How do you handle leeches?

[魔]

Not these


The awkward kanji and things that are hard to remember.

Some things I've thought of are.

Adding similar words.
Leech: 捕獲
Add:捕手,捕虜,漁獲,乱獲

Adding it multiple times.
Leech: 接続
Add:接続,接続,接続,

さあ...　

[Jembru]

On Anki you mean, right?

Well, before I discovered Anki, I used to keep all my vocab lists in little A6 notepads. I would fold the pages down the middle to make 2 columns, so I could hide the English or Japanese. Each night I tested myself on these words and the ones I got wrong got a little pencil star next to them so I could test just those ones when time was short. At the end of each month, any words I still got wrong, went into a 'tricky vocabulary list'.

Now I'm using Anki, it is the leeched cards that I move into a separate 'tricky vocab' deck. The way I deal with them however, is exactly the same...


Step 1

First of all, I ask myself if there is another word I am actively learning, that could be interfering with the leeched word.  For example, I had trouble with the word 予算　（よさん：Budget), and when I thought about it, it turned out that I was confusing it with another word I added at around the same time 優先 (ゆうせん：priority). You need to work with your brain's natural learning rhythm, not against it, so it is better to leave words suspended when this happens, until you have mastered the other word in the pair. Trust me, if you don't, you'll struggle to learn either word, so this is a real time saver in the long run.


Step 2

It may simply be that I know other words of the same meaning, so while I've learnt the word, I forget to say the new word. In this case, I have a few things I can do, depending on the word. 

jukugo/katakana pairs: I recently condensed my 25+ anki decks into one main deck and just a few key important decks.. this is one such deck. I was having trouble with the word 助言, because while I knew this word, when a card popped up, prompting me to give the word for 'advice', I automatically said 'アドバイス’. So instead, I have this card in the kanji/katakana deck. I see 'アドバイス’, and know I'm to give the kanji compound '助言'. This is also good because it means you don't need to think of English at all, so helps to train your monolingual thinking, which is vital in the long run. 

wago: jukugo pairs: The same as above, only the pairs are words of Japanese origin, vs kanji compounds.. for example, the familiar word might be 難しい and the one being learnt would be 困難. 

I have an onomatopoeia deck too, that usually just has English on side 1, but if side 1 is in Japanese, I know that the card is in there to prompt me to think of the Japanese synonym. 


Step 3

Once I've ruled out a clash of similar phonetics or meanings,  my next job is to create a mnemonic for the tricky word. These are absolute gems. I really don't know how anyone would study without using them. There are a few ways of creative them but I strongly believe the best are those you created for yourself.  The simplest thing to do, is to link the new word to existing knowledge.  The older the knowledge, the stronger the mnemonic will be, so try to link to things you learnt way back when you started out. So say you're trying to remember the onyomi of '互'. This is done very easily by recognising its similarity with the kanji for '5', 五. This was probably one of the first kanji you ever learnt, so you should have no trouble remembering that this new kanji is also read　ご. 

Say it's not the kanji, but the word itself you're struggling with, you can still link them to past knowledge in this way. I mentioned earlier that I was confusing yosan with yuusen. I was very quickly able to clear this up by telling myself I had a budget of just £3. 3 =san so I know yoSAN is the word for budget. 

Other mnemonic techniques I use include creating silly stories, rather like they do in 'Remembering the Kanji', only as they're your own creations, they'll work much better. This kind of mnemonic should be really exaggerated, silly, rude, linked to people and things in your life or all of these if possible. I have characters I've invented that kanji radicals represent and most of my mnemonics are either too personal, or too rude to share. 


Step 4

I then create a 'memory' palace. I'm kinda taking ages to write this reply, so I won't describe this, but do look into it as it's very clever. It is how people train themselves to card count or remember large lists of names or items as a party trick or whatever. Along with the linking thing I mentioned earlier. this tricks your brain into storing new information in your long-term memory; something that usually takes around 6 weeks of frequent review. 


Step 5

I don't do this for all of my tricky words, but now and then I also make 'earworm' style recordings. Eventually, I plan on writing an article about memory tricks and I'll share one of these recording in that. Basically, I read out the word with a short pause so I can try to remember the meaning, then I go into (usually) 2 example sentences that use the word. If I couldn't remember the word in isolation, I usually recognise the meaning from the context of the sentences. This trains not only recognition of the tricky words, but also the ability to mentally fill in the blanks yourself. I play these on my phone when I go to bed (unless I'm sleeping through the day because I have work.. then I need to wear earplugs..grrr..). I sometimes have 'study naps'. If I'm really lethargic and can't be bothered to do anything, I take myself to bed for an hour or so and use my audio study methods (of which this is one, of course ^^). 

Hope some of this helped you. One thing I WILL say, is that you probably shouldn't just make multiple cards of the same word. The leeching is an indication that there is something preventing your memory from handling the piece of vocabulary. It is better to correctly deal with the word, than just bombard yourself with it multiple times and have them all end up as leeches. Every single one of those reviews, is time you could have been spending remembering other new words that aren't in conflict with your learning process. Once you've examined the reasons why you're struggling and added it to the tricky pile, or if you use them, one of the monolingual synonym piles, you can 'custom study' these decks as often as you like between your regular reviews, and marking the card as incorrect during a custom study, won't affect it's score and thus won't cause it to become a leech.  Meanwhile, you'll be getting on with memorising plenty of other new words, rather than letting one annoying piece of vocab, that you can probably live without for now, stunt your overall development. 

EDIT: I forgot to discuss your other suggestion. Yes, you can definitely add multiple compounds, but I'd advise you first ensure the following points are met..

-> Do you know all but one of the kanji in the compound? With the exception of frequently encountered compounds (such as 大丈夫,　可愛い　and 素敵, for example), I wouldn't recommend that you attempt to learn a compound for which neither kanji is familiar. So to use your first example, 捕獲, neither of these kanji are learnt until juniour high school in Japan.  A student in Japan will be familiar with simpler kanji and thus readily recognise the components that make up these kanji. We foreigners often learn kanji out of sync, and I'm guessing that you are too, to be considering learning these. If so, and you know neither kanji, then don't learn to read 捕獲, but instead just learn that 'capture is ほかく (You can always include the kanji with the kana of course). You'll at least be able to use and understand this word in a conversation for now.

Instead, learn one of these kanji in a different compound, with kanji you DO already know. You will surely know the kanji for 'hand'. It's grade 1 and also one of the first learnt for JLPT, so should be familiar. You can therefore add the compound.. 捕手 to your anki deck. Be sure to also include this kanji in it's kun form too、捕まえる. You can add as many compounds as you wish, and if it has several on readings (this one doesn't), I strongly urge you to if you can. Just only add compounds that pair it with a familiar kanji. You can of course, go back and add new compounds as you learn more kanji, and once you've mastered 捕手, you can start to study 獲 and thus add 捕獲 to your active study.

-> Have you mastered the components that make up the kanji you're learning? If so, use them to create a mnemonic, and if not, go back and study those first. In the case if  捕, its 手　用　十 and I can't remember how to write radicals, but the 'drop/dot' radical is in there too.  So it's pretty straight forward.. I'd remember 'use(用) all 10(十) fingers of your hands(手), to catch a little minnow(drop radical)'.  

Sorry for so much information. I've been really interested in effective study methods ever since I first worked as an English language trainer. I read up on this kind of thing a lot and I have extensively tried and tested various techniques over the last 2 years. I feel I've finally fine-tuned my study methods with highly effective methods (for me at least). I feel I don't waste a single moment of my valuable study time these days, so I'm really excited when I get the chance to share my techniques with others. 

[魔]

Thanks for the tips. I like the idea of using the kanji I already know. I've heard about memory rooms and things in the past, but never got round to trying it.

I've been using Habitrpg for learning words. If I know them I press the +, if not the -. It's on a webpage, so I can check with rikaikun. The colours go from dark red to dark blue, I try to keep the dark red at the top.

[Bokusenou]

Wow, everyone's ways are so detailed! I use sentences on my cards, so most of the time I think of how to make the sentence more memorable. This usually means making it weirder, or funnier, or finding another sentence which is those things.

[Jembru]

That's a really good idea Rin! I bet it really helps you to use even new words with correct grammar!

[Bokusenou]

Thanks Jemma! I used to have cards with just words on them, but without any sort of context I didn't know when to use them, so I changed my cards to sentences and that's been working so far. Word only cards are quicker to go through though.

[MidoriAbby]

Gosh I'm jealous of the organization you guys have. I have anki but I neglect to use it enough so it's only partially effective, and the only other way I study vocabulary is writing stuff down in notebooks and on flashcards, and usually there's no real categorization to it I just have notebooks filled with vocab/example sentences.

[Jembru]

Dec 28, 2013 2:36:01 GMT Bokusenou said:

Thanks Jemma! I used to have cards with just words on them, but without any sort of context I didn't know when to use them, so I changed my cards to sentences and that's been working so far. Word only cards are quicker to go through though.

Hmm, yeah, I guess they would take a little more time, but if it is working so well, then I'd say it is better to learn fewer words, but know them well, than cram in twice as many but not be able to use them. For some reason, I usually remember where I came across a word, although I'm finding it harder and harder these days. With the examption of kanji compounds I've added for the sake of learning the reading of the kanji, I usually only add words I've actually come across in context. If I just happened to see it on a vocabulary list, or it was something cool I stumbled upon while looking up example sentences for something else, I won't add it to anki, and just hope to meet it again one day. I usually check out a few examples of the word in use besides the sentence I learnt it in, so you'd think that would be enough to be able to use it correctly, but that's definitely not always the case.  

@midori: If your method is working for you, I would say if it isn't broken, don't fix it. Anki isn't for everyone. It is a very dull and repetitive way to memorise vocabulary, and for some, the affect of boredom on their ability to retain the information would render it kinda useless. Your idea of memorising songs is a great way to memorise a lot of vocabulary at once. So long as you don't also try to use the grammar, which I'm sure you wouldn't. I'm just not interested enough in music these days, but I know a few Japanese songs by heart that I learnt years ago. They've given me some interesting vocabulary that I've  managed to retain for all this time (I'm talking like, 6 years.. which was around the time I took lessons for a few months!). I didn't study or use Japanese at all after learning those songs, yet still remember every word. I bet if I left anki for 6 years without bothering with anything to do with Japanese, I would have forgotten over half of the words on there!