Reviews for Toucan - Language Learning
Toucan - Language Learning by Toucan
144 reviews
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 17194273, a year ago
- Rated 3 out of 5by emascandam, a year agoWhile the idea is great, and the extension is visually appealing, most of the features that will help people actually learn the language are not available for free. Furthermore, some heavy webpages become sluggish and unusable when they first load, and the extension uses flags to represent languages with no way to use alternative method such as ISO codes (this is bad because it reinforces the idea that a language 'belongs' to a country and a country has one national/native language, which endangers minority languages and plays a negative role in the loss of languages, among other reasons it is proscribed). Furthermore, the transliteration can be really inconsistent and sometimes even inaccurate. A single robust transliteration system should be used for all words in a language to avoid confusion.
Developer response
posted a year agoThanks so much for taking the time to write this out. Sincerely appreciate you giving Toucan a try! We’re definitely working to make sure that we address our lag asap. In the meantime, if you have any additional details about your experience, feel free to share them with me. Appreciate you sharing your feedback about the flags and ISO codes and just shared it with the team.
We also have a lot of new upgrades coming to our natural language processing and machine learning technology that I’m beyond eager for our users to experience. As you’ve noticed, languages are extremely complex and we’re excited to have the opportunity to tackle this head-on and deliver an elegant solution to you.
I’m all ears if you have any other feedback at all. Feel free to shoot me an email at taylor.nieman@jointoucan.com. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 2 out of 5by Tai, a year agoIts a good idea, but at least for Japanese, its making word-for-word translations that are awkward or just don't fit in with the context with the rest of the sentence. e.g. "next week -> "next 週", "part of the beauty of the system is..." -> "part of 美しさ of the the system is...". It also changes things like URLs, which is a big nono for me.
Developer response
posted a year agoHey there! Thanks so much for taking the time to write out this feedback! Sincerely appreciate it.
We also have a lot of new upgrades coming to our natural language processing and machine learning technology that I’m beyond eager for our users to experience. As you've noticed, languages are extremely complex and we're excited to have the opportunity to tackle this head-on and deliver an elegant solution to you.
I’m all ears if you have any other feedback at all. Feel free to shoot me an email at taylor.nieman@jointoucan.com. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 1 out of 5by Firefox user 16725907, a year agoFirefox keeps complaining that Toucan is slowing down page processing.
Developer response
posted a year agoHey there! Thanks so much for taking the time to write out this feedback! Sincerely appreciate it. We're definitely working to make sure that we address our lag asap. In the meantime, if you have any additional details about your experience, feel free to share them with me.
I’m all ears if you have any other feedback at all. Feel free to shoot me an email at taylor.nieman@jointoucan.com. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 5 out of 5by Sandy_B, a year agoThis is really a great extension. It allows you to stay immerged in a language at all time and discover new vocabulary in the things you're interested in since it translates words from what you're currently reading. It's especially good for beginners since it helps you recognize words in different context without reading full sentences in the language. Really looking forward to future updates :)
Developer response
posted a year agoThanks so much, Sandy! Sincerely appreciate it. Keep me posted if you have any other feedback at all. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 5 out of 5by Osvaldo, a year ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 13765579, a year ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Leiya, a year ago
Developer response
posted a year agoMuito obrigada, Adriele! Keep me posted if you have any other feedback at all. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan- Rated 5 out of 5by Joojuunas, a year ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Mustafa Abdelrahim, a year agoThanks, this now helping me to translate words without go to google translator.
Developer response
posted a year agoThanks so much, Mustafa! So happy to hear that Toucan is helping you. Keep me posted if you have any other feedback at all. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 5 out of 5by Minato, a year agoThis extension is incredibly useful, the idea is just perfect !!
Please continue develop this extension !Developer response
posted a year agoThanks so much! We’re definitely working on some really amazing updates that I can’t wait to share. Stay tuned for these updates. In the meantime, keep me posted if you have any other feedback at all. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 5 out of 5by Al, a year ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Rafe-V, a year agoThis extension is incredibly useful whether you're a beginner who's just started on their language-learning journey, or a more advanced speaker who just wants to brush up on occasion, or build their vocab. What little correspondence I've had with the Toucan team so far has been wonderfully professional and polite, so you can trust that any issues you have on that front will be resolved (or try to be resolved) smoothly. It is limited in its language selection currently, which is unfortunate (I wanted to use it for Russian, but that's not ready just yet), but with constant additions and updates to the extension, I'm sure that more will be added in time.
Developer response
posted a year agoThanks so much for your kind words! Love hearing about your experience with Toucan. We’re definitely working on adding more languages to the mix. Stay tuned for updates! In the meantime, keep me posted if you have any other feedback at all. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 17146984, a year agoby Michel G., QC, CA
Toucan makes it really easy for me to get started with Spanish. I get to build my vocabulary, hear correct pronunciation, and practice my accent. All this, while doing my usual reading routine. I've been using Firefox extensions for a long time and this one is the best because it opens up a whole new world to me.
I was told that new updates are coming and got the feeling that they're working really hard to improve the extension. Can't wait to see.Developer response
posted a year agoThanks so much, Michel! Sincerely appreciate the kind words. Love hearing that Toucan is working so well for you! We’re definitely working on so many new updates that I’m beyond excited for you to experience. Stay tuned! In the meantime, keep me posted on any other feedback you have as you continue using Toucan. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 5 out of 5by Jason, a year ago
- Rated 4 out of 5by Robyo, a year agoIt's a very interesting idea for an extension and I'm glad it was made. As others have said, it does have performance issues. On a high performance desktop PC it's not terrible but the lag is still very noticeable.
Sometimes the replacements don't make logical sense in the context. Nouns are fine, and it mostly replaces nouns, but sometimes it replaces a verb and for example in German it will put the infinitive form of a reflexive verb in place of an English verb, so in the sentence "I can't afford it" you see "I can't [sich leisten] it", which doesn't make sense. But I suppose it'll never make sense putting directly translated foreign words into an English sentence. I still can hover over it and learn the word, and thus expand my vocabulary.
Sometimes it translates a word with the wrong translation for the sentence because a word exists in English with multiple meainings. For example, "harbour" as a verb is translated into the noun form, which no longer makes sense. Or for another example of a mistranslation, it translates "vitamin A defieniency" into "vitamin [a deficiency]" where the part in square brackets is in another language. This is because it thinks 'A' is the indefinite article, but it's the actual name and shouldn't be translated.
What would be really cool is if it could replace more of the words around the word, or even entire sentences. The way it currenly works can be confusing and it reduces readability to see a random noun in German but the connecting words and articles in English. My brain expects to see the other words in German as well if I'm reading German, and I'm worried I'm training my brain to confuse the languages.
It's especially confusing when a word exists in both languages but with different meanings. For "a disc jockey" it translates "a disc" literally and leaves the word jockey, which no longer makes sense. It should have been translated into a single word. "Box office" should be translated as one word "Kinokasse" but instead it leaves "box" and just translates "office" into "Büro" which is meaningless. A literal office in a box?
I suppose it might be too difficult to translate partial sentences and too difficult for learners to translate entire sentences. The dream would be a machine learning algorithm that knows what I know and replaces what it knows I will understand, so that over time I end up reading mostly German with only the occasional English word.
For now, I think this add-on will be good for improving my vocabulary via exposure to new words and regular practice that I otherwise wouldn't have, but it is not without problems. For me it's still useful enough to have enabled, just for the repeated exposure.Developer response
posted a year agoHey there! Thanks so much for taking the time to write out this feedback! Sincerely appreciate it. We're definitely working to make sure that we address our lag asap. In the meantime, if you have any additional details about your experience, feel free to share them with me.
We also have a lot of new upgrades coming to our natural language processing and machine learning technology that I’m beyond eager for our users to experience. As you've noticed, languages are extremely complex and we're excited to have the opportunity to tackle this head-on and deliver an elegant solution to you.
Love your feedback about progression and adding more words and sentences to the mix. We’re continuing to expand on our learning system, so definitely stay tuned for updates!
I’m all ears if you have any other feedback at all. Feel free to shoot me an email at taylor.nieman@jointoucan.com. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 14856281, a year ago
Developer response
posted a year agoThanks so much! Sincerely appreciate it. I’m definitely all ears if you have any other feedback at all. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan- Rated 5 out of 5by Georgi, a year agoIt's a simple but great concept, and it's showing results after only a couple of weeks.
The pause feature is also great for when you need to focus on important text without getting any foreign words.Developer response
posted a year agoThanks so much, Georgi! Love hearing about your experience with our pausing feature. I’m definitely all ears if you have any other feedback at all. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 3 out of 5by Firefox user 14476900, a year agoI love the idea, but for me it slows down my browser so much that it is unusable, freezing my tab even on the lowest word amount setting. Will definitely come back and see if it works any better in the future
I actually came back to this and just stopped it running on the more taxing sites. Unfortunately these are the sites I use most, like twitch or any other chat room. But I can make some use of Toucan so i'll change my original 1 star rating to 3, hoping it runs more efficiently or has options to make it do so in the futureDeveloper response
posted a year agoThanks so much for this updated feedback! Sincerely appreciate it. A change is definitely coming very soon. We’re actively working on improving performance and appreciate the details that you’ve provided for us. Stay tuned for updates. I’m definitely all ears if you have any other feedback at all. Feel free to shoot me an email at taylor.nieman@jointoucan.com. :)
Obrigada,
Taylor Nieman
Currently learning: Portuguese
Co-Founder and CEO, Toucan - Rated 5 out of 5by chiangchihjen, a year ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by tmn28, a year ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by Firefox user 17086601, a year ago
- Rated 5 out of 5by KisiLinda, a year ago