For me, personally, reading works best and I began reading simple texts as soon as I could. It’s something I enjoy doing and I read a lot so it’s kinda my version of SRS. I also don’t mind reading the same book or manga more than once.
That, and talking. I need to have vocab in action and build bridges in my brain. Using the language in any way helps me best.
There have been a lot of times where I couldn’t seem to remember a word. In those cases however, it stuck a lot better when I heard it being used in a natural context. So I’d recommend you to immerse yourself more. If native content is too hard for you to a point where you don’t feel like getting anything out of it, try short stories made for learners your level specifically. May not be as effective but still pretty good.
It would help a lot if you could elaborate what you tried to come to the conclusion that you suck at vocab. For example, if you are already using Anki and still came to that conclusion, we can ask the configuration of the deck you’re using, etc.etc. instead of having to guess what didn’t work for you.
My problem is that I only know the word when I see it written with kanji (if it has kanji). My favorite of japanese are kanji so I know quite a few of them. To reinforce them I learn vocabulary made up if the kanji I am learning. So when I see a word I will know the meaning thanks to the kanji. But I can’t for the life of me understand spoken Japanese using those words. I won’t know what they are until I see then written…
When I started I would make goals to learn x words per day. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like this. You need repetition over time for the vocabulary to really stick. You don’t even have to practice hard, just repeat over longer period of time and it will stick.
Here are some approaches I use:
* Brute force simple repetition. Many words just stick if you just repeat them often enough * Mnemonics: e.g. 困る（こまる） – if someone is in a **coma**, their family is **worried** * Connect them to other words (either similar or which are often used together)
Once you have learned enough words to start reading/listening to comprehensible input you can use that to avoid forgetting words and learning new ones from context.
use the words
Anki.
Writing them a lot worked better than flashcards AND putting them into use ASAP.
anki + reading
Use the language as much as possible + anki
I found relying on SRS to be useless for learning vocab. Associating the vocab with a particular image, or sound, or memory helped me out a ton. So did seeing/hearing the word used in ordinary (nonacademic) context a couple of times.
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For me, personally, reading works best and I began reading simple texts as soon as I could. It’s something I enjoy doing and I read a lot so it’s kinda my version of SRS. I also don’t mind reading the same book or manga more than once.
That, and talking. I need to have vocab in action and build bridges in my brain. Using the language in any way helps me best.
There have been a lot of times where I couldn’t seem to remember a word. In those cases however, it stuck a lot better when I heard it being used in a natural context. So I’d recommend you to immerse yourself more. If native content is too hard for you to a point where you don’t feel like getting anything out of it, try short stories made for learners your level specifically. May not be as effective but still pretty good.
It would help a lot if you could elaborate what you tried to come to the conclusion that you suck at vocab.
For example, if you are already using Anki and still came to that conclusion, we can ask the configuration of the deck you’re using, etc.etc. instead of having to guess what didn’t work for you.
My problem is that I only know the word when I see it written with kanji (if it has kanji). My favorite of japanese are kanji so I know quite a few of them. To reinforce them I learn vocabulary made up if the kanji I am learning. So when I see a word I will know the meaning thanks to the kanji. But I can’t for the life of me understand spoken Japanese using those words. I won’t know what they are until I see then written…
When I started I would make goals to learn x words per day.
Unfortunately it doesn’t work like this. You need repetition over time for the vocabulary to really stick.
You don’t even have to practice hard, just repeat over longer period of time and it will stick.
Here are some approaches I use:
* Brute force simple repetition. Many words just stick if you just repeat them often enough
* Mnemonics: e.g. 困る（こまる） – if someone is in a **coma**, their family is **worried**
* Connect them to other words (either similar or which are often used together)
Once you have learned enough words to start reading/listening to comprehensible input you can use that to avoid forgetting words and learning new ones from context.
use the words
Anki.
Writing them a lot worked better than flashcards AND putting them into use ASAP.
anki + reading
Use the language as much as possible + anki
I found relying on SRS to be useless for learning vocab. Associating the vocab with a particular image, or sound, or memory helped me out a ton. So did seeing/hearing the word used in ordinary (nonacademic) context a couple of times.