Basically, as the title says, I’ve been studying for 5-ish months total, using the Anki Core 2K deck for close to 3 months now I believe. I’m at the point now where lots of new words coming up are things like “manufacturing” “economics” etc. and they’re just not sticking.
I’ve been consistent daily with my Anki use, and I’m definitely committed to learning. I’m planning to travel to Japan in May of 2023 for 2 weeks with a friend, and I want to learn as much as I can about the language/culture so I can have a somewhat immersive experience. I know I won’t be fluent by any means, but I want to at least *try* and communicate and show that I’ve made an effort to learn.
The thing is, these tricky words just don’t stick. I also find myself remembering a lot of cards more by reading the words I do know in the sentence around the specific vocabulary and then filling in the answer based on context or memory, almost like a hint, instead of being able to read the vocabulary kanji at first glance (hopefully that makes sense).
The question I’m asking is, am I better off making my own deck based on vocabulary I come across via immersion? I started using Satori Reader in the last month, I enjoy anime, and I often watch Japanese YouTubers speaking in Japanese. Also, should I maybe focus on reading more so that I’m using the vocabulary I learn more? Right now I’m only reading 20/30 minutes a day on top of my Anki deck and maybe an hour or so of media immersion.
I realize I’ve likely already answered my question and I just need to make the jump to switch my study methods, but I wanted to get thoughts from more experienced learners. If the answer is simply “you need to study more to get what you want in the timeframe” I’m certainly willing to put more time in.
Thank you in advance for any tips/insight, I appreciate your time.
TL;DR \~3 months into Anki Core 2K and lots of new words are things like “manufacturing” “economics” etc. and they’re not sticking. Should I change my study methods to make my own deck based on the vocabulary I get from immersion? And should I focus more on reading instead of Anki?
3 comments
>Should I change my study methods to make my own deck based on the vocabulary I get from immersion?
Yes, or just suspend words in your current deck if they seem irrelevant to your interests.
> And should I start reading more?
Yes
I think a lot of these core decks choose the X most common words. Those words will come up eventually. Maybe start reading?
Depends on what your goals are but definitely start reading and creating your own flashcards.
But for reference, I got to the same point and actually looked up frequency lists in English to compare. I was shocked to see words I thought would’ve been way more common near the 4-6k frequency range, and words I thought would be less common around the 1k. If you’re using the core 2k deck the data is taken from newspapers and the like so you’re gonna mostly be learning that sort of vocab.