So I have been experimenting with Anki and cards ect. and I'm not sure if this has been asked allready but...

Finding sentences is easy but how do we know what to put on the other side? (With as little English as humanly possible) Should I try to put all Japanese on the second side of the card? Is it OK to use English sometimes? I chose a random sentence from Wiki as an example:

[前述の通り、「マリオがアクション」ならば、「ゼルダは謎解き」である。] (front)

[前述=ぜんじゅつ＝上にもうそれについて説明された
通り＝とおり＝イン＊アッコダンス＊ウィス, ファーロイング
謎解き＝なぞとき＝リッダルの正しい答え
である＝（大抵文学に）丁寧な「です」] (back)

I want to elliminate English so would it be benefitial or harmful to write all English words in 片仮名? I would be at least be reading it in Japanese, right? I would of course color the English/片仮名 words so I would know they aren't Japanese. (even though it is quite obvious)

Do you have any advice on arranging cards? (Specifically the output/backside)
どうぞ宜しくお願いします！

PS{I think the English sentence would. be, "If the allready mentioned "Mario" is action (genre) then Zelda is a puzzle-solving (genre)." In case you were wondering about my undertsanding of the sentence.}

I use tons of English on the answer side. You're not supposed to waste time reading on the answer side anyway, so who cares what language it's in. The answer side is just there to make sure you didn't actually fail and to give you some direction if you failed. It's not supposed to be an actual part of your reviews.

I barely ever read the answer side, only if I don't get the question side 100% right (like forgot a reading or not totally sure on a word). It's still nice to go a bit monolingual, to get used to definitions of words and the dictionary style itself and such, however I wouldn't go as far as deliberately katana-fying (is that a word? :/) stuff. Just use English in that case. I'd say only use カタカナ if its actually used as that in Japanese.

"It's not supposed to be an actual part of your reviews."
oh, I knew I was off... ^__^

"It's still nice to go a bit monolingual...Just use English in that case. I'd say only use カタカナ if its actually used as that in Japanese."
OK, so if I know it write it but if I don't know it then don't sweat it, right?

So the second side isn't really the main focus of the study.
You should study like:

1) see a card and read it

3a) if there is anything you don't understand or don't know the pronunciation then read the back and click fail.

3b) if you understand it then flip to the back and don't bother to read the notes

4) Continue--

皆さん、ありがとうございます！

gyuujuice Wrote:"It's not supposed to be an actual part of your reviews."
oh, I knew I was off... ^__^

"It's still nice to go a bit monolingual...Just use English in that case. I'd say only use カタカナ if its actually used as that in Japanese."
OK, so if I know it write it but if I don't know it then don't sweat it, right?

So the second side isn't really the main focus of the study.
You should study like:

1) see a card and read it

3a) if there is anything you don't understand or don't know the pronunciation then read the back and click fail.

3b) if you understand it then flip to the back and don't bother to read the notes

4) Continue--

皆さん、ありがとうございます！

Exactly, that's how I do it. I often do control the readings though since it has happened to me several times that I feel extremely confident only to find out that I actually got the reading wrong.

I see, well thank you so much! This has seriously helped my understanding!
(Isn't tobberoth is a type of chocolate? I think it's Swedish though it could be Dutch since I was in Holland when I saw them. ^_^)

gyuujuice Wrote:I see, well thank you so much! This has seriously helped my understanding!
(Isn't tobberoth is a type of chocolate? I think it's Swedish though it could be Dutch since I was in Holland when I saw them. ^_^)

That would be Toblerone, which is in fact from Switzerland

Tobberoth Wrote:That would be Toblerone, which is in fact from Switzerland

Ah, I was somewhat close. XD

I had my first one a few weeks ago and they actually are what they are hyped to be.
^__^スイスのチョコレトは最高だと思います。

Tobberoth Wrote:

gyuujuice Wrote:I see, well thank you so much! This has seriously helped my understanding!
(Isn't tobberoth is a type of chocolate? I think it's Swedish though it could be Dutch since I was in Holland when I saw them. ^_^)

That would be Toblerone, which is in fact from Switzerland

Ha ha.

I`ve been trying out having only japanese on my cards for the past 2 months. I`ve found that it just makes me not want to add cards casue it takes too much effort to make them.

As for english in katakana, that just seems weird.

ToasterMage Wrote:As for english in katakana, that just seems weird.

You may laugh but that's how I learned カタカナ in a few days in little to no difficulty at all. I was 13 years old when I did that as something to do. (that was 2 years before I actually started Japanese.)　イッテ　フォルセッス　ユー　ツ　シンク エイバウト　デ　フォネッチックス. 　( ;ナ＿ナ)

that would blow my mind reading that all day...

イット・フォーセス・ユー・トゥ・シンク・アバウト・ザ・フォネティックス?

That would have made a pretty kick ass secret code for passing notes and what not if your friends had learned it with you...

i think you're wasting time changing the english to katakana. it adds up. just sayin'

and i think your sentence is too long. if i had a sentence like that in my deck i would never really learn/review it. i would just press 1 or 2 right after i finish reading it & barely checking the answer side... i would never add something like that in the first place.

Smackle Wrote:イット・フォーセス・ユー・トゥ・シンク・アバウト・ザ・フォネティックス?

そうですよ。＾＾

Kendo Wrote:That would have made a pretty kick ass secret code for passing notes and what not if your friends had learned it with you...

hmm...well no kid really want to spend their time learning :/ (大笑) ...except me apparently.

howtosavealif3 Wrote:i think you're wasting time changing the english to katakana. it adds up. just sayin'

Hmm, well I didn't say I was. It was just an option. (If you are referring to the example)

howtosavealif3 Wrote:and i think your sentence is too long. if i had a sentence like that in my deck i would never really learn/review it. i would just press 1 or 2 right after i finish reading it & barely checking the answer side... i would never add something like that in the first place.

Hmm, well it really depends on the "new"ness of the card. All Wiki sentences seem to be rather large in Japanese. I tried to find a smaller one. :/
前述の通り、「マリオがアクション」ならば、「ゼルダは謎解き」である。
Out of all of that I didn't know 3 terms (前述)(通り)(謎解き) so I don't think it is too big.
But I thank you for your opnion! I'll make an effort to make smaller sentences but sentences like, "人類学ですね" don't add to your understanding.

皆さん、宜しくお願いします！

I don't bother learning the katakana spellings of English words- I can spend my time better elsewhere. If in doubt, I just type the English word into translate.google.com and the katakana comes right up. Cut. Paste. Done.

For recognition I have the full Japanese sentence on the front and the readings on the back.

The meanings are in the data but not shown, so if I need the meaning I click on the edit card button.

"I don't bother learning the katakana spellings of English words- I can spend my time better elsewhere. If in doubt, I just type the English word into translate.google.com and the katakana comes right up. Cut. Paste. Done."

I don't learn カタカナ-fied English! I just wing it. XD
Thanks for the mehtod though. :3

"The meanings are in the data but not shown, so if I need the meaning I click on the edit card button." --Interesting! Maybe I won't need to add meaning to some of the words that I can see through context.

Learning katakana and pronunciation of English loan words well is a really important skill; when you talk to Japanese people who don't know any English, they're going to have trouble following you if you lapse into English pronunciation every time a loan word comes up.

Now, writing actual English in katakana is kind of pointless, I think, but there's so many loan words and so much katakana in actual Japanese writing that it's a bad idea to neglect it. I've seen people who have studied Japanese for many years still stumble over katakana in reading or say things like "新しいcomputerを買った". (Luckily I was able to avoid this because of the huge amount of katakana vocabulary in video games...)

OK, thanks for the advise!

yudantaiteki Wrote:Learning katakana and pronunciation of English loan words well is a really important skill; when you talk to Japanese people who don't know any English, they're going to have trouble following you if you lapse into English pronunciation every time a loan word comes up.

I'll second this, I think I get misunderstood way more on katakana words than anything else. Some convert logically to what you think they should, but some really don't...