Abandoning Anki (at the upper intermediate level)

[imron]

but creating cards.

Pleco really helps in this regard if you can live with its non-customisable flashcard format (I can, and in fact prefer it, but I know some people can't).  It's basically zero-cost to create cards, which makes it convenient to drill and reinforce words you've looked up recently.  This is important for reading if you want to be improving, rather than just coasting on existing skills.

[davoosh]

Thanks for everyone's input and comments. It's interesting to hear of others' relationship to anki. So far, after about 6 weeks of reading more than usual and not looking up every single word, I feel this way is a lot more sustainable and more enjoyable. I jot down words which I think would be useful to remember and flip through this note book every so often and test myself.

 

Also to echo imron's post in another thread about reading skills - I have noticed that words which seem quite obscure at first do crop up more often than you'd expect (unless it's a really technical word). Another thing is that throughout a book or a novel, those new words are likely to appear quite a few times throughout what you're reading, provided your reading material sticks more or less to a certain topic or genre which serves as natural reinforcement. By the end of the novel, words which I learnt from the first chapter would register instantly.

 

 

 

 

[Silent]

 

Another thing is that throughout a book or a novel, those new words are likely to appear quite a few times throughout what you're reading, provided your reading material sticks more or less to a certain topic or genre which serves as natural reinforcement.

Not really sure how true this really is. At first glance sure, it's true, and obviously vocabulary is topic dependent but also author dependent. So by sticking to a subject or author certain words will keep being reinforced. However if you analyse a books vocabulary you get a bit of a different picture. A huge part of the vocabulary in a book occurs only a couple of times maybe 50% of the vocabulary in an average book occurs less the say 5 times or so.

 

This is what makes progress so difficult when your level rises. With 100 words you may know 50% or so, a few 1000 words and you know  over 90%, but to read fluently and easily you need to know 99% or more and have to learn 15-20 thousend words . Reading is a good way to learn that vocabulary provided you look up unknown vocabulary and a lot less boring then endlessly study srs.

[Guest realmayo]

If doing Anki was taking away from your reading time then congratulations on sorting that out!

[imron]

Not really sure how true this really is.

Mathematically it's pretty true, if you plug frequency statistics into your reading rate, then even with a modest reading speeds you'll find that you'd expect to see relatively infrequent terms a few times a year - probably more often than you'd see that word just doing flashcard revisions once it had a long interval.

 

Besides from the mathematics, from experience it's also something I've found to be true across multiple books and authors, and I've heard the same things from multiple different people once they start to do more regular reading.  The last part is the key though, you need to be doing regular reading to get the benefit.

[Silent]

 

I have noticed that words which seem quite obscure at first do crop up more often than you'd expect

 

 you'll find that you'd expect to see relatively infrequent terms a few times a year

If you define "more often than you'd expect" as "a few times a year" you're right.  The bulk of the words in a book occur a few times, but if you put the bar at 5 times a year and read a few books even a fair number of the words that only occur once or twice in a book will meet the bar. I was interpreting it as every dozen pages or so. Reality is however that the bulk of the words in a book occur only a few times. So I was thinking in the line of subject/author specific vocabulary that occurs several times and gives the impression that most words occur several times which is not true.

[imron]

It depends a lot on the word, some might be every few pages, some will be every few days, some will be every few months.  Usually it's towards the longer end of the spectrum though.  Think of it like cards in an Anki deck that have reached a 3-month interval or similar.

 

The idea is therefore to read, note down new words, drill those words to get them to the equivalent of a long SRS interval, and then keep reading and repeating.  Most of the words you learn you'll likely encounter again before you otherwise would have for a longish Anki interval, and you'll be getting them in context.