A while back I used Anki to learn a bunch of French vocab. At the time it was great and I learned a lot. I eventually stopped and I've probably forgotten most of it.
Chalk me up as an Anki user. I couldn't have done as well as I have in my college español class without it. I felt like I had superpowers when I knew vocabulary that some of the native speakers struggled with.
I use Anki for everything except language learning. It helps me remember books I've read, people, certain numbers, facts, etc. I am really grateful for a lot of the complex features Anki has.
I used Anki for learning Chinese and visiting the country.
Now I'm using a relatively new app called LingoDeer to supplement my Korean learning while also being in Korea
I'd say I like Lingodeer more than Duolingo / Memrise which didn't feel effective for real life situations since you could essentially go through the two apps without feeling the need to apply what you've learned.
Anki is more independent learning which is excellent for getting vocabulary down in my opinion.
I want to learn a language but I don't think I'll be using it with anybody anytime soon. But I'd be happy to understand a newspaper or Wikipedia. What would be the recommended way to learn vocabulary if Anki is not an option?
I've been using Duolingo but it really feels like a glorified Anki
Anki is great for learning (and allows the same spaced repetition), and AnkiWeb allows proper synchronization, but you gotta maintain and build your own deck (which itself aids you, but is a lot of work with things like pronunciation) or use another amateur's build deck. The power of Duolingo is that it reuses SVG artwork, and that the TTS engine plus voice sets work reasonably well.
I use Anki but it's insufficient as a sole tool for learning. Being able to memorize e.g. foreign language vocab (or grammar patterns using clozes) is very valuable but you won't become fluent without daily or almost-daily practice communicating using the language.
Duolingo is nice, but it's not as good for cramming as for low-intensity, long-term learning. Anki is awesome for just "I'm going to memorize this speech like a poem"
I'm also using Anki for Finish vocab, and it had helped me a lot. To the point it does feel like a super power.
If you are going to use Anki, it's important to switch the knobs to adapt to what you are learning.
I will share some of the things that have worked for me, for Finnish vocab:
- Intervals for new cards (until they are considered 'learned'): 1 10 15 50 240.
The 240 is critical for me: if I forgot it after 4 hours, it goes back to 1 again... if I got it after 4 hours, then it will have better chances in a couple of days.
Of course this is personal, I have been tweaking those until something makes sense to me.
- Lapese (when a known card is forgotten, and how to re-learn): 10 30 240. Again the 240 check.
- Set an ammount of new cards and max reviews per day that does not make you feel misserable... there needs to be some joy on learning...
If I may ask, are you just learning the vocab ? have you taken courses? Where are you getting the vocab from ?
Anki is awesome. I heard about it a week or so ago here, and have gotten though the JLPT 2 words (1300 of 'em) with 90% retention in about a week. I really wish I used flashcards when I was living in Japan, instead of my lazy-ass "i'll learn it from hearing other people" technique. (That worked, but not nearly as well as Anki.)
Regarding vocabulary expansion, more than once I've come across the same word during reading, looked up its meaning, and then forgot about it. A quick dictionary lookup in the moment will help me understand it then and there, but the time gap until I encounter the word a second time is large, and I'll likely forget it before then.
A good approach is to use Anki to memorize words but only add words that you've actually encountered in the wild.
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