Methods to memorize vocabulary?

I find vocabulary very difficult to memorize. What are some tips to memorize vocabulary? Perhaps some useful resources?

7 comments
  1. Some combination of grinding an Anki core2k/6k/N5 Tango deck and comprehensible input. That last thing is going to vary a lot depending on where you are in your studies.

    Tadoku free graded readers (Learnnatively), Comprehensible Japanese, & Japanese with Shun (YT channels) are a couple good places to start for easy input.

  2. I am a big fan of Anki and with it, the Tango Anki decks starting with Tango N5 for vocabulary. They are set up in an i +1/1t format which means they teach you with sentences but every sentence only has 1 new word. That way you see the words and grammar you have learned over and over in a natural way. I used them myself and then moved in to sentence mining later on to get to a good level of japanese. They also are set up to use many common words found in japanese. I am really big on frequency as well, I even built the Netflix frequency list.
    https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/866090213

    When it comes to starting japanese I pretty much agree with everything in this video except I prefer the free Migaku Kanji God addon Anki addon over RTK. The addon creates RTK style cards which are based on the kanji coming up in your Anki decks.
    https://youtu.be/L1NQoQivkIY

  3. I make sure there’s an example sentence and picture if possible with each word.

    I also make sure to constantly be reading or watching things in my spare time because once I see a vocab word in the wild, I know it so much better. You have to be able to attach an emotion or a memory to the word as well.

  4. I find that the most effective way to learn vocabulary is by seeing it in some kind of context. I would look for the word in a song or ad or drama.

  5. I try to make some memorable stories using the sounds (like “The Under the cape a cow is hiding”) . It isn’t easy, but helps.

  6. I tried some different approachs but what worked best was the app Memrise. It’s not perfect, but it’s working for me.

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