Is it more effectice to have the English meaning of a word on the front of an anki card or have the Japanese word itself? I use Japanese words on front but I didn’t really experiment with English. I’d like your thoughts.
Unless you already have a native level understanding of *both* languages (in which case, you wouldn’t really be studying Japanese anymore anyway), the consensus is generally to put the Japanese up front. Having the English up front and trying to choose a word based on nuances you just don’t have enough true natural exposure to understand would be so much harder than just understanding the basic idea.
For example, 体調, 様子, 容態, and 具合 can all boil down to the general idea of “condition (regarding health)” but depending on the context given in an English sentence, the Japanese equivalent might require a specific one out of those and you’d have to know a lot more than just the general idea to get it right.
Not to say you should never ever put English up front, but putting Japanese up front *first* generally makes more sense.
Most people put Japanese on the front, because it makes reviews faster. That said, this comes from a community that tends to prioritize input over output, and over time, you’ll find that your production skill lags behind your recognition skill. Whether production is important or not depends on your personal goals for learning the language.
Depends on what you want to get better at.
Japanese on front trains recognition.
English on front trains recall.
Japanese on the front. You should force yourself to read Japanese whenever possible. If English is on the front, you are just remembering the Japanese word without actually reading it. Bonus points for only ever putting the kanji when possible.
As other people have mentioned, each way kind of tests out different aspects of your knowledge. Why choose just one? I have my Anki setup to create both Japanese first and English first cards from each note I create.
After the initial learning, I do like to use the easy or hard buttons to try to push the two cards onto different review days, if it doesn’t happen naturally. Seeing it one way can help prime me to get the answer right when the other side comes up, but if they happen on different days it’s a better test of when I actually know it or not.
6 comments
Japanese on front.
Unless you already have a native level understanding of *both* languages (in which case, you wouldn’t really be studying Japanese anymore anyway), the consensus is generally to put the Japanese up front. Having the English up front and trying to choose a word based on nuances you just don’t have enough true natural exposure to understand would be so much harder than just understanding the basic idea.
For example, 体調, 様子, 容態, and 具合 can all boil down to the general idea of “condition (regarding health)” but depending on the context given in an English sentence, the Japanese equivalent might require a specific one out of those and you’d have to know a lot more than just the general idea to get it right.
Not to say you should never ever put English up front, but putting Japanese up front *first* generally makes more sense.
Most people put Japanese on the front, because it makes reviews faster. That said, this comes from a community that tends to prioritize input over output, and over time, you’ll find that your production skill lags behind your recognition skill. Whether production is important or not depends on your personal goals for learning the language.
Depends on what you want to get better at.
Japanese on front trains recognition.
English on front trains recall.
Japanese on the front. You should force yourself to read Japanese whenever possible. If English is on the front, you are just remembering the Japanese word without actually reading it. Bonus points for only ever putting the kanji when possible.
As other people have mentioned, each way kind of tests out different aspects of your knowledge. Why choose just one? I have my Anki setup to create both Japanese first and English first cards from each note I create.
After the initial learning, I do like to use the easy or hard buttons to try to push the two cards onto different review days, if it doesn’t happen naturally. Seeing it one way can help prime me to get the answer right when the other side comes up, but if they happen on different days it’s a better test of when I actually know it or not.