I have no issue remembering characters (I have memorized about 1/4 of all kana in about a week) but simple phrases and words seem to escape me when I am looking over a textbook or just thinking about something. I feel as though simply beating the words into my head repeatedly would be an inefficient way of learning them, is there any tip I’m missing when it comes to remembering definitions and words? Here’s my routine for each new phrase or word:
Repeat it out loud 3 times
write it down 3 times (using kana where I can and romaji where I cannot)
Say out loud 3 more times
If I don’t remember the definition then I repeat the process.
5 comments
have you tried an SRS program such as Anki
Many find them to be quite effective.
I’ll echo that SRS is great for memorizing vocab. Also, mnemonics really worked for me (especially mnemonics that tie back into other Japanese knowledge). On the other hand, my tutor actually says she recommends students something like your methods: writing & speaking repetition. It’s likely a personal preference thing, so I’d think trying several methods to see what you like would be good.
It’s hard to tell from your post what your situation is, so if you’re in a class and need to memorize material by a test date or something, this would be useless to you, but: sometimes just forgetting stuff is the easiest way to memorize it. Over time, as you encounter it and have to look it up and go “damn, I should have known that” the word drills deeper into your head than if you obsess over it in the short term. In my experience, anyway.
Took me forever to remember kotoba. That string of sounds would not stick in my mind. Now it is unforgettable. It takes time for your brain to add it to your memory so don’t stress it.
Watch Japanese Pod 101’s hiragana video. You will know the hiragana in 2 hours due to solid pneumonics.
I used to be there too, had trouble distinguishing between verbs or remembering vocabulary and after repeating them for enough time it got better, but what I feel got the gears rolling were the memory cards in lingodeer(basically anki with sound). I think the sound+visual did the magic for me, rather than just reading the word in my head. I also used the app Infinite japanese. Then you can find news or books and have the TTS read aloud while you follow
Drill simple sentences where the word you’re forgetting is used but substitute another one. For instance if you want to learn the word for dog you can do:
– how many dogs are there?
– I like small dogs
– the dog was barking
Choose words you know though but build context around the word. Speaking of, if you have an iPhone then the app Context is great.
Or just write down the words you can’t remember and leave them for a few days. Come back and usually at least one or two stick.