Bonjour folks :) I'm back today with a little review of the MindSnacks French app for the iPhone (or iPod Touch). MindSnacks as a company were recommended to me by Natalie, a student I exchanged a few emails with a while back, but when I first downloaded the 'free' app (more on that later), I wasn't overly keen.
It cannot be denied that the loading screen is ridiculously cute - the little 'bean' character appears on all of the language apps in seemingly traditional dress (my favourite is the Spanish bean). As a loading screen goes, this is by far my favourite - so many language apps are stuffed full of advertisements or the loading screens don't work properly. I'm pleased to report that this one, thankfully, works.
The next screen you'll see is this screen (I think, it's a while since mine was new). To begin with, you only have one or two games, but you can unlock more as your language skills progress and improve. Basically, the more words learnt, the more games unlocked.
I love the fact that this app actually uses games. So many apps claim to use games when, in actual fact, they're just not, so it's great that MindSnacks have created genuine mini games to help you learn the vocab. In fact, speaking of the vocab... The review screen allows you to, well, review the vocab. Oddly, it took me a while to find this. I'd perhaps have preferred this screen to come before the games screen, but it's no big deal. Here, you can also see how far you have progressed with each word, if the purple bar reaches the star, it goes yellow and you've learned the word (in terms of the game app, of course).
Finally, Mystery Crate is a game where you have to tap the 'crates' with incorrect spellings written on them. I suppose this one also helps with spelling and writing skills, as well as recognition skills as this game also speeds up with more words the further into it you get.
In terms of actually learning the words, I think Word Birds is my favourite. My main language strength is writing, so I think I'm used to learning in this way a lot. Plus, here you actually have to think about what you're learning rather than just recognising the correct word.
The game also provides you with an overview of your progress so far, a list of completed and/or outstanding challenges that the app itself will set you throughout your learning, and a community screen that contains features such as ''More MindSnacks Apps''. I love the fact that this is contained within one screen/tab on the app - again, over-promotion of other products is all too common with apps, and when its function is educational it really annoys me.
The app is initially free to download (I told you I'd get back to this...), however only comes with a numbers level. If you want more levels, you can download them from within the app for £2.99. I was initially very reluctant to pay this, and the fact that the app only gave me numbers to begin with did put me off. I just thought that out of all of the categories, there were many that were much more interesting than numbers. However, I decided to give the app a proper try and I'm glad to say that I've really been enjoying using it. If I have a spare moment, I have found myself opening it up and playing a game - to me, that speaks volumes about how good it is, not just as a language app but also as an app that can be lightly enjoyed.
In addition to French, the app is also available in German, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, English (presumably American, as the US flag appears behind it), and SAT Vocab. If your desired language is currently unavailable, you can also 'cast your vote' for which subject should be built next (http://www.mindsnacks.com/vote/). Apparently, Japanese is currently being built. I'd be very interested to try the Russian (161 votes to go) app, I've never found an app that works for me with languages that don't have Latin alphabets.
Anyway, I think I've rambled enough. In short: great concept, variety of learning techniques within the games, although the paying/downloading system is a little annoying, you can see that the money is spent developing a well thought out application.
What do you think to the MindSnacks apps? Have you ever tried them? Leave a comment below :)
Merci beaucoup for reading! :)
I put off writing this for a while. And by a while, I mean a few months. And by a few months, I mean since November time.
It's difficult to talk and write about moving on, especially when you never chose to do so. Yesterday, I wrote about the 'hostility of G block'. G block is the building in which my friends and I have based ourselves during the college day for a good year and a half now. We started off on the floor next to the automatic doors in B block, an idea that was cut drastically short one day for reasons that are still unknown to me.
So we moved to G. It was our comfort zone. It became the place we hid in, the place we cried in when things were too much, the place we laughed in, and the place we did nothing in. It was familiar and it was nice.
And then year thirteen arrived, bringing a bucket load of fresh pressures and expectations that, for those of us applying to university, we had to meet and exceed. Some people rise to that challenge, some do not. That's OK, it's down to personal preference and I am certainly not saying that some are right, while some are wrong. But, when people are making conflicting decisions and acting differently, conflict starts to appear. At first, it's slow and almost lazy in formation. It establishes itself in snide comments and pointless arguments. But, like anything bad, if left untouched, untreated or unnoticed, it gets worse.
Because, you see, much like with a family, a partner, or anybody else you spend most of your life around, you start to notice all of the irritating little details that you could really do without the presence of in your life. Somebody's too 'attention-seeking', another person 'needs to watch what they say', other people 'feel like they can't speak anymore', and others 'have no consideration for the fact that we were here first'. And I'm going to admit something...
I can't deal with it anymore. So I'm moving on.
I still love my friends. Of course I do. But I've reached that point where the atmosphere on a lunchtime or a breaktime is too damaging to me for it to be worth spending large amounts of time in G block anymore.
Everybody seems to have split off into little sub-groups, and I seem to have drifted away from all of them. I'm kind of OK with this, though. I spend most of my free time in the language lab now, and I've found that I work better and my grades have improved just by being in there more. This does, however, come with the downside that I rarely see my friends anymore. It's true that there are the lab folks - namely Sophie, Billie, Wallis, Liz, Jess, Cory, etc etc - and they are all awesome people in their own rights. Some (Sophie and Jess), I have known for longer than others (Billie, Wallis, Liz, Cory), but our lab chats and our general shared interests mean that there is something to focus on. Jess and I: N, S, Starbucks Tuesdays, Josh and Josh, Poland, etc etc. Sophie and I: People who DD (cringe!), favourite woman, the face-eaters, etc etc.
Yet, with the G block friends, I've found that only a few of the friendships tend to keep afloat. Fern and I share car journeys on a daily basis, Eliza and Sarah usually join us on the way home. I see Katie quite a lot as we share a few free periods together, and I see Will more than most people (which is odd, because we never knew each other before this college year).
I can't lie, it's hard to strike the balance between two groups. It's hard to view it objectively, in terms of my grades and general emotional wellbeing, rather than subjectively. It's easy to let the guilt about 'not being present enough anymore' consume me. I wonder if it's my own fault that I don't belong there anymore. I wonder if my involvement in Amnesty, SOS, college magazine, etc etc, has stopped my friendships from growing. But, then, these things have all helped new friendships to grow.
So, I'm muddling through at the moment. There is only one person who knows how I truly feel about all of this, and she knows how much I love her for sticking by me through all of this confusion. I don't really have a conclusion or a happy ending to this post, only that I know this is just the beginning. Of what? I don't know, but I'm sure I'm going to find out...
Besos ♥
Rachel
How is it already Sunday again? Seriously, how? This week has been nothing special and dragged on a lot. Highlights have definitely come at the end of the week...
I spent most of Friday in the lab catching up with Jess (sort of). Apparently, I'm the 'focus' of her and Natalie's joint art project, so she followed me around taking photos of me for a few hours. The photo to the left is one of the photos she took.
I also spent a lot of Friday, as I do every Friday, with the lab people. It's fair to say that they are quickly becoming some of my favourite people. It's nice to escape the hostility of G block (seriously, whenever I'm there everybody seems to just be hating everybody else [sorry, but that needed saying]) and spend time with like-minded people. Liz and I did our usual Friday music quiz and Beckie (Jess' cousin, ironically) joined in as she sometimes does. We also escaped to the LRC for English, which was an hour spent doing nothing worth mentioning for me.
Here's also a video of Miss Dusty experiencing a walk in the snow for the first time in her 2(ish) years of life. We were a little shocked, but she enjoyed it rather a lot.
The voices you can hear are mine and my mum's - she was very concerned about my cardigan getting all snowy.
That's pretty much it for this week. It's half term starting on the 10th so hopefully I'll have more time to write - I have a lot to say at the moment, my only problem is finding enough time to sit down and make the thoughts make sense.
Besos ♥
Rachel
The next screen you'll see is this screen (I think, it's a while since mine was new). To begin with, you only have one or two games, but you can unlock more as your language skills progress and improve. Basically, the more words learnt, the more games unlocked. 
I love the fact that this app actually uses games. So many apps claim to use games when, in actual fact, they're just not, so it's great that MindSnacks have created genuine mini games to help you learn the vocab. In fact, speaking of the vocab... The review screen allows you to, well, review the vocab. Oddly, it took me a while to find this. I'd perhaps have preferred this screen to come before the games screen, but it's no big deal. Here, you can also see how far you have progressed with each word, if the purple bar reaches the star, it goes yellow and you've learned the word (in terms of the game app, of course). 
