I used to love Anki, but after a year or so I started to dreaded my reviews. I write software professionally and am also working on my PhD in CS, thus I dreaded my time with Anki primarily since my hobby (Japanese) was also tied to a computer just as work/studies.

My breakthrough came in moving my RTK reviews to flashcards (http://www.polarcloud.com/kanji) and using old school Leitner method and a bunch of boxes. I have been doing those reviews in the last month and really enjoy my cards. Call me a luddite, but technology can be tiring sometimes.

However I lost my Kanji Odyssey 2001 review deck. My only other study sources for now are audio from japanesepod101. I also read minna no nihongo II occasionally, but only to keep up my reading ability.

Wondering if anyone else out there is taking the non-Anki approach? Also wondering how people used (prior to Anki) to study Japanese efficiently.

BTW: My son dropped my box 1&2 cards the other day. Flash cards all over. I wasn't upset, just the fact this formerly was impossible with an Anki deck

You know at first I thought this was a sort of April Fools day joke, or a troll post. But of course I know you've been here for a while "brianobush" and I have found your posts to be well reasoned and often interesting.

I spend all day at work tied to a computer and then come home to study Japanese where of course I spend at least an hour on this site everyday. After that I usually watch some Anime or listen to drama CD's in Japanese. So I completely understand your sentiments.

I'm not sure If I'd be willing to move to physical paper flashcards though. I don't use Anki right now since I'm only at Heisig #1005, But I do use this site. The SRS really works quite well. But if I were to loose my Internet connection, phone gizmos (I don't own an iPhone or smartphone), computer, etc., then I would be left with flashcards as an option.

I use anki but this is still some good advice.

His rant about Google at the end reminded me of that Steam on Macs video :-)

Steve is a frequent opponent of SRS and his argument is basically "I didn't use SRS and I can speak all these languages, so you don't need it either" - then he goes on to explain that he did in fact take an SRS-like approach to learning the first 1000 hanzi.

He says he doesn't care what tools people use and that he just personally isn't interested in SRS. Yet he likes to point out that he doesn't like SRS every time the topic comes up.

I agree with him that more fun possibilities for learning open up as you get more advanced, and the connections between different words make things easier to learn in the long run. I don't believe it's possible to switch to 100% reading and maintain the same rate of vocabulary acquisition however, and it should be up to individuals to decide where to strike a balance between speed of learning and enjoyment.

Re the OP, I recommend reviewing on an iPhone/Android :-) That way you can review anywhere and get away from your computer, but without the hassle of micromanaging piles of cards that can be easily tipped over.

I don't even like making cards for Anki (part of the reason I like to have pre-generated material), I cannot imagine ever bothering with paper flashcards again. The last time I did that was RTK and I only got up to 400 cards

Saw the Steve video and can see he didn't have a reason against SRS except that he didn't like it. That's fair, but should he rail against an SRS when he demonstrates how useful mp3 players, iPod, iPads, Skype, and various other technological advances has helped him? I might prefer to read books but I'm not about to rail against e-books.

Good fellow though.

I actually made all 2000 RTK cards into paper flashcards! One thing I do like about them is that my kids can grill me. Occasionally they'll do that when we have guests, just to wow the company ("look, he can write Chinese"). ("Japanese.") ("Whatever.) But I much prefer Anki, especially on my iPad.

I don't know about you guys but when I pass JLPT 1 I'm probably going to delete anki forever.

Getting tired of it really.

Womacks23 Wrote:I don't know about you guys but when I pass JLPT 1 I'm probably going to delete anki forever.

Getting tired of it really.

LOL!

I just watched Steve's rants on SRS

The only impression I was getting from him is that he doesn't like AN-KEY because it's not a system he made or is associated with. That and he doesn't BA-lieve in it.

He talks about how he likes his LingQ flashcard system. Goes on to say how he likes words, and not sentences. Then complains about words being out of context and how he preferes that they are in context. (more on this in the comments.)

What? Don't sentences=context. It's Anki. You can add context if you need it, right. I add pictures all the time.

Womacks23 Wrote:I don't know about you guys but when I pass JLPT 1 I'm probably going to delete anki forever.

Amen to this.

At the moment I do really appreciate it, but it's pretty much a necessary evil. Along with grammar drill books, rtk etc.

I suppose that's the goal isn't it... to not need Anki because the language is so ingrained that you don't need a reminder. I think that's going to be a while for me, but once that happens I plan on learning another language, so I'll still need Anki.

I prepared most of my math orals with anki. That really made me dislike anki for a while after. However - after some time off - now that it is strictly back to Chinese, our relationship (me + anki) is up to new heights

so op,

Stop SRS if you don't like it. Just make sure you keep yourself busy with the langauge and you'll do just fine. I mean, just read alot, make sure you are really talking to people, do stuff you like and you'll be fine. Seriously.

I learned all my characters without Anki, back in the days when we had to chisel our own flash cards out of stone. If you don't like the reviews, just stop for a while. I used flash cards for a long time, and it worked. I agree that doing a lot of reading will do a lot, too.

Just don't make studying a chore that you hate.

If some of you guys hate your decks so much, how about deleting a whole lot of cards? And / Or STOP using pre-made material (ie. KO2001 etc)
Poorly made cards will make a deck boring, not Anki itself. Anki is efficiency and speed.
But if you make long, painful cards and add "too much to handle", then that's your problem, not Anki's.

I just reviewed 600+ cards and it took me less than two hours. It was not painful, not boring, it was just reviewing stuff I really, really wanted to learn in the first place. =)

That being said, people get fluent in languages all the time without Anki / an SRS.
I just know that I won't ever use anything else for remembering stuff personally...

You're probably adding too much if you hate it that much, eh? I enjoy my reviews. It's a useful tool. I just *only* add things I enjoy. That's the key I think. If you're reviewing these huge, pre-made decks... things that you have no emotional connection to... no memory context with... of COURSE that's going to be ridiculously painful and you won't like it.

It's all about how you use it.

Zorlee Wrote:If some of you guys hate your decks so much, how about deleting a whole lot of cards? And / Or STOP using pre-made material

My particular issue is not Anki, but the computer - basically the study mechanism. Currently, flashcards that I am studying are without question the important things I want to study and I enjoy them.

brianobush Wrote:My particular issue is not Anki, but the computer - basically the study mechanism.

I face much the same problem... I get tired of being stuck behind a computer for several hours a day just to review. I moved my main review deck onto the web and review with my Android handset these days, but still - too much time staring at a screen. But I know how efficient SRS'ing is, so every time I give Anki up I end up crawling back.

It seems like Anki is a great way to pound in a large amount of vocabulary and grammar. But after that, you could give it up and replace the time you used to spend with it with native materials and output (compositions and conversation). Should probably do fine... in fact, there's a lot about learning a language that SRS can't really help you with.

I remember back in the day when I would do reviews every other day since I disliked having to show up for reviews all the time after a long day of school. Kinda felt like I was doing them all the time as they stack up quite hastily doing them every other day. But all of that has changed now since I've found my timeboxing sweetspot. Now, it's more a worry about adding a good amount of new cards each day rather than chasing behind piling reviews.

I think I actually memorize the most cards when I studied on paper. It was tedious to make each important word into a card, but it also meant that instead of "oh, well I'll just study that card later in anki" I would just decide to remember it.

I also carried around particularly difficult cards in my back pocket and wallet and repeatedly bothered myself with them. Even now (a year after I had studied from paper cards) I can still write 塵, 綺麗, and 暇 from memory, even though they're never written in kanji.

I usually printed my cards on cardstock using a laser printer (manual duplex)
Here are some decks I had made for JLPT 3級 and JLPT 4級.
http://skimlines.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d25bby6
http://skimlines.deviantart.com/art/JLPT...-132460903


Nowadays I learn the most/best when I read the news or other articles on the internet written in Japanese, since there's usually only 1 - 5 words I don't know.

What I found effective is that, what you srs. If you see it in native-material you'll instantaneously remember it, well for the most part.

after struggling through an intensive korean course and failing 3 times :!!!!!: I LOOVE anki, it's made my studying 100x better.