The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

I saw a Before You Know It (BKYI) ad from Google Adsense not too long ago on my previous Blogspot site about learning Korean with free software and so went to the BYKI website to look for the advertised free download. And, no this isn’t a sponsored or affliated post

Click this! Click this! Just kidding

Transparent Language offers lite versions of its Before You Know It langauge learning software. There are wordlists for a total of 63 languages as well as additional user-submitted wordlists in BYKI ListCentral Beta up for free download. Languages range from common ones like French and Chinese to less frequently seen languages like Tuvan. (spoken in Russia, China and Mongolia)

Each language download comprises an small downloader application which will then download 15 to 20 MB of data comprising of the actual application installer as well as the wordlists for that langauge. It does not download the actual application installer (around 12 MB) if you have already installed BYKI Lite on your computer so installing additional langauges is a breeze.

BYKI is essentially a flashcard application where words on a virtual flashcard are shown along with accompanying audio pronounication. You then have the additional option of showing the word in English or the language you’re learning and then typing the correct answer in the other language. The available modes in the Lite version can be summarized as below.

• Review It: View all flashcards in the list
• Recognize It: View a flashcard with a word in a foreign language and mentally think of the corresponding word in English
• Know It: View a flashcard with a word in a foreign language and type the corresponding word in English
• Produce It: View a flashcard with a word in English and mentally think of the corresponding word in the foreign language
• Own It: View a flashcard with a word in English and type the corresponding word in the foreign language

© Transparent Language

Review it mode (top) and Know It mode (bottom) using a Bahasa Melayu wordlist

BYKI Lite comes with around 17 lists of words per language about numbers, colours, days as well as those basic phrases commonly used in travel, meal or business scenarios.

The Deluxe version costs 39.95 to 49.95 USD per language and on top of additional 75+ wordlists over the 17 lists in the Lite version, it offers additional ways to learn a language like voice recording for practicing pronunication as well as the ability to take your lessons with you on iPods and other MP3 players.

I personally prefer these flashcard apps over audiobooks since I find that I remember things better when I can visually recgonize the word. Also, audio books usually need to be listened to in an entire episode to be fully effective.

Currently I’m working on improving my Malay, Vietnamese and German words and phrases with BYKI . From my expriences, it definitely wouldn’t make you an expert in any language since you also need to learn extra stuff like sentence structure which I don’t think is possible with BYKI. It’s a great way to see if you’re really interested in a langauge plus there’s totally no harm (and expense) trying since it’s a free download

For those interested in keeping a backup of the actual installer, run the downloader application under Sandboxie (More about Sandboxie here) and go to Contents of Sandbox > Explore Contents and browse to user\current\Local Settings\Temp\BYKI0.TMP once the Installation screen appears.

Download Before You Know It Lite or additional word lists.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Southeast Asian Langauge Resources
Introducing Lifehacker.com

A bit late for this but if you can spot the difference between the two snapshots of my links sidebar below, you’ll understand the reason for the delay

Before

After

Need more hints? What about this?

Anyway, back to the Top 3 for the month of September 2007.

1. Mecha Image of The Day
2. Extracting MP3s from Youtube videos
3. Ubisoft’s Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 Wallpapers

If you use a Google Analytics like me, you can easily find your most viewed posts by selecting the date range before clicking on Content > Top Content (top) and include a filter e.g “2007/09″ (bottom) to include only the pages posted in this month.

Select the top content viewed

Set a filter to include only particular pages in the list

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Most Popular Posts for August 2007
Most Popular Posts for July 2007
Most Popular Posts for June 2007
Most Popular Posts for May 2007
Most Popular Posts for April 2007

I have to settle something important in Real Life™ for the next three weeks and have therefore thought of three possible options and their consequences over the past weekend.

Work on the real life issues and update this site simultaneously.

Articles written by skeletons make for some really dry reading

Work on the updating this site and neglect the real life issue.

Yeah, I know my drawing is really bad but that’s definitely not a friendly shoulder massage

Guess I really only have one option left which means this site will be updated once in a while for the next three weeks.

Everything will return to normal on the 16 October 2007, meanwhile do feel free to peruse the archives or marvel at the works of some of my favourite artists or art, wallpapers and videos.

Or visit some of my daily reads:

1. HungryPrettyMonster – Foodie stuff (usually in Chinese)
2. Brothers Brick – Lego eye kandi
3. Rendered Beauty – More eye kandi
4. JayIsGames – Flash and casual games
5. The Random Gnome’s Random Lair – Indie, Retro and Tabletop Gaming
6. The Meditation Chamber – Cars & Toys
7. Ping.sg – Singaporean blog aggregator
8. gHacks tech news – Techie stuff

More quality links on the right sidebar

Tags: Blogger Life

From today onwards, The Download Munkey will have only a single post per day (Consider additional posts as a little bonus ;p). I’m been spending too much time writing on things I’ve downloaded from the .NET that I have very little time to actually enjoy them

The scope of this blog is also becoming over-diversified since I simply like too many different things on the .NET therefore I have decided to write themed posts for each day of the week. The plan currently goes like this:

• Random Mondays – Anything goes for Random Monday. Software reviews or stuff like Warhammer 40,000 or anything I’m interested in
• Military/Firearms Tuesdays – Military hardware nad stuff like firearms – both real life or their depiction in media like games and movies
• Wallpapers Wednesdays – Wallpapers from games and occassionally anime, comics and movies
• Games Thursdays – Game videos, freeware/shareware game reviews and downloads.
• Art Fridays – Cool artwork from talented illustrators. Papercraft stuff and other art-related stuff also goes here

No updates on weekends as usual

That’s the tentative plan as of now but since my stuff usually overlaps multiple categories, I’ll just see how things work out

And no, this isn’t a Random Monday post

© MrBean

Adopt a Mr. Bean plushie for $3 and 50% of the proceeds go to the building fund for Pathlight School, a special needs school focusing on education for autistic children and youth.

© MrBean

I love the Mr Bean mascot. So cute

There are four designs available which will be available for a week each. The first design (the one on the far right) is available for sale from 1 June to … errr… I can’t recall until when … should be until 8 June.

The funny thing is that I didn’t realize that the Mr Bean mascot has no arms until I brought mine home

Read more about the Pathlight School Building Fund @ mrbean.com.sg.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
MrBean (Not that Mr Bean) Lookalike