Getting Started with Language Cracker: Your First Steps

Here are the first steps to start using the application.

Test the connection to the AI service

Just type “Hello” in the chat editor – the bottom part of the window and press Enter. You should see the AI response in the Focus panel.

Set your languages and text input method

Language Cracker (LC) lets you study up to six languages at the same time. Click the Options button and select your preferred languages. Of course, you don’t need to learn them all. In the prompts to AI, languages are represented by numbers from 1 to 6. You can edit the prompts to define the number of active languages. By default, the prompts are set to study two languages simultaneously.

The first language selected in Options should be your main foreign language that you are studying. The second or the last language should be the language you already know (e.g. your mother tongue). Thus, you can find out quickly the meaning of the unknown words and phrases in the other active languages.

By default, Language Cracker uses the mouse selection for the text transfer. You can change it in Options > Input by copy to transfer the selected text via the copy shortcut in your system – Command + C in MacOS or CTRL + C in Windows.

Learn a foreign language

For the beginning, you can open a website in the language of your interest. For example, it can be a website with the news. Place the Language Cracker in your screen comfortably over the website and do as follows:

Select part of the text (e.g a sentence or a paragraph).
The selected text appears in the Chat panel of Language Cracker interface and it is translated into the active languages, including your native language, automatically.
Then, you can select a word or a phrase in the LC interface to let the AI voice speak the selected text.
If you wish, you can apply one of the ten prompts in the Prompts panel on the selected text. AI will give you the answer to the prompt in the Focus panel. For instance, if you click the Context prompt, AI will respond with the selected phrase used in another context.
LC keeps the history of your inputs and AI answers in the Memory panel. You can navigate to the previous or next selection using the Next and Previous buttons. To return to a selected phrase, click its number in the Memory panel.
The Memory also keeps track of your conversation with AI in the Focus panel. Each phrase in the Memory has its own conversation thread.

Focus on the phrase

While learning the selected phrases, you can ask AI additional questions. Just type your question in the bottom chat editor and press Enter. AI will answer your question in the Focus panel.

Normally, new phrases for learning are selected from another application such as a web browser. You can also type a new phrase in the chat editor and press CTRL (Command on MacOS) + Enter or click the Learn button to add it to the Memory.

If you wish to memorise a phrase appearing in Language Cracker interface (e.g. as a result of your interaction with AI), just select that phrase and press the Learn button. The new phrase will be added to the Memory, the same way as the selected text from external applications.

You can also tell AI to make a list of foreign phrases to learn, and then add the list to the Memory as follows:

Type your request for the list in the chat editor, ending your request with the colon “:” character and pressing Enter (e.g. create a list of 20 most common Italian phrases:).
After AI responds in the Focus tab, click the Learn button to add the list to the Memory and translate each item at a time into your selected languages.

Talk to AI

While reading a text in a foreign language, you can speak to AI using your microphone. For example, you might ask for the translation or explanation of an unknown phrase as follows:

Click the Speak button and just read it out loud a phrase to translate it into the other languages that you set in Options.
The default prompt for AI is the translation of the spoken text – prompt 1. You can change it easily to one of the other prompts displayed in the user interface (e.g explanation of the meaning or using a phrase in context). To change the active prompt for spoken phrases press the Escape key followed by the prompt number from 1 to 10 (0 in the keyboard), and then use the keyboard shortcut to start speaking.
To activate the keyboard shortcut to start talking to AI, please see the Language Cracker settings > Keyboard shortcuts tab > Talk to AI button > Active option.
You can set the program to ask AI questions via voice directly, instead of using prompts on your spoken phrase. Press the Escape key followed by the § key. Then click the Speak button and start saying your question. To go back to the default prompt one during speech, press the Escape key followed by the 1 key.

Repeat

In the Learn menu, Language Cracker offers two auto-repetition methods which help memorising new phrases.

Auto Flash – the progam presents one phrase at a time with a chosen timing set by the user in the Options.
Auto Scroll – the list of all phrases in the Memory is scrolled automatically at the selected speed set by the user in the Options.
You can hide the right or the left column of the phrase list via the Learn menu. During auto-flashing, the hidden phrase pops up as you pause by pressing Space, or with the click at the Memory tab.

To start the repetition, choose one of the two methods in the Learn menu, or right-click at the Memory tab, or click the Learn button. You can pause auto-flashing or auto-scrolling either via clicking at the Memory tab, or by pressing the Space. To continue, click at the Memory tab or press the Space key again. Click the Learn button again to stop auto-repetition.

Test and recall

The main purpose of the tests is to put the brain under “pressure” and activate the new words or phases. Testing helps to move the new vocabulary from the recognition state in your mind to fast recall.

The program offers three kinds of tests:

Recognition Test where you can check if you know the new phrases.
Activation Test which helps you memorise the new phrases.
Evaluation Test telling you how well you memorised the new phrases.

To test the new phrases in the Memory:

Choose a test in the Test menu. Language Cracker enters into the test mode.
Type the correct answer for the hidden phrase in the chat editor and press Enter in the keyboard to check it.
In the Recognition Test, press Enter if you know the phrase or press Space if you don’t remember it.
If you make a mistake, you can see both your mistake and the correct phrase.
Press Enter again to move on to the next phrase in the Memory to test it.
You can navigate between untested phrases and incorrect answers using the Next and Previous buttons.
The current score for the test is displayed in the Memory tab.
If you retake the same phrase in the current test session and answer it correctly, LC will mark it as “passed” partially but such a mild activation pass will not be added to the total score.
Press the Test button to return to the learning mode. All the phrases in the Memory panel will become unhidden. To continue the test, just press the Text button again.
To take the test again, choose it in the Test menu.
You can remove the correctly-answered phrases from the Memory by clicking the Remove correct answers in the Action menu.

In the Activation Test, Language Cracker is focused on the activation of the new phrases in your memory. It means that the application returns to the incorrectly-answered phrases automatically in order to help in their memorising. In the Evaluation Test, the program does not return to the previous mistakes.

Play and enjoy

The website with the news or a blog is just a basic example of the foreign language text for learning. It can be as well any text selected from another application such an ebook and a PDF file. The beginners should focus on a simpler text while proficient learners can study based on more advanced material.

Play with Language Cracker options and prompts adjusting them to your preferences. For instance, you can set it to transfer the selected text from another application using your system copy shortcut. In Options, you can also change the size and background of the text or switch to the dark theme – see the View menu. To edit the prompts do as follows:

Click on the Options button.
Select Edit prompts in Options.
Click on the prompt that you wish to change.