Hi, my name is Niel, otherwise known as Confused Laowai. I blog about my exciting, yet often confusing adventure learning Chinese.
Doing SRS the fun way
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 [...]
Revisiting SRS and Flashcards
I’ve always found SRS systems (like Anki and Skritter) and flashcards an interesting addition to language learning. Many people seem use to it to great success, but somewhere along this language learning continuum, SRS and Flashcards just fail with me. Don’t get me wrong. I did the research. It can work, if you allow it to. The myth of it being detrimental and slow is nonsense. Like I said, many others use it to great [...]
Flashcards and Second Language Acquisition
A heated debate surged on Randy’s site the past week. I was subsequently banned from the site, because of my strong ideas on flashcards. Randy firmly believed that flashcards are detrimental to language learning. I thought differently. At first my comments were strong, but never personal or attacking. Randy interpreted this an attack. I got frustrated and did post a comment confronting him on his blatant disregard for people’s opinions and his way of handling [...]
Anki Flashcards
This year I want to complement my Mandarin University studies with more self-study. One of the things I’ve stumbled upon is Anki. It’s a flashcard program that uses SRS. I quote the description: “Anki is a spaced repetition system (SRS). It helps you remember things by intelligently scheduling flashcards, so that you can learn a lot of information with a minimum amount of effort”. It’s a pretty nifty program. I use it now every day. [...]
