Comments on: If you think spaced repetition software is a panacea you are wrong

By: How to learn Chinese characters | Other Methods

How to learn Chinese characters | Other Methods — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 15:53:14 +0000

[…] If you are using SRS already and are surprised to hear me warning you about its shortcomings then check out this great article on Hacking Chinese about the fact that SRS is not a panacea. […]

By: Getting Away from SRS (Spaced-Repition) For Vocabulary Learning – William Peregoy

Sun, 31 Jan 2016 10:39:23 +0000

[…] (Also, see Hacking Chinese’s great post on this: If you think spaced repetition software is a panacea you are wrong) […]

By: Olle Linge

Olle Linge — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 11:17:41 +0000

In reply to Kai. Yeah, and I agree with you, I just felt that I needed an article that said that, guys, there are real people to speak to, books to read and shows to enjoy, learning Chinese is more than SRS. :) Also, thanks for the spelling correction.

By: Kai

Kai — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 05:28:01 +0000

Hi Olle,

Spelling: glutinous -> gluttonous

By the way, I came back here in search of support for my feeling that SRS is too limiting, particularly as used by Skritter.

I love Skritter. It’s been one of my main study tools for years. And yeah, that may be the problem, not SRS.

Be that as it may, for me Skritter is more than a simple review system. It’s a repository of my knowledge of Chinese vocabulary and a way to study and review words I know, connections between words, and new words. So I find its application of some mysterious SRS-related algorithm too heavy-handed.

Rant over 🙂

By: Boosting your character learning with Skritter | Hacking Chinese - 揭密中文

Boosting your character learning with Skritter | Hacking Chinese - 揭密中文 — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 02:41:14 +0000

[…] you want to include listening, character recognition and so on, do that. Whatever you do, though, remember the limits of SRS and my call for more sensible character […]

By: Thor May

Thor May — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:46:03 +0000

You are dead right that SRS is not a learning tool as such, but an efficient review technique. The same is generally true of most flashcard systems. The pity of it is that from all the thousands of apps and other programs out there for “language learning”, the vast majority are also about review rather than initial learning. It is doubtful that the programmers who write them for a quick dollar know the difference. Real language in use is predictive within a context (see my article “The Probable Language Brain” at http://thormay.net/lxesl/TheProbableLanguageBrain.htm ). Tools which make use of this reality are scarce. Paul Pimsleur’s original method from the 1960s touched upon this, which has been part of the reason for the success of Pimsleur language courses (even under the dead hand of a monster publishing company). Multiple choice for learning, as opposed to testing, also makes some use of prediction, which I have found helpful. There is a rather poorly programmed Android app, “Chinese Radicals”, which for me is amazingly effective for learning to link hanzi radicals to an English meaning simply because it FIRST prompts for an answer, THEN failing that offers a multiple choice. The exasperating bit is that pinyin or audio are not in play, and there is no way to reverse anything, or add my own vocabulary. I have found no other program which offers this kind of PROMT-then-MC learning pattern.

By: gweipo

gweipo — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 02:29:36 +0000

Agree with what you say – there is easy “no brain” learning under which SRS falls and there is the brain creaking hard learning including reading books and newspapers and talking to strangers, which unfortunately is the way that you really get better at it.

Did you see this BBC article?
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130315-a-better-way-to-learn-chinese

By: george

george — Sun, 02 Jun 2013 17:28:28 +0000

Plecodict also provides for this kind of review with a Flash card feature that I have used at times.

Yes, the real problems are using SRS intelligently rather than just working hard.

Grammatical review is an interesting approach. Not sure about translational review. The simple fact that a second language is in a constant state of revision if you want to learn it well.

I have no problem with review and revision. Software is another topic. You can buy a lot more than you will ever need.

By: Hao Hao Report

Hao Hao Report — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 11:12:12 +0000

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This story was submitted to Hao Hao Report – a collection of China’s best stories and blog posts. If you like this story, be sure to go vote for it….

By: xiedimai

xiedimai — Wed, 29 May 2013 10:38:38 +0000

In reply to customic. Could you tell how do you prepare the decks for grammatical accuracy? I just have no idea how to exploit SRS on this purpose.