I had an idle thought while reviewing Anki. Since Japanese words/kanji have multiple pieces of information you learn with each review, what would be the best way to split (or not to split) them? How do you guys have your cards set up:
1. 1 card where you review both reading, meaning at once
2. 2 cards where you review reading and meaning separately but shceduled to appear on the same day (like WaniKani)
3. 2 cards where you review reading and meaning separately and the cards for the same word/kanji can appear different times
3 comments
One card per word. I want to know meaning and reading at the same time, and I dont want to double my daily review cards or half new word rate. Both correct to pass the card
The leading developer of SRS wrote, “Stick to the minimum information principle.”
https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/20rules
At the extreme, one could make over a dozen cards per word. However, that gets overwhelming and reviews take forever. It also is not necessary to dominate a word.
Eventually, I reduced my deck to 2 cards (PRONOUNCE a kanji, WRITE a kanji). I killed the TRANSLATE cards because I got them correct nearly 100% of the time and they became a big waste of time; the English meaning became automatic for me.
But if I didn’t want to WRITE kanji, 1 card effectively provides 50% of the reviews per word (and loses a dimension too). So I can’t say if 1 card will be enough for you (or me).
My language school in Tokyo had the same dilemma, I suppose. The vocabulary/kanji written daily quizzes (weekly tests, etc.) basically tested writing KANJI-kana and writing KANA-kanji. Those quizzes and tests didn’t test meaning.
Note, the 20rules above encourage separating the LEARNING & REVIEWING processes. That means I put some serious effort into studying a word before starting SRS reviews.
The way I did it was to learn basic words first (around 1.5-2k), then basic kanji and it’s common meanings (around 1.5k too). Later I found a course that alternated both. It was a pack of hiragana-translation, then a pack with the same words, but written in kanji with translation, and I’ve noticed that because I already knew how kanji look and how words are pronounced, these kanji-translation packs were extremely easy to learn and were closer to reviews. I barely spent any efforts on that.
Generally I don’t think it matters much, because amount of information we need to learn stays around the same. So it’s rather about personal approach, what people prefer to do.
For example, some people think that to learn kanji with general meaning is useless. If we look at reading, then it’s mostly indeed so, because we don’t know words and at best can only guess some vague meaning. If you don’t know that 水着 means a swimsuit, then water-cloth can be almost anything like a diving suit or anything else. But at the same time if you know how kanji look and more or less accurate area of applying, then following learning becomes extremely easy. That’s basically how I learned kanji with general meanings first (which took a lot of time), and then could add 15-20 new cards to my ordinary amount without any burden at all.