I just downloaded anki and the Japanese Core 2000 Step 01 Listening Sentence Vocab + Images deck. Are you supposed to memorize the example sentences or just the vocabulary? I'm a little confused on the best way to use it. I appreciate any advice!
The most important thing about reading full sentences is to internalize the pattern into your system. So memorising them has some merits, but this is only until you’re used to the grammar.
In the beginning, it is more useful that you can say I have two sisters than for example, simply knowing what the word for sister is (but that you can never say/write it or ever understand it in a proper sentence).
So in a sense, when you memorise the whole sentence like 妹は二人います。It’s not that this is a crucial sentence to memorise necessarily, just that you need to probably memorise this until you know why the は is meant to be there, that 二人 is before います, that you use 二人 instead of 二つ, etc.
Afterwards, of course, when you learn the word for younger brother 弟, you don’t need to memorise a sentence like 弟は三人います like this is some sort of holy grail. At this point, you should realise that it’s simply all about replacing 妹 with 弟.
So, I would say, as far as you’re not used to listening/writing/saying/reading a whole sentence, it’s worth noting them down until you have relatively no problem.
Do you find yourself writing out the sentences by hand to practice?
I did but only for very few times.
The most useful exercises for me were when things were spoken out and understood, and then when it’s being asked in English and I can respond orally with ease. Not sure if Core2K will help you there. I did try the 10k deck, but I didn’t finish it and for the way it’s set up, I can’t be bothered with it at this point.
I made a separate thread for a template that may be able to help you. But it’s just a template, so you’re going to have to fill the contents on your own.
The way I do it is ‘word-to-word’ only. Japanese word to English means remembering all the meanings, plus the feels, that you can feel in the example sentences.
For English to Japanese is a little odd one. I do ‘all’ meanings to a single Japanese vocab.
Furthermore, I open the dictionary, most commonly Goo jisho.
I didn’t try to memorise them. If your Anki deck is broken and evil like mine was, it will spam you with the sentences anyway, no matter how often you mash the “easy” button 
I ended up memorizing them through sheer exposure. Before I ran away screaming.
I think they’re good for giving context for a word, and for reading and listening practice. But it got to the point where I knew what the sentence was just looking at the first two words or so. I think you’re better off reading and listening to new things for practice, rather than the same short sentences over and over again.
On iKnow, the site the deck is ripped from, the sentences aren’t part of the SRS (from what I remember, been awhile). They’re just shown when you’re learning words, like on WaniKani.
wizkazin said...The way I went through Core 2k was to learn the intended vocabulary for each card and make sure I understood the whole sentence. For me it was like the sentence was the key to remember the word while also giving it proper context in examples of how it's used. That way you train both vocab and grammar, with vocab being primary and grammar secondary.
I just downloaded anki and the Japanese Core 2000 Step 01 Listening Sentence Vocab + Images deck. Are you supposed to memorize the example sentences or just the vocabulary? I'm a little confused on the best way to use it. I appreciate any advice!