Recall

I have found a new-ish way to learn and recall (recall being key) vocabulary. You take two pieces of notebook paper and fold them in half lengthwise. With the folded edges facing each other, and lining up the lines of the notebook paper to make it look like a whole sheet, write the vocabulary words on one side and their meanings on the other. Opening up the folds, you should have blank spaces to test yourself on the vocab words and their meanings. I write “TEST” at the top of the blank sides to know which side serves as the correct side.

I got the idea from a Youtube video. The process was a little different, but I still wait an hour to test myself as the video describes. I test myself first on the meanings, then the vocabulary. I mark the ones I got wrong for both tests and make a new list with these words and then add new ones I want to learn. I choose to fill up all the lines to pick up more words quickly. I am going through a Japanese lesson book to find vocabulary. I also plan on keeping these sheets for review, since I can still use the whole back side of them.

I am more motivated to do this method then the flashcard method. Words are sticking with me better. Recall is extremely important in retaining information. Memorizing seems to trip people up and make them think they are learning something. But without recall, you can’t build that pathway in your brain to get to the information to use.

And, of course, this is just one part of my Japanese language learning. I want to read and speak too, though I am still figuring out a routine.

Manual SRS Flashcards

A few years ago I was studying Biblical Greek. I also came across a Scripture memory system on Pinterest developed by Charlotte Mason. I thought that I could hack it to learn Greek vocabulary. I have recently started making my box for Japanese vocabulary. I would check out the previous link so you will know more of what I’m talking about! 🙂

Yes, making your own flashcards can be tedious. But I really think it is helpful to do tedious work like this because it forces you to slow down and think about the details. I have made a bunch of flashcards already, so even though I know I want to add more vocabulary, I can go ahead and implement this system.

I like to take regular 3 x 5 index cards and cut them in half.

I found a box at Office Depot that seems like it was made for index cards cut in half, but really it is a multi-purpose box. It was fairly cheap. Any container will do, as long as it is easy to use. You want to remove any unecessary obstacles that would keep you from studying.

I use the halved index cards to make the dividers.

I go through whatever vocabulary cards I made and see if I already know any of them. These cards go in the very back. Then I take a chunk and these will be my daily ones. I review these each day until I know them. After a week I go through these once and move them back. Then I grab another chunk and repeat. Once you get going, you can move the cards around however. You may decide to move some back up or move some to different days. But eventually the cards will all move to the back. After a while you can start all over again with a new set. If you are making vocabulary words for a different language, you should be using the vocabulary at least in reading so that will work as a review of sorts. But you can also use this system to learn anything you can make flashcards on!

There are computer and phone apps that do this, but I like doing some things apart from computer technology. I like that I can use learning vocabulary as a break from the phone and computer.