I'm using Anki, which is decent as a program, but I'm looking more for general vocab, and have yet to find a deck on there that's "comfortable" for various reasons--mapping from kanji to meaning instead of vice-versa, vocal decks not using kanji, etc. what program or anki deck should I be using for vocab or sentence learning?

the best for you will be the one that you build yourself.
at least that is what is what I found...

I wouldn't recommend just DL'ing a pre-cooked deck and trying to learn vocab from it. It's all about frequency IMO... If Im (attempting) to read stuff in Japanese and I see a word come up like 3 - 4 times that I don't know, that's usually the point where my brain gets frustrated at not knowing it and decides I need to know it and goes and looks it up. If you're just learning stuff from a pre-made deck you're brain may not view it as important enough or familiar enough to truly absorb/make use of it.

So go find em yourself in the wild and build yourself a deck!

mezbup Wrote:I wouldn't recommend just DL'ing a pre-cooked deck and trying to learn vocab from it. It's all about frequency IMO... If Im (attempting) to read stuff in Japanese and I see a word come up like 3 - 4 times that I don't know, that's usually the point where my brain gets frustrated at not knowing it and decides I need to know it and goes and looks it up. If you're just learning stuff from a pre-made deck you're brain may not view it as important enough or familiar enough to truly absorb/make use of it.

So go find em yourself in the wild and build yourself a deck!

I agree with that, I think you need to 'encounter' the words yourself in 'the wild', then it feels you can relate to it more than some random deck with nothing to hold on. I scribble down words I don't know here and there and at the end of the day add it to my deck. Yea it might seem easier downloading a deck with what 10000 random words saving you a lot of time and stuff but nobody has to built a deck in a day. Add words bit by bit and create your own deck which you can relate to. You know I was doing sentences at smart.fm, and while I enjoy using it, somehow the new vocab takes a lot more work and time to remember than for example new words I found in a reading article and making a deck out of it. You see the smart.fm sentences are all random things, now the new words from the article related to one another(benefit 1) and since I've read(encountered) it in a real situation (benefit 2), it also stuck longer.

Musashi Wrote:...You know I was doing sentences at smart.fm, and while I enjoy using it, somehow the new vocab takes a lot more work and time to remember than for example new words I found in a reading article and making a deck out of it. You see the smart.fm sentences are all random things, now the new words from the article related to one another(benefit 1) and since I've read(encountered) it in a real situation (benefit 2), it also stuck longer.

You said it. I feel exactly the same and I think that's really a key point. I'd like to add that when you learn things relevant to you, it feels like a series of small victories every day because you will keep running into the things that you learned the previous day, only this time, you understand them!

Musashi Wrote:

mezbup Wrote:I wouldn't recommend just DL'ing a pre-cooked deck and trying to learn vocab from it. It's all about frequency IMO... If Im (attempting) to read stuff in Japanese and I see a word come up like 3 - 4 times that I don't know, that's usually the point where my brain gets frustrated at not knowing it and decides I need to know it and goes and looks it up. If you're just learning stuff from a pre-made deck you're brain may not view it as important enough or familiar enough to truly absorb/make use of it.

So go find em yourself in the wild and build yourself a deck!

I agree with that, I think you need to 'encounter' the words yourself in 'the wild', then it feels you can relate to it more than some random deck with nothing to hold on. I scribble down words I don't know here and there and at the end of the day add it to my deck. Yea it might seem easier downloading a deck with what 10000 random words saving you a lot of time and stuff but nobody has to built a deck in a day. Add words bit by bit and create your own deck which you can relate to. You know I was doing sentences at smart.fm, and while I enjoy using it, somehow the new vocab takes a lot more work and time to remember than for example new words I found in a reading article and making a deck out of it. You see the smart.fm sentences are all random things, now the new words from the article related to one another(benefit 1) and since I've read(encountered) it in a real situation (benefit 2), it also stuck longer.

Honestly and after uncountable experiences I think it s all about striking a balance :
- In one hand you have better results with things picked up through your reading/watching but the trade off is the investiment in time is more important . Either you write them right on the spot when you run into them or you postpone it for latter . In the former case it breaks your reading or watching pace. In the latter case you have to take some notes or you re likely to forget to input them . Either way you ll have to type it in wich takes more time than downloading or copy paste from online dictionnary.
In the other hand it s very likely that it ll take more fails before you really master new vocabulary and that you ll be less confident about the use owing to lack of "general context" . But you ll expand quicker . And sometimes a single word can make the difference in your understanding .

As in most case you must make a compromise and try to mix a bit of everything .

-same thing for live audio that you sampled VS audio synthetised by Misaki/text aloud
the former is more effective but takes way more time
the latter is not natural but gives you a first idea of how it sounds , not to mention it s easier to find some stuff as every written source is a potential target. As someone who discarded Misaki for a while and discovered that he what is totally unable to recognize words he was supposed to know by heart I can tell you that the value is not to be underestimed .

As for me I have 4 sources for my SRS.
- I have an unofficial list of JPLT1 vocabulary . I just take a sentence exemple from ALC dictionnary which is made of newspaper extracts , litterature , expressions etc....
- I have a batch of raw manga on my computer . While reading them or after reading their paper counterpart I just snapshot the part that interest me and include the image as a anki fact.
- I sample some anime like FSN , deathnote , etc... thanks to sub2srs .
- As I endeavor to read at least an article a day in japenese , I always have something to pick up .

It s like a diet : In spite of what vegs or fat advocater or raw vegetable fans might say the best way is still to eat a little of everything .

good advice, I'll keep pen and paper on hand. incidentally I've had more of those "wtf does that mean" moments since I'm paying more attention to what's being said than ever before when watching anime or movies. it's certainly tiring to pay such attention at all times, though.

Rujiel Wrote:good advice, I'll keep pen and paper on hand. incidentally I've had more of those "wtf does that mean" moments since I'm paying more attention to what's being said than ever before when watching anime or movies. it's certainly tiring to pay such attention at all times, though.

having moments like that is a good thing because something moves from being completely unknown to being a "known unknown" meaning you've encountered it a few times before and recognize the sound of the word but dont yet know what it means... those are the words you should be looking up and SRSing!