Notebooks or Anki cards to record new vocabulary?

[Bredbury Blue]

I've used note books, sheets of paper (new one for each week) and other methods to note down new words I learn but I've never found any way satisfactory. Do you use this method? How does it work best for you?

 

Very recently I heard of Anki cards for the first time. Looks a good idea. Watched a few YouTube videos on how to use. Do you recommend this method of acquiring and retaining new words? How do you use it (i.e. can you offer a very basic guide to how someone should use Anki).

 

I watch lots of Thai videos and read basic Thai script but at the moment I'm not noting down new words as I want to find a way I will use and stick with going forward, using pen n paper or computer or phone or any other way.

 

How do you record new vocabulary? Pros and cons of that method.

 

Cheers.

 

[ColeBOzbourne]

I'm still old-school with the notebooks/paper. I have piles of notebooks full of vocabulary words and phrases. I must constantly review or forget, especially words I don't use often. I take a notebook with me to breakfast and review as I eat. The book is spread out in front of me, all I have to do is look and turn the page once in a while. No screens to touch, scroll, click, etc.. My hands are free to attack my food. After I finish reviewing one notebook, I rotate to the next one and keep working my way through the stack over and over. The stack is continually growing.

 

I like the paper better than a screen. I also prefer to study from my own hand-writing. Looking at screens, especially small ones, hurts my eyes and eventually gives me a headache. Increasing the font size, background color, font color doesn't help. I prefer the paper, and I don't own a cell phone.

 

[Bredbury Blue]

^I'm with you on using paper, note books, etc., as easy and convenient, the only reservations I have are:

1. My writing is pretty ugly (not neat).

2. I'm not sure how to apply any order to the words I note down. Until now I'd seperate a notebook by x number of pages per English letter in an alphabet order and list thai words down but using the english translation so the thai word for glass goes in the G. But today I was watching a video on Thai words for football phrases/words and thought would it be better to note words down by category (I.e. football, kitchen stuff, car words, etc.).

3. Sometimes I just can't be bothered to write down the English word & the Thai word in Thai script. 

 

It sounds like you don't worry about any order, just note the word down in the order you meet it (in both english and thai scripts?) and review pages of words at a time. Have I got that right?

[bunnydrops]

I'm an Anki fan. Once you get the hang of it, it is easy to make lists that can be categorized, marked, photos added, speech added to Thai script and more. I still use a notepad to catch new words on the fly and then put them in Anki when I get home. Many user made list of Thai words on the site.

[ColeBOzbourne]

13 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

It sounds like you don't worry about any order, just note the word down in the order you meet it (in both english and thai scripts?) and review pages of words at a time. Have I got that right?

Some notebooks have no order to them and contain stray words and phrases that I pick up here and there. Other notebooks are extremely organized with numbered pages and an index that I've created. When I practice reading children's books, internet articles, etc., I create a vocabulary list of unfamiliar words for each story/book. I might go back and read that story 3-4 times accompanied by my vocabulary list, making it quicker and more understandable. I write them all in English and Thai script.

 

It is not unusual for me to find 100-150 unfamiliar words in one children's book. I look them all up and create my list, but cannot memorize them all, so I prioritize and pick out 40-50 words to move to another notebook that I use specifically for review and memorization. It means extra writing, but I learn best by writing, and it also gives me opportunity to practice determining the tones as I write each word in Thai script.

[cmarshall]

Anki cards for sure.  1000% better than notebooks or cards for these reasons:

 

1.  You can practice memorizing them.  If you set up Anki to require a typed answer in Thai, then it will flag spelling errors.  If you already know how to touch-type English and are careful to use the same fingers for each Thai key, typing your Thai responses will teach you how to touch-type in Thai automatically.  Here's an example of a Thai card that requires a typed response:

 

 

2.  Anki functions as a dictionary, which your notebook never can do.  So, perhaps a new word that you are entering shares an root or an element with a group of words, such as แคลน which means "deficient, lacking," but you have seen it before somewhere.  You can search on แคลน in Anki and you might find these related words:

 

 

3.  So, Anki, unlike your notebook, is searchable, but so is an online dictionary.  So, why do we need Anki?  Because when we search Anki we are searching our words, that we have already encountered and for which we therefore feel a degree of "ownership, " if only because memorizing a word for the second time is more efficient than remembering an entirely novel word.

 

4.  How long will it be before your Thai vocabulary has grown so much as to render your notebook useless?  How committed are you?  How big a vocabulary is enough?  I can only answer for myself.  My Anki deck is 14,714 cards.  And I can tell you it is not enough.  I am currently reading the Thai book, "ครอบครัวที่ลัก", a translation of the Japanese novel by Hirokazu Koreeda, and I encounter new words and especially vernacular expressions on every page.  What use will your notebook be when you have thousands of entries?

 

Recognizing the related meanings will help you remember the group.  Remembering vocabulary is a process of maintaining semantic nets.

 

5.  Anki, which is just a database, allows you to tag entries.  Then you can make a filtered (temporary) deck of a group of words with the same tag.  So, before I go to have my teeth cleaned I review the vocabulary with the "dentist" tag.  You can't do that with a notebook.  Other tags that I use frequents are: expressions, intentionality (verbs), body, mood, ramakien, swimming, etc. 

 

6.  On youtube check out some of the videos of the polyglot community, which include lectures at their conferences.  Even if you don't aspire to learn multiple languages, these are the learners to emulate.  A lot, but not all use Anki.  None of them use notebooks.

Edited June 25, 2021 by cmarshall

[ColeBOzbourne]

1 hour ago, cmarshall said:

Anki cards for sure.  1000% better than notebooks or cards for these reasons:

You lay out a good case and are quite the salesman, but you haven't converted me. I can agree with many of the advantages and efficiencies that you pointed out, but 1,000% better is a bit high in my opinion. Everyone has different learning styles and that should be respected. If Anki works for you and others then I think that's great.

 

Keep in mind, people (including me) were learning foreign languages quite successfully long before Anki or the internet came along. Also, notebooks are only one of the tools in my toolbox. There are many strategies to learning a language, and I take advantage of a variety of them. Some might work for you, some might not.

[Bredbury Blue]

With Anki cards, can you only use on computer or also on an Android?

 

If you can use on both, presumably you have to synchronise? Easy? Is it a free feature?

 

If you can use Anki cards on Android, is it easy? Convenient? Or is it a pain on a small screen?

 

If it's easy and convenient on an Android then I might commence to use. If it's only possible to use on a computer then that wouldn't be so practical for me.

[Exploring Thailand]

I'm another Anki devotee. I've used it for years.

 

On 6/23/2021 at 12:00 PM, Bredbury Blue said:

Do you recommend this method of acquiring and retaining new words? How do you use it (i.e. can you offer a very basic guide to how someone should use Anki).

 

The basic principle is a card with Thai on one side and English on the other, but there are many variations. You can also add pictures or sound. Anki will test you on the cards everyday. If you get a question right it will wait a couple of days before asking you again. If you keep getting it right, it will wait a longer period before asking you again: 1 day, 2, days, 4 days, 8 days, 16, days, etc. The amount by which it increases is configurable by you.  On the the other hand, if you get the question wrong, you're back to square one.  It resets to 1 day, 2 days, 4 days etc.  All of this means that if you find a question easy, if you know the answer well, you don't waste time reviewing it over and over again. You spend most of your time learning new cards, or re-learning ones that you've forgotten or find difficult.

 

There are many different types of question you can set up

• See the English and say to yourself what the Thai should be
• See the English and type the equivalent in Thai
• Hear the Thai and type it in Thai
• Fill in the missing gap in a Thai sentence.
• See a picture of something and write the name of it in Thai.

 

If you want audio on your cards you, have to add it yourself. That means it's handy if your know a bit about computers, so that you can use an audio editing program or can download audio from websites or Youtube.  Another way to add audio to a card is just to record it directly into Anki. You just click a button and speak. When I was starting out, I did this with a teacher often. I showed her the Anki card and she recorded it into the card. Subsequently, when Anki tested me on that card, I heard her speaking the question.

 

There many Thai Anki decks that you can download for free but I almost exclusively make my own. The are more targeted to what I need, and the process of creating the cards is a good learning experience in itself.

[Exploring Thailand]

14 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

With Anki cards, can you only use on computer or also on an Android?

 

It's free on desktop and Android. There's a paid version for iPhone. To synchronise, you just press a button and wait a few seconds. 

[cmarshall]

On 6/28/2021 at 8:39 PM, Bredbury Blue said:

With Anki cards, can you only use on computer or also on an Android?

 

If you can use on both, presumably you have to synchronise? Easy? Is it a free feature?

 

If you can use Anki cards on Android, is it easy? Convenient? Or is it a pain on a small screen?

 

If it's easy and convenient on an Android then I might commence to use. If it's only possible to use on a computer then that wouldn't be so practical for me.

Anki works fine on Android.  You miss out on the option to type a response so that Anki can flag your spelling errors, but other than that it works as a flashcard system with spaced repetition.  Anki is free, but you can donate.