How to Make Sentence Flashcards Quickly
I made a video tutorial a while back on making sentence flashcards and I realised that probably not everyone here on the blog has seen it. This should be a really helpful resource for you if you are starting to learn how to use Anki for learning Japanese (or any language for that matter). There are some prerequisites you will need first to fully take advantage of this.
Prerequisites
Making a Sentence Flashcard
- Make use of a dictionary or other text analysis tool that splits up words and shows you the ROOT word.
- Search said root word in a dictionary written in the target language.
- Find a definition that isn’t too difficult, copy and past it in to your open “add” tab in Anki.
- Use Anki‘s Japanese Support plugin (link above) to auto generate furigana for the dictionary sentence.
- Copy and paste the dictionary sentence into the open “edit” tab in Anki for the sentence you want to learn.
- Optional – Edit the code in the card type so that all flashcards automatically show furigana above the word in the “meaning” box as well as the “reading” box. (If in doubt for this last part just copy my code on-screen or from this link).
- Optional – Create a separate deck and call it something like “trash”. Take the remains that are left in the “add” window from when you generated furigana and just add them to this new deck. This saves you having to remove text from fields each time. You can bulk delete the contents of the deck at a later point.
Here is the video
Once you feel like you have gotten the hang of Anki, I highly recommend looking at Sentence Banks. Check out my tutorial on them here.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below and I will try to answer them as best I can.
Thanks for reading and watching! 🙂
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マット
2017/07/21
By Matthew HawkinsHere are some of my favorite tools and sites for learning Japanese
Thank you for reading this blog post, which I hope you found useful for learning Japanese. Here are some of the most useful websites that I’ve found for finding Japanese content to use for immersion as well as some really useful learning tools to help you through your Japanese studies. Some of these are affiliate links which just means that if you decide to use these sites by clicking the following links, then I will earn a commission. But honestly speaking, these are the sites that I use and recommend language learners, even my friends, to use anyway.
Anki Tools: To get started, I really like Migaku for Anki. By itself, Anki is already a super useful tool for language learners but Migaku allows for integration with websites like YouTube and Netflix, allowing it’s users to create flashcards from the shows and videos that they are watching, as they are watching them. If you use my link you can get an extra month for free.
Speaking Practice: For this I absolutely love iTalki. There are thousands of Japanese teachers on the platform that are available at all times of the day to have conversations with you, in Japanese. Some teachers take a more traditional approach while others are just there to chat, these are the ones I would recommend if you are looking to improve your conversational Japanese. Lessons start from just $5 and there’s no long term commitment, I highly recommend them.
Immersion: I’ve used a lot of different earphones / headphones over the years but by far the one that has come out on top is the NENRENT S570. This is a singular in-ear earphone that matches your skin tone to keep it discrete, meaning you can listen to the language you are learning while at work, or school. For a full list of tools and gadgets I recommend for maximizing your immersion time, check out this blog post.
I just found this great site that parses Japanese text MUCH better than Jisho.
http://ichi.moe/
For example
こうなるしかなかったのか?
Jisho couldn’t parse しかなかった in this sentence and even if you typed it in alone it thinks it’s some inflection of another word while Ichi.moe parses it perfectly. Only thing is it’s english so it’s not good for J-J but I guess one can just avert their eyes? :0
Sorry for the late reply, I had an issue with the comment system but have fixed it now 🙂
Damn nice find dude! Yeah the English stands out a bit but it can just be ignored. I’ll add that site to this page, thanks for the share! 😀
hey bro, quick question is the qolibri dictionary files link working for you? for some reason it doesn’t for me
The link seems to be fine for me. Try opening it in another browser or through a proxy 🙂
I was able to download the files from mediafire, but when I opened it up in utorrent it seemed that nothing was being downloaded at all. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks for the reply btw!!
I’m going to assume that there are no seeders for the torrent anymore. I’ve since uninstalled utorrent but I am currently re-uploading the files in a zip folder straight to mediafire. I will reply here when I have updated the link 🙂 (It’s going to take about 10 hours to upload)
The link is now up-to-date 🙂
BRO I CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH!!!! WHEN I GET GOOD AT JAPANESE IT’S BC OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU
YOU’RE A REAL ONE, MUCH LUV FROM CALI
（笑） no worries man! 😀
Hey Matthew, thank you for all of your articles, it is really helpful.
I wanted to ask you as a starter of the AJATT method, after (/while) learning my Kanjis through Heisig’s deck, how should I do as for my input of sentences ?
As a complete beginner (I only know very very basic japanese structure), should I put sentences from my old textbook at first ? (with in front: JP (only kanji) -> back: (furigana reading + ENG trans) And try to get used to these sentences. And then input another textbook or even look at Tae Kim grammar guide to get sentences? Also if I want to use sources from my personal interests like manga/anime/songs (cf. Sentences Banks), is it possible to fully understand new structure at my stage? (by decomposing the sentence, look at the root words and their translation with Jisho for example).
In addition, when you started your input of sentences, did you wait to find randomly a sentence with a kanji you learnt or did you on purpose input sentences for each meaning of this specific kanji?
Thank you in advance for your attention and taking the time to look at my questions,
No worries, I’m glad they are helpful 🙂
Okay so firstly I would say wait until you finish RTK 1 then start your sentences. It will be less hassle for you 🙂
I have never used a textbook as I find them boring, I will always recommend just getting into native content. Try to stick to the rule “if it’s made for natives, then it’s native Japanese”. This should ensure that you don’t end up sounding like a foreigner as not all resources made for foreigners are that good 🙂 Saying that, I’ve heard pretty good things about Tae Kim and I did occasionally use his guide in the beginning stages to “understand” certain structures, but I never put his sentences into Anki.
Yeah use that layout, JP front, then furigana with translation OR just english definitions for each section on the back (I prefer this option).
Yes it is and that’s exactly what I recommend you do. It is a big task at first as you won’t understand much but the hints you get from already knowing Kanji + any situational context helps you to understand the sentence you want to learn. What I did originally was watch a show with the subtitle file open and whenever I saw a sentence I thought I partially or almost fully understood, I highlighted it and added it to Anki later. Then I went through the process of breaking down the constructs of each sentence, originally using English as a crutch and then eventually going to Japanese definitions only. There will always be some sentences where even though you learnt each word or grammar structure, you still might not “get it”. This just means the sentence is beyond you at this point in time, so delete it and move on to the next. Oh, and always focus on simple sentences! For example, it’s easier to learn and remember 山羊を飼育する than it is to learn 目的地までの道のりや、 目的達成までの今後の行程が、非常に遠く長いさま。Just go for simple stuff at this stage 🙂
Until I got good enough that it was only a few Kanji left that popped up in my RTK reviews that I didn’t know readings for I simply just waited for sentences to come up before I added them. Eventually though I got to a point when certain Kanji appeared and I was like “I have never seen this before, I wonder what it actually means?”. I would then look it up via google or through my Sentence Bank in Anki to find example sentences. I would then usually add these even though they were often in such obscure words that I would never ever need them.
I hope that answered your questions 🙂