Are flash cards a necessary evil? (Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies) Language Learning Forum

Are flash cards a necessary evil?
Tags: Flash cards \| Usefulness
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Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies

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Ari
Heptaglot
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Norway
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Message 81 of 83

19 June 2011 at 7:10pm | IP Logged

I use flashcards to associate a foreign word with its English equivalent and I don't see any problem with it. Works
very well for me.
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irrationale
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Message 82 of 83

20 June 2011 at 8:01am | IP Logged

I'm a sick flashcard user. Totally owned to the core by ANKI. I average about 500 to 600 card reviews a day and will sacrifice any commitment to do my reviews.

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starrye
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Message 83 of 83

20 June 2011 at 6:59pm | IP Logged

laika3 wrote:

This is a rather drawn out explanation of something that happens in milliseconds, but I found it fascinating that I have been doing this for years and not realizing it. Perhaps this is why flash cards work for some and not others? They certainly do work for me, and maybe it's because I am not associating a foreign word with an English equivalent, but with an "idea" of what the word is.

This also works for words that have no direct equivalent. In Russian, for example, my picture of "открыть" is a person opening a window once. My picture of "открывать" is a person opening a window multiple times. Of course this isn't perfectly exact, but I think it does the job.

Does anybody else do this?

Edit: spelling

Yes, I also do this. I use visualization a lot, so in my flashcard deck, I have added pictures to most of my cards. I also find this is helpful if the English equivalent is too vague or difficult to translate. Often a good image will help to clarify things. Sometimes I'll visualize an object or an action taking place, so that what comes to mind is an idea of a word, or an impression of the concept.

It also has the additional benefit of making my flash card reviews less boring, and more entertaining. I'll try to use images that are visually appealing, interesting, or memorable somehow. So sometimes it might be a personal photo, or artwork, etc. I use the Google Image search function a lot. I'll do a search for a word in my target language (or a combination of words), and look through the image results. Sometimes this is helpful (other times not so much).

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