llammamama
探花
I have wished for some time that someone (not necessarily Michael) would put together a kind of "best practices" overview of how to get the most out of the flashcard system.
In response to this request, I have put together a short guide which outlines how I take advantage of the powerful flashcard / dictionary integration in Pleco to learn Chinese. The method of study I outline below works best for students who are studying independently, and is tailored my own learning goals (namely, a focus on input before output, and a desire to understand and enjoy a wide variety of media in Chinese).
In a nutshell, the method consists of using the spaced-repetition method to study short / medium sentence flashcards, and then iteratively add pronunciation, tone, and character cards during flashcard sessions as necessary. The end result is that you learn grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, tones, characters, and even get some fundamental writing practice in an extremely efficient manner which feels easy and fun.
So, lets get started.
Create two profiles. One called "reading" and one for "tones", each with their own separate score files and flashcard categories.
Set both up as spaced repetition with automatic scoring (by far the most efficient choice for serious students studying on their own terms)
"Reading" will be self-scored test type, headword shown, and contain the following three types of cards:
Note that nothing differentiates these three card "types" besides the length of the headword and the way you study/score yourself when you see one
Sentence cards - custom headword-only flashcards.
grade these cards correct if you completely understand the grammar and meaning of the sentence. Don't worry about remembering perfect pronunciation or tones; If you get those also enjoy the fuzzy feeling inside but don't sweat it. Check your understanding if necessary by tapping characters in the headword and using the popup-definitions.
When you hit a word in these sentences during review that you just can't pronounce, or didn't remember the meaning to, quickly highlight it and create a flashcard to the "reading" category. It will keep track of duplicates, so no worries! =)
Word cards - automatically generated cards from the dictionaries.
-grade these cards correct if you know the meaning and can recite the pronunciation (don't worry about tones). If you get the tones, too, pat yourself on the back.
-When you run into a word that you feel shaky on the tones, go ahead and "re-create" this flashcard into the "tones" category. (Make sure the "keep categories on duplicates" option is checked!)
-If you're having trouble with a "word" flashcard, make another word flashcard using one of the characters you can't remember (through character details -> words using this character -> make flashcard from one of the words, preferably a common word marked with a * after the pinyin in the ABC dictionary)
-If you can't remember what certain characters mean, make a single-character card from it into the "reading" category.
Character cards - automatically generated single-character cards.
-Grade these cards as correct if you can remember the meaning or "sense" of the character. Also be sure to write the character once by hand (I use the overlay sketch box for this). Once again, if you can remember that 痛 means "hurt" or "pain" or "not feeling good and kinda sucky" then mark it right.
-If you're having trouble with one of these cards, make another card containing parts of it using character details > parts. e.g., add 桶 and notice that maybe wooden buckets have something to do with disease and pain. Or something. Learning characters with the same shape just make them all easier to remember.
In your "tones" category, you'll just have tone-drill type cards.
tone cards - everything but the tone is shown
-These will be graded correct if you remember the tones. Only glance at the meaning fields, etc.
-When you whip through these cards, you won't believe how easy they are! Who knew tones were this easy to remember. I guess you're just awesome.
Each day, select the "reading" profile, do your repetitions (creating new cards as you go). Every time you see a headword with more than 4 characters or so, simply read and understand it as a sentence. When you see a headword with 2-3 characters, recite the pronunciation and the meaning of the word. When you see a single character, recall the meaning and then write it once or twice.
Then, switch to your "tones" profile and clean up those repetitions.
Once you've finished your repetitions, add a couple sentences from books you're reading or TV shows you're watching. Chinesepod is a great source of sentences if you're in a hurry. Anything fun, interesting, bizarre, or vital (new grammar, anyone?) should be thrown into your SRS as a sentence-only headword. If necessary, in place of a definition include "context" in your sentence flash cards: For the card "喂!你别乱摸啦!" add "Bulma to Goku in back as motorcycle speeds off" in the definition field.
With all of your flashcards reinforcing each other, and focused in on exactly the parts you need to learn, repetitions feel easy and fun. You can keep adding sentences or individual words to your "reading" category and everything else will take care of itself as you iteratively add flashcards during your repetitions. Setting your default flashcard dictionary to the C-C Guifan dictionary makes for even more automated recursive learning action =)
This is why PlecoDict is so awesome! This kind of studying is simply impossible with any other tool because of how much time it would take to add each and every flashcard. With each card focused on one piece of knowledge (understanding, pronunciation, meaning, or tone) the spaced repetition algorithm is able to work even more effectively: see this quote from the "original" SRS creator's "20 rules for formulating knowledge" :
(http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm)
Stick to the minimum information principle
The material you learn must be formulated in as simple way as it is only possible. Simplicity does not have to imply losing information and skipping the difficult part. Simplicity is imperative due to the way the brain works. There are two main reasons for which knowledge must be simple:
* Simple is easy
By definition, simple material is easy to remember. This comes from the fact that its simplicity makes is easy for the brain to process it always in the same way. Imagine a labyrinth. When making a repetition of a piece of material, your brain is running through a labyrinth (you can view a neural network as a tangle of paths). While running through the labyrinth, the brain leaves a track on the walls. If it can run in only one unique way, the path is continuous and easy to follow. If there are many combinations, each run may leave a different trace that will interfere with other traces making it difficult to find the exit. The same happens on the cellular level with different synaptic connections being activated at each repetition of complex material
* Repetitions of simple items are easier to schedule
I assume you will make repetitions of the learned material using optimum inter-repetition intervals (as in SuperMemo). If you consider an item that is composed of two sub-items, you will need to make repetitions that are frequent enough to keep the more difficult item in memory. If you split the complex item into sub-items, each can be repeated at its own pace saving your time. Very often, inexperienced students create items that could easily be split into ten or more simpler sub-items! Although the number of items increases, the number of repetitions of each item will usually be small enough to greatly outweigh the cost of (1) forgetting the complex item again and again, (2) repeating it in excessively short intervals or (3) actually remembering it only in part!
It's worth mentioning that the "minimum information principle" doesn't mean single-word flashcards are necessarily better; sure the single-word flashcard may be shorter, but if you're trying to remember meaning, pronunciation, tones, and usage all on one single card without any context to help, then you're making things more difficult for yourself.
This part of the same article also underscores why learning words as parts of a sentence (that you understand) is so important:
Learn before you memorize
Before you proceed with memorizing individual facts and rules, you need to build an overall picture of the learned knowledge. Only when individual pieces fit to build a single coherent structure, will you be able to dramatically reduce the learning time. This is closely related to the problem comprehension mentioned in Rule 1: Do not learn if you do not understand. A single separated piece of your picture is like a single German word in the textbook of history.
Do not start from memorizing loosely related facts! First read a chapter in your book that puts them together (e.g. the principles of the internal combustion engine). Only then proceed with learning using individual questions and answers (e.g. What moves the pistons in the internal combustion engine?), etc.
By the way, you can easily add new custom flashcards by enabling the "always show create new entry" option. Just tap-hold on the create new user dictionary entry button (it looks like a pencil) to make a new custom flashcard and paste or write in a headword sentence. Once pleco supports a "create custom flashcard from selected text" function, learning Chinese from books in the reader module will be a blissfully automated experience =)
JUST MAKE SURE YOU DO ALL OF YOUR REPETITIONS EVERY DAY!!! If you skip a day or two that's fine, but if you get a week or two behind you will be buried under a pile of flashcards. Just don't do it! If you're serious about becoming proficient in Chinese let the flashcard program keep you honest - feel free to stop adding flashcards at any time if you feel overwhelmed, but if you're serious about learning it is critical that you keep doing the repetitions as they show up.
One last word of advice, is that if you notice any flashcards which are tough to remember or you keep failing, just delete them! Don't even second guess yourself - in the time you spent trying to conquer that single tough-to-remember word, you could have added three others and kept improving instead. If the word is really important it'll come up again later, so just don't sweat it.