Please, don't mind my english.

I'm really lazy when it comes to studying anything, so SRS is really a pain to me, even though I don't fail that much to recall most cards, but I have to put some thought on them.

I always think "I would rather listen to some music or watch some episodes of a drama than doing these reps".

So, I was thinking some minutes ago, what if, instead of actively doing the reps, I just did them effortlessly? Like, if I can't answer the card straightaway without putting active thought on it, I fail it, or at least, give a "Hard" grade, untill I can effortlessly answer the card, almost passively.

I'm talking specifically about vocabulary cards, by the way...

Sure, the reps number would be much bigger than with the traditional way, but they would be so faster and easier to do, it wouldn't matter.

Also, if you think about it, that's the way we learn our native language. No baby puts thought on learning a language, they just learn it by exposition. We do audio exposition, why not vocab?

When reading, you are supposed to recognize a word at a glance, not to figure it out in a a few seconds. The first one is fluency, the other, just half way there.

I want to know what you guys think about it. Is it something you've tried?

Go for it! If what you're doing isn't working, then switch it up. Set your leech count high, then go through your deck at light-speed. After you try it out for a week or two, let us know what you think about it.

That's pretty much how I do it. I spent an average of 5 seconds per card today. I become more active when I see a difficult card, but most of the time I'm not trying hard. It's working for me, so go for it.

This is pretty much how I always review. My average per card is like 2 seconds. If I don't instantly remember a card or my memory is ambiguous I fail it. I also review while watching videos and listening to music etc.

@Jarvik
You only do single word and short phrase vocab cards, right? May I ask what your leech threshold is set at?

Same here I usual do srs cards while watching videos,listening,etc

The main course should be engaging with real content, so if SRSing isn't basically effortless (reviewing and creating) then I think any potential benefits are less than that which more reading/listening would provide.

Wow, I wasn't expecting such a positive feedback!
I guess nadiatims is absolutely right.
SRS is important, but far from being the focus on learning a language.
Thanks for this huge enlightenment, guys!

I don't use leech detection...

When I'm adding sentences, I try to pull from books that are mostly matched to my vocabulary level, where most of the new words are "I've heard that before, and I maybe kind of know it, but I wouldn't necessarily be able to describe it clearly" rather than "I have never heard that word before in my life." I think that's one of the things that keeps it fast and easy.

BlueFinger Wrote:Is it something you've tried?

This is something I tried for RTK 1 & 3, it definitely worked better than the pressure I was giving to myself

Good luck!

Jarvik7 Wrote:This is pretty much how I always review. My average per card is like 2 seconds. If I don't instantly remember a card or my memory is ambiguous I fail it.

What do you do if you fail the same card many times in a row?

Nothing. It'll eventually stick. It doesn't happen much to begin with though.


If I'm unclear about the meaning I'll look it up in a good dictionary but that's about it.

I like this idea. I think I have too many cards that I pass as hard that after many times of this, are still slow to recall, but the algorithm spaces them deeper and deeper - so I never get very good with them. I think this method would help with fluid recall.

Thanks for the idea - I'm doing this from now on!

Just curious - What is your setting for failed cards? Do at the end, soon, or other?

BlueFinger Wrote:Please, don't mind my english.

I don't get it why some non native speakers apologize for their English (that usually ends up being nearly flawless). It's not like native speakers output only quality material themselves (look at teen language or George W. Bush), so there's really nothing to be ashamed of.

Maybe it's some kind of mental security net for small mistakes that creep up here and there but that's also misguided since they happen to everyone. Also we know that making mistakes is natural part of the learning process, so actually there's a positive side of making them.

It could be an invitation to make corrections but wouldn't it be easier and give much better results to just write:
"Please correct me if you find any mistakes in my writing, English is not my native language"?

And if you're a native and apologizing for being drunk and writing, you're not really drunk

On a side note, people that do have horrible English almost never apologize

"Please correct me if you find any mistakes in my writing, English is not my native language"

@thurd

Sorry for taking so long to answer, internet connection here is down for days already.
The reason why I've apologized is that I don't feel very comfortable writing in english.
I lack interest on it, so I feel like I'm somehow backstabbing myself, since I use it much more than my native language.

Unfortunately, I can't feel the subtleness of the language like I do in my native one, so sometimes I sound in a way that I don't want to, like sounding rude when I'm asking for something. Also, I tend to repeat words a lot, it annoys me so much.

But about the SRSing:

Like Jarvik, I don't use leech detection, I think I don't have so many leeches that I have to control them, or else, I would lose too much time on them. They stick. If not now, then later.

Also, I think not using it is a key factor for this "effortless SRS" to work. Since you don't put too much thought on the cards, you're probably going to fail them a lot before they start to get some spacing.

It's good to see that it worked with a1182822 and that other guys were already doing it with success, real examples are the most important thing with these SRS theories.

TaylorSan, are you asking me? If yes, I think "at the end" would be a good option, but you got to make sure you're always gonna finish your scheduled reps.

Show failed cards after X hours would be good too, because they would be scheduled between the other reps, there's no need to finish all the reps, you can always have a reps stack without worrying about never reviewing the failed cards.

Got to go, dial-up internet is expensive, bye

Yeah ok - the question was directed at you and anyone who is using this method. Thanks for the answer.

I also don't use leech - to me if you do that then you won't learn the word. When I did have it on it I always just unsuspended, because I want to learn the word, and it seems like at that point it is often close to being learned - you've already put effort into learning it, so why quit? Some words are just a pain in the ass for whatever reason (at least for me). I still fail some old words because I say きょ　when I should say きょう　or きゅ, ect. They are a pain but someday I'll get them right, and never get them wrong again (I hope).

So far I like the method. It also prompted me to split my deck into one for reading and another for writing only. It will be interesting to see how much more time the writing skill demands now that I can look at the stats separately.

I thought the point of leach detection is to point special attention to things you're having trouble with, so you can work harder to come up with a good mnemonic..

BlueFinger Wrote:I lack interest on it,

You lack interest IN it

mafried Wrote:I thought the point of leach detection is to point special attention to things you're having trouble with, so you can work harder to come up with a good mnemonic..

Most people don't use mnemonics for vocab or sentences.

Jarvik7 Wrote:

mafried Wrote:I thought the point of leach detection is to point special attention to things you're having trouble with, so you can work harder to come up with a good mnemonic..

Most people don't use mnemonics for vocab or sentences.

No, but if something is so hard that leech detection picks it up, it might be a good idea to create a mnemonic for it.

Maybe, but if you're doing "effortless srs" you'd need to set your leech limit pretty high regardless (unless you pass everything like ta).

Jarvik7 Wrote:Maybe, but if you're doing "effortless srs" you'd need to set your leech limit pretty high regardless (unless you pass everything like ta).

I actually do fail a lot of cards, can't pass everything. I used to give everything a hard rating even if I knew it, that was a bad idea lol. So now I just rate it based on certain factors, if I can read it all/understand it give it good. If it's nothing then I rate it easy.

hereticalrants Wrote:

BlueFinger Wrote:I lack interest on it,

You lack interest IN it

You won't believe me, but I did write "IN" first, then changed it...

mafried Wrote:I thought the point of leach detection is to point special attention to things you're having trouble with, so you can work harder to come up with a good mnemonic..

I think using mnemonics to learn languages is not the way to go. I mean, you'll build all your knowledge over some silly stories, it's just a way of route memorization. Can be useful for memorizing Pi decimals or High School formulas, but when it comes to languages, I think learning it the way it should be learned, naturally, is the only way to attain fluency.

In Heisig's method it's valid, so you can remember the kanji, remember how to write them, and most of the times get a little idea of their meaning on compounds, but for the language itself, "mindless repetitions" is probably the closest way we've got to learn it like a native.

I wish I could write more, my dial-up is driving me mad.

I wouldn't recommend mnemonics generally for vocab learning, but I think they can be useful occasionally if there's a tricky word you just can't seem to remember properly. For instance I had trouble with whether 飾る was かざる or こざる, so I came up with a trivial mnemonic ("sounds like Cazaril [character in a book I was reading]"). That let me remember it to the point that now I don't need the mnemonic. But that's maybe one word in 500 (or even less often); mostly I just throw things into anki and they seem to stick without any particular effort.