Hi guys!

I've read everything there is about sentence mining, but I just don't know how it works in practice.
I have a hypothesis that first you go to a site that has some Japanese sentences and you look for sentences that have
something you don't understand in them. You pick those sentences and look up the definitions of the words you don't know
and put the sentence and the definitions in your SRS. What I don't get is how are you supposed to know if you have
comprehended the sentence since there are no translations for them. Or should I just stick to example sentences in
WWWJDIC at the beginning and when I know enough grammar and vocabulary I could move on to sentences from other sites.

How do you actually learn anything by sentence mining? Do you learn the sentences completely or just the grammar and
vocabulary? Also, people talk about comprehending instead of translating. What's the difference between comprehending
and translating?

Also, let's say that I wanted to mine sentences from Famitsu's site at http://www.famitsu.com. What should I do step by step
when I am just a beginner? What about when I am intermediate/advanced? Step by step instructions needed.

That's all and thank you.

Step 1: Get Spaced Repetition Software (called an SRS). Most of us use Anki. (ichi2.net/anki). Watch the videos on the site, learn how it works.

Step 2: Figure out how much Japanese you know. If you don't know any at all, learn the kana with Remembering the Kana, then go ahead and do some form of Remembering the Kanji (either RTK1 or RTK Lite -- search the forums.)

Step 3: Get some sort of a guide, either Tae Kim on the web, or a textbook, or a grammar dictionary of some sort, and start following it to learn grammar and vocabulary. (It's a question of individual preference here. Plenty of threads on that here.)

*Now* comes sentence mining. As you're going through your Japanese guide of choice, grab sentences you're trying to master and understand, and add them to your Anki deck. The finer points of it are up to you. Everyone has their personal preferences.

I like to grab short sentences from the online dictionaries at dic.yahoo.co.jp and alc.co.jp, and use them as examples of how words/phrases are used. Other people use subs2srs to grab sentences from dramas and other tv shows to add spice to their decks. Some people grab sentences from their favorite mangas and books.

The thing is, don't grab more than you can understand. If you understand こんにちは, great. Don't add そんな非常識な要求は認められないに相違ない。 Therein lies a world of pain.

Also, short sentences are best. Long sentences are problematic. They slow down your reviews. You can ignore this at your peril. Laugh it off now, or suffer 6 months down the road.

You'll hear about "i+1," but all they're talking about it the concept of "don't bite off more than you can chew." Or, "don't add a sentence full of crap you don't understand all at once." Add a sentence with 1 or 2 things you want to learn. Don't overwhelm your brain, you'll create resistance (and fail the sentence a lot). At least that's the theory. Also, this goes back to adding short sentences.

In your example, if you understand Famitsu.com for the most part, but only miss certain words and grammar points, then it's good source material. If it looks like alien runes inscribed on a stone tablet handed down to you and it causes question marks to erupt from your head, then go study some more before you attempt to put it in your deck.

Translating vs. comprehending-- if you're just starting, translate. As you progress, you'll know when it's time to go monolingual, and stop translating everything. Some people like to do it sooner than later. It's probably a good idea to do it as soon as possible, but you have to learn some words first. It's really simple-- just do everything in Japanese. Definitions, answers-- everything on the card. Or not. It's up to you. There are no Anki Police here.

It's useful to start with a premade deck first. KO2001, Core6000 or even the Dictionary Of Japanese Grammar. That way you're getting useful stuff that already has translations and no need to hunt for stuff which is hard in the beginning cos you don't know enough.

After you've got more of a grounding, sentence mining will be easier.

Basically you just need to add words you don't know to your srs. Some people prefer to add the sentence the word came from as well. If you do this make sure that for each card you're only focusing one fact.

Example: A certain sentence has 3 words you don't know, so make 3 separate cards for it, and each card highlights/bolds/colors a different word. This way any hard to learn words won't get in the way of easy ones.

You can also just ignore adding sentences and just add the word you want to learn by itself. If you do this make sure you're also spending time reading.

Don't use sentences from JDic, not all of them accurate. If you want a lot of sentences in a hurry then use subs2srs with an anime episode (or drama if you're into that, I think anime is easier though). I found that going through each line of a few k-on episodes in anki while referencing the english subtitles was really helpful when I was still a beginner.

I've recently started using Nukemarine's Core 2k/6k decks. They are probably a good place to start. They focus on a vocab word but also gives you a sentence to go along with the word. And SRSing JDrama/Anime with Sub2srs is another good route. Mining your own sources right off the bat is a lot of work in the beginning, so it's probably best to start with more premade solutions.

It's also worth emphasising the "mining" aspect. Miners always have a good idea of what they're looking for. When you're a beginner it's best to be systematic: rather than finding a random sentence and looking up all the grammar, try looking up a particular grammar point and then finding a suitable sentence.

Alright, thanks a lot.

By the way, where or how do you get subtitle files for subs2srs?

Anime subtitles you can get here http://kitsunekko.net/
For new anime episodes go here http://transportstreams.org/captions/ (these ones will some slight time adjustments)

For drama go here http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/subtitles.php

Thank you! I appreciate your help.