Hello,
I've been studying Japanese by having fun and copying sentences into an SRS.
People who do or did the same thing for quite some time now, I need some advice.

I've noticed that while reading books or manga I come across different kinds of words.
その1
new Words with unknown reading and meaning for me.
その2
new Words of which I can guess the reading correctly, but don't know the meaning.
その3
new Words of which I somehow understand the meaning because I can see the kanji, but this means if I hear them I would not be able to guess it's that word.

Now, words of rank 1 and 2, I add them (in their sentences ofcourse), and I think it's a good thing.
But what about words of rank 3... Because when reading you can read over them, and understanding them (even though they are new). Should we add words like that in the SRS or is it a waste of time? Because I also think maybe that a lot of words are easy when you see the kanji, but difficult when you just hear them. THUS making a lot of words common in script, whilst uncommon in conversation, and visa versa.
If the words I can guess anyhow are uncommon in conversation, because it has too many synonyms or something, it's better not to even bother putting them in the SRS right?

Can anyone follow my way of thinking/has any advice/has experienced similar places where we start wondering what to put in and what not? thanks a lot!

-Mesqueeb

My philosophy is that a word you don't know how to read aloud is a word you don't really "know."

And when you say that you know what the word means because you know the kanji... are you sure? There are many many words that aren't straightforward to understand as the combination of whatever keyword you learned for the meaning of kanji X plus whatever keyword you learned for the meaning of kanji Y.

So, I would put those sentences in my SRS. The positive thing is that as you go along you'll learn more and more on readings, and you'll be able to guess more and more on readings by analogy, so you'll come to fewer and fewer type 3 sentences.

The best advice I can give is add whatever you want. Don't think of it as stuff you should add to your SRS and stuff you shouldn't. I know I've been posting the same thing in a bunch of different posts for a while, but that's because it's true. When I was SRSing things I thought I should know vs stuff I just wanted to SRS, it made me dread the reviews and thus stop doing them.

As long as you are getting a lot of input, simply looking up the word and returning to what you are doing is more than enough. However, when you come across something you do like, definitely go ahead and SRS it.

Quote:I've noticed that while reading books or manga I come across different kinds of words.
その1
new Words with unknown reading and meaning for me.
その2
new Words of which I can guess the reading correctly, but don't know the meaning.
その3
new Words of which I somehow understand the meaning because I can see the kanji, but this means if I hear them I would not be able to guess it's that word.

These are all different flavours of 'not-knowing' and I don't think it's worth thinking too much about. For me, I 'know' a word if I can read it, write it, say it and understand it well enough to use in a sentence.

Quote:If the words I can guess anyhow are uncommon in conversation, because it has too many synonyms or something, it's better not to even bother putting them in the SRS right?

It depends on your long term goal. If your long-term goal is just to become a fluent speaker, then this is pretty easy. Ditch the SRS, find Japanese people to go drinking with, and after the basics you will reach spoken fluency quite easily. I am absolutely not kidding. This is the most natural and fun way to learn Japanese that I can think of, and it works. Also, this is the only way you can ever really have any idea of what words are common in conversation.

If you're aiming for all-around native (as in the full range of reading, writing, speaking and listening ability at an advanced level) then you'll have to do the above and buckle down and learn as many different words as you can, regardless of how often they come up.

My advice on this would be to only add words you already know through your studies. While SRS is great, it has to be used in conjunction with your regular study as a compliment, by itself it won't be enough. And by 'know', I mean be able to read, write and understand the meaning of.

I would only put in 1 and 2. If you know what it means there's no point of putting it in. You'll most likely encounter those familiar sentences with familiar kanji in everyday life.

I'm just having more and more the feeling that: When I read the sentences in my deck, I understand them because I see them. Because I see the Kanji. But if someone reads the sentences for me, without me being able to see them, I often don't know what they mean...
=S
Same goes for movies. If I watch a movie, and I start looking up some words I don't know, I often stumble upon compounds I already know but it's just hard to guess the meaning if I don't see the Kanji...

Anyone has the same problem? (this led me to writing the first post actually)

-Mesqueeb

That is a very common problem for learners who spend more time/ emphasis on reading rather than listening comprehension, just as being able to understand a word when audible but not when written is a common issue for those with weak literacy but stronger listening and speaking skills. There is a very simple solution for improving listening comprehension though: listen!

Mesqueeb Wrote:I'm just having more and more the feeling that: When I read the sentences in my deck, I understand them because I see them. Because I see the Kanji. But if someone reads the sentences for me, without me being able to see them, I often don't know what they mean...
=S
Same goes for movies. If I watch a movie, and I start looking up some words I don't know, I often stumble upon compounds I already know but it's just hard to guess the meaning if I don't see the Kanji...

Anyone has the same problem? (this led me to writing the first post actually)

-Mesqueeb

Best thing you can do is keep listening and keep reading and keep srsing. Eventually it will all make sense. That's all that's needed, keep reading/listening and you should be set after a few months.(For me it took me around 10-11months to reach a level of listening that I could understand majority of what I hear and read)