Wow, what a great resource! I agree strongly with every word. Shockingly, I’m not sure I’ve ever even seen it before. If I did, I’d forgotten about it. Probably because the URL https://www.tofugu.com/learn-japanese/ is so indecipherable and hard to remember.
My only tiny nit is with Koichi’s emphasis on the “spacing effect” in the introduction to spaced repetition. The spacing effect is an important but slightly academic discovery about how our memories work, but I think it sort of misses the point about how to use an SRS effectively.
Where angels fear to tread. I can’t believe I’m about to suggest improvements to Koichi’s introduction, and his first four paragraphs are “chef’s kiss” perfect, but I can’t help but feel the fifth paragraph needs improvement.
This is almost certainly the wrong place to write this, but instead of:
Spaced repetition is a learning technique based on flashcards. If you get a card correct, the interval between now and the next review will get longer. If you get it wrong, the interval gets shorter.
Basically, an SRS will adjust when you review something based on your performance (did you get it right? Kind of right? Wrong?) using what’s called the spacing effect. You develop a stronger memory when you recall something right before you forget it. A good spaced repetition algorithm will line reviews up in this important window, allowing you to review your flashcards at the most efficient moment possible.
I wish it said something like:
Spaced repetition is a learning technique based on flashcards. If you get a card correct, the interval between now and the next review will get longer. If you get it wrong, the interval gets shorter.
Basically, an SRS attempts to show you flashcards you find difficult more often, and ones you find easier less often.
As an aside, SRS scheduling algorithms attempt to take advantage of what memory experts call the spacing effect. In a nutshell: we develop a stronger memory when we are forced to recall something right before we forget it.
It’s important to realize that an SRS cannot know that you find an item difficult unless you answer it incorrectly! (Some SRS’s attempt to work around this issue by having you grade your responses as, say, hard/medium/easy, but this doesn’t always work well in practice.) If you struggle too hard to get every question right, you are doing all the heavy lifting instead of letting the SRS work its magic for you. Repetition aids memory: you want more reviews of the items you find difficult!
It’s also important to follow “Rule One” for any SRS: review items that are “due” regularly, every single day if at all possible. Ideally, you want to review all due items each day. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t finish all your reviews occasionally or skip a day entirely, but know that you’ll have a larger “backlog” of items to review when you get back to it. Some SRS’s have a “vacation mode” that can be of enormous help if you must be away for a while.
Lastly, realize that adding and reviewing items today also creates work in the future. Further, brand new items are usually harder than items you’ve reviewed previously. Pace yourself and try to balance the number of new vs. previously reviewed items in your queue. If you add too many new items today (by doing “lessons” in WaniKani, for example), you also make the next several review sessions more difficult. You’ll find any SRS easier if you perform roughly the same number of reviews every day, and keep the percentage of new, unfamiliar flashcards reasonably low. Find your own comfort zone. It’s easy to burn out if you don’t.
No matter which SRS you use: JUST DO YOUR REVIEWS. You’ll be amazed at how quickly and easily you learn.
That is, I wish it emphasized how to use an SRS efficiently, rather than describing why they were designed to work the way they do.
I also wish that right up front, it steered people away from what I perceive as the three most common failure modes:
- Not doing your reviews every day.
- Trying too hard to answer every question correctly.
- Having too many new (“Apprentice”) items in your queue.