deutschlandfunk: The best resource for slow German news, Nachrichtenleicht presents short German audio clips (approx. 2-3 minutes) about relevant news, accompanied by a written transcript, so you can follow along while you listen.

Langsam Gesprochene Nachrichten by Deutsche Welle: Daily German news on current topics. Episodes are about 10 minutes long, and can also downloadable on iTunes.

News in Slow German by Linguistica 360: Dialogue-based German news, released weekly in slow German, accompanied by written transcripts. Episodes run approx. 8 minutes, and can be downloaded from iTunes as well.

Slow German mit Annik Rubens: Short segments in German on just about every topic, from contemporary German slang to an introduction to German literature. Episodes are about 4-7 minutes long, and are downloadable from iTunes as well.