Why I Stopped Using SRS

As a beginner, I can say that I use both. WK is great for teaching Kanji and vocabulary, but another source I use daily gives me lots of exposure and reinforces what I do here, especially with vocabulary. So I vote for both ways of learning.

That’s a fair point; I was perhaps unfair to say it is NECESSARY in the higher levels but I have similar goals to Leebo in wanting to translate. It isn’t necessary but I still think it’s quite helpful. You’re right that we don’t typically use an SRS system for our own native languages however, that’s not to say you understand things at the highest level. Try reading academic papers and you’ll often find that you need to look up words. Heck, even reading novels sometimes you may run into a word you don’t know and have to look it up. If it’s a word I had seriously never heard before, I definitely won’t remember it even though I looked it up, since I probably won’t see it so often. If I want to expand my vocabulary in my native language (especially my active vocabulary), then I absolutely would use an SRS system. In fact, I actually did when I was in university (majoring in Biology) and had to learn a host of new words.

For daily language, it isn’t necessary. But if you want a specialized vocabulary then I would say it’s advisable. That’s why people studying for their degrees in specialized fields still use flash cards and what not. For example, medical fields. As a translator, you’d want to have some inkling when it comes to specialized vocabulary depending on what field you want to translate for.

But, that’s just my opinion. If you don’t like SRS or find it doesn’t work well for you then you don’t have to use it. Again, I was a bit harsh to say it was “necessary”. I suppose you could just read a ton of specialized papers but I tend to find with super high level, specialized words the meaning isn’t always apparent from context which makes it a bit more difficult. But yeah, if that works for you then that’s cool too.

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True. The email you get when levelling up to 60 is basically, “Congrats; well done! Now stop wasting your time with this stuff.”

I paraphrase of course.

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Hopefully I’ll see for myself soon. :sweat_smile:

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So I have a question about the long term effectiveness of SRS-based learning. I do think it can provide an excellent introduction to new vocabulary and a useful tool to get words into one’s medium-term memory.

But I have a feeling that (for me at least) if I were to “burn” every kanji and vocabulary on WaniKani and then never encounter them again in the wild, I’d forget most of it in a few years. Or maybe it wouldn’t take that long.

So I’m wondering if people like @Vanilla and @Naphthalene who are using SRS to learn rarely encountered words find that it really does work in the long run.

I think for myself, there are moments when a word really clicks for me, like when I hear it in conversation, understand it, and then feel a little burst of dopamine. Those moments seem to cement a word in my memory much more than SRS ever could.

Even in my native language, English, there are many words I encounter on a regular basis that I understand well enough that they don’t puzzle me when I read them, but which I’d be hard pressed to define if asked. So I think it’s untenable to maintain a dictionary definition of every word I might read in Japanese past a certain level.

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Yeah it does.

Look at it this way. Best case scenario, from initial lesson to final burn, there will be a 6 month span in which you are SRSing the item. Chances are, if you are reading frequently, you will encounter that item again at least once in those six months. And if not, I’d say theres about a 80% chance the item is just stuck for the foreseeable future ime.

So some examples. A little over six months ago I learned plenty of words that have not come up a single time in any of the other 9 volumes of light novels or visual novels that I have read. I still remembered most of those words plenty fine. One of those words was ややこしい which actually came up in an N1 sample test I did a bit ago and I knew it in an instant.

And on the other hand, words I learned that appeared maybe once after a few months were still in my memory as well. And even if I did have a problem remembering them, every time I see one theres a moment of “oh shit, お久しぶりです, word-san.” and it gets cemented all the more.

You will forget some, yes, but thats just part of learning. I even forget words that get used plenty. Hell, I read 別れる as hanareru the other day lol. But I think overall, you shouldn’t go years without seeing words you need to know if you’re constantly reading, listening, and watching japanese stuff. I played a visual novel awhile back and one of the chicks was into astronomy so I had the word 天体望遠鏡 drilled into my head, but as of right now and moving forward its not the most useful word. If I forget it, I dont think theres anything wrong with that and I’m sure it’ll come back easily.

Look at srs as simply a supplement to keep words fresh in your mind. Its a way to expose you to the words you are trying to learn, and when you get them wrong, it exposes them to you more. Even if you see the word 6 months after burning it, that history of exposure will help to some extent no matter what.

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Thanks. That sounds good. Though I will say that ややこしい is a pretty common word, or at least it is in my household where I live with someone who takes great pleasure in complaining in Japanese.

Still, I’ll give non-SRS life a try for now. But I’ll keep an open mind in case I later feel that I’m missing out.

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Oh, and that makes me all the more happy I SRSed it or else I wouldn’t know it. On the other hand, on that same test @gojarappe helped me with another word that she recognized from school (meaning to sympathize or something) that I had never heard of. Didn’t bother to SRS it and can’t remember it anymore, but I know I’ll need it one day.

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いたわるです。
10 character rule, IHY.

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W-why do we have flowers and why is my rose sad!?

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Blossom Levels

idk ask @Kumirei

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As I try to juggle my ever increasing Japanese study-load (since passing N2, the amount I’ve set out to do for myself each day has only grown), I definitely feel the idea that anything that eats into immersion can feel like a drain. Certainly, if I have to cut anything from a day, I try to not make the thing I cut be active reading or listening. You do remember new items best from your own use, and second best from encountering them a time or two in the wild. No amount of drilling is ever going to match how much either of those can cement new expressions or words. Missing out on what contextual exposure does for your ability to actually think in the language can also be a mistake.

However, I also find SRS–either in the form of curated apps like Wanikani and iKnow, or your own flashcards, digital or otherwise–to be essential, with basically no difference between beginner levels and advanced levels there. You’re simply not going to encounter everything right away, and in the meantime having a solid quizzing routine is going to get those items into your passive vocabulary for when the time comes to recognize them. (This is especially important if you’re aiming at proficiency tests like the JLPT, but I think it holds true just for growing your language knowledge in general. Like a few others above, I also have aims of taking on translation work, so building up that passive vocabulary is a must.)

Basically, I try not to make SRS be the goal of my study, or let it detract from exposure, but I think it’s an essential part of a well-balanced language-learning diet. I do understand that with curated SRS apps building up backlogs, it can carry with it the danger of eating away at exposure time though. I’m still trying to figure out how to balance that.

Caveat to all of the above: I also feel like, if you’re taking active inventory of your study–what’s working, and what’s not, what you need to prioritize and what you don’t–then whatever system you come up with is the right one. So if you’re getting the suspicion that SRS isn’t where you should be spending your time, it probably isn’t.

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You should definitely follow Steve Kaufman on Youtube. He is a big proponent of having large amounts of exposure to the language without worrying about deliberate and formal forms of study. His position is that you pick up the language naturally through lots of listening and reading and will pick up on grammar patterns intuitively without having to deliberately study them.

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Also wanted to add that, sometimes, the word will just never show up again, and then it feels fair to forget it (similar to the point OP was making). I feel words like ダイゼン (grey plover, a type of bird) or 亜低木(subshrub, a category of plant) are on the fast track to oblivion.

Even after forgetting it, though, if you chance upon the word, it feels much easier to get it back in your brain. As @Vanilla said, forgetting is part of the process.

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These are the kinds of words I don’t even bother trying to learn :sweat_smile: I’m just not interested in learning specific animal/plant names that I don’t even know in my language. When I’m reading and encounter something like that I look up some pictures on google, think in my head “it’s just some bird/tree/whatever” and keep reading.

Something that actually bothers me in 新世界より too is that the author just seems to love talking about so many specific animals. At least most have furigana :man_shrugging:

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I would not learn those without SRS :slight_smile: I personally like trees and animals, so you could also say it’s my 趣味 though :sweat_smile:

From 新世界より, I mostly had problem with Buddhist words, like 解脱 (release from worldly desires) and whatnot (I kinda remember the English gloss of those other words, but they aren’t in my active vocabulary at all)

Edit: also from that book, I learned 注連縄, which just appeared in the book I am reading, sans furigana of course. I’m glad I added it :slight_smile:

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