Doing SRS the fun way

By Confused Laowai | Date: October 3rd, 2011 | Category: Learning Techniques

Ok, so after my post detailing my failures in using SRS, I’ve got some excellent feedback! Makes me just realize how great the online Mandarin learning community is. So, here’s the dealio: I was doing it wrong. Well that’s at least my view of it. I’m going to test this now.

Jacob, Peckish Laowai and Greg all gave excellent advice on how they use SRS services. Here’s the summary:

- Use it to review, not learn new words.
- Therefore, DON’T use pre-rolled decks. Create your own.
- Don’t let SRS start to control you. Be its master.
- Take responsibility for learning: stop when it becomes boring.
- Make it fun!

Furthermore, after asking for advice on reddit too, I got linked to AJATT’s SRS series. This was an amazing read. I recommend it to every SRS learner. Once again, it stresses creating your own decks. Greg and others said this too. Also, make it fun. If you are not having fun. Stop. Immediately. Cut sentences and words from your deck that are boring. This should be like your prized collection. A trophy of sorts.

This is what I missed in SRS, the autonomy that comes from taking control of your learning. SRS seems awesome, but when it starts to control you, then it becomes a chore.

So from this day on, I’m going to start building my deck. These sentences and words, will come from tech blogs, music, movies and Mandarin blogs. Anywhere I can get my Mandarin hands on them. I’ll keep you guys updated on my progress. I’ve already added my first sentence.

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  • http://sarajaaksola.com Sara

    I’ve got problems with SRS too or maybe it’s a problem in general that I get bored easily and want to try new methods to learn Chinese. Skritter is amazing, but now I haven’t used it for a long time. I know that it’s a great tool for me to review the words from my textbooks, but somehow I still haven’t found the time to use it.

    It’s hard to make it fun when you can’t choose the words you learn, but have to follow the textbooks and prepare for exams that include those words. Or is there a way to make this fun too?

  • http://niel.delarouviere.com NielDLR

    I think in terms of school/uni work, using SRS would be a bit different, but similarly interesting. When I was studying for a test, I’d cram everything the day before. Not the best idea. With SRS, after class, choose words you are not familiar with or words that are awesome and add them to your deck. Everyday do a little. When the test comes, you’ll be knowing those words without the need to cram.

  • http://MandarinSegments.blogspot.com Greg

    Thanks again for the reference … I’m enjoying the discussion!

    I actually DO use it for learning new words – but you’re right that the key is to use it to learn your own choice of new words. For example a couple of days ago I was visiting Taiwan for some meetings, and in one (Mandarin-only) meeting, I kept hearing the word “guī​zé”. I looked it up after the meeting, and saw it was 规则=rule.  I then found a sentence that used that phrase (you can reading my blogpost “Getting Sentenced” how I do that) and found a short phrase this time: 什么时候打破规则.

    So it’s a new word, and now I know how to use it in context. It might be a few weeks before it reaches the top of the queue to being SRS’d in Anki, but it’ll get there.

    Enjoy being in charge again!

  • http://niel.delarouviere.com NielDLR

    Thanks for the comment Greg! I dig that sentence, totally stealing it for my deck right now. :)

  • Anonymous

    Hey Niel. Glad you’ve got this under control now. :) It’s all about the fun in my (humble) opinion…

    To be honest, I started my own deck too and have added random words and sentences too – stuff that I first have to study before I get into review mode with Anki – but it’s a start and that’s exciting :)

    These are some of the words I’ve identified and I think you’ll see I’m mostly food obsessed :)
    Muffin 英式松饼
    Occupation zhíyè 职业
    Butter – Huang2you2  黄油
    Starbucks – Xing1 ba1 ke4 星巴克
    Secret – mìmì – 秘密

    I really need to focus on vocabulary – this includes a lot of everyday objects and items so really just need to take a look around me and identify the names of things around me that I think I should know instead of making it too complex too soon.

    This is my mission…

  • http://niel.delarouviere.com NielDLR

    Those are good words. Use what is useful to you. In fact, the other day I was wondering what the word for butter is. I’ll steal that for my deck too :P