I’m a big fan of flash cards but, as I posted before, the 4 box set on sale everywhere are expensive and disapointing (to me anyway) so why not just make your own cards?
I’ve been doing this reccently and it’s quite fun. Not only do you get a set of cards but you can also design them how you like and include stuff that is important for you.
I used the far east 3000 word dictionary (about 600NTD) and bought boxes of small cards (25NTD each for 100) I bought 5 colours and put a character on a card depending on the tone, like red for first tone blue for second and so on.
Making your own cards seems good to me because you actually have to write the character out which is studying and when you have finished you have a lovely set of flash cards. :discodance:
I recommend that you use a special color pen, like red, to write the bu4shou3 (部首) portion of the character, that is, the part used to index it in the dictionary.
The thing with flashcards is that they are all written in your book anyway, so why not just learn 'em from that? Sounds like displacement activity to me…
Flashcards are valuable because you can force your attention on one item, one card in front of your face and try to recognize the character. You can flip through them at a bus stop or on a bus, and they’re much handier than a book for that. You can shuffle them so that the presentation is in random order. You can set aside the ones you have learned so you can just focus on an ever-dwindling set. And you can flip them over and use them to test your writing.
If you don’t like 'em don’t use 'em.
I like them, personally.
Yeah, I made kabillions of handwritten ones when I was at Shida, but then I realised that in the time I’d spent making 'em, I might as well have just learned 'em.
Customising is good, though. I experimented a lot with this when I used to teach reading. The conclusion I came to about flashcards was… no conclusion. Depends on the person. Some people need text to remember stuff. So, pretty much what you say, DB.
With cards, you can use the Leitner method, which allows you to review the cards at optimal times. That explains the research that has demonstrated that as a vocabulary acquisition tool, flashcards are superior to word lists. Additionally, the activity of making cards can also help you remember the words, but premade cards can also be helpful because you can spend more time drilling, or can relieve you from an activity you might dislike.
With cards, you can use the Leitner method, which allows you to review the cards at optimal times. That explains the research that has demonstrated that as a vocabulary acquisition tool, flashcards are superior to word lists.[/quote]
Cool. I don’t do that, though. Sorry, wasn’t negating the OPs methods of learning! (if you’re using glitter, though you’ve gone too far)
[quote=“yamato”]I’m a big fan of flash cards but, as I posted before, the 4 box set on sale everywhere are expensive and disapointing (to me anyway) so why not just make your own cards?
I’ve been doing this reccently and it’s quite fun. Not only do you get a set of cards but you can also design them how you like and include stuff that is important for you.
I used the far east 3000 word dictionary (about 600NTD) and bought boxes of small cards (25NTD each for 100) I bought 5 colours and put a character on a card depending on the tone, like red for first tone blue for second and so on.
Making your own cards seems good to me because you actually have to write the character out which is studying and when you have finished you have a lovely set of flash cards. :discodance:[/quote]I very much agree that making your own flashcards (whether real or virtual) is an enormous help. Partly because the process of making or inputting them aids memory, but more so because then you can tailor them to your own specific needs. Of course, it doesn’t have to be an either/or thing. You can do very well by supplementing a good set of ready-made flashcards with ones of your own which are designed to reinforce the main set.
You might wonder how you “reinforce” a flashcard of a single character with a flashcard of another character. Well, the answer is that you don’t. You should really consider learning words, rather than characters. You can have one card with a single word, and a couple of others with phrases featuring that word. If you’re got a decent spaced repetition system going*, you’ll review the cards at different times and they’ll help cement the word in your memory, as well as reinforcing other words. And when you learn a new word which has characters in common with one of the words you’ve learned already, it deepens your knowledge of those characters.
*Leitner is a start. The “Supermemo without a computer” method looks better, if you’ve got the patience. But really, I feel that virtual flashcards on a program such as Mnemosyne, Anki, FullRecall or, if you really have to, Supermemo, are the best way to go in the long term, for a number of reasons.
[quote=“joesax”]
You might wonder how you “reinforce” a flashcard of a single character with a flashcard of another character. Well, the answer is that you don’t. You should really consider learning words, rather than characters. You can have one card with a single word, and a couple of others with phrases featuring that word. If you’re got a decent spaced repetition system going*, you’ll review the cards at different times and they’ll help cement the word in your memory, as well as reinforcing other words. And when you learn a new word which has characters in common with one of the words you’ve learned already, it deepens your knowledge of those characters.[/quote]
Paul Nation suggested that beginners should start with phrases on their cards. Never tried it myself, but he says it works.
[quote=“joesax”]
*Leitner is a start. The “Supermemo without a computer” method looks better, if you’ve got the patience. But really, I feel that virtual flashcards on a program such as Mnemosyne, Anki, FullRecall or, if you really have to, Supermemo, are the best way to go in the long term, for a number of reasons.[/quote]
That sight looks really dodgy. :roflmao:
like one of those ‘lose weight in 2 weeks!’ sites.
I’ve started making my cards, it’s a lot of fun folks, and I’ve already learned the reading to quite a few characters that were giving me problems. :discodance:
I’ve been collecting phrases rather than words for some time, and it works well for me. At a minimum, you should think about writing down “a dog” rather than “dog”, because you will need to know the right measure word to go with that noun. And even better would be writing down the verb that logically goes with the noun, or the noun that goes with a verb, or … well, you get the idea. So you sort of end up with phrases anyway. If you “borrow” the phrases from native speakers or authentic materials, you know the collocations are correct and you may even trot out some set phrases that make Chinese people sigh with wonder.
[quote=“yamato”][quote=“joesax”]
*Leitner is a start. The “Supermemo without a computer” method looks better, if you’ve got the patience. But really, I feel that virtual flashcards on a program such as Mnemosyne, Anki, FullRecall or, if you really have to, Supermemo, are the best way to go in the long term, for a number of reasons.[/quote]
That sight looks really dodgy. :roflmao:
like one of those ‘lose weight in 2 weeks!’ sites.[/quote]The Supermemo site hasn’t been updated in years. It’s still got some useful info on, though.
You really should think about getting some kind of spaced repetition system going with the cards you make, anyway. If you don’t trust the Supermemo site, have a look here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition
[quote=“twocs”][quote=“joesax”]
You might wonder how you “reinforce” a flashcard of a single character with a flashcard of another character. Well, the answer is that you don’t. You should really consider learning words, rather than characters. You can have one card with a single word, and a couple of others with phrases featuring that word. If you’re got a decent spaced repetition system going*, you’ll review the cards at different times and they’ll help cement the word in your memory, as well as reinforcing other words. And when you learn a new word which has characters in common with one of the words you’ve learned already, it deepens your knowledge of those characters.[/quote]
Paul Nation suggested that beginners should start with phrases on their cards. Never tried it myself, but he says it works.[/quote]It does work. The way it seems to work best for me is to have two or more “phrase” cards for each word I learn, and also one card featuring just the word itself (but even that one with a measure word if it’s a noun, as Ironlady says).
Separating example phrases in this way works much better than trying to cram all the information on one card. It sounds like a lot of work, but it pays off. It means I learn the word more thoroughly and can understand or use it more readily in a variety of contexts.
[quote=“joesax”]
You really should think about getting some kind of spaced repetition system going with the cards you make, anyway. If you don’t trust the Supermemo site, have a look here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition[/quote]
FullRecall does this automatically, depending on how you grade yourself. I have no experience with Anki or others, but if in FullRecall you have to grade yourself according to how well you did (I know this!/I struggled with this one./This one was hard./etc.) If you grade yourself well, it will be longer until the next repetition. If you graded yourself poorly, it will be a very short time until you see that card again. Works very well.
