AnkiDeckGen

This is a Python script I wrote for language learners to help automate the process of making Anki flashcards from foreign texts.

It uses a combination of googletrans (https://pypi.org/project/googletrans/) and gTTS (https://pypi.org/project/gTTS/) to generate a CSV file that can be imported into Anki, as well as MP3 files of the phrase pronunciation to drop into Anki's media folder.

As I originally wrote it to help me with learning Russian, it incorporates Vuizer's wonderful Russian word stresser tool (https://github.com/Vuizur/add-stress-to-epub) to add stress marks to Russian phrases.

I've only tested it with Russian, German, and Italian but it should theoretically work with any language supported by Google translate.

Of course, I take no responsibility for the effectiveness, nor for the accuracy of the translations or pronunciation. Also, I am not affiliated with Anki in anyway.

Dependencies

First, you'll need to install the packages.

googletrans: pip install googletrans

gTTS 2.3.2: pip install gTTS

Russian word stresser: pip install git+https://github.com/Vuizur/add-stress-to-epub

Colorama: pip install colorama

If there's anything else, you'll certainly find out when you try to run the script.

Instructions

• Download all files and folders in the repository to a local directory on your machine.

• Change the ISO639-1 language codes in main.py according to your native and target languages. These are string variables in native_lang and target_lang respectively.

• Either copy/paste or type phrases from a text in your target language of choice into the file phrase_list.txt. One phrase per line.

• cd to the where you saved the repository files.

• run python3 main.py

• Assuming all works well, each phrase will be printed to your terminal, along with it's translation. Finally, File saved as ... will indicate that the process has completed successfully.

Importing cards and mp3's into Anki

Moving MP3s to Anki

• Navigate to the audio_output folder AnkiDeckGen, where you'll find a number of MP3 files. These should be easily sorted by name as the date and time.

• Move these into Anki's media folder. Depending on your system, it will be something like: /home/UserName/.local/share/Anki2/User 1/collection.media/. You may have to allow viewing hidden files and folders on your machine.

Importing the cards as an Anki deck

• Open Anki on your desktop, and click Import File.

• Navigate to AnkiDeckGen's csv_output folder and select the latest CSV file.

• In Anki's import window make sure that the card type is set to 'Basic' (two-sided), fields are separated by a Semicolon, and the Allow HTML box is checked.

• The Deck button in the the top-right of the window will allow you to either import into a new deck or add them to an existing one.

• Restart Anki.

Troubleshooting

If your target language is set to Russian, you might get an error when running the program:

    def __init__(self, db_file: str, simple_cases_file: str | None) -> None:
    TypeError: unsupported operand type(s) for |: 'type' and 'NoneType'```


In that case, you need to edit ```local/lib/Python3.x/site-packages/russian_text_stresser/text_stresser.py```

Change the line in the  ```__init__``` function (at about line 46)...

From:

```def __init__(self, db_file: str, simple_cases_file: str | None) -> None:```

To:

```def __init__(self, db_file: str, simple_cases_file) -> None:```