4. If the meaning of the word or phrase "clicks" for you, put it into Anki. If not, look it up in a dictionary. For words you have to look up, think very carefully about putting them into a dictionary. There are no hard and fast rules but err on the side of leaving them out.
Review the cards whenever you have time. If you have so many cards that "Review anki cards" is something you have to schedule time for then imo you have too many.
Let's imagine I'm learning English and I read a BBC article and I see this sentence:
> They often have to get creative when "cashing out" or laundering the money they have stolen, according to a security expert.
Hmmm. I don't know what "cashing out" or "laundering" means. Let's keep reading.
> "They can try to sell the card, which is not big money because they only get a few dollars for each one," he said.
Aha! "Cashing out" must mean getting money from what they did. Now that I've learnt "cashing out" I'll put the original sentence into Anki. The back of the card will be an explanation of "cashing out". When you start you can use a translation into your native language. Then when you get better you can use a dictionary definition in English or even write your own definition. Anything that helps you remember the phrase that you already learnt.
After I finish reading the article maybe I check "laundering" in a dictionary or maybe I just leave it. Don't worry that you'll "miss" a word. If it's common you'll see it again. If it's extremely rare then you won't see it again and won't need to know it.
Learning a language is like walking through an orchard. Pick the ripe fruit and leave the rest. If you try to grab everything you won't be able to carry them.
> Learning a language is like walking through an orchard. Pick the ripe fruit and leave the rest. If you try to grab everything you won't be able to carry them.
Great analogy, it really resonates with my experience. Your Anki language learning tactics also.
Before Anki, I tried to learn Polish with Memrise and it didn't work. With public decks you will waste time on irrelevant words for your usecase and soon you'll get bored. You MUST do your decks. My tactic is to digest everyday one or two headlines from a Polish newspaper and create 2-3 cards with relevant words/expressions (3 x 365 = 1k+ cards/year!).
I used to agree with the traditional SRS criticism: learning is not memorising stuff. But after trying it I reshaped my beliefs: learning is understanding and memorising.
1. Read an article.
2. Encounter a word or phrase you don't know.
3. Keep reading!
4. If the meaning of the word or phrase "clicks" for you, put it into Anki. If not, look it up in a dictionary. For words you have to look up, think very carefully about putting them into a dictionary. There are no hard and fast rules but err on the side of leaving them out.
Review the cards whenever you have time. If you have so many cards that "Review anki cards" is something you have to schedule time for then imo you have too many.
Let's imagine I'm learning English and I read a BBC article and I see this sentence:
> They often have to get creative when "cashing out" or laundering the money they have stolen, according to a security expert.
Hmmm. I don't know what "cashing out" or "laundering" means. Let's keep reading.
> "They can try to sell the card, which is not big money because they only get a few dollars for each one," he said.
Aha! "Cashing out" must mean getting money from what they did. Now that I've learnt "cashing out" I'll put the original sentence into Anki. The back of the card will be an explanation of "cashing out". When you start you can use a translation into your native language. Then when you get better you can use a dictionary definition in English or even write your own definition. Anything that helps you remember the phrase that you already learnt.
After I finish reading the article maybe I check "laundering" in a dictionary or maybe I just leave it. Don't worry that you'll "miss" a word. If it's common you'll see it again. If it's extremely rare then you won't see it again and won't need to know it.
Learning a language is like walking through an orchard. Pick the ripe fruit and leave the rest. If you try to grab everything you won't be able to carry them.