Hi all,
I’ve fallen off the wagon for a few months now, and am getting ready to try hopping back on. Right before I fell off, I was starting to utilize [jpdb.io](https://jpdb.io), and noticed a concerning pattern in my learning. This was the first set of flashcards I’d used that had example sentences on the front, and I noticed I was starting to parse the right answer from the sentence, rather than the term itself.
In other words, I wouldn’t recognize a word, so I’d look to the sentence instead, and eventually I’d recognize the sentence based on the first few words, and would just link that to the english translation of the vocab. So I knew what the \*sentence\* meant, and I knew what part of that sentence the flashcard was teaching…but I wasn’t really processing the actual word/sounds. I wouldn’t recognize the word in any other context. I wasn’t even reading the full sentence because I already had the answser.
Is this a common hang-up for folks who use flashcards with sample sentences? Is there anything I can do to help mitigate it other than hiding the sentences altogether? I always chose “hard” for these, because I knew I didn’t actually know it, but I feel like that’s still not really what the algorithm is aiming for.
15 comments
You can get it to randomize the sentence for you in the settings. Some words there aren’t as many examples but it should help you.
You can either turn off example sentences altogether, or hit the “Pick a new random example sentence every time you do a review”
Yeah there’s pros and cons to sentences vs single word SRS.
On one hand, it’s good to reinforce the word in context and how it is used.
On the other hand it’s good to be able to recognize the word regardless of context.
A couple ways to address this are:
Solo word on front, with example sentence and definition on back.
Have 2 cards. One with a sentence in front. One with just the solo vocab on front.
Just do what works for you. SRS isn’t a panacea, but it certainly helps. The best way to reinforce the word will be coming across it a few times in “the wild”.
I’ve rarely noticed the same, but my Anki deck has one card with the sentence and one card with only the word so even if you were to get the sentence right you would get the word wrong and repeat that one. I think this helps a lot.
Also careful with the “hard”. Your problem is that you have memorized those sentences from seeing them *too often*. AFAIK using Hard reduces the “ease” and you end up in “ease hell” seeing those sentences even more often.
Just add cards with only the word, without the rest of the sentence.
Put the sentence on the back of the card. Refer to it only if you failed the word.
You can create decks in anki that display your example sentence only after things have been flipped. What I mean by that is that on the one side you have the japanese word, on the other you have the english word. When you flip the card, regardless of what side you started with, it will display the example phrase. You see this on a lot of anki decks that are made to explain details, like the meaning of the kanji.
I don’t think it’s anything to be that worried about you’ll typically be reading words in a sentence so being able to recall the word in context is totally fine
As you go you’ll get to be more comfortable with words and get better at identifying them by themselves but you’ll usually have some context to go off of so you’ll be just fine.
If your uncomfortable about a word just mark it again it’s less about weather you got it and more about if you want to see it again/more often vs see it less
There might be an option for weather the sentence is on the front or back you can toggle as well
jpdb has an option to randomize the example sentences, but some of the examples aren’t that good (especially when they have chosen the wrong dictionary entry for the sentence to be associated with).
Maybe you can change the sentence yourself when you notice this kind of “interference”?
That was happening to me too. JPDB has a bunch of settings for that. I chose to only put it on the back and to hide the sentences until you mouse over them.
Yeah it happened to me too, you have to be deliberate about reading the whole sentence, but it still happens. Really SRS just helps program your brain to help retain the words. What actually gets you to learn their true meanings is when you read, only when you’re reading can you pull out the full potential of SRS systems. Adding writing and/or speaking to the mix and it just compounds it.
> I always chose “hard” for these, because I knew I didn’t actually know it
If you didn’t know the word you’re testing yourself on, you shouldn’t pass the card.
This is context depended knowledge and when using an SRS it cannot be completely eliminated, having only the word on the front and sentence on the back as others pointed out will help, but your brain might still link the specific formating of the flash card and the way it all looks as a whole to the definition, this is just the reality of SRS but it’s not such a huge issue, because when you then see these words from the SRS in the wild you might first not recognize them because they were context depended, but you will go “ah wait I actually do have this in my SRS” which is a completely different experience, then stumbling upon completely new words, thus making the context dependend knowledge, context independend. This is why you should be reading and watching stuff, to get other opportunities to see the words from the SRS.
this isn’t the best way to use sentence cards. if you wanna use sentence cards for indivisual vocabulary terms, then you should have more than 1 sentence per word. ideally, you should have _lots_ of sentences per word, and set it up where it only shows you 1 of them when you are asked about the word. there are other ways to use sentence cards, but this is the only good 1 that i can think of that allows you to use them for the same pourpace as vocabulary cards.
This is nothing to worry about. You recognized the word in a sentence so that card is done. Your real goal isn’t the flash cards but to get to the point where you can read actually Japanese and that will be what reinforces words in various contexts. Flash cards are just a tool to get you there.
Just want to share that it’s not as damaging as you think it is. I know why you feel like the sentence acts as a crutch. And truly it does. But even with the crutch, your work is not going to be wasted. It will still transfer. You are still going to remember the word in isolation , albeit with lower success vs if the sentence wasn’t there as a crutch. But the reduction of success rate is quite trivial I feel. Personal experience of course.
I have Anki decks that have sentences as context and Anki decks that are just words in isolation. The former type of decks still pulled their weight.
It’s not the same as going to the gym and having a bro to spot your bench. If the bro is bicep curling your bench press, then yes it’s a crutch and it’s not an accurate representation of your bench press strength. But what you are describing with your Japanese is not the like that.