by Reid Wilson

First appeared: Language Learning for Language Learners #31

After about a month of discussion and learning and after about a week of intense internet research, last night I ordered a portable minidisc (MD) player/recorder. I'm now looking forward to its arrival, as I'm sure it will be a great boast to my language learning endeavors.

Some see MD and MP3 as competing technologies. For example, someone recently asked me: "In my circles, there's been debate about whether language learners should use MD or MP3. What do you think?"

Instead of seeing these two technologies in opposition and mutual exclusion, I see each of them as ideal in different parts of the process. That is, I'm eager to use both. I'll replace our cassette recorder with the minidisc recorder and get several significant benefits, but I'll still convert those recordings into MP3 files for the purposes of study with a tutor using Cool Edit 2000, for listening to them as play lists on my computer and MP3 player, and also for sharing with other language learners via home-made CD-ROMs full of my language MP3 file collection.

So I still stand by everything I've ever said about MP3 files. The combination of them with Cool Edit 2000 is powerful.

But here's what I've learned lately that led to my MD order last night. This information is based on internet research, an article a linguist friend sent me, several conversations with a language learning friend who is also an audio-and-technology-inclined engineer, and an enthusiastic show-and-tell done by a linguist I met a couple of weeks ago.

• Minidisc recording quality (digital) is much higher than cassette recording quality (analog). This is especially relevant to us since we do not have a high-quality cassette recorder. For now we'll still have to go back to analog to convert to MP3 through our computer's sound card, but we'll still get higher quality. The technology exists and is not too expensive to keep the whole process digital, but for now that's not in our plans.
       
  This recording quality issue is important to me because I've had a couple people record stuff for me that ended up not being very usable due to low recording quality. I realize my new MD recorder won't guarantee perfect recording from now on, but it will help me say, "Hey, let's use this new MD recorder instead of your cassette recorder."
      
• I also looked into hand held digital recorders like a businessman would use for dictation, but I couldn't find anything suggesting their recording quality was anywhere near minidisc, and I prefer to be able to record a lot of material instead of being limited by the amount a digital recorder can hold until I transfer the recordings onto my computer. In addition, while I'm mostly interested in recording voice, with a minidisc I can record any live instrumental music that I encounter much better than I could with a hand-held digital recorder.
  
• The recording on a minidisc can easily be divided up into tracks which can then be named, rearranged, and deleted individually, with the user able to jump between tracks as well. One just has to press a button to create a new track division.
     
  On the other hand, it is a pain to convert something from a cassette to MP3 if there are several different things on the tape, having first of all to find the segment I'm looking for and then not knowing when to stop the tape when I'm recording into Cool Edit 2000. Tape counters help some, but being able to establish tracks on the minidisc THRILLS me, because I'll know exactly when the track is over and thus when I should stop recording in Cool Edit.
       
• A minidisc doesn't have to be turned over half way through recording like a cassette does. With cassettes this often results in chopped-off content, and "splicing" these recordings into an MP3 file is a bit of a hassle too. (A minidisc holds 74 minutes of recording, or about twice that if the recorder allows for mono recording, which the one I ordered does.)
  
• Because tracks on a minidisc can be named, it's much easier to keep track of what is recorded. For example, by using a naming scheme I'd already established, as I'm recording I can label the track by the age, sex, location, etc. of the speaker as well as the date and general topic and format of the recording. This would be especially helpful when recording in different areas over the period of a couple of days. I'll also be able to show my friends and tutor how to name the things they are recording for me, which means that I won't have multiple cassettes on my desk each with "kids stories read by Ahmad" written on it waiting to be figured out and then MP3ed. (A slight confession...)

Conclusion

We've been gradually building our language learning technology and we found incredible deals on our MP3 players, so I realize that everyone just starting off won't be able to afford both a minidisc recorder and a portable MP3 player. I've had so many irritations with cassettes that I have to recommend minidisc recorders, not to mention their improved recording quality, and I've seen so much value in MP3 files in language learning that I must recommend them as well, even for those who have not yet bought an MP3 player but who do have a computer and can get Cool Edit 2000. Just keep an eye out for great deals on MP3 players. 

Let's make this a dialogue. Please tell me what you'd recommend for a motivated and aspiring language learner, especially one who will be living where the language is spoken. E-mail me at reid@languageimpact.com and let me know what you think, and if it's OK with you I might even use your comments in a future issue of Language Learning.

P.S. In case you're interested, after a lot of internet research I decided on the Sharp MS-722 MiniDisc Player/Recorder, which I got for $199 from http://www.minidisco.com/ . I ordered a pack of 20 minidiscs from Amazon.com for what ended up being $1.50 each, which is around what I can get decent blank 60-minute cassette tapes for locally.

More Postscripts

After I placed my order I needed Minidisco to respond quickly to an e-mail I sent them, which they did--I was really pleased with their service.

It's taken me a while to send this article out, and I've since received and tried out my minidisc recorder. I'm in love--and now most highly recommend them.