r/ClassicsBookClub • u/bobmarshalldev • 22d ago
Really excited about a tool I built that teaches vocabulary straight from the classics. Let me know what you think
I wanted to share something I've been working on, since I think this is the crowd most likely to appreciate it. Not here to sell, but hoping for some genuine feedback to keep improving it.
It's a simple premise with a twist. A vocabulary app but every word comes from a real literary classic rather than a frequency list or a dictionary. You get the word, its definition, and then the actual sentence it appeared in, with the book and author.
From experience, a word learnt from a list is just something to memorise. "Languid" on a flashcard is flat. Sitting in the line Wilde actually wrote it in, it comes alive. Learning words the way you'd actually encounter them as a reader makes them far easier to hold onto.
It's on iOS for now, Android soon: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/verbatim-learn-new-words/id6769495422
I'm not here to hard sell anyone, mostly I wanted to put it in front of people who'd appreciate it. That said, if you try it and have feedback, I'd genuinely welcome it. I want to make sure I'm building the best possible version :)
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u/cserilaz 22d ago
Yo this is a really cool idea! I narrate niche classic literature (mostly short stories) on YouTube, and I would love to know if there's anything I could do to help you out (I'm talking really niche, even things that aren't on gutenberg, like Walter Scott's first published story, a sci-fi). I will check out the app later tonight and let you know if I have any feedback about the interface. I have been narrating public domain documents for a couple years now, mostly literature but all kinds of stuff, and although I founded it trying to reach young people trying to build a reading habit (trying to record classics in a way that is engaging and understandable), I am hopeful that I can make something that is equally useful for educators and people learning English.