What is a Spreadsheet Flashcard?
Why Flashcards?
Why a Spreadsheet?
Why French/Spanish/Italian/Persian/Chinese/English & not Greek?
How to get started
How to be cool
What to watch out for
Downloads
Welcome to Nate’s old-fashioned, word-by-word and phrase-by-phrase language learning. These spreadsheets are designed as supplements to courses and self-study guides. I created them because I am teaching myself better French, Persian, Chinese and improving my English vocabulary. Mostly, however, I created them for the joy of making a spreadsheet jump through hoops.
These spreadsheets are free for you to download, use, improve, and add to, if you promise a few things. You must promise not to expect to learn a language from flashcards alone. You must promise not to expect that I know French, Persian, Chinese or even English well enough not to make mistakes. You must promise to share with me the errors and corrections that you have discovered. You must promise to share with me any new vocabulary lists that you build.
These spreadsheets may be copied, shared, sold, and altered without restriction by me, except that I ask you to respect the copyright by giving me credit as their developer under the Creative Commons license below.
Watch a demonstration of me using my French Spreadsheet Flashcards:
Flash: Click Here .................Windows Media: Click Here --top--
What is a Spreadsheet Flashcard?
A random word is chosen. The English (or French or Persian or Chinese) pops up. You try to type in the translation. If you get it right on the first try, you get a point.
For English vocabulary, a random word is chosen. The definition pops up. You type in the correct word. If you get it on the first try, you get a point.
The spreadsheets have many nice features:
- You decide whether you want to see English and answer with French (or Persian or Chinese) or the other way around.
- You decide which set of vocabulary words to study. Now you can choose my words or my phrases. I will share at this site all new contributions.
- You decide the range of words (like, the first 50 or number 137 through number 166) to study within the vocabulary set.
- You can use your American keyboard to get those funny French or Pīnyīn Chinese characters (like é or ê) by typing a code (5 for é and 6 for ê). The spreadsheet changes the code to real French. (For Persian, you will just convert the keyboard as shown on the "Help" tab.)
- You decide when you want to reset your score to zero.
- You can practice re-typing your answer correctly as many times as you wish.
- You can create your own vocabulary sets.
- You can increase the probability of randomly seeing a word from your range that you are having trouble with.
- You can decrease the probability of randomly seeing a word that you are sick of .
--top-- Why Flashcards?
Emersion is the best way to learn a language. Each word has a context that, if kept fresh, retains the word in your vocabulary. Unfortunately, I live in New York, not Paris or Tehran. So I tried language tapes to provide some context. As I went through the 52 episodes of “French In Action,” I kept a list of words and translations (and a few phrases) that I could not remember forty years after second-year high school French. I also found many new words in the textbook’s readings. How could I practice these nearly 3,000 words? Flashcards? You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m not scribbling those words over again.
So, I put them in a spreadsheet. Then I added a random word chooser, and one thing lead to another… and now I’ve got this neat thing.
--top-- Why a Spreadsheet?
- Most people can add words to a list on a spreadsheet.
- Spreadsheets can generate random numbers easily.
- Word lists on a spreadsheet can be copied and shared.
- I can handle simple macros and a tad of Visual Basic.
Why French, Spanish, Italian, Persian and Chinese?
Well, I took French in high school and my mother-in-law speaks only Persian, and... I like a challenge.
Why Big Words?
For years I have written down words I didn’t know along with their definitions. I read the New Yorker. They use a lot of big words.
Why not Greek or Hungarian?
I could, just tell me if there are any special characters not found on an American keyboard, and I will set up codes. Hungarian? Languages that require more than a handful of non-English characters can be set up with a keyboard switch, as I have done with Persian. It's easy.
--top--
How to get started
- Open the spreadsheet to the “Drill” tab.
- Click on the "Start" button, except on Macs--don't press Start on Macs.
- Click on the button for a new word (“New Try…”).
- Type in your answer (using the symbol codes, if you are typing French).
- Hit return and look at the correct answer.
- Keep trying (but your first try is the only one that is scored).
- Click on the “New Try…” button to get the next random word from your list.
- Get help by clicking on the underlined help topics or moving your curser near a confusing cell. Many cells have pop-up explanations.
--top-- How to be cool
- Click on “Change List, Target, or Range.”
- Choose "Vocabulary" or "Phrases" in French, Spanish, Italian or Chinese (Pīnyīn) Flash or, in Big Word, choose "All Words" or "Best." In Farsi Flash, choose "Vocabulary" or "Travel."
- Choose a range that you would like to work on. For example, try learning just the first 30. Then try the next 30. Then try all 60. Keep going!
- Choose whether you would like to guess the English or French, or English or Persian, or English or Chinese (Pīnyīn), etc.
- If you are in Big Talk, choose whether you would like to guess the word or the definition. (Actually, no one would want to try and exactly type each definition. Guess the definition out loud. Turn off scoring. Then hit “Show Answer” before “Next Try…”)
--top-- What to watch out for
- My bad French.
- My bad definitions.
- Accidental formula destruction. Keep a backup with your latest corrections and additions.
- Fat fingers. Keep protection on the Drill tab at all times (by clicking on Tools, Protection, Protect Sheet, and typing in your chosen password twice). This will lock the formulas and prevent you from overtyping them. If I don’t turn on protection, I often wipe out formulas myself. The spreadsheets come with protection on. The password is nate.
- Auto-selection-move after hitting return. You want the selected cell to stay in the input box after each try. If it drops down, for example, you will get an error for trying to type in a protected cell. From the main menu: Tools-->Options-->Edit-->uncheck "Move selection after Enter." (You may have to turn off Protection first.)
- Different versions of Excel. Different versions do different things. Watch out! Protection seems to differ from version to version. You may need to play with the locks in cell formatting. Do not lock cell C7 (C8 in Big Word and Farsi Flash) or any of the lime-green cells in the Drill tab.
- Mac incompatibility. I keep testing but I can't keep up with all new versions.
Downloads (<900 Kb each)............ --top--
All models contain macros. Before downloading, macro security should be set to medium. (Click “Tools” on the toolbar. Click the tab, “Security.” Click the button, “Macro Security.” Click the circle for “Medium.”) Each time a model is opened, you will need to “Enable” the macros. It is best to download and save, rather than download to run.
Each spreadsheet runs on Windows and Macs with Office 365. They do not run on iPads or iPhones (unless I'm doing something wrong).
Spreadsheets corrected and updated as of May 19, 2023.
French Spreadsheet Flashcards
Over 2,300 word translations and over 150 phrase translations from French to English. Now over 400 new words from A. Dumas.
Download French Flash: Click Here
These spreadsheets are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
Chinese (Pīnyīn) Spreadsheet Flashcards
Over 1,900 word translations from the first four semesters of "Integrated Chinese (Simplified Characters)" by Yuehua Liu and Tao-chung Yao, 3rd edition, Cheng & Tsui Company: Boston, 2009, 2010. Also includes vocabulary from "The Sky is Bright with Stars," by Weijia Huang and Qun Ao, Cheng & Tsui Company: Boston, 2012.
You may guess either the English or Pīnyīn (using the top row keys for tonal letter indications) translation after seeing the original. If you are guessing Pīnyīn, the simplified Chinese character is also hidden in the "hints" cell until you type return, then the correct Pīnyīn and the Chinese characters appear. You cannot input the Chinese characters. I type the Pīnyīn, then pick up a pen and try to write the character on a pad. After I hit return, I check my work. As a result, I have learned many, many characters.
Download Chinese (Pīnyīn) Flash: Click Here
These spreadsheets are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
Big Talk Spreadsheet Flashcards
Over 700 words that you need in your vocabulary: some you know; some you are never sure of; and some you have never heard. Also, over 30 specialized words.
Download Big Talk: Click Here
These spreadsheets are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
Persian (Farsi) Spreadsheet Flashcards
Over 3,300 word and phrase Persian-English translations, including all the words and phrases you will need to travel in Iran, Afghanistan and other Persian speaking countries. You will need to install a Persian keyboard.
Download Farsi Flash: Click Here
These spreadsheets are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
Spanish Spreadsheet Flashcards
This is ready to go, but no vocabularies have been added.
Download Spanish Flash: Click Here
These spreadsheets are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
Italian Spreadsheet Flashcards
This is ready to go, but only about 500 words have been added.
Download Italian Flash: Click Here
These spreadsheets are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
e-mail me at nate@dickmeyerconsulting.com and tell me how you are doing. Make suggestions. Give me corrections. Send me your new word lists. Teachers can build lists from the textbooks they use. Most students have Excel at home and can practice. Have fun! (But keep improving your score!)
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