Comments on: Measuring your language learning is a double-edged sword

By: Spaced repetition software and why you should use it | Hacking Chinese

Spaced repetition software and why you should use it | Hacking Chinese — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 08:09:12 +0000

[…] Don’t let the allure of measurable progress fool you. Just because progress with SRS and flashcards is easier to measure compared to more hazy things like reading ability or listening comprehension, it doesn’t mean flashcards are more important. I wrote more about this here: Measuring your language learning is a double-edged sword. […]

By: Cultivate your Chinese flashcard garden... or burn it down and start afresh | Hacking Chinese

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:38:46 +0000

[…] But your knowledge of Chinese is not measured by how many flashcards you’ve learnt. It’s a convenient number that makes progress visible, but that’s it! […]

By: Why flashcards are bad for learning Chinese | Hacking Chinese | Hacking Chinese

Wed, 06 Dec 2023 13:15:19 +0000

[…] Read more here: Measuring your language learning is a double-edged sword […]

By: Olle Linge

Olle Linge — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 03:46:35 +0000

In reply to Karl Ray. I agree, SRS isn't a panacea, but it's really, really good at making use of those spare minutes all of us have throughout the day, thus freeing ourselves to do cooler stuff later. I use Android, so for me Anki is free. Thanks for recommending other programs, I'm a bit lazy to do it myself since I don't really need it. :)

By: Karl Ray

Karl Ray — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 16:00:24 +0000

SRS isn’t the only thing out there but it’s great for downtime, spare time, or short periods during the day. I use something called Flashcard Elite that doesn’t get a lot of attention but it uses Advanced SRS. Anki for iOS is overpriced and not worth the $25 while there was a free version of Flashcard Elite for the iPhone. When there’s nothing else to do I work on cards but it’s understandable how some people just focus on SRS software because it almost becomes like a videogame.

By: Furio

Furio — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 07:56:49 +0000

I try to see how many time I have to repeat “zai shuo yi bian” at the market or whatever I go in China.

This especially works when I’m traveling as I’m more exposed to the language. I know, it’s not exactly scientific method but I think that starting to count ratios of words I know/dont know would freak me out.

But I must admit I’m not a good student.

About the gym, I like your theory about people looking for something to track. This is also the reason for which people prefer to run in a track field instead of out on the hills.

However I think that the main reason for which people go to the gym is because they get the motivation from 1) the fact that they pay 2) there are other people that are working out.

I remembered that I liked to go running on the track field around the football field of my university because it was packed with girls running.

Now if a girl is running close to me I can’t possibly slowly down or even thinking to stop, can I?

It seems silly, but it works.

By: Olle Linge

Olle Linge — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 05:58:01 +0000

In reply to Alissa. All the ideas you mention work pretty well. I did suggest quite some more in this article. There are of course many, many more ways of doing it, it depends on what you want to measure.

By: Alissa

Alissa — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 03:00:06 +0000

I like your view on SRS and feel very similar. But I would also be interested in discussions on *other* ways to measure progress besides SRS. As you mention, people often need measurements to keep motivated. I am not using SRS that much anymore but still want a way to measure myself. So here’s some ideas I am thinking about (for advanced learners):
– Time to read a news article
– Ratio of new to known characters in article
– Ratio of new to known words in article
– Average frequency index of new characters

Maybe some others have creative suggestions?

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 02:15:02 +0000

I found up until recently my anki reviews were taking upwards of 40 minutes a day. It didn’t feel like I was getting much else done with my study. It was actually a relief when I updated to Anki 2.0 on my phone and I couldn’t get my decks back on to the phone. At first I was extremely annoyed, but now I have had a few weeks without Anki and I have been enjoying the extra time to watch TV and read novels. I just restarted another deck from scratch, hopefully I will keep control of this one and it won’t eat up the majority of my study time again.

By: jennifu

jennifu — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:16:53 +0000

You mean I can’t learn Chinese just by flash cards? :(((

But yeah, I’m guilty of relying on SRS for most of my practice when I should incorporate more listening/reading. To some extent, I had planned to finish RTH 1-2 in a year and a half via SRS and then take a break (until RTH 3 is out ;P) to voraciously read, since supposedly 3K characters should be enough to get through most of the Chinese materials on my shelf. However, I’m finding that my character recognition still isn’t that great with 2/3 the characters under my belt, so I should probably start reading more to cement what I have.