Home Forums Tips, Hacks, & Ideas For Learning Japanese Studying vocabulary – include sample sentences?

This topic contains 17 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by  winterpromise31 11 years, 9 months ago.

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  • #38778

    winterpromise31
    Moderator

    I’m constantly refining my study methods, trying to find ways to make learning more efficient. I’m reading more and more native materials and I try to learn new vocabulary in context. I’ve been creating my own vocab deck in Anki for ages but I’ve always quizzed with just the vocab word on the front of the card and meaning on the back. Since we rarely hear words without context in real life, do you think it’s more beneficial to list the word and then include a sample sentence (with the vocab word in context) on the front of the card?

    What do you do to quiz new vocab?

    #38779

    Personally I like to include a sample sentence to show the word can be used. This is helpful whenever I forget the usage, but most of the time I never look at it.

    My cards look like this:

    #38789

    Joel
    Member

    You don’t think it’s a little self-referential to define a noun by using the verb form of the same word?

    #38790

    I already know the verb, but for some reason I had trouble remembering the meaning while I was reading, so I just went ahead and added the noun as well in hopes of never having to think twice when I see this word :) Maybe it was a bad example of how my deck looks. This card was added just so I could see the word more, so that I could remember it better. Once I have the word down I will probably end up deleting it, but for now I will keep it to make sure this word won’t bother me again. I just took a screenshot of the first note I had due today :P

    But yes it is 100% self-referential^^’

    #38791

    Perhaps the card for the verb is a better example

     

    #38793

    winterpromise31
    Moderator

    Thanks for showing off sample cards. That is helpful. I am going to start adding sentences to the front of my cards. Especially the lousy leeches that are still giving me issues…

    How do you switch to mono-lingual? I’m still using Japanese –> English but want to get away from the English translations as soon as possible.

    #38794

    First of all I recommend getting the add-on which automatically adds furigana to words. It is pretty awesome, and you can save you  a lot of time. Making a new deck is probably also a good idea, and along with that a new template. I myself prefer to have definition -> word
    word -> definition/reading

    But you can of course change that around to your liking. For example sentences I usually just use jisho or alc since they have mostly meaningful sentences and provide it in an easy to read, easy to copy format. With J-J dictionaries I am all over the place. It really depends if I am happy with the results I am getting.

     

    #38795

    winterpromise31
    Moderator

    I like the sentences on jisho. I can almost always find example sentences that incorporate the grammar I know/am currently learning.

    My hesitation in going mono-lingual is that I don’t know all the words in the definitions of a Japanese dictionary. So the vocab word itself is new and the definition has new words. It seems circular.

    #38796

    For vocab, I’m just working through the Core 6k deck, which comes with example sentences. Like Mark said, I don’t really read the sentences besides the first few times or when I forget the exact meaning. Gonna be a LONG time before I’m finished adding new cards to that deck, but once I do, maybe then I’ll gradually make my own monolingual deck. Just over halfway through and not added any new cards in a while, so yeah, won’t be done any time soon…

    #38798

    Joel
    Member

    I’m just about to start third-year at uni (next week!) and our new textbook is very nearly completely mono-lingual. I’ve had a bit of a flip through, and it looks like English is only used to explain brand new words, though I’ve not actually looked at it in detail. Probably should. Either way, I’m gonna be getting an idea of what it’s like this year…

    #38799

    @winter

    If you don’t understand the definition, try looking it up in another dictionary :) Adding words you need to understand the definition of other words also doesn’t hurt :D I remember adding 会計 quite a while ago, which spiraled into adding a bunch of other words like 代金 用足し etc..
    If the definition is too hard you can always go ahead and add the card to your English deck instead.

     

    @Michael

    Just forget about core 6k and start your own monolingual already.

     

    @Joel

    Monolingual can be challenging sometimes, but  you end up learning much more. I still haven’t ever had a textbook xD

    #38800

    Anonymous

    *Edit*

    No need no need

    • This reply was modified 11 years, 9 months ago by  .
    #38806

    winterpromise31
    Moderator

    Ok, I’ll bite.

    Mark – Why do you recommend ditching Core6k? Also, is there a specific reason you recommend putting English and Japanese in separate decks?

    Michael – How far are you through Core6k? Do you think it’s helping? I can’t remember; are you reading blogs or books in Japanese? If so, does the Core6k help with that?

    Joel – I’m so jealous! ;) I hope you have a great class.

    BBvoncrumb – Did you have something productive to add? If so, please do. :) I could always use help even if it’s just to tell me that I’m an idiot because I don’t challenge myself in my studying. lol

    #38810

    If you add cards yourself to a deck, chances are you will care about the words you are learning. This is good because you will be more motivated towards learning, and because you will see an increase in understanding what exactly it is you like to do in Japanese. If you do this through core, you will learn a lot of words, which you will probably never use, and that you won’t care about. Because you only see it through the core examples, you won’t know the proper usage either.

    But I think it is up to every person to figure out what works best for them. I still like to get a few new reviews in core 6k sometimes just in order to get some more cards which require listening due. My main focus is however on my monolingual deck.

    #38812

    Anonymous

    I never have anything productive to add

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