Hello,
I have N2 JLPT so I have been learning for a bit.
My question is related to learning new words. When I had classes I learnt them by heart for each test. When I prepared for JLPT I powered through anki.
Currently I at the stage when I can read book faster and faster. The problem is that I can't keep up with learning new word after each book.
for example my last 4 books when magical treehouse (easy read). Even in these books I encountered:
vol3 90, vol4 60, vol5 99, vol6 81 new words.
Some are specific like, reins, stirrup, hoof etc. Some were written in hiragana and were weird compounds that I didn't understand. Some were mimetic adverbs that are way to similar.
I could put each word to anki and learn them. Or I can forget about them and just pick up another book. Eventually if I encounter it 3-5 times I should remember it.
how do you go about this?
by kozz84
6 comments
Learn by context. Maybe in sentences. “He dug in his stirrups.”
Don’t get distracted thinking you have to add +80-90 new words, but just focus on consistency. And don’t worry if you finish a book and didn’t add every new word.
Say if you read everyday, even if you start with a limit of just 10 new words a day to add to anki.
That consistency in just one year is 3650 new words. If you’re N2, which is roughly 6000 vocab words, you’re now at the 10000 vocab count for N1 in just one year *and* your reading skills are even sharper.
So instead of thinking that you have to add *every* word you come across (some people do that) be more picky at first, stick to a consistent limit. As you said, words appear multiple times, so shape the priority around that. That will add up quickly over time.
It’s a better way to approach it than thinking “oh if I can’t add all 95 new words, I might as well not do it at all.” It’s true you can rely on only reading and letting words it naturally SRS itself with exposure, but I believe there’s a proper middle ground to be had.
The slow way is learning them seeing them repeatedly, the fast way is sentence mining.
I use the language everyday in reading, writing, listening, watching with JP subtitles, hanging out in Discord, Twitter, community blog circles, comment sections, other boards, livestreams, livestream chat, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc ,etc. I run across unknown word in anything I do, I look it up. Not an Anki user. Presently (2200+ hours into journey now) I don’t need to look up much on Twitter now because I just have well over 98% coverage and I have to push into new areas (literature) to find new kanji and words.
Back when I was studying for the JLPT I used to mine everything…every single word I did not know (even if I knew the meaning but not the pronunciation or vice versa)…at the same time I also had a backlog of about 2k words I had seen and added to anki but never reviewed.
My recommendation is to just keep adding words regardless of whether or not you can catch up…don’t worry about having a backlog…eventually you will drop anki and a backlog won’t really matter…
once you have reached N1 level, feel free to drop anki…I feel like so many learners have an over reliance on anki when in reality it is just a tool. Once you are N1 you will be good enough to take the next big step: stop studying and just experience the language whether it be talking to people or reading and listening….without having to actually study grammar, kanji, anki or having to read/ listen to JLPT specific boring material…you will eventually get to the point where you also stop using your NL to translate from Japanese and use a 国語辞典 only or use Japanese only resources if you happen to forget a grammar pattern (N2-N1 are not super common in daily life and even so much of the content out there doesn’t really use much of it so it’s easy to forget)
I use JPDB, but I still add every new word I come across. Then as I’m reviewing if it’s becoming a leech and I don’t feel like it’s helpful or frequent enough that I’ll see it again in a context I care about, I’ll just remove it. For example I probably am not likely to come across the words 種子島 or 尿路結石 but alas they were easy to remember so they stuck in the deck and know I know them.