more immersion based / less boring ways to learn vocab?

5 comments

1. Well you can read Japanese material using an e-reader (I’m using lingq, but there are other ones out there). Essentially they allow you to just look up any word you are reading instantly.

   There’s also a chrome web extension called yomichan which allows you to look up any Japanese word on your screen instantly.

   And yea, just memorizing vocabulary cards won’t make the words stick. In order for them to stick you have to see/hear/use them in different contexts. Anki basically gives you a higher chance of recognizing Japanese while you are immersing.

   One good strategy is to find some Japanese audio that has a script to go along with it. For example “Japanese with Noriko podcast”. This way you can read the material and then listen to it and you will start to pick up a lot that way.

   I would definitely keep up with 15-60 min of Anki a day though because it has definitely helped me understand more.

2. Firstly, 350 words is few enough that it’s going to be very difficult no matter what you try to do until you acquire more vocab. It’s just the nature of the beast.

   I do agree that words you’ve seen in use and understood from context stick in your mind much better. Learning vocab that way is usually called “mining”. Personally, I use jpdb.io instead of Anki and try to learn 15 new words every day. I have it set up so that I have a “mining deck” that I add new words from when they come up in context and I’ve figured out what they mean, then a backup deck full of all the wanikani vocab that I pull from when I run out of mining words. This setup works for me, especially since jpdb lets me have multiple decks lined up and pulls from them in order, but there are lots of ways to get mined vocabulary into anki (the moe way is a good resource for this I think)

   In terms of media you can consume, at this very early stage you’ll be pretty limited. I’d say look into graded readers (you can search this subreddit for “graded readers” and find *tons*), look up Crystal Hunters (a graded reader except as a manga), and my favorite video content for beginners is the YouTube channel Comprehensible Japanese.

3. That’s usually where we all end up.

   Hard to say what’s best for you, as 350 words means nothing to me, and could easily be the WRONG 350 words for whatever it is you may be trying to immerse in. So bear that in mind.

   But I feel you. I have an easier time retaining words since picking up from content I consume than I did using Anki, memrise, or later stage Duolingo.

   The only issue is, depending on HOW beginner you are, it may be best to just stick to an above app (I’d recommend Duolingo in your case because it teaches in sentence based context but pick whatever works best for you). But basically if you’re having to look up all, or the majority, of the words in a sentence, it’s probably too early.

   That being said, I know for me, I was looking up every other word for a minute and half of those I kicked myself for because they were words I knew.

   So like… there’s an orientation period.

   In the realm of orientation periods, even if you know grammar rules and all the vocab in a sentence, expect them not to make sense for a bit. That’s also an orientation problem. If you don’t have an official translation present, DeepL or Google Translate will nudge you in the right direction. But study the translation and the original sentence together to try and figure out how A became B. Eventually you can dump the crutch.

   So what I do is, I look up all the new words, any new grammar points, and/or do a quick translation study on the fly.

   This method, depending on how much you look up, can save a significant amount of time. But it’s STILL going to be the slowest mundane experience you’ve ever had with media. At least for a while.

   From there, I let the media do the SRS repetition for me. Media all has a core vocab in it, so those words will repeat themselves as you progress through. Worry more about those than the words that repeat once or twice and never again. That will make this process less stressful.

   If you’re having a bad retention day, or if it’s more your speed, you can write the words and sentences down, or you can put them in an Anki or other flashcard system. Know that will take you more time, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

   Learning via immersion like this has even sent intermediate+ learners scrambling back to the safety of traditional learning. Because we tend to think since we’re trying to learn from entertainment, that the process should be entertaining. When it proves not to be seamless and fun, people tend to abandon the prospect. But if you can slog through it for just a little while, you’ll find it opens up and becomes easier and easier. Especially if you stick to 1 series or genre to start with. 🙂 Remember that this is still study time, and you’ll see it become more enjoyable on its own.

   Good luck!

4. Anki is not for learning, it is **for retaining what you learn**. You learn by reading and listening.

   So focus on that, keep reading to gain more exposure to language, ideally through interesting materials.

   As you do this, add selectively content to Anki. Creating good cards is a bit of an art, I wrote about it [here](https://thehardway.guide/srs), but reading is more important.

   Some words will stick sooner, some will be harder, that’s just how it is. If you fail to recall something, don’t worry too much, just move on. Don’t chose short intervals, shoveling something into short term memory is not going to help long term memory.

   Good luck!

5. I currently watch Netflix and extract words that way.