Readings...

So I have a little problem and I'm not sure how to fix it. Basically, I know 3000-4000 words, but for 50% of them (probably those under 2-3 months in Anki) I can read the Kanji, but not the reading. Part of the problem is my cards:

Front:
[reading]
[Kanji]
[Sentence]

Back:
[meaning]
[sentence meaning]

This is not really conductive to learning readings quickly. On the other hand, sentences AJATT style was a tad painful and putting the reading on the back can be a bit frustrating.

So, guys, what do you think? RTK 2, Kanji Damage (focusing on on/kun only), or keep on plugging it knowing they'll stick after 3 months. For those that have done any of these things, how'd it go?

P.s., Changing the card model would drive me nuts.

Cranks Wrote:Readings...

So I have a little problem and I'm not sure how to fix it. Basically, I know 3000-4000 words, but for 50% of them (probably those under 2-3 months in Anki) I can read the Kanji, but not the reading. Part of the problem is my cards:

Front:
[reading]
[Kanji]
[Sentence]

Back:
[meaning]
[sentence meaning]

This is not really conductive to learning readings quickly. On the other hand, sentences AJATT style was a tad painful and putting the reading on the back can be a bit frustrating.

So, guys, what do you think? RTK 2, Kanji Damage (focusing on on/kun only), or keep on plugging it knowing they'll stick after 3 months. For those that have done any of these things, how'd it go?

P.s., Changing the card model would drive me nuts.

Personally I went with having 2 cards made from each fact, one of which tested me going from kana -> kanji and meaning as well as kanji -> kana and meaning.

I do MUCH better on the plain reading than I do when I have to produce kanji, but it's been extremely effective in picking up reading since that's the easy part ^_^

I definitely think having cards that go kanji -> readings would be beneficial, even if it is a little more painful.

Vocab cards cut down the pain considerably. One word on the front, on the back is the reading. Get the reading wrong, fail it. Way less painful than having to fail a sentence card because you didn't know the reading of one kanji.

I used to do cards that were kanji word->meaning only, but stopped because i was actually finding them harder. There's something about being able to attach a sound to a word that makes it a lot easier to remember. YMMV.

I might try that actually. I sort of find going Kanji to meaning to be pretty easy, but if I separate it out as one card Kanji+Reading->Meaning and one Kanji+Meaning->Reading, it's probably more efficient than doing something totally different. I think this would be good as it tests my ability to produce only one aspect of a word at a time. I'll let you know how it goes.

Any other suggestions folks?

zigmonty Wrote:There's something about being able to attach a sound to a word that makes it a lot easier to remember. YMMV.

Yeah, I find I can remember most kanji nowadays by associating sounds with shapes.

What I like to do is to just go for quick vocab cards (kanji->reading/meaning), and spend more time reading instead. I never found premade sentences to help alot with reading novels and such, and thus not really worth the extra time investment, assuming you already have a decent grasp of basic grammar. Also, reading makes for alot of additional exposure.

Try out what makes sense to you and stick with what you find works best! Experimenting is fun, and hopefully beneficial