I used Anki wrong for a year (language learning)

Fire king.

From now on, I'm going to be uploading language learning videos with the occasional song here and there. Also technically, this video is clickbait because I used it wrong for 11.5 months, not 12 months.

Regarding the paintings of the bulls in the background of this video, I didn't know about Spain's culture when I got them and am removing them in future videos. See pinned comment.

Background music: Team Astro - Travelers (Lofi Girl)
Outro music: Giospiral - Courtyard

[vnpoka]

After exactly 1 year of studying Japanese with anki, I realized that what you said is absolutely true. I spent so much time with anki learning vocabulary that I lost a lot of other things.

[CraftyFoxe]

2:19 I found this very helpful. I feel like this is a key tip to do because I kept having to restart all my progress if I messed up once

[marianzozaya]

This was really helpful! My first language is Spanish and now I'm trying to learn Italian. Immersion it's key when you're trying to learn a new language, that played a big part when I was studying English, so keep it up :)

[callmeLilSparky]

I have been using Anki for over a year, and I feel like this video was made specifically for me. Truly happy you made this, thank you.

[leel]

Good video. With language learning I always found that using images instead of English is much better because your recall becomes much more natural - you are not translating. Great Anki tips. Thanks for taking the time. I have always used Quizlet, but this seems more customizable.

[Llourn]

Great video! I started learning Japanese about a month ago and went hard on Anki thinking if I built up my vocab quickly it would jumpstart my language learning. All it did was burn me out. My anki reps were taking me 1.5 hours a day and climbing so I dropped my new cards to 0 for a week and now I've got it at 5 new a day. It might take me a little longer to get through the vocab but I feel a lot better about the time I'm spending in Anki. :)

[ssej]

Nice tutorial! In addition to your advice on using Anki, the suggestions that you made about immersion were spot-on. I also appreciate your honesty about prioritizing your mental health, and also how you ajusted your study habits in accordance--Good job!

[trontty]

thank you so much, I started searching for a video like this because I was having to review 200 words a day taking well over 1.5 hours despite only having about 2500 cards learned. This is because every single time I pressed again it would reset to 0 and I would just have too many cards and not be able to remember everything causing the cycle to repeat. Now with your help I can finally stop spending 2 hours a day on anki with the help of the new interval setting! thank you

[pavel]

Thanks for the hint on the algo used by Anki. I have figured out how to use the app on my own, but the card selection was an unknown ;)

[MatthieuPiquemal]

Can't wait to see more language content like that from you! Subscribed!

[ignacioa]

I more or less followed the same path, until I realized that reading a good book ( in the language that you are learning) is much more efficient than using Anki. And you don't really need to make an effort to memorize anything. All you need to do is pay attention to the story and enjoy. With anki you will get tired and bored, A LOT, and you know you have to do it, because it's like homework.
A good book is another story. And when you finish your book, you can start reading the next.

Así que ahora utilizo Anki para algunas cosas, pero no para aprender idiomas.
La lectura recreativa (leer lo que a ti te guste) es mucho más eficiente.

[ShaneGodliman]

Great video man! I’ve definitely been using anki a bit inefficiently and I’m in the process of having to update my cards now and yeah, it’s painful. I love what you said about understanding it first and memorising it later, that’s a really great point! Great content, looking forward to more videos 🙌🏽

[qrlib]

Thankyou so much for this - the 50% new interval again is a game changer, I've had it on zero for 3 years...

[Tighris]

My tip: Don't be afraid to even set new cards to 0 when Anki gets too overwhelming. Wait until old cards get more mature so that your daily reviews decrease. Anki is only efficient if you actually do it. It wont help you if you drop it because you're too burned out.

[vrmartin]

You saved me from going down the flashcard rabbit hole. Thanks!

[lainiwakura]

The more I watch these language learning videos, the more I realize that Khatzumoto really was right. Not about immersion but about having fun (although immersion is very helpful and fun). We should really think of ways we can study a language in a fun way and if we notice that we are not having fun doing it, either look for a different method or try to come up with something that might be fun (who cares if it does not work, you can stop and try something new). And the second thing that I think is important is that frequency beats quantity. Now, I do not know what the right frequency and quantity is and depending on how little you do, it will take you forever to get anywhere. I have been thinking of combining it with the pomodoro technuique, where you work for 25 min and take a 5 min break and every 4th break is a long 15 min break. So I will prepare some short audio clips (for example using subs2srs, it can chop a movie into short audio clips) and just listen to that during work while taking the short breaks and for long breaks I might step ouside or just do whatever.

[Anonimoi]

Yesterday I deleted 3 decks with 1700 words, it's paintfull but i found a new amazing way of creating Anki cards!! :)

[maitlandbezzina]

Awesome video man it was really helpful!
I have been learning Mandarin for 2 years very casually because of a scholarship I got which is sending me to finish my university studies in Taiwan in July 2022, however I just got a 8 month contract in Spain starting in 4 months times and needed a faster way of learning a new language/vocabulary from scratch. These tips are going to help heaps with my Anki learning. I also like how you mention immersion is really important. I’ve been focusing mostly on Anki because I feel like I don’t know enough Spanish to even consider listening to videos or podcasts in the language, but I think I’ll give it a try.
Looks like we’ll both be able to speak the same 3 languages eventually! That’s pretty awesome :)

[S_T_fania]

I'm lazy and sometimes don't review but since i have few cards(like 100/200) I'm slowly changing the English words with images where i can

[Fizzicist]

Thank you so much for sharing. And the edited out parts at the end. And a huge thank you for the ice age stuff!