Hi everyone,

Vocabulary is the biggest obstacle for me right now. I'm doing Core6k on Anki, but I just don't have that much time every day to put into Anki, and so, while it's a fine method for me, it's going slower than I'd like.

I was trying to think of how to speed up my vocabulary learning. I have a lot of time when I can listen to stuff, but not read anything or look at a screen (biking to and from work, running, errands, etc.), probably a couple hours a day. I often listen to Japanese podcasts during these times, but I really want to focus on vocabulary. Podcasts don't seem to really work for me for learning new words.

Does anyone know of any pure audio resources that are good for improving vocab? I'm fine with it being repetitive/boring. I'd even be into just having lists of words or example sentences with pauses and then the English definition. (I was thinking about using the Core6k audio and adding recorded English definitions so I could review by listening, but realized it would take forever to make.)

Thanks for any ideas!

- When I am exercising and doing Anki (coreplus) vocabulary deck I don't look at the screen much. I use the sound of the Japanese word as the question. The answer side has English definition, Japanese and English sentence and audio for the Japanese sentence, as well as other stuff, but I generally find that the Japanese sentence audio is enough to tell me if I have recognised and understood the word correctly, at least if I have heard it before. If that approach doesn't work for you, you could have the answer as the English word audio, using the text to speech plugin that generates sound files from the English words.
- You could make mp3 files to work in a similar fashion, using the core soundfiles, using the program called Audio Lesson Studio (though I didn't get it to work for me yet under windows. I have been meaning to try again)
- I also use ankidroid to play soundfiles continuously, using its automatic question and answer feature. This works for situations like walking or doing housework.
- Vocabulearn has recorded words in English, Japanese pairs. I borrowed it from the library once but didn't like it much. The context of sentences makes learning words much easier for me.
- just listening to dialogues, japanespod or whatever is the simplest approach. You certainly learn words and can do it most places. If you find you are not learning much that way, I wonder what the reason is. Making sure the content is at an understandable level and reading transcripts and looking up unknown words in advance, I think, helps.

Thanks for the response.

I think Japanesepod and other dialogue-based ones can be helpful, but, at least for me, not so much for building new vocabulary. I'm sure it depends on the person. They just seem more helpful for listening comprehension and solidifying already learned vocab/grammar/expressions.

How does that text to speech plugin work in Anki? Do you know if it would work in the iphone app version of Anki, or just on a computer?

What do you mean you use ankidroid to play the sound files continuously? Do you mean just the Japanese sentences? Or also answers/English meanings?

Sorry for all the questions... I'm a little clueless about how to get this all set up. Thanks again for the ideas.

The google TTS plugin can be downloaded from shared plugins. You install it on the computer, select some cards, select the field you want sound files for eg 'Meaning' and an empty destination field to put the sound file references into, and run. You need to be connected to the internet. When the soundfiles are in your deck and media folder, you no longer need the internet and can transfer the deck to the iphone if you like. You need to redo your card model so that the new soundfiles play in the answer if that is what you want.
I don't know what the iphone/ipod version does, but with ankidroid, there is an option to play/show the question, then the answer, then the next question and so on, without any input from the user - useful for listening practice.
You can use a Zeemote remote(bluetooth) game controller-type thingy to control ankidroid, I believe. Alternatively just quick gestures on the screen.
Similarly a wireless mouse and Autohotkey program for windows works well.

Also, do look the audio lesson studio thread. It sounds like just the sort of thing you want.
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=3348

Woah thanks for mentioning the audio lesson studio thing again. I guess I hadn't realized what that was exactly. If it works how it seems to work, I think it's exactly what I need. Thank you so much!