Why I Don't Use Anki to Learn Vocabulary (And Why You Shouldn't Either)

Timestamps:
00:00 - Is Anki the best choice to learn vocabulary?
00:58 - The SRS Origins
03:11 - Why & how SRS tools can actually prevent you from learning
04:08 - Making Anki flashcards wastes learning time
05:53 - Adding new cards can become addictive
07:36 - Reviewing old cards can become a chore
09:32 - Flashcards take language out of context
12:07 - Brain-friendly learning strategies make SRS apps irrelevant
13:12 - How I learn vocabulary without flashcards
14:46 - Conclusion

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[vaxrvaxr]

I have been using Anki for the last 10 years, and I'm glad I did. All of your criticisms are valid in my experience, but none of them are game breakers. It is important to understand Anki as one tool in the toolbox, with certain strengths and limits just like any other. Your bidirectional translation method seems solid, but I'm sure it comes with its own pros and cons.

[eduardoguerrero]

I've been using Anki for 1 year on and off and 4 months, non stop, and it's boosted my vocabulary in a way that I couldn't have ever imagined. learning a language takes effort and time there's no way to skip this part of the process. I recommend to use Anki to anyone who wants to speed up the process of learning a language

[Kalymnah]

As a polyglot who can speak 11 language and who has more than 30 years of experience in language learning, I DO recommend Anki. I’ve only been using it for the past 8 years and was totally fine without it before. But now that it exists, I definitely use it once a day.
I wouldn’t recommend it as a primary language learning source, but as one of the many tools people need to learn a language. It’s useless if you don’t combine it with other tools for sure. But I really love this new tool. And it doesn’t take more time to add new vocabulary to Anki than to write it down on a notebook, so the waste of time argument is not the best one.

[CentroSelenium]

If the cards are out of context depends on you. I write just words that I saw in series. Then I'll write the phrase which I heard that word. I also write various definitions and its examples (in the same language I'm learning). And also I take a picture of the scene that I heard that word.

And this isn't such a slow process, because I just copy the definitions. furthermore the process helps me to pay attention to details (which I was lacking)

Anki has been really helpful for me. It helps me with words and phrases that are less frequent.

[zeljkothegreekserb]

I used Anki wrongly before (word to word cards or premade sentences by others) and barely learned 1/3 of the words, I gave up afterwards, but I tried again and once I 1. started creating MY own sentences (for encoding purposes), 2. with the target word being written in the native language and the answer being in the foreign one (to evade the false-knowledge trap of knowing what a "bicicleta" is, even though I'd never remember it going from English to Spanish) and 3. creating a new sentence and thus more context whenever I forget something, I have come to the point where I can easily learn over 50 words a day even if I don't put much effort in, with only <5 spaced repetitions until I can comfortably and actively remember the word for months and even years. By comparison, on Memrise or using premade Anki decks, I often had cards I repeated over 30, 40 times and never learned in the end, so does creating my own optimized cards take a lot of time? It does, in fact majority of my time is spent creating cards, but if those cards can afterwards be learned with minimal repetitions, instead of wasting 10 times more time reviewing the same cards over and over and over, then I wouldn't say it is a waste of learning time, but the exact opposite, the best possible learning time-investment I can make. Anki is an amazing tool if it used in such an optimized way, but that is just what it is, a tool, same as how a book is a tool, even Assimil itself is a tool, but a tool can be used effectively or it can cause more pain than gain if used incorrectly.

[BreathYoga]

I'm studying Japanese kanji and have used anki flashcards for the past two years. It has helped me so much and as a result of my daily dedication to it, my reading skill has become the strongest skill out of speaking and listening.

[ruedigernassauer]

He has just tried Anki and now he boasts how bad it is. I use Anki for about two years now to learn Vietnamese words. I make those cards of new words taken from original stories I read. I also have a book for the very reduced grammar of Vietnamese, of course. I am proceeding as I have to translate less and less to understand. Some sentences I understand at once completely. I have so far about 4, 000 cards often bearing several entries, even entire phrases (there you have context). Before Anki learning this nuanced tonal language seemed impossible to me. Anki is free and without advertisements. It is easily adjustable to your needs. I could be questioned 200 cards a day, but usually am questioned about 100. Yes, it can be a chore. By the way as I usually just hear him talk easy English, how extended are his vocabularies in his professed 16 languages? The way to enter new vocabulary to Anki is fast and easy if you skip videos or images. Instead Lampariello suggests a six-day learning program. One last thing: Don´t use prefabricated Anki cards! The learning process is in reading original texts and making your own cards.

[HM-huhu]

Luca: "Adding new cards takes too long!"

Also Luca: "Using tools to generate cards will let you make too many cards in a short period of time!"

😅

[marivsMR]

I got my advanced in English thanks to anki

[altralinguamusica]

Still watching the video but I have to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for giving all five points at the start and then elaborating. I can't tell you how many times I've had to watch a video at 2x speed just so I could get to the good stuff quicker!

[bernhardrulla]

That's a great video, Luca. The many, also controversial, answers prove that you touched a very interesting topic and in the end we all need to find our path through the jungle of a new language. Mille grazie! 😊

[sanin]

Man I use anki and it has been insanely helpful. I passed the german B2 exam less than 5 months after starting to learn the language. I'm gonna say no to this advice.

[NP-yctw]

1. Making flashcard wastes time - Dude, making flashcards is PART of the studying. Just the process of making the flashcard itself helps you to remember the word.
2. Adding new cards can become addictive - Good! You SHOULD be adding new vocab to your stack all the time.
3. Reviewing old cards cam become a chore - That's the point of studying. it's hard work. That's why language learning is rewarding. You overcome your own resistance to doing work.
4. Flashcards take language out of context - So what? You still NEED to know what a word means. No amount of context is going to help you if you don't know what a crucial verb means.
5. Brain friendly learning strategies make Anki irrelevant - Not everyone has access to these mysterious "brain-friendly" strategies.

Language learning is a wholistic endeavor. No one-part is going to help you. See, listen, write, do, say etc. etc. They're all important. You still have to listen to native speakers, you still have to write down sentences, you still have to speak. No one is taking that away. But Anki and memorization allows you to earn building blocks of a puzzle you're yet to complete.

[catherine]

Listening and reading extensively are my ways to memorize vocabulary

[imoliver]

I'm so addictive to anki if I don't add something new everyday I feel bad! From now on when I come acroos words that I don't know I'm gonna just look up the meaning write down a sentece then do alot of reading and listening.

[RubyDuran]

Honestly, I have used Anki for a few months now specifically with German learning, and my personal experience is quite similar to what you're talking about. At this point in my learning journey, it has become boring and does not feel as effective when it comes to really learning and internalizing the German language. At this point, I haven't been using it for a few weeks and I don't think I see myself going back to it anytime soon, possibly at all. Who knows, I may dabble with it from time to time, but it definitely won't be my main source for learning. For myself, I find it more helpful actually learning things and writing it down or just immersing myself in the language and being aware of vocabulary I have learned and how it's used in context. Again, this is my personal experience, but I'm sure everyone has their own unique experience regarding these type of apps! I know people who have had success with it, but for me I don't think it's 100% right for me.

[anillo.english]

1. Anki provides 1000s of downloadable pre-made decks with 10s of 1000s of cards in them.
2. See #1
3. Fair point.
4. Use full sentences and phrases when creating cards instead of just one word per card. Besides, Anki is meant to be a supplement, not a one and done learning tool.
5. Another fair point but it seems both can be effective. I'm going to use Anki and the bidirectional method! 😁

[thought]

The fundamental problem is that people seem to get into a "must put everything into Anki" mindset and think you have to do ALL your due cards every day. It's simply not true. If you configure Anki to show "new" cards after reviews, and if you configure Anki to limit your time per session (e, g. 2 sessions per day, 5 minutes each) then most of the problems mentioned here (e.g. addiction, all valid points) go away on their own. Personally I use Anki not to "learn" vocabuly but to build confidence in learned vocabulary from proper material with context.

[belmont]

Yo amo Anki porque además de ayudarme a aprender palabras, me ayuda a aprender estructuras gramáticales que me están resultando complejas. Creo (sin ofender) que la mayoría de los que se quejan de Anki, no son muy buenos con la tecnología y no lo saben configurar ni usar bien. Anki es una maravillosa herramienta, pero todo depende de tu curiosidad, imaginación y el uso que le des

[guilhermerodrigues]

Bidirectional Translation Method could result in more waste of time and inefficiency. Anki is faster and easier.