How to use flashcards to learn a language?
IF flashcards are your thing… Let me tell you how to do it.
1. Where to create them
Just use Anki app and save yourself a lot of trouble. Trust me.
Desktop app is free for all systems. Mobile app for android is free as well.
Unfortunately, there is only paid version of anki mobile app for iPhone. If you can’t afford to purchase the app — no pasa nada amigo — just use the application on your computer.
If you don’t like Anki for whatever reason — just make sure that your app of choice has similar functionality.
And by similar functionality I mean just one thing:
SPACED OUT REPETITION ALGORITHM BUILT IN
Otherwise, you will be stuck with constantly growing huge amount of words that will just overwhelm you.
2. How to create them
The only thing you should use flashcards for is to save the words in the language you are trying to learn — or better yet phrases and whole sentences — and see if you understand them and know what they mean.
If you do the other way around you start enforcing horrible (and I really mean HORRIBLE) habit of translating what you want to say from your native language — and it almost never works.
Big NO! Forget about translating from your own language to your target language.
You need to be able to think in another language.
Example is worth a thousand words
There is the right way of creating flashcards
Let me show you what I mean.
If you want to learn how to say “Hi” in spanish your flashcard should say “Hola” and not “Hi”.
Or better yet:
What if you would create flash card saying: “ ¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? ”?
Then by reviewing this flashcard you would have to remind yourself that you can greet someone with Hola and often people ask how someone is doing right after the greeting. At the same time you are learning to conjugate the verb estar in 2nd person singular — tú estás. Without even thinking about conjugation!
Context is the key
When you want to learn a given word, it is useful to create a flash card with the whole sentence where this word is being used.
Words without a context are not of much use.
Besides what that word means, you have to know how and when it is used if you want to actually use it yourself while talking.
And what’s the wrong way of creating flashcards?
The wrong way of creating a flash card would be writing “Hi” on the front of the flash card.
Because:
- There are many ways to say hi.
- What word you were thinking about while creating this flash card?
- Who are you greeting?
2. You are teaching yourself to translate your own language instead of learning a new one.
3. TLDR;
Different methods work for different people.
But if you want to learn with flash cards — please, read how not to enforce bad habits while learning.
I’m sure you don’t want to waste your own time and efforts…
