Advanced Vocabulary Studying 2.0

As you might have noticed while reading my last blog entry, I was quite content with the way I was studying vocabulary. This was probably due to this first “yay”- moment you have when you find a new program (in my case gFlash+) that helps you get over this bulk of new words.
However, after some time I noticed that although I knew most of the words in my exams, I quickly started forgetting them afterwards. The key word to prevent this from happening is
*drum roll*:
 repetition.

I had heard this thousands of times –  ”repetition” – what an important word for language learners. And although I knew that repetition was vital, I refused to actually put the theory into practice. The reason? Probably laziness mixed with a pinch of: “Repeating words costs time. I don’t have time. Give me NEW words!”
One day I talked about this issue of forgetting with some of my friends. One of them told me about how she uses Anki in order to prevent forgetting. She had told me about Anki before, but it looked a little too complicated for my taste. However, in a moment of extraordinary high motivation, I pulled myself together, installed Anki again and made myself acquainted with the program. After browsing through the manual and watching a couple of videos on Youtube, I decided that the program looked like it was definitely worth a try.
Then something came to my mind that nearly rolled Anki out as a gFlash+ replacement. Namely, the

possibility to use google docs to make vocabulary lists with others. I did some research and after some time I found out that it actually was possible to use google docs AND Anki. Although it is a little more complicated than gFlash+, it works fast if you know how to do it. But before I go into detail about how this works, let me tell you about Anki itself.
In the studying mode, it is as if you used real flashcards made out of paper. There’s a front and a back site for each card. You can add not only words but also pictures and voice records. What I like most about Anki is that it seems to know exactly when to test a word in order to avoid you forgetting it. It gives you, for example, an English word, you think of the answer and press enter. Then Anki shows you whatever you typed in on the back site of the card. You can then rate whether you didn’t know the answer at all, whether you were unsure or whether it was good or even too easy. Behind each of these words (not known, good, too easy etc.), Anki shows you when it will test you on this word again. So, for example, if you didn’t know a word at all, it will test you again in 2 minutes. If you knew it, it will test you in 10 minutes or in a day (depending on whether you had been tested on the word before or not). The more often you know the answer, the longer Anki will not test you. But it will never let you forget – eventually you will have to repeat every word you’ve ever typed into Anki.  
Also, you can synchronize Anki wherever you are. On your phone (Anki app), your laptop (the program you can download) or any other computer that has internet access (Anki Web). This does not only work really well but it makes studying much easier. Also, you don’t feel like you are actually studying. It doesn’t have the taste of the boring “read and remember a word” kind of studying. Every day I walk to university, I study vocabulary with Anki. I even got used to repeating words before I go to bed. I wouldn’t dare to describe it as fun (would seem too nerdy), but it’s at least not that exhausting.
Back to the google docs issue. Although you can’t import google docs lists directly into Anki, you can copy the lists and save them in the correct format (UTF8) with notepad. Then you can import the file to Anki. It’s as easy as that and takes no more than a minute.
You don’t believe me? Go ahead, give it a try and you’ll see why Anki is the winner of the golden trophy.



--> Try! =)