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To learn a word or character, you need to be able to understand it immediately and be able to form a sentence with it without delay (at least not more than the
by Bakary 4y ago
To learn a word or character, you need to be able to understand it immediately and be able to form a sentence with it without delay (at least not more than the occasional "uh..."). Remembering the meaning after some fiddling is not good enough.
That has to be achieved by actually practicing the language, either via listening, speaking, or writing.
Anki is there to help after that step by keeping you refreshed with the exact tones, strokes, multiple pronunciations or more ambiguous CJK characters etc. but it can't be the motor behind the process.
For spaced repetition, although it is a form of rote memorization, the key insight is that memory is formed through recall, not review. The system then (purportedly) hits you at the very moment you are about to forget the card. It's counter-intuitive but it's easier to encode things in long term memory by recalling them at that point as opposed to when it's still fresh in your mind.
This is analogous to studying in university via explaining things to yourself versus just highlighting and rereading the textbook. Every student knows the former is more effective.
- gernb 4y agoA friend who is amazingly good at languages made the analogy, you can't read about how to play a musical instrument and get better at playing it. You actually have to play it. Anki might help some, maybe reading, but speaking and listening require actually speaking and actually listening.
- karatinversion 4y agoThe analogy can be taken too far; if you can recognise a note by sight on sheet music, you’ve learnt everything there is to directly memorise in paying an instrument. All the rest is practice. This is not the case in language learning. A language which is not closely related to one you already know has tens of thousands of words, the meanings of which can’t be deduced from other things. There is no use to doing listening practice if you do not understand almost all the words being used; you will be stuck looking them up one at a time in a dictionary. It is also very difficult to correctly pick out words you don’t know in a language you are new to.