I feel like I'm need a new method to learning Japanese because I'm starting to fail alot of cards in Anki. I can barely finish my reviews anymore but I still do at least 150-200 cards a day(20 mins), trying to get half the load done instead of burning myself out, it's better than going two days or more without reviewing.

I read at least 5-10 pages in Japanese a day so at least I'm doing something other than reviewing. I'm thinking about copying passages from my books because I'm having a hard time sticking to a journal. I figure writing down SOMETHING once a day and analyzing it is better than going for weeks without a journal entry at all. I'm thinking active writing will help in not forgetting kanji compounds and just be beneficial overall, but is there a drawback in blind copying like this?

It's a good method. I'd say in the long run it's better than journal writing. Obviously, much slower than reading, so if you're a speed-reading demon you will be better off with prolific reading.

Do you write out your Anki reviews? That could help to remember your.. anki reviews.

Otherwise just unreasonably large amounts of input will help with Recognition and Output~

PkmnTrainerAbram Wrote:I feel like I'm need a new method to learning Japanese because I'm starting to fail alot of cards in Anki. I can barely finish my reviews anymore but I still do at least 150-200 cards a day(20 mins), trying to get half the load done instead of burning myself out, it's better than going two days or more without reviewing.

That's a lot of cards to do in Anki, especially if you're not fast or you don't like it. Maybe you could stop adding cards for a while? Just go a month (or two or three) without adding any new cards and you're daily reviews will be significantly reduced.

As for study methods, you should be asking yourself what you like to do. What can you do that doesn't feel like studying? What are you naturally drawn towards? Unless you're learning Japanese for some external reason (like you need to know Japanese as fast as possible because your wife was kidnapped by the emperor of Japan and all the ransom notes are in Japanese, etc), it might be a good idea just to chill with things you don't like, and just concentrate on those things that you find enjoyable. Eventually you'll probably get the craving to start writing again. Or maybe you'll even get a penpal.

It doesn't sound like you're doing anything entertaining. Can you get any manga or find some good TV shows/movies/anime? Find something that suits your level (manga is good for this) so it doesn't feel like such a struggle. You're always learning something with exposure, even if it doesn't feel like it. This isn't to replace your other efforts, but if you find something that's almost purely entertainment, it's easy to force it into your schedule. It's good to keep discipline with the reviews and stuff, but if you start to associate Japanese with only the need to focus hard on uninteresting content, it probably won't end well.

Not enjoying myself is hardly the reason I feel, since my immersion consists of game magizines, guides, and videogames mostly. There's SOME anime a few times a week, but it hardly counts. I don't watch TV much in English, so that carries over to Japanese as well. If I'm not doing it in English, I'm just not doing it in Japanese.

When it all comes down to it, I'm learning Japanese to just goof off anyway, there are definitely more important things in my life, though with all the time I've put into this I'm not just going to drop it either. Not again anyway. I used to stress SO much when I didn't get the reviews right I would spend 2 hours on 50 cards litterally, now I just do 20 mins no matter what, because that doesn't burn me out. At least SOMETHING gets done rather than getting mad and NOTHING gets done. I had stopped new cards coming up for 2 of the Core decks I have so I only get about 20 new cards daily out of 7 decks.

I'm running Core's first 3 decks, I have a Phrasebook deck, a deck for my textbook, a deck for Pokemon Japanese names, a deck for my game guides.

I guess more specifically, I'd forget the kanji compounds before I'd forget the words. I know what "chousa" and "nozoku" means, but I can't remember the kanji compounds for them when it comes time for review. Oddly enough I can recognize some words in the wild, but come up as a blank when it comes time to review. I don't know what's up with that.

I read a tip about learning Kanji compounds before learning Kanji since it makes it easier to fit together like a puzzle. I did RTK up to frame 1500 something and stopped and at that point my kanji recall was definitely stronger than it is now and it sucks because I wasn't maintaining it.=/

PkmnTrainerAbram Wrote:I guess more specifically, I'd forget the kanji compounds before I'd forget the words. I know what "chousa" and "nozoku" means, but I can't remember the kanji compounds for them when it comes time for review. Oddly enough I can recognize some words in the wild, but come up as a blank when it comes time to review. I don't know what's up with that.

well for one thing, production cards are way harder than recognition cards. like burn you out hard.

I did 4,000 subs2srs cards going from audio to produced text, and it made me hate some of my favorite stuff. ya it's interesting in the beginning, but 2 years later you get annoyed and lose interest.

do some recognition cards... that way you can take in a lot more information really quickly. it's not all about this deep mastery of every word, sometimes casting a broad net shallowly is a good strategy too.

PkmnTrainerAbram Wrote:I feel like I'm need a new method to learning Japanese because I'm starting to fail alot of cards in Anki. I can barely finish my reviews anymore but I still do at least 150-200 cards a day(20 mins), trying to get half the load done instead of burning myself out, it's better than going two days or more without reviewing.

So basically it is a retention problem?

Its really hard to say what to do, because there could be several reasons as to why you're not retaining the information. One reason is that you could be studying too much, ie cramming, which is not good for retention. Another reason is that you may not learn well from flashcards, as in you need context to help you remember things. Finally, it could be that you need to write things down in order to remember them.

Since you do a lot of reading, I would suggest writing down any words you don't know or can't figure out from context. Mark the sentence in a way that you can find it again, and underline the word you had trouble with. The next day, go back and read the sentence and still see if you remember the word. If you don't, write it down again, and repeat until you no longer need to look it up.

You memorize words best through gradual exposure. I honestly think you're trying to do too many cards at once (pace is too fast), which is why you're having this retention problem. Slow and steady. Better to gain mastery over a few words at a time, than fuzzy recollections of hundreds of words over a week.