There is no deigning that it has been a tough year to relaunch Declan FlashCards – indeed it’s been a tough year for everyone. There have been reports that the COVID-related lockdowns in many countries have been a boon for online companies, including language learning outfits. The story is that with everyone stuck at home, lots of people decided to use the time to learn a new skill, including learning a language.
It is too early for us to say either way given that we only relaunched in September. But we can’t deign that it has been heavy going getting traction. When we first launched Declan Software’s mobile device apps more than 10 years ago, there where very few competitors in the app stores. Now there are scores of them and getting noticed in very much more difficult.
In September we launched the iOS version followed by the Android version about two months later and as expected, given that our marketing efforts have focused on English speaking countries, a large majority of installs have been on the iPhone/iPad platform.
The breakdown of which languages have been most popular with our users has also been determined largely by our marketing efforts. Spanish, French and Korean combined accounted for around 60% of all activity. We promoted these three languages most heavily because these are where we had the largest users base for the previous versions of our apps.
In 2021 we plan to focus heavily on signing up language learning schools and facilities to use the Declan Channels feature which lets institutions offer bespoke course material to students on their mobile devices via the Declan FlashCards app. It’s a great way for institutions to better engage with students, particularly in the face of all the language learning apps available for mobile devices. Also we plan to expand the language we offers, with Arabic being at the top of the list.
On the marketing front, we plan to explore the use of internet influencers – including one of our favourites, Bald and Bankrupt.
Signup for our FREE Word of the Day email list. Get a new Word of the Day in your inbox every day with a word, its meaning and its pronunciation.
Available for 14 languages including French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Italian, Korean, German, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, Portuguese and Inglés (English for Spanish speakers).
The word of the day email includes a link to the word’s audio pronunciation. You can also save the word to a “Learning List” that allows you to build a collection of words that you’d like to revisit and study.
And then select the languages you are interested in, enter you email and you will receive your first Word of the Day within minutes. And then every 24 hours after that. And of course you can unsubscribe anytime.
We have just added a new learning mode to Declan FlashCards. Now when you select a topic to learn you just need to start swiping left, as new words are introduced and exercises are presented. Just keep swiping left in a continuous stream until the all the topic’s words are mastered.
You can still use the old manual mode by going into settings and selecting the “Use the Classic interface” option:
While the new mode does away with the classic 10 word learning list, the new mode still focuses on word retention by reenforcing words that you are having trouble with. Get one exercise wrong and all the exercises will need to be repeated for that word – a word is only considered ‘learned’ when you get its exercises consecutively correct.
Hope you enjoy this new feature. We are constantly refining and updating Declan FlashCards to make it a more effective and enjoyable tool for learning foreign language words and phrases. If you have any comments, suggestions or requests we’d love to hear from you.
We have just implemented a free Word of the Day email feature for 14 languages – French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Korean, German, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, Portuguese and Inglés (English for Spanish speakers).
Just head over to our home page (https://www.declansoftware.com) and after a couple of second you should see a popup appear like below. If you don’t see it, you can also tap the “Word of the Day” top menu item.
Tap the flags to select the languages your are interested in, enter your email address and you should get your first Word of the Day emails after a minute or two. And then every day at around the time you signed up you should receive your word of the day email(s).
Unfortunately it is not possible to reliably embed audio into emails so to hear the pronunciation you will have to follow the link in the email (“Click here for the pronunciation audio”). That will take you to a web page that is identical to the email but with a “Listen” button.
The email also includes an unsubscribe link that lets you manage your subscriptions.
Learn 1000s of JAPANESE words and phrases with Declan FlashCards for iPhone/iPad and Android.
The Japanese channel has 6,500 words and phrases, organised into 111 topics. Each and every word has true native speaker audio.
Start by reviewing the words in groups of ten (the learning list). Then jump into the exercises – multiple choice, spelling and listening. Get one answer wrong and you have to redo all the exercises for that word – reinforcing the words that that need most attention.
Features and benefits of Declan FlashCards:
* Every language includes 1000s of words. * Every word includes a native speaker’s audio recording. * Flashcard review and exercises to aid memorization. * Strict Learning-List testing technique ensures word retention.
Declan FlashCards is an app for iPhone/iPad and Android devices that helps foreign language students learn vocabulary.
The app comes ‘pre-loaded’ with 14 language channels each containing 1000s of words and phrases.
The Channels feature allows schools to create their own bespoke channels containing course-specific content which students can load into their copy of Declan FlashCards.
How do students load a channel?
Students add a channel to Declan FlashCards by entering a “Channel Code” provided by the school.
The channel’s details are then presented and the student can choose to install it.
Using a Channel
The newly installed channel will appear above the pre-installed channels.
Tap the channel icon and the list of topics or lessons will appear.
Within each lesson are the words and phrases which can be reviewed and then the exercises can be attempted.
Creating your channels
Schools work with the Declan Software team to set up channels.
The Declan Team takes the course content provided by the school (word lists and audio recordings), and compiles these into a Declan FlashCards Channel.
If required, we can assist with putting together wordlists, as well as help with producing the corresponding audio recordings using professional native-speaker voice artists.
Channels also require an icon – usually the school or university logo or shield.
Copyright and intellectual property protection
All word lists and audio provided by the school remain copyrighted to the school, with Declan Software having only distribution rights.
The channel materials are delivered to the app in an encrypted format to ensure intellectual rights are protected.
Additionally, offering this material via an app rather than a website further guards against copying.
The Channel codes themselves can be configured to prevent unwanted sharing and copying of the course material. These channel codes can be specific to each student, can be single-use, can limit the number of devices the channel can be installed on per code, and can also be set to expire.
What does it cost?
The institution can choose one of two options for how access to its channels is priced by Declan Software:\
1. An annual subscription paid by the institution based on the number of students using the institution’s channels, or
2. An in-app subscription paid by the individual app users – the students.
For pricing details please contact us.
There is no charge to the school for the work Declan Software does compiling channels, or for hosting them on our servers.
If assistance is required to record audio, these costs would be covered by the school.
Want to know more?
Declan FlashCards can be downloaded for free – for iPhone/iPad from the Apple AppStore or for Android from the Google Play AppStore:
Just search for “Declan FlashCards”.
Once you have installed the app, tap the yellow “+ Add Channel” button at the bottom of the page with flags and enter the code:
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or a demonstration of how Declan FlashCards Channels work.
Contact me
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at my private email:
If you’d like to discuss how Declan Channels could work for your institution, I am very happy to organise a call, or you can ring me directly on
This is a letter written to the Russian Language Centre in London by the Declan Software CEO Peter Vujanovic pitching Declan Channels.
Thank you for getting back. I am very glad you did because in fact it was my experience at the RLC that prompted us to add the new Declan Channels feature to our Declan FlashCards language learning app.
I recall that the RLC sent a Trello link to each student that included the audio recordings of the vocabulary lists at the end of each chapter of the Russian Language Centre Course Books. While I found these audio recordings very helpful, the format was not ideal and made using them difficult. Also it was clear that the RLC was concerned about the material being copied and otherwise misused by students.
So we have come up with a better solution and we call it Declan Channels.
Declan Channels is a new feature in our FlashCards app that allows language schools to share vocabulary lists (and the audio) with students in a simple, secure and copy-protected way. Once shared, the material can be used within Declan FlashCards – including the practice exercises – to help students learn and keep engaged outside the classroom.
The idea is that schools create a channel for each course they offer that are split into lessons or chapters. The students are then each issued with the unique Channel code that allows them to install the channel on their copy of Declan FlashCards.
These Channel codes themselves can be configured to prevent unwanted sharing and copying of the course material. They can be specific to each student, can be single-use, can limit the number of devices the channel can be installed on per code, and can also be set to expire. Moreover the channel materials are delivered to the app in an encrypted format to ensure intellectual rights are protected. Additionally, offering this material via an app rather than a website or Trello page further guards against copying
So that is the pitch. If you’d like to learn more about how Declan Channels works and the benefits it offers the RLC and your students, there is a PDF attached.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or would like to discuss this further.
Learning words is obviously a critical part of mastering a foreign language. While grammar is also important, grammar without words is useless. Conversely words without grammar are still very useful when trying to communicate in a foreign language. This is a point we made in one of our first posts on this blog Stringing a few words together in most languages will be more or less intelligible. Plunging in and having a go is critically important in learning a foreign language – especially not being embarrassed about making mistakes. Learning vocabulary and using it is the first step to mastering a foreign language.
So how to efficiency learn vocabulary? Here are a few tips for how to learn and retain words in the language you are studying.
1. BE SYSTEMATIC
Working your way through a list of words in the systematic and organised way is important. Being organised allows you to give each word the attention it needs. Simply working your way through a dictionary, for example, is a recipe for failure not only because of the sheer boredom but because it doesn’t allow to go gauge progress or to go back and revisit words that are not sticking.
2. SMALL BITES
Don’t bite off too much. A mistake many students make is to have scores or even hundreds of words in their current learning list and to plough through them once a day. This doesn’t work. Restrict you learning to a small subset of words at any one time. The optimal seems to be between 10 and 15 words or phrases. And keep drilling these until they are embedded in your memory. And then revisit them regularly.
3. VARY YOUR LEARNING
You need to do more than just flipping between a word and its meaning repeatedly, and then discarding the word when you think you know it. Firstly, thinking you know a word and will retain it is subjective and very often wrong. And secondly, encountering each and every word in that same context mixes them all up in your head and makes retaining the word more difficult. You need to make a unique place in your head for every word that you learn.
A better approach is to mix up your learning as much as possible. Physical or virtual flashcards should be just one component of your learning. Using flashcards in conjunction with exercises, games, actions or even music is the best approach.
More generally, a well known memorisation technique is to associate the thing you are trying to memorise with another context – be it an action, object, image, situation or even sound. For example, associating the word “blue” with the sky, or pointing up to the sky, or a song about “blue skies” is a very successful strategy for memorisation. Indeed there is a trend in language schools to use movement, and music to help students “feel” the language and therefore better retain what they have learned. Why not try and invent a color dance!?
Another strategy is to try to memorise phrases rather than just individual words. This gives the words in the phrase context. Often the rhythm and cadence of the phrase – something words alone often lack – can aid memorisation. Also if you can get lists of common expressions, these will invariably be useful when you get out there in the real world. And you will find that the best method for memorisation is hearing the words and phrases you are learning being spoken by native speaker back at you.
4. ORGANISE YOUR LEARNING BY TOPIC OR THEME
This is part of being organised, but it is more that this. Learning by topic or theme gives context to what you are learning – it creates a little world in your mind where you can place each word and phrase and this help enormously with recall and retention.
5. REPETITION, REPETITION, REPETITION
The title speaks for itself! This means that you need to be disciplined about investing time every day to studying vocabulary. This is where most people fall down – it can be tedious. But the rewards are great. There is no greater thrill for a beginner student of a foreign language to recognise a word or phrase they have recently learned when watching a film or TV show or listening to a song in the language they are trying to master.
6. USE IT OR LOOSE IT
Use it or loose it is a subset of the repetition point. Retrieving a word from memory and using it gives the word context and that reenforces retention in the long term. So try to get yourself into situations where you can use the vocabulary you are learning. If the best you can do is to listen (be sure to sing along) to music or watch films or TV shows, then at least do that.
But best yet of course is interacting with native speakers. But if that is difficult, a second best option is to find a friend and communicate with them in the language you are trying to learn. Sure you will both made ridiculous errors but that is not important – what is important is that it gives you the chance to recall the words and phrases you have being learning and through recall and repetition, you concrete them in place in your memory.
7. USE A FLASHCARDS APP
Declan FlashCards incorporates many of the techniques outlined above for learning foreign language vocabulary. Firstly learning is organised by topic. This helps to establish a context for learning which help with retention. Learning limits on a learning list of 10 words per topic at any one time. This keeps your learning focused. The exercises in Declan FlashCards are very much part of the learning methodology. Importantly, the exercises provide variety and reenforcement. Attempting the exercises and getting answer incorrect and trying again is very much part of a successful learning strategy. As users work through the exercises, a word that is deemed “learned” drops off the learning list and is replaced by a new word. If however the users get an answer incorrect, then all the exercises for that word need to be reattempted. Only when all the exercises are answered correctly consecutively for a particular word, is that word marked as correctly and moves off the learning list.
JAPANESE 
