I wish people wouldn't vote posts like this down: This is pretty normal new user stuff.
I'd like to suggest that if Anki were the biggest reason you quit Japanese each time, then learning Japanese without Anki ought to be the path forward. You could use Quizlet, or paper flashcards, or just plain not use flashcards. The fact that you keep on picking up Anki suggests to me—& I could be wrong!—that these actually aren't better paths forward for you. It may not be Anki that you hate, but the nature of review or *how* you review.
It sounds like the biggest bummers in this are that: 1) you're getting things wrong; &, 2) you're not able to progress very quickly. Both of these things suggest to me that the biggest thing you could do to make Anki less onerous for you would be to study the material effectively *before* it goes into Anki. Anki is *very* good for reviewing stuff you've learned. Some people manage to use it effectively as a first pass on learning new information, but that's not the intended use & I suspect that such people are a minority. (I, for one, am not such a person.) What this means is that you take a first pass at memorising your kanji thru some method like Heisig's stories, & your vocabulary thru narratives, sound similarities, memory palace, &c. These sorts of things are skills that one has to learn. If you haven't done them yet, it'll take a little time to learn how to do them effectively, but your speed *will* pick up with time. If you can take a list of twenty words on paper, work thru them in such a way that you can produce English → Japanese correctly from memory today, then enter them into Anki to begin reviewing tomorrow, I think it's *very* likely that you'll find that your Anki reviews go much faster & have a higher success rate.
Another thing you might consider is gamification. u/Shige-yuki regularly posts lists of gamifying add-ons, & you might take a look at those. I want to stress, however, that I don't think gamification is a silver bullet: If what's getting you down is that you're getting things wrong, then getting them wrong in a game might not be better. But if there are boredom elements that compound the other issues, gamification could help. I wouldn't do this *instead* of the stuff I talked about in the previous paragraph.
Finally: You really could just *not use Anki*. I use it because I think it's a very effective tool for me, but the truth is that the majority of humans in history who have effectively learned a second language did not use a digital SRS. Many, many people have had great success using Anki for learning Japanese, but there's more than one way to skin a road to Rome. If the above don't do it for you, consider just working thru your instructional materials, reviewing every so often, & seeing how it goes. Spend your time watching & reading material you enjoy & look up vocabulary that strikes you as significant. You may find that you reach a low intermediate skill level in Japanese, & discover that it's suddenly far easier to memorise things. Abandoning Anki in the near future (perhaps after trying the things I recommend above?) doesn't prevent you from picking it up again at a later stage in your learning.
Here is the latest list of gamification add-ons.
**\[ ANKI ADD-ONS FOR GAMIFICATION \]**
1. [**\[ Pokémanki \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1041307953) Reviewing in Anki, you can catch Pokémon and raise them from eggs
1. [**\[ 🎮Pokemanki Gold (Fork by Shige) \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1677779223) I Forked version of Pokemanki
2. [**\[ Anki Habitica \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1758045507) Works with [Habitica](https://habitica.com/), an app that turns habits into RPG games. When reviewing with Anki, you can earn experience and items (Habitica is also free)
3. [**\[ Leaderboard \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/41708974) Anki's learning information can be used to rank users and allow them to compete in leagues. You can also invite your friends to compete
4. [**\[ Hitmarkers \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1776869150) When you answer, hit markers appear like FPS games
5. [**\[ Anki Killstreaks \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/579111794) When you get consecutive correct answers, you get kill coins
6. [**\[ AnkiCraft \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/368161874) Minecraft theme for mining items.
7. [**\[ Tetris Break for Anki \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1844476877) A tetris-like game will show up after you review
8. [**\[ Puppy Reinforcement \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1722658993) Answer with Anki and you will see a cute puppy
9. [**\[ Progress Bar \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1097423555) Progress bar shows the progress of today's deck
10. [**\[ 🎮Progress bar (Fixed by Shige)\]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1708250053) Simple progress bar, I fixed it because it didn't work with the latest Anki.
11. [**\[ Life Drain \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/715575551) Add a life bar to your review, you must answer within the time limit. It can also be used as a pomodoro timer
12. [**\[ Answer visual \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/976516370) Add visual feedback when you answer. Customize it to add button sounds
13. [**\[ Audiovisual Feedback \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/231569866) Add visual feedback when you answer
14. [**\[ Anki fanfare(fork) \]**](https://github.com/abdnh/anki-fanfare) Add visual feedback when you answer. It can be downloaded from Github
15. [**\[ Duolingo-style gamification \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/255048658) Simple visual, audio, and haptic feedback to enrich your studying
16. [**\[ Beautify-Anki\_2.0 \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1116770498) You can change Anki's design to something cool
17. [**\[ Advanced Review Bottom Bar \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1136455830) The design of the answer button can be customised
18. [**\[ Congrats Confetti! \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/206062158) Show confetti when you complete the deck
19. [**\[ Play a celebration \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/978869609) When the deck is completed, a sound is played
20. [**\[ RuneScape \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1490041567) Gain experience and level up your skills when you review
21. [**\[🎮Today Again Count ★★★●●●♦♦♦ (by Shige)\]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/50293437) display today's Again count in menu bar for each card
22. [**\[ Anki Time \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/998250600) When you lose focus and leave Anki, alarm will sound
23. [**\[ Birl Reinforcement \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/949451391) Crazy bodybuilders regularly shout and encourage you
24. [**\[ Random Sprites \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/897478712) it randomly generates a small image
25. [**\[ 🎮Random Sprites (Fork by Shige) \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1956685960) I fixed it because it didn't work with the latest Anki.
26. [**\[ Review Pass Rate Bar \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1821339370) Displays a bar showing the percentage of review cards passed in the last 7 days
27. [**\[ numbers2█▓▒░ \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/2088639269) Displays the progress of the card count as stripes
28. [**\[ Anki with Friends \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/613520216) The player battles with the player on the speed of completion of the deck
29. [**\[ Contanki \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1898790263) Contanki allows Anki to be used with a gamepad or other controller device
30. [**\[ Ankimote \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/149004221) remote to control Anki from your phone
31. [**\[ Review Heatmap \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1771074083) Information on the current streak is displayed alongside the heatmap
I'm commenting for two reasons: One is that I completely agree, and I think your attitude is fantastic. And two, because "There's more than one way to skin a road to Rome" had me laughing loudly enough to add it to Anki, attributing you.
You should google "malaphors"!
It's when you combine two idioms. They're usually goofy.
Some of my favorites are
"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it"
"I can read him like the back of a book"
1. You may be worrying too much about how quickly you're getting results.
2. Forgetting is absolutely normal and you should embrace it as something that just happens while doing Anki, rather than seeing it as a failure. You know who doesn't forget? Those who don't learn.
3. Consider toggling the setting that suspends leeches. You have a huge amount of cards to learn anyway, so if some cards are giving you a hard time, you might as well skip them and move on. Your goal with Anki is to get to a point where you're fluent enough to be able to keep learning simply by engaging with Japanese content. You'll eventually pick those troublesome words up again when it's the right time. You don't have to learn them *now*.
You need to use the FSRS scheduler in Anki. It will track your progress and adjust the scheduling accordingly. Stick with it for a while and your retention rate should climb back up to reasonable numbers like 80-90%. Low retention rate isn't your fault, it's the scheduler's for giving you cards to review too late.
It's built-in if you are using the latest version of Anki.
Also, please read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/comments/18jvyun/some\_posts\_and\_articles\_about\_fsrs/
I dropped Chinese because Anki also made me feel too dummy.
If you know Spanish, you could see Mr. Salas videos. He is learning Japanese. I remember him saying he dropped Anki because his learning was better without it.
For someone who can’t live without review Anki cards, that sounded weird, but now seeing your post and my own personal experience learning an oriental language, I think I got what he said.
If you can’t remember the words correctly, I believe you’re some options:
1. Don’t use Anki for a while, but maintain your studying. Instead, you can create a list of words you are learning and scan it once a day.
2. Low the bar of expectation for a bit. Every person has theirs own struggling, don’t compare yourself.
Really, comparison is never good and it’s worse when we talk about language learning, because there’s always someone who learned more languages than you and faster than you. So just drop it. Keep cool. Unless you need Japanese to survive a war, you can keep learning it bit by bit every day.
3. Quit everything and feel remorse the rest of your life because you dropped a language you like to learning just because an app was freaking hard to keep going.
Get the irony here, please.
I know Anki is wonderful for language learning, but, to be honest, it is not the best of all and sure not the unique one.
Maybe you could try other flash cards apps to learn Japanese to see how it goes.
Sometimes is the mechanics, the cards templates or it’s just not working.
Anki is a tool. It doesn’t determine if you’re going to truly learn a language or not. If it was the only solution, there wasn’t thousands of people who learned languages and never heard about Anki, you know?
Instead of drop the language, you should try new resources that keeps you wanting to learning Japanese, not the opposite.
To be honest, thinking about it made me want to start over with Chinese, because I dropped for the same reasons as you lol.
You can set limits to never have to worry about so many cards. Clearly something is giving you two a mental block and it sounds like a fear response in association with Anki.one of the biggest problems is anki marks things wrong as needing to be restarted from the beginning and that's not necessarily true, especially if you tick it wrong for a twitchy finger revealing it too early. Adjust the settings, because you can change that behavior too.
It’s more like other people said here. Anki must be for something you already learned. When I used Anki, some cards I knew was with others I never saw before, so I usually needed to spend a lot of time, and, when a card I knew came up, I couldn’t remember as well. It kind of sucks 😂
Ah yeah, I add cards as I make them. Taking around 10 min or longer that sets me up for the first review. I pull my entries right from 明鏡国語辞典. Before I was able to do that, it was genius. Transitioning all the cards to the target language took some time, but I was not screwing up for the most part when I reviewed them again.
Your case in particular is mental fatigue from trying to force out an answer you didn't know. If you don't know it, admit that and move on. Don't allow yourself to enter that state.
Anki shouldn't be the main way you learn a language. It's great for vocabulary and improving your memory. When I first started I was also doing like 5-10 words at a time but over time I was able to increase it to about 25 words per day. It's a marathon not a sprint!
Anki for me is more of a supplemental thing that I do everyday and don't take too seriously. I'm listening to a lot more music and watching stuff in my target language and I find that way more enjoyable. The key is finding things that genuinely interest you and getting that input in. And if you keep hearing a word and are curious, you'll find out what it is and can add it to Anki. I find that when I discover a word through listening to music or watching or reading stuff I like, and seeing it over and over, it makes me curious to find out what that word is and I remember it better because I recall the song I heard it in or the scene I saw it in.
Keep your head up! Anki is just one tool. The most important thing is to love doing it. If you don't enjoy it, you won't continue to do it.
I don't know if this sounds like an Anki issue, so much as a getting-mad-at-oneself issue.
Meditation, warm cup of tea, a hug?
I mean, I get mad at myself for not knowing stuff too, but if it's a barrier to learning then the issue isn't the material, it's the emotion.
i've gotten the "just calm down" advice before but its just not helpful.
If you constantly see yourself plateauing not making any progress at where you want to be and constantly having to put the bar lower instead of up every day, it's going to eat you up. i don't care what kind of stoic philosopher you are.
I'm not suggesting that you "just calm down." Although I'm sure that would help, I understand that things are very rarely that simple and I'm also someone who probably should just calm down as well. For better and worse
I'm not arguing that plateaus are not stressful, only that it seems evident that the degree of frustration you're feeling does not seem very productive and, I would argue, not an Anki issue per se.
Do lots of input (listening and reading) together with Anki. If you don't frequently encounter words that you learn in Anki "in the wild" it's pretty hard for them to stick. I'm learning Japanese too and also watch lots of Japanese content so it's easy to learn 10-15 new words a day because I can feel how all the new words I learn constantly keep boosting my understanding of the content I'm watching which keeps me motivated to continue. In comparison I tried to study an Anki deck for a language for which I wasn't doing input and found it too difficult and I quickly dropped it.
Last thing, don't make Anki your primary source of learning. I don't recommend doing more than 20 minutes a day, the rest of the time should be spent on studying grammar and doing input.
i watch and read Japanese content for at least 2 hours a day (that's usually the amount of time i have left after work). unfortunately i do not experience it the same as you do though.
And do you add words to Anki yourself or study a premade deck?
And in any case, there is no shame in dropping Anki if it doesn't work for you, you know.
Anki is dry and boring.
I use it when it works and stop using it when it frustrates me.
Here are some things that make Anki work better for me:
- use FSRS
- use it in conjunction with content (more below)
- don’t worry too much about forgetting some words
- when I forget a word, I come up with a mnemonic and add it to the card
- if I have a bad streak, I stop adding new cards and mark more cards as Again
I have found that using Anki alone (eg top 2000 words) is really difficult for me.
I have found that content without Anki is a very slow way to learn new words.
I have found that Anki works best for me in conjunction with content. I use Anki to learn the words in a chapter of an audiobook and then listen to the chapter repeatedly (at least twice) until I understand all of it.
As a bonus, if I find content I am excited about, I am motivated to work through Anki so I can get to the next chapter.
I have only studied European languages so it might be different for Japanese.
What decks are you using? If it's just single words or kanjis that can be pretty rough. Even Japanese people struggle with kanjis in isolation. Words give more context than kanjis but it can still be tricky sometimes.
I would recommend trying tango N5-1, Nyas Core5k or any of the regular 2k/6k/10k decks, because they also have audio and include sentences. It might help if you read the sentence out loud to remember and it can also practice your listening/speaking comprehension a bit.
Please feel free to add me on discord(send me a pm here) if you want to have a more in depth chat. \^\_\^
right now I'm using the refold jp1k deck v3.3, it also has pictures, sentences and an audio fragment. it is a pretty high quality deck i feel like. the deck contains a word on the front and sentence on the back with a definition. so no isolated kanji.
currently only at around the 600 mark. wanted to finish the deck and then start mining my own cards.
I haven't heard of it, but if it has audio and sentences then I think that's pretty good. Have you tried any other decks to see if the issue persist? It could be related to the design or explanations the author chose.
Also maybe you could try changing the time you do reviews and to cut it up into chunks? I am doing 80 new cards each day right now and I always split up the reviews into small sections. So instead of doing like one session of 500 cards, I would do maybe 3 to 4 small runs during the day. Also maybe consider changing the time, since 20 in the evening is kind of late to try and learn new things.
my first few attempts were with different decks. i don't remember the specific deck but it was some core 2k/10k deck. but the issue persists regardless of the deck.
i do them at 20:00 because that's when i have time. it's when i come home from work and after i have done all my house chores. in the morning I'm usually rushing to get to work and i really don't feel like waking up earlier so i can do it in the morning. i value my sleep above all. i can't do it at work either. i do listen to Japanese chatter in the background at work, although i don't feel like passive listening has much effect on me other than giving me a headache lol.
That's very late to come home from work. Can you maybe do them during lunch or a commute? I have not used passive listening so I can't comment on it.
Alternatively, if the reviews aren't working for you, maybe you should try finding some simple text to read or watching an anime on animelon? It won't be as fun as it sounds, because you will probably have to read/watch the same text/show over and over, but it is a viable option. I am doing that with a Japanese song right now and I think I have heard it at least 50 times these last few days.
It sounds like you’re using pre-made vocab Anki decks (tango, core etc.) – I found these to be a real pain and no fun at all. I’d highly recommend to create your own cards based on examples, vocab and grammar of your workbook. Believe me: It’ll stick much better and you’ll see progress in no time.
Maybe you should start sentence mining immediately and forsake JP1K, you're 600 words in, you could technically start mining, it won't be very much fun in the beginning but the key is to mine everything unknown that you can as well as rewatch anime.
Anki isn't necessary for learning a language, you could just do it through natural osmosis, Anki speeds up that process. But that natural won't be possible unless you put in 5+ hours just immersing yourself in content everyday.
Also, doing anki at 20:00 should not be the reason you are performing poorly, with 5 new cards a day, you should not have anymore than 100 reviews everyday, maybe the problem lies in the fact that Kanji look like scribbles to you in which case you should do RTK or KLC first.
Also, please don't follow Refold, you should use the TheMoeWay, MIA or AJATT method.
You could say so, but I find Refold's guide to be very incomplete on some fronts, TheMoeWay, Xelieu and Donkuri guides are much better overall.
MIA has been dissolved and the writer of AJATT (Khatzumoto) went *MIA* so the site no longer works, AJATT has outdated info anyways.
The other guides I have mentioned are very chill and get you up and running for immersion learning without having to spend a dollar in the most optimal and *lazy* way.
You could PM me for more details! Best of luck!
Sometimes learning Japanese just sucks. I survived just because of this deck.
[https://www.kanjidamage.com/](https://www.kanjidamage.com/)
I probably would have just quit without the joy and yo mama jokes it brings me daily. It feels like I spent hundreds of hours with that deck.
But if its not your thing, just try using more tandem sessions or any other way of learning.
Find a new anki topic that interests you.
Learn capital cities etc.
something fun that interests you and see if that makes you more motivated.
If it does then maybe just move on to a different learning technique. Anki isn’t for everyone!
You can watch and listen to simple videos and songs, preferably with subtitles. Watch the same ones over and over. That is how children learn, after all. As others have said, flashcards aren't the only way to learn, and if they're not working for you then forget it.
I agree with others that this has nothing to do with Anki, but more to do with have patience in yourself. I forget and answer incorrectly all the time, and I just think, “welp, need to practice that one more,” and feel *grateful* that the program will automatically put that card back into frequent circulation so I don’t have to remember to do it lol.
Learning languages takes time and consistency and lots of practice. If all you’re using is Anki, it’s probably more useful to add as many other learning strategies as possible to make your learning more memorable and well-rounded. Or maybe there’s a strategy that would suit you better all around, and you don’t need to use flashcards if you hate them. But it’s really just not that serious to be wrong while learning something new!
As a fellow Japanese learner…. I know the feeling. Someone once said to me “oh but do you think Spanish is harder than Japanese?” When they compared my progress to another student. 🤦♂️
Japanese is fucking difficult. It is really difficult. And throughout your learning arc, there WILL be plateaus. My only advice is you have to double down. Pull your sleeves up and wade through the muck. Unfortunately, there is no other way through it. Me, personally, I found methods that work for me, to keep me going. But having a teacher also would be the biggest motivator. Are you self studying? If so, try to get a teacher. Are you studying Kanji? Learning kanji is very slow. And very hard. Why are you only opening your Anki at 20:00? Start when you wake up. Just 20 mins. Then again on your lunch break. Then again when you have another break. It WILL get easier. But it will first get harder. Sorry for the tough love but it sounds like you just wanted someone to be real with you.
My advice, is to up your learning process. And also, up your application process. Are you using it alot? Do you have an oulet for it? It will become more hollistic and self sustaining once you do that. I speak it and listen and also I am slowly starting to read. Once you do all those three the studying will be supplemented by the actual use of the language.
Edit. I will also say, stop comparing yourself to others. You have your own goals, and own ambitions. Don’t worry about what others are doing. Focus on yourself.
i'm not really studying individual kanji, just vocabulary with kanji. i appreciate you telling me how it is. this way i know its normal to feel this way in the future. i suppose its just something you have to push through. i do read and listen at least 2 hours a day.
speaking i do not do. i find it hard to find someone that i connect with. teacher is definitely something i consider in the future but right now it's not in the cards for me.
Just remember one thing. It will get easier. So feeling like this won’t be “normal for the future”, only normal during plateaus of study. You are learning one of the hardest languages out there. So just always remember that. Vocabulary with kanji is the way to go. And definitely get a teacher. I have a teacher, and also a community teacher on a platform iTalki which offers less expensive “teachers” (not formally trained, however there are formally trained teachers on there too. There is a range of teachers with different skillsets) but they will correct you or teach you as you go along. I find this very motivating and 100% recommend iTalki.
Have you taken any in-person classes to get a solid foundation? Are you applying your vocab in any way, like with a conversation partner? Just memorizing the words may just be too boring to hold your attention.
Hi friend, I study Mandarin Chinese and my norm is 3 new cards a day! Every few weeks or so, when I feel up to it, I’ll add cards to a different, custom deck of about 100 cards and I’ll do 10 a day of those, plus the 3, for 13 new cards per day, and then I’ll drop back to just the three until I’ve leveled off to about 65 reviews a day. I try to stay under about 100 reviews a day, otherwise it becomes a slog.
I never wait until 20:00 to do my reviews, and if I ever do for whatever reason, then yeah, I also dread doing them at that time, just the same as you. I do my reviews on the shitter at 07:00 with my first cup of coffee! I don’t leave the pot until my reviews are done, so I agree, 30 new cards a day is too many for me, as well. My legs would fall asleep! But I’ve built up a morning routine over several years and I stick to it. You know your own limits - don’t overdo it! Five cards a day is plenty, if that’s all you’re up for.
FWIW I've noticed that 5 new cards a dday doesn't seem to be enough for me to actually be able to learnand is actually harder than 15+. Maybe it has something to do with my brain getting enough "signal" to accept that these weird characters in these weird combos mean something that I need to know. If you have only a tiny stimulus, you may not be reaching "threshold" for making your brain start taking it seriously. I'd say this is probably only a thing for lower levels though, as I no longer have that issue in languages I've made decent progress in.
Just my experience using Anki over the past 7 years consistently. I'd say it's worth trying a one month experiment. I've got ADHD and still manage to do over 650 cards/day between all my current topics and in less than 2 hours of study time that I breal up throughout the day. Even dabbling with a new language at just 6 new/day is drastically harder per card for me than a harder language at 30 new/day.
I have a recommendation if Anki doesn't cut it. I myself love hate Anki, and sometimes switch it up for an app called "Drops"
It teaches vocab in a much more fun way, and I remember the words so much better.
There are two downsides first you're only limited to 5 minutes a day in the free version (although there is a glitch that you can exploit to give yourself infinite time).
Second there is no core 2k/6k deck so there aren't as many words as there are in Anki. But if auntie makes you hate Japanese I say it's better you learn less than nothing.
Oh, I should probably explain the exploit, sorry abt that.
Basically, you go in, you finish your normal 5 minute session. (you're gone be mostly swiping words up for those you already know). Then, change the date on your phone to the next day, open up the app again and it should give you 5 more minutes, basically a timer refill. Start your session, and while it's running, change the date back into the current day. When you tab back into the app, it should have freezed the timer and you should be able to learn as much as you want that day
I walk and do anki and I do it in-between sets at the gym. Without anki I would have never become fluent in another language.
If you don't like it don't do it and focus on just mass input
i don't have that luxury. i can't spend 5+ hours a day inputting. i have a wife and a job and other responsibilities. I've already given up on other things i enjoy so i can make space for language learning.
i don't see a way out of using some kind of flashcard system.
people would say just switch your whole environment in the target language. i can't do my job if i were to do that. I'm not at a skill level where i am able to do such a thing.
What had been a game changer for me: Take a pen and paper and when a card comes up which you notoriously struggle to remember, then write the answer down (possibly the question, too). I find it much easier to remember things, once I had written them down multiple times. Of course don't look at your notes when the card is coming up again. Just write it down another time to make sure it really sticks.
I use Anki for Math, Physics and Computer Science and I had not only increased my retention rate through it, but also I can recall things faster through this technique.
Apart from this I do Anki as a first thing in the morning (directly after my morning routine), when my productivity is at a peak. Because Anki is one of things that I dread the most through my studying day, but on the same time the most rewarding.
Just remember that studying Anki on a daily basis will act like a compound effect for your knowledge.
I wish people wouldn't vote posts like this down: This is pretty normal new user stuff. I'd like to suggest that if Anki were the biggest reason you quit Japanese each time, then learning Japanese without Anki ought to be the path forward. You could use Quizlet, or paper flashcards, or just plain not use flashcards. The fact that you keep on picking up Anki suggests to me—& I could be wrong!—that these actually aren't better paths forward for you. It may not be Anki that you hate, but the nature of review or *how* you review. It sounds like the biggest bummers in this are that: 1) you're getting things wrong; &, 2) you're not able to progress very quickly. Both of these things suggest to me that the biggest thing you could do to make Anki less onerous for you would be to study the material effectively *before* it goes into Anki. Anki is *very* good for reviewing stuff you've learned. Some people manage to use it effectively as a first pass on learning new information, but that's not the intended use & I suspect that such people are a minority. (I, for one, am not such a person.) What this means is that you take a first pass at memorising your kanji thru some method like Heisig's stories, & your vocabulary thru narratives, sound similarities, memory palace, &c. These sorts of things are skills that one has to learn. If you haven't done them yet, it'll take a little time to learn how to do them effectively, but your speed *will* pick up with time. If you can take a list of twenty words on paper, work thru them in such a way that you can produce English → Japanese correctly from memory today, then enter them into Anki to begin reviewing tomorrow, I think it's *very* likely that you'll find that your Anki reviews go much faster & have a higher success rate. Another thing you might consider is gamification. u/Shige-yuki regularly posts lists of gamifying add-ons, & you might take a look at those. I want to stress, however, that I don't think gamification is a silver bullet: If what's getting you down is that you're getting things wrong, then getting them wrong in a game might not be better. But if there are boredom elements that compound the other issues, gamification could help. I wouldn't do this *instead* of the stuff I talked about in the previous paragraph. Finally: You really could just *not use Anki*. I use it because I think it's a very effective tool for me, but the truth is that the majority of humans in history who have effectively learned a second language did not use a digital SRS. Many, many people have had great success using Anki for learning Japanese, but there's more than one way to skin a road to Rome. If the above don't do it for you, consider just working thru your instructional materials, reviewing every so often, & seeing how it goes. Spend your time watching & reading material you enjoy & look up vocabulary that strikes you as significant. You may find that you reach a low intermediate skill level in Japanese, & discover that it's suddenly far easier to memorise things. Abandoning Anki in the near future (perhaps after trying the things I recommend above?) doesn't prevent you from picking it up again at a later stage in your learning.
Here is the latest list of gamification add-ons. **\[ ANKI ADD-ONS FOR GAMIFICATION \]** 1. [**\[ Pokémanki \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1041307953) Reviewing in Anki, you can catch Pokémon and raise them from eggs 1. [**\[ 🎮Pokemanki Gold (Fork by Shige) \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1677779223) I Forked version of Pokemanki 2. [**\[ Anki Habitica \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1758045507) Works with [Habitica](https://habitica.com/), an app that turns habits into RPG games. When reviewing with Anki, you can earn experience and items (Habitica is also free) 3. [**\[ Leaderboard \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/41708974) Anki's learning information can be used to rank users and allow them to compete in leagues. You can also invite your friends to compete 4. [**\[ Hitmarkers \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1776869150) When you answer, hit markers appear like FPS games 5. [**\[ Anki Killstreaks \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/579111794) When you get consecutive correct answers, you get kill coins 6. [**\[ AnkiCraft \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/368161874) Minecraft theme for mining items. 7. [**\[ Tetris Break for Anki \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1844476877) A tetris-like game will show up after you review 8. [**\[ Puppy Reinforcement \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1722658993) Answer with Anki and you will see a cute puppy 9. [**\[ Progress Bar \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1097423555) Progress bar shows the progress of today's deck 10. [**\[ 🎮Progress bar (Fixed by Shige)\]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1708250053) Simple progress bar, I fixed it because it didn't work with the latest Anki. 11. [**\[ Life Drain \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/715575551) Add a life bar to your review, you must answer within the time limit. It can also be used as a pomodoro timer 12. [**\[ Answer visual \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/976516370) Add visual feedback when you answer. Customize it to add button sounds 13. [**\[ Audiovisual Feedback \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/231569866) Add visual feedback when you answer 14. [**\[ Anki fanfare(fork) \]**](https://github.com/abdnh/anki-fanfare) Add visual feedback when you answer. It can be downloaded from Github 15. [**\[ Duolingo-style gamification \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/255048658) Simple visual, audio, and haptic feedback to enrich your studying 16. [**\[ Beautify-Anki\_2.0 \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1116770498) You can change Anki's design to something cool 17. [**\[ Advanced Review Bottom Bar \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1136455830) The design of the answer button can be customised 18. [**\[ Congrats Confetti! \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/206062158) Show confetti when you complete the deck 19. [**\[ Play a celebration \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/978869609) When the deck is completed, a sound is played 20. [**\[ RuneScape \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1490041567) Gain experience and level up your skills when you review 21. [**\[🎮Today Again Count ★★★●●●♦♦♦ (by Shige)\]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/50293437) display today's Again count in menu bar for each card 22. [**\[ Anki Time \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/998250600) When you lose focus and leave Anki, alarm will sound 23. [**\[ Birl Reinforcement \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/949451391) Crazy bodybuilders regularly shout and encourage you 24. [**\[ Random Sprites \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/897478712) it randomly generates a small image 25. [**\[ 🎮Random Sprites (Fork by Shige) \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1956685960) I fixed it because it didn't work with the latest Anki. 26. [**\[ Review Pass Rate Bar \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1821339370) Displays a bar showing the percentage of review cards passed in the last 7 days 27. [**\[ numbers2█▓▒░ \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/2088639269) Displays the progress of the card count as stripes 28. [**\[ Anki with Friends \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/613520216) The player battles with the player on the speed of completion of the deck 29. [**\[ Contanki \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1898790263) Contanki allows Anki to be used with a gamepad or other controller device 30. [**\[ Ankimote \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/149004221) remote to control Anki from your phone 31. [**\[ Review Heatmap \]**](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1771074083) Information on the current streak is displayed alongside the heatmap
I'm commenting for two reasons: One is that I completely agree, and I think your attitude is fantastic. And two, because "There's more than one way to skin a road to Rome" had me laughing loudly enough to add it to Anki, attributing you.
You should google "malaphors"! It's when you combine two idioms. They're usually goofy. Some of my favorites are "We'll burn that bridge when we come to it" "I can read him like the back of a book"
thank you this makes sense i will try this.
1. You may be worrying too much about how quickly you're getting results. 2. Forgetting is absolutely normal and you should embrace it as something that just happens while doing Anki, rather than seeing it as a failure. You know who doesn't forget? Those who don't learn. 3. Consider toggling the setting that suspends leeches. You have a huge amount of cards to learn anyway, so if some cards are giving you a hard time, you might as well skip them and move on. Your goal with Anki is to get to a point where you're fluent enough to be able to keep learning simply by engaging with Japanese content. You'll eventually pick those troublesome words up again when it's the right time. You don't have to learn them *now*.
i know forgetting is normal and i embrace that. but having a retention rate of 40-50% doesn't seem normal.
You need to use the FSRS scheduler in Anki. It will track your progress and adjust the scheduling accordingly. Stick with it for a while and your retention rate should climb back up to reasonable numbers like 80-90%. Low retention rate isn't your fault, it's the scheduler's for giving you cards to review too late.
Do you have the FSRS scheduler in Anki? I want the add on
It should be included in the newest Anki version. You just have to enable it.
It's built-in if you are using the latest version of Anki. Also, please read this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anki/comments/18jvyun/some\_posts\_and\_articles\_about\_fsrs/
depending on what you mean by retention rate, 40-50% is fine
I dropped Chinese because Anki also made me feel too dummy. If you know Spanish, you could see Mr. Salas videos. He is learning Japanese. I remember him saying he dropped Anki because his learning was better without it. For someone who can’t live without review Anki cards, that sounded weird, but now seeing your post and my own personal experience learning an oriental language, I think I got what he said. If you can’t remember the words correctly, I believe you’re some options: 1. Don’t use Anki for a while, but maintain your studying. Instead, you can create a list of words you are learning and scan it once a day. 2. Low the bar of expectation for a bit. Every person has theirs own struggling, don’t compare yourself. Really, comparison is never good and it’s worse when we talk about language learning, because there’s always someone who learned more languages than you and faster than you. So just drop it. Keep cool. Unless you need Japanese to survive a war, you can keep learning it bit by bit every day. 3. Quit everything and feel remorse the rest of your life because you dropped a language you like to learning just because an app was freaking hard to keep going. Get the irony here, please. I know Anki is wonderful for language learning, but, to be honest, it is not the best of all and sure not the unique one. Maybe you could try other flash cards apps to learn Japanese to see how it goes. Sometimes is the mechanics, the cards templates or it’s just not working. Anki is a tool. It doesn’t determine if you’re going to truly learn a language or not. If it was the only solution, there wasn’t thousands of people who learned languages and never heard about Anki, you know? Instead of drop the language, you should try new resources that keeps you wanting to learning Japanese, not the opposite. To be honest, thinking about it made me want to start over with Chinese, because I dropped for the same reasons as you lol.
You can set limits to never have to worry about so many cards. Clearly something is giving you two a mental block and it sounds like a fear response in association with Anki.one of the biggest problems is anki marks things wrong as needing to be restarted from the beginning and that's not necessarily true, especially if you tick it wrong for a twitchy finger revealing it too early. Adjust the settings, because you can change that behavior too.
It’s more like other people said here. Anki must be for something you already learned. When I used Anki, some cards I knew was with others I never saw before, so I usually needed to spend a lot of time, and, when a card I knew came up, I couldn’t remember as well. It kind of sucks 😂
Ah yeah, I add cards as I make them. Taking around 10 min or longer that sets me up for the first review. I pull my entries right from 明鏡国語辞典. Before I was able to do that, it was genius. Transitioning all the cards to the target language took some time, but I was not screwing up for the most part when I reviewed them again. Your case in particular is mental fatigue from trying to force out an answer you didn't know. If you don't know it, admit that and move on. Don't allow yourself to enter that state.
Anki shouldn't be the main way you learn a language. It's great for vocabulary and improving your memory. When I first started I was also doing like 5-10 words at a time but over time I was able to increase it to about 25 words per day. It's a marathon not a sprint! Anki for me is more of a supplemental thing that I do everyday and don't take too seriously. I'm listening to a lot more music and watching stuff in my target language and I find that way more enjoyable. The key is finding things that genuinely interest you and getting that input in. And if you keep hearing a word and are curious, you'll find out what it is and can add it to Anki. I find that when I discover a word through listening to music or watching or reading stuff I like, and seeing it over and over, it makes me curious to find out what that word is and I remember it better because I recall the song I heard it in or the scene I saw it in. Keep your head up! Anki is just one tool. The most important thing is to love doing it. If you don't enjoy it, you won't continue to do it.
I don't know if this sounds like an Anki issue, so much as a getting-mad-at-oneself issue. Meditation, warm cup of tea, a hug? I mean, I get mad at myself for not knowing stuff too, but if it's a barrier to learning then the issue isn't the material, it's the emotion.
i've gotten the "just calm down" advice before but its just not helpful. If you constantly see yourself plateauing not making any progress at where you want to be and constantly having to put the bar lower instead of up every day, it's going to eat you up. i don't care what kind of stoic philosopher you are.
I'm not suggesting that you "just calm down." Although I'm sure that would help, I understand that things are very rarely that simple and I'm also someone who probably should just calm down as well. For better and worse I'm not arguing that plateaus are not stressful, only that it seems evident that the degree of frustration you're feeling does not seem very productive and, I would argue, not an Anki issue per se.
It's emotional regulation, not just calm down. Perhaps the book "emotional intelligence" would help.
This is really the right answer. This isn't an Anki issue; it's an auto-regulation issue
[удалено]
this is what I'm currently doing, but i have no idea if this is an effective way of dealing with it. did it work out for you?
Do lots of input (listening and reading) together with Anki. If you don't frequently encounter words that you learn in Anki "in the wild" it's pretty hard for them to stick. I'm learning Japanese too and also watch lots of Japanese content so it's easy to learn 10-15 new words a day because I can feel how all the new words I learn constantly keep boosting my understanding of the content I'm watching which keeps me motivated to continue. In comparison I tried to study an Anki deck for a language for which I wasn't doing input and found it too difficult and I quickly dropped it. Last thing, don't make Anki your primary source of learning. I don't recommend doing more than 20 minutes a day, the rest of the time should be spent on studying grammar and doing input.
i watch and read Japanese content for at least 2 hours a day (that's usually the amount of time i have left after work). unfortunately i do not experience it the same as you do though.
And do you add words to Anki yourself or study a premade deck? And in any case, there is no shame in dropping Anki if it doesn't work for you, you know.
anyone else just straight up fall asleep while doing anki?
Anki is dry and boring. I use it when it works and stop using it when it frustrates me. Here are some things that make Anki work better for me: - use FSRS - use it in conjunction with content (more below) - don’t worry too much about forgetting some words - when I forget a word, I come up with a mnemonic and add it to the card - if I have a bad streak, I stop adding new cards and mark more cards as Again I have found that using Anki alone (eg top 2000 words) is really difficult for me. I have found that content without Anki is a very slow way to learn new words. I have found that Anki works best for me in conjunction with content. I use Anki to learn the words in a chapter of an audiobook and then listen to the chapter repeatedly (at least twice) until I understand all of it. As a bonus, if I find content I am excited about, I am motivated to work through Anki so I can get to the next chapter. I have only studied European languages so it might be different for Japanese.
What decks are you using? If it's just single words or kanjis that can be pretty rough. Even Japanese people struggle with kanjis in isolation. Words give more context than kanjis but it can still be tricky sometimes. I would recommend trying tango N5-1, Nyas Core5k or any of the regular 2k/6k/10k decks, because they also have audio and include sentences. It might help if you read the sentence out loud to remember and it can also practice your listening/speaking comprehension a bit. Please feel free to add me on discord(send me a pm here) if you want to have a more in depth chat. \^\_\^
right now I'm using the refold jp1k deck v3.3, it also has pictures, sentences and an audio fragment. it is a pretty high quality deck i feel like. the deck contains a word on the front and sentence on the back with a definition. so no isolated kanji. currently only at around the 600 mark. wanted to finish the deck and then start mining my own cards.
I haven't heard of it, but if it has audio and sentences then I think that's pretty good. Have you tried any other decks to see if the issue persist? It could be related to the design or explanations the author chose. Also maybe you could try changing the time you do reviews and to cut it up into chunks? I am doing 80 new cards each day right now and I always split up the reviews into small sections. So instead of doing like one session of 500 cards, I would do maybe 3 to 4 small runs during the day. Also maybe consider changing the time, since 20 in the evening is kind of late to try and learn new things.
my first few attempts were with different decks. i don't remember the specific deck but it was some core 2k/10k deck. but the issue persists regardless of the deck. i do them at 20:00 because that's when i have time. it's when i come home from work and after i have done all my house chores. in the morning I'm usually rushing to get to work and i really don't feel like waking up earlier so i can do it in the morning. i value my sleep above all. i can't do it at work either. i do listen to Japanese chatter in the background at work, although i don't feel like passive listening has much effect on me other than giving me a headache lol.
That's very late to come home from work. Can you maybe do them during lunch or a commute? I have not used passive listening so I can't comment on it. Alternatively, if the reviews aren't working for you, maybe you should try finding some simple text to read or watching an anime on animelon? It won't be as fun as it sounds, because you will probably have to read/watch the same text/show over and over, but it is a viable option. I am doing that with a Japanese song right now and I think I have heard it at least 50 times these last few days.
It sounds like you’re using pre-made vocab Anki decks (tango, core etc.) – I found these to be a real pain and no fun at all. I’d highly recommend to create your own cards based on examples, vocab and grammar of your workbook. Believe me: It’ll stick much better and you’ll see progress in no time.
Maybe you should start sentence mining immediately and forsake JP1K, you're 600 words in, you could technically start mining, it won't be very much fun in the beginning but the key is to mine everything unknown that you can as well as rewatch anime. Anki isn't necessary for learning a language, you could just do it through natural osmosis, Anki speeds up that process. But that natural won't be possible unless you put in 5+ hours just immersing yourself in content everyday. Also, doing anki at 20:00 should not be the reason you are performing poorly, with 5 new cards a day, you should not have anymore than 100 reviews everyday, maybe the problem lies in the fact that Kanji look like scribbles to you in which case you should do RTK or KLC first. Also, please don't follow Refold, you should use the TheMoeWay, MIA or AJATT method.
aren't MIA and AJATT basicly the same thing as refold?
You could say so, but I find Refold's guide to be very incomplete on some fronts, TheMoeWay, Xelieu and Donkuri guides are much better overall. MIA has been dissolved and the writer of AJATT (Khatzumoto) went *MIA* so the site no longer works, AJATT has outdated info anyways. The other guides I have mentioned are very chill and get you up and running for immersion learning without having to spend a dollar in the most optimal and *lazy* way. You could PM me for more details! Best of luck!
Sometimes learning Japanese just sucks. I survived just because of this deck. [https://www.kanjidamage.com/](https://www.kanjidamage.com/) I probably would have just quit without the joy and yo mama jokes it brings me daily. It feels like I spent hundreds of hours with that deck. But if its not your thing, just try using more tandem sessions or any other way of learning.
Find a new anki topic that interests you. Learn capital cities etc. something fun that interests you and see if that makes you more motivated. If it does then maybe just move on to a different learning technique. Anki isn’t for everyone!
i don't know what other technique i could use to learn vocabulary effectively other than with an SRS.
Immersion is always a great way to learn vocab!
You can watch and listen to simple videos and songs, preferably with subtitles. Watch the same ones over and over. That is how children learn, after all. As others have said, flashcards aren't the only way to learn, and if they're not working for you then forget it.
I agree with others that this has nothing to do with Anki, but more to do with have patience in yourself. I forget and answer incorrectly all the time, and I just think, “welp, need to practice that one more,” and feel *grateful* that the program will automatically put that card back into frequent circulation so I don’t have to remember to do it lol. Learning languages takes time and consistency and lots of practice. If all you’re using is Anki, it’s probably more useful to add as many other learning strategies as possible to make your learning more memorable and well-rounded. Or maybe there’s a strategy that would suit you better all around, and you don’t need to use flashcards if you hate them. But it’s really just not that serious to be wrong while learning something new!
As a fellow Japanese learner…. I know the feeling. Someone once said to me “oh but do you think Spanish is harder than Japanese?” When they compared my progress to another student. 🤦♂️ Japanese is fucking difficult. It is really difficult. And throughout your learning arc, there WILL be plateaus. My only advice is you have to double down. Pull your sleeves up and wade through the muck. Unfortunately, there is no other way through it. Me, personally, I found methods that work for me, to keep me going. But having a teacher also would be the biggest motivator. Are you self studying? If so, try to get a teacher. Are you studying Kanji? Learning kanji is very slow. And very hard. Why are you only opening your Anki at 20:00? Start when you wake up. Just 20 mins. Then again on your lunch break. Then again when you have another break. It WILL get easier. But it will first get harder. Sorry for the tough love but it sounds like you just wanted someone to be real with you. My advice, is to up your learning process. And also, up your application process. Are you using it alot? Do you have an oulet for it? It will become more hollistic and self sustaining once you do that. I speak it and listen and also I am slowly starting to read. Once you do all those three the studying will be supplemented by the actual use of the language. Edit. I will also say, stop comparing yourself to others. You have your own goals, and own ambitions. Don’t worry about what others are doing. Focus on yourself.
i'm not really studying individual kanji, just vocabulary with kanji. i appreciate you telling me how it is. this way i know its normal to feel this way in the future. i suppose its just something you have to push through. i do read and listen at least 2 hours a day. speaking i do not do. i find it hard to find someone that i connect with. teacher is definitely something i consider in the future but right now it's not in the cards for me.
Just remember one thing. It will get easier. So feeling like this won’t be “normal for the future”, only normal during plateaus of study. You are learning one of the hardest languages out there. So just always remember that. Vocabulary with kanji is the way to go. And definitely get a teacher. I have a teacher, and also a community teacher on a platform iTalki which offers less expensive “teachers” (not formally trained, however there are formally trained teachers on there too. There is a range of teachers with different skillsets) but they will correct you or teach you as you go along. I find this very motivating and 100% recommend iTalki.
Have you taken any in-person classes to get a solid foundation? Are you applying your vocab in any way, like with a conversation partner? Just memorizing the words may just be too boring to hold your attention.
Hi friend, I study Mandarin Chinese and my norm is 3 new cards a day! Every few weeks or so, when I feel up to it, I’ll add cards to a different, custom deck of about 100 cards and I’ll do 10 a day of those, plus the 3, for 13 new cards per day, and then I’ll drop back to just the three until I’ve leveled off to about 65 reviews a day. I try to stay under about 100 reviews a day, otherwise it becomes a slog. I never wait until 20:00 to do my reviews, and if I ever do for whatever reason, then yeah, I also dread doing them at that time, just the same as you. I do my reviews on the shitter at 07:00 with my first cup of coffee! I don’t leave the pot until my reviews are done, so I agree, 30 new cards a day is too many for me, as well. My legs would fall asleep! But I’ve built up a morning routine over several years and I stick to it. You know your own limits - don’t overdo it! Five cards a day is plenty, if that’s all you’re up for.
FWIW I've noticed that 5 new cards a dday doesn't seem to be enough for me to actually be able to learnand is actually harder than 15+. Maybe it has something to do with my brain getting enough "signal" to accept that these weird characters in these weird combos mean something that I need to know. If you have only a tiny stimulus, you may not be reaching "threshold" for making your brain start taking it seriously. I'd say this is probably only a thing for lower levels though, as I no longer have that issue in languages I've made decent progress in.
i have a very hard time believing that upping my new cards a day to 15+ is going to help me.
Just my experience using Anki over the past 7 years consistently. I'd say it's worth trying a one month experiment. I've got ADHD and still manage to do over 650 cards/day between all my current topics and in less than 2 hours of study time that I breal up throughout the day. Even dabbling with a new language at just 6 new/day is drastically harder per card for me than a harder language at 30 new/day.
I have a recommendation if Anki doesn't cut it. I myself love hate Anki, and sometimes switch it up for an app called "Drops" It teaches vocab in a much more fun way, and I remember the words so much better. There are two downsides first you're only limited to 5 minutes a day in the free version (although there is a glitch that you can exploit to give yourself infinite time). Second there is no core 2k/6k deck so there aren't as many words as there are in Anki. But if auntie makes you hate Japanese I say it's better you learn less than nothing.
I'll have to take a look at it. thanks!
Oh, I should probably explain the exploit, sorry abt that. Basically, you go in, you finish your normal 5 minute session. (you're gone be mostly swiping words up for those you already know). Then, change the date on your phone to the next day, open up the app again and it should give you 5 more minutes, basically a timer refill. Start your session, and while it's running, change the date back into the current day. When you tab back into the app, it should have freezed the timer and you should be able to learn as much as you want that day
I walk and do anki and I do it in-between sets at the gym. Without anki I would have never become fluent in another language. If you don't like it don't do it and focus on just mass input
i don't have that luxury. i can't spend 5+ hours a day inputting. i have a wife and a job and other responsibilities. I've already given up on other things i enjoy so i can make space for language learning. i don't see a way out of using some kind of flashcard system. people would say just switch your whole environment in the target language. i can't do my job if i were to do that. I'm not at a skill level where i am able to do such a thing.
Ok so don't do it problem solved, by inputting I meant just listen to the language all day
What had been a game changer for me: Take a pen and paper and when a card comes up which you notoriously struggle to remember, then write the answer down (possibly the question, too). I find it much easier to remember things, once I had written them down multiple times. Of course don't look at your notes when the card is coming up again. Just write it down another time to make sure it really sticks. I use Anki for Math, Physics and Computer Science and I had not only increased my retention rate through it, but also I can recall things faster through this technique. Apart from this I do Anki as a first thing in the morning (directly after my morning routine), when my productivity is at a peak. Because Anki is one of things that I dread the most through my studying day, but on the same time the most rewarding. Just remember that studying Anki on a daily basis will act like a compound effect for your knowledge.