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Language maintenance is just as important as second language acquisition (SLA), and yet, while the latter is hammered into us in school and many of us pursue it in our free time, a lot more attention could stand to be given to the former. Maintaining linguistic knowledge is a skill, and like any other skill, [...]

Lately I’ve been becoming more and more of a fan of using multiple spaced repetition decks, even within the same area of study. The disadvantage of doing this is that you have to switch between files, so one might wonder, why not just put all the cards in one deck? Thing is, when you start [...]

When I did my 30-day French Learning Challenge, I specifically switched up which spaced repetition system I was using, so that in addition to learning some French (mainly just that French is a lot harder than I thought), I also gained breadth of knowledge in spaced repetition in general. The first SRS I used, and [...]

Different Spaced Repetition Systems have different advantages. The two systems I’ve used are Mnemosyne and Anki. I used Mnemosyne first, and then explored Anki during my 30-day French Language challenge, thinking I might convert my Mnemosyne deck to Anki. Anki is, after all, somehow more “hip” and “fashionable” than Mnemosyne. However, for several reasons, I [...]

Consider this. You make five flashcards for Russian vocabulary words. Russian word on one side, English on the other. Review those cards 20 times a day for a week. At the end of the week, you’ll know those words really well. Now deposit those cards in the bank with instructions to keep them hidden from [...]

For a moment, forget all about language classrooms and textbooks and teachers. How does a person naturally learn a language? By exposure, exposure, exposure. We learn language by being immersed in the culture where it is spoken. We hear millions of sentences spoken, and each time, our subconscious mind associates something to the sentence. The [...]

If you’ve been reading my articles regularly, you know I’m big on using flashcards to study languages. I use a Spaced Repetition System: that’s where you put flashcards on the computer and when you review a card, you rate it. Then a program uses your ratings to figure out what cards you should see for [...]

During my recent Japan trip, I was spending my time having fun, and didn’t do any studying. In particular, my daily Japanese reviews on my SRS, Mnemosyne, went neglected. In case you don’t know about it, SRS stands for “Spaced Repetition System”. An SRS program is a flashcard program for the computer, where you make [...]

Here’s a neat trick. You can add invisible text to a flashcard in Mnemosyne by enclosing it in html tags and quotes, <”like this”>. Mnemosyne includes HTML support so you can add pictures and sound to flashcards. The “invisible text” trick becomes possible as an unintended extra feature. The way it works is Mnemosyne tries [...]

For fun, I’ve been teaching myself Japanese. I’m using the method outlined here, which is highly influenced by Khatzumoto over at alljapaneseallthetime.com. Part of the method involves reading-for-understanding (not for rote memorization) thousands of example sentences. People commonly ask me if they can save time by downloading pre-made flashcards. I don’t know of any such [...]