Sentences/MCDs Notecards help

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Reply #1 - 2013 April 11, 8:20 pm
Jakeii New member
Registered: 2013-04-11 Posts: 1

So I finished RTK about a month ago; however, I was a little clueless on what to do. As of now, I have started going through iKnow! and have been learning various vocabulary, kanji, etc. I have started making MCD cards as suggested on AJATT. I am only doing Japanese-English right now, as my vocabulary isn't yet substantial enough for Japanese-Japanese. I have only about 60 cards done, but I am not sure if I am doing them well. Could any of you guys give me tips/suggestions for my cards (what to add/remove etc.). I want to make sure I'm doing them "right" before I started really going at them and making more (I guess there isn't really a "right" way to do them, but a well enough way so that I am not impeding my progress). Right now, I am mostly using iKnow! sentences and clozing out kanji/partilcles. I am also starting to go through Tae Kim and use a few of those sentences. Here are a few of my cards:
*I should note that I get the definitions from jisho.org as well as the example sentences. Also, I only use example sentences for which I know the readings of the kanji within the sentence.

Front: 明日の午[...]、お客様が来る。
A guest is coming to visit tomorrow afternoon.
Back: 後
明日の午後、お客様が来る。
A guest is coming to visit tomorrow afternoon.
ごご【午後】 1. afternoon; p.m.

午後二時です It's two o'clock in the afternoon.
明日の午後あいてる Are you busy tomorrow afternoon?
午後には雨になりそうだ It is going to rain this afternoon.

Front: 私は毎朝6時に[...]きます。
I get up at six o'clock every morning.
Back: 起
私は毎朝6時に起きます。
I get up at six o'clock every morning.
おきる【起きる】1: to get up; to rise; 2: to wake up; 3: to occur (usu. of unfavourable incidents); to happen; to take place

起きる時間よ。    Time to get up.
私はいつも早く起きます。    I always get up early.
明日は6時に起きます。    I'm getting up at six o'clock tomorrow morning.

Front: 3月は[...]事が忙しい
I'm busy at work in March.
Back: 仕
3月は仕事が忙しい
I'm busy at work in March.
しごと 【仕事】1: work; job; business; occupation; employment; vocation; task;

Front: 3月は仕[...]が忙しい
I'm busy at work in March.
Back: 事
3月は仕事が忙しい
I'm busy at work in March.
しごと 【仕事】1: work; job; business; occupation; employment; vocation; task;

Front: 彼は走る[...]が速い。
He runs fast.
Back: の
彼は走るのが速い。
He runs fast.

Front: 家[...]遊びにきてください。
Please come over to my home.
Back: に
家に遊びにきてください。
Please come over to my home.

Any help/tips? Should I list all the definitions even if they aren't pertinent to the sentence? Thank you for your help!

Reply #2 - 2013 April 11, 9:33 pm
howtwosavealif3 Member
From: USA Registered: 2008-02-09 Posts: 889 Website

I wouldn't recommend MCD until you get better japanese like at least after you go monolingual. So I recommend doing something else besides MCDs at this point in time. maybe check out thread about nukemarine's guide for beginners.

RTK -> MCD makes no sense.

Last edited by howtwosavealif3 (2013 April 11, 9:34 pm)

Aspiring Member
From: San Diego Registered: 2012-08-13 Posts: 307

@Jakeii
You seem to be doing it right.

This is the mcd path I used.
1.Bilingual MCDs.
2.One new word/particle a sentence. Definition hidden on front/back.
3.Occasional paragraph of text with definitions on back
I'm currently on 2&3.

Experiment with bold text if you want something to compare MCDs to.
http://jeffben.com/mcbs/

Last edited by Aspiring (2013 April 12, 12:58 am)

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Reply #4 - 2013 April 12, 1:29 am
Nukemarine Member
From: 神奈川 Registered: 2007-07-15 Posts: 2347

If you're making your own cards, nothing wrong with the doing google image search for the word you're trying to learn, find one that screams at you "this is that word and can't be anything else" then paste that image into the question field.

A bit more work, but you'll remove most of the need for English in the Question field for those cards. Yes, iKnow has images but they don't always represent the word being tested. On other cards that images can't get across the meaning, cloze delete and English example is the go to method.

Reply #5 - 2013 April 13, 4:52 am
tokyostyle Member
From: Tokyo Registered: 2008-04-11 Posts: 720

Jakeii wrote:

Any help/tips? Should I list all the definitions even if they aren't pertinent to the sentence? Thank you for your help!

All of your MCDs look good and are very standard for Japanese.  Don't forget you can also MCD adverbs and adjectives especially during the bilingual card phases.  (For example you could cloze いつも.)

If you are using Anki 2 I would definitely load up the back of your with any sorts of notes you want.  You'll generally have 2-3 cards per note so you gain a lot more by filling up the notes because you'll see them quite a bit.

Another tip is to ignore any negativity you find about MCDs because the name tends to evoke irrational emotional responses.  (Clozes aren't new and certainly weren't invented by Khatzu so referring to them by his name sometimes brings out the haters.)  The sooner you start MCDs the cleaner your Japanese will be because you are forced to focus on some very specific thing ever single card.

Finally, don't forget about all of the other useful stuff.  subs2srs makes really great decks that are easy to rep and can be good for dealing with genre specific vocabulary.  Images, like Nukemarine suggested, are insanely useful although I tend to put them on the back of the card instead of the front. 

(Aside from MCDs I have never felt the need for any level of E->J or Image->J style production cards.  In real life situations the production seems to just take care of itself.)

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