How do you structure your vocab for review? I've been looking at my notebooks but it just becomes a blur of words...but doing it on a computer seems like it will stick less :/ have you found a solution that works for you?
Thanks for your question!!!
I am actually a huge fan of repition in various forms.
I don’t know your level, so I will go through a few ways I did and like. Plz use the JLPT levels as equivalent to novice beginner intermediate, etc...
When I was between N4-N3 (so setting my foundation in Japanese really), I would write my vocab out about 5 times each across a page (i quit this after getting to N3). After that, I would quiz myself. To do this, fold a paper into fourths, long ways. Write the vocab words in Jpns on one fourth and quiz yourself by writing the native language beside it. The convenient part about the 4 sections is, you can then fold over the first fourth with the Japanese, and now quiz yourself from native language to Jpns, and once again from Jpns to native language. I did this for each chapter of whatever book I was using.
I find flashcards the easiest way to drill things.
As I mentioned above, I stopped handwriting my vocab once getting to studying the N3 level. It’s because N3 is where you basically can reach getting by, so your vocab increases a lot. I was a uni student and didn’t have that kind of time to give to just writing vocab on paper.
So, I made flashcards with an app called iAnki or something. Then later I found memrise, and I swear by memrise. I still continued the paper quizzing though. I think N3 and down has the most crucial vocab. It’s your basis for everything really. So I really wanted to cement things in. I reviewed a lot until things were second nature to me (basically until i got sick of seeing the word)
So, I basically just use memrise now. I can review anything I want as many times as I want. I can make decks or find them. I can review with their spaced algorithms. It’s great for me! You have to utilize different features on the desktop and app.
Sometimes I get behind. It can be stressful, but they have this nice feature called “speed review”, so it’s really fast and fun because it’s timed.
Because I use this, I don’t really buy vocab textbooks. I will go to the bookstore bc I can look through books. I find a vocab book I like and then just search for it’s course on memrise. If there isn’t one, and I really like it, I’ll buy it to make a deck. You can mass add, so it’s convenient.
I am still trying to write out kanji though. Bc I want to be fully literate and the tests get tricky with the kanji ID in the higher levels. So I feel knowing how to write them comes in handy.
Other than that, I can’t think of anything else special I do for memorizing.
If you have more questions, please feel free to ask!
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