Core decks vs extensive reading

(2016-06-09, 11:19 am)risu_ Wrote:

I do both and it's magical...



In all seriousness. The core 6k deck has helped me with my extensive reading of manga. Though I don't know everything I read, the words I have encountered in core that I stumble upon in manga is reinforced quite well. There have been times where a particular word can't stick mentally during Anki reviews but suddenly once I see it in the wild, I get it. For example, I was recently having trouble with the word 暖かい--I couldn't for the life of me remember anything about this word and kept failing it. It finally clicked for me when I watched a few episodes of Sailor Moon and I kept hearing Sailor Moon say it whenever she held Tuxedo Mask's hand. With manga reading of Shirokuma Cafe, I now know 竹 is bamboo and 笹 is bamboo grass/leaves as these are the only things Panda likes to eat.

(2016-06-09, 12:48 pm)CureDolly Wrote:

(2016-06-09, 12:04 am)sholum Wrote: I forgot who I heard this from (on this site), but Anki is a tool that increases your familiarity with words, making it easier to remember them, but you won't really learn a lot of them until you use them (by reading, for instance).

This is very important. Anki does increase one's familiarity with words. But when they get pushed out to one or two years because you "know" them, if you don't encounter them at any time during the interval you are as likely as not to have forgotten them when they finally come back.

But then if you haven't used them actively or passively in two years, why does it even matter to know them? There's always a dictionary for the clearly very rare occasion when you need them.

Anki and "learning" is not an end in itself. At least it isn't for me.

Also the fact that you won't really learn them until you use them goes deeper than the mere mechanical fact of whether you remember their definitions or not.

Just knowing the dictionary definition or an example sentence or two is not "knowing a word" in any real sense. It is only by having it as part of one's real-life vocabulary (active or passive) that one actually knows it in the way that one knows a word in one's own language - i.e. feels its weight and nuance and knows it as a living part of a living and experienced language.

This is pretty much Rules #1 and 2 in the 20 rules of formulating knowledge article by Supermemo.

Quote:

1. Do not learn if you do not understand
   
2. Learn before you memorize - build the picture of the whole before you dismember it into simple items in SuperMemo. If the whole shows holes, review it again!