Flashcard advice

[yonitabonita]

Hi folks,

Does anyone know if there's a flashcard program that gives you a word/phrase in English then asks you to give the equivalent in Mandarin? I'm using Wenlin and Plecodict, both which are good in their own ways but not exactly what I'm needing right now. I don't really want to just learn to recognise characters. I want something to help me recall the damned word/s when I'm in the middle of a conversation.

Any advice?

I know I could make my own but until I get really desperate, I can't be arsed.

thanks,

Yonita

[roddy]

Open Plecodict

Start new flashcard session

Test Settings

Change the Test and Show settings so that under Test only Defn is ticked

I think that's what you're looking for, no?

[leosmith]

I know I could make my own but until I get really desperate

Hola,

I'm curious - why don't you want to make your own? I keep a master list of vocabulary in excel, then import pieces of it into supermemo when I'm ready. That way, I review only the words I've seen. My supermemo collection is huge (13,000 flashcards), but it knows which things need to be reviewed and when, so my daily sessions can be very short, depending on how much new stuff I put in.

Pre-made collections of flash cards will have lots of words that I've never seen, which would frustrate me. But everybody is different, so maybe your way works better for you.

[yonitabonita]

Change the settings! Of course.. ahhh I'm such a simpleton!

Thanks and thanks Roddy.

I've done as you've suggested and Pleco is doing exactly what I want it to do.

Leo: to make flashcards my way (ie, cardboard squares) would turn into a daily art and craft class. Very time consuming.

On Pleco, I can enter vocab as I come across it (during a conversation, while reading a book, during a lesson etc). Usually it happens at the same time I'm looking something up in the dictionary. At the end of the day, I can just review vocab I'd encountered that day, or that week, whatever. Your method sounds like an effective one, and I'd have tried it over resorting to my cardboard square method.

[roddy]

Glad that worked. Plecodict is actually very customizable - you just need to take the time to try out all the different options to figure out what it's possible of.

[leosmith]

On Pleco, I can enter vocab as I come across it (during a conversation, while reading a book, during a lesson etc). Usually it happens at the same time I'm looking something up in the dictionary. At the end of the day, I can just review vocab I'd encountered that day, or that week, whatever.

Oh, I see now. Sweet! I just use a notebook, but its so hit-and-miss with my lousy spelling. Pleco sounds like a good deal - thanks for the explanation.