{"id":3999,"date":"2013-08-23T05:00:21","date_gmt":"2013-08-22T21:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=3999"},"modified":"2025-10-31T19:59:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T18:59:32","slug":"why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Why manually adding and editing flashcards is good for you"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/UniversalEditButton3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  alignright wp-image-4002\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/UniversalEditButton3.png\" alt=\"Image credit| universaleditbutton.org\/User:Oxomoxo\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One of my earliest contributions to the Chinese language learning community was to share my flashcard decks, first with my fellow classmates and then with the rest of the world. I have almost a dozen decks shared in Anki now that have been downloaded thousands of times. However, I think downloading other people&#8217;s decks is a double-edged sword. I don&#8217;t create my own flashcards only for altruistic reasons. Do you know why?<\/p>\n<h3>Creating your own flashcards is good for you<\/h3>\n<p>Actually, if it weren&#8217;t for the fact that if I didn&#8217;t share, someone else would, I feel that offering ready-made decks might be doing a disfavour to ambitious language learners. Sure, if you&#8217;re leaning towards the more casual style of learning, being able to download a deck in five seconds rather than enter a whole textbook manually is awesome, but it comes with a cost. Here&#8217;s why I create my own flashcards.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>There&#8217;s a lot of crap out there.<\/strong> Many decks you can find online are really bad, with incorrect definitions, pronunciation or erroneous characters. They might miss important vocabulary or be automatically generated rather than manually created (this is actually true for my earlier decks as well, because I created them retroactively). If you enter everything manually on your own, you know what you get. This also avoids the problem that arises when you&#8217;re wrong on an exam because the definition in your deck and in your textbook are different.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You get to know your deck.<\/strong> Perhaps your deck doesn&#8217;t need to be you best friend, but getting to know it is quite important. If you&#8217;ve built your deck on your own, you care a lot more about it and it&#8217;s also much more rewarding to work with it. You know where the definitions come from, you know what abbreviations and notes on the flashcards actually mean.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Your Chinese will improve during the process.<\/strong> Entering the words from a chapter in your book manually takes quite a lot of time, but it&#8217;s not wasted time like some people seem to think. This is a very good opportunity to learn! Check the characters in dictionaries, look up the radicals and learn the words! Remember that it&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=2958\">spaced repetition, not spaced learning<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Obviously, you can gain some of these benefits simply by using decks from people you trust or that has been recommended to you, but the last item in the list above is really important. If you download lists of new words, you need to study them before you can review! If it&#8217;s your textbook, then fine, but downloading huge lists from the internet and hacking away at them isn&#8217;t a good idea. You need to process what you learn actively.<\/p>\n<h3>How to create flashcards manually<\/h3>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know what flashcard program you use (I suggest <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=239\">Anki <\/a>or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=3856\">Skritter<\/a>), but there are some things that are universal and applies to all programs. First, even though this might sound counter-intuitive, I suggest that you disregard the auto-completion or dictionary look-up function if there is one. You can look at the answers, but it&#8217;s much better to write your own, even if it&#8217;s a verbatim copy from a textbook or dictionary.<\/p>\n<p>This is extra important when you copy from a Chinese-Chinese dictionary. It&#8217;s so easy to skim through the definition, copy-paste it and be done with it. If you type it manually, you have to process the sentence much more actively, which aids learning tremendously. It turns menial copy-pasting into a learning opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>Second, spread it out. Regard flashcard creation as learning rather than a mechanical task you perform using your computer. You probably wouldn&#8217;t sit down and try to learn all those words in one go, so since we have now merged learning and flashcard creation, we should apply the same principles. Add the words in small batches of perhaps 3-5 words. Add example sentences (read and type them), add definitions, add other useful information you find in your textbook or online.<\/p>\n<h3>Editing flashcards<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Likewise, if you need to change or update your flashcards, this shouldn&#8217;t be viewed as menial task that just needs getting over with, it&#8217;s part of your studying. This is where you adjust the cards to your current needs, often adding more information where you&#8217;ve found it lacking, but also removing cards you don&#8217;t need. I spend quite a lot of time adding information about synonyms, new example sentences and details about character composition. Again, make this a learning opportunity and not just a chore!<\/p>\n<h3>Not a waste of time<\/h3>\n<p>This article should have explained why I think it&#8217;s weird to think that I&#8217;m wasting my time creating flashcards. It&#8217;s not as if I have to grow the trees, cut them down, turn them into paper and write the information on them. That would indeed be a waste of time if my goal was to learn Chinese. In this day and age, though, the actual creation of a flashcard takes a second. Filling in the information takes much more, but as I have explained before, that&#8217;s not necessarily a bad thing.<\/p>\n<h3>More about flashcards on Hacking Chinese<\/h3>\n<p>To learn more about flashcards and how you should (and shouldn&#8217;t) use them to learn Chinese, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-best-use-flashcards-to-learn-chinese\/\">check this and the associated articles in that series<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"U3dSMUOyxr\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-best-use-flashcards-to-learn-chinese\/\">How to best use flashcards to learn Chinese<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;How to best use flashcards to learn Chinese&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-best-use-flashcards-to-learn-chinese\/embed\/#?secret=gFg48B9mjZ#?secret=U3dSMUOyxr\" data-secret=\"U3dSMUOyxr\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>More about spaced repetition on Hacking Chinese<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li><a title=\"View post Spaced repetition software and why you should use it\" href=\"..\/?p=123\">Spaced repetition software and why you should use it<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"View post Anki, the best of spaced repetition software\" href=\"..\/?p=239\">Anki, the best of spaced repetition software<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"View post Spaced repetition isn\u2019t rote learning\" href=\"..\/?p=659\">Spaced repetition isn\u2019t rote learning<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"View post Vocabulary in your pocket\" href=\"..\/?p=468\">Vocabulary in your pocket<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=281\">Diversified learning is smart learning<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=372\">Dealing with tricky vocabulary: Killing leeches<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=1221 \">Answer buttons and how to use SRS<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=3108\">Measurable progress is a double-edged sword<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=3164\">You can&#8217;t learn Chinese characters by rote<\/a><\/li>\n<li>\u00a0<a href=\" http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=3145\">Towards a more sensible way of learning to write Chinese<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=3395\">Is your flashcard deck too big for your own good?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=2958\">If you think spaced repetition software is a panacea, you are wrong<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Creating your own flashcard is not a waste of time, even if you can find the deck you want on the internet. I have created a fair number of public decks and wouldn&#8217;t have downloaded those decks even if they would have been available at the time. Creating your own flashcards gives you control over your deck and facilitates learning in many other ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,10,14,22],"tags":[47,162,213,362,523],"class_list":["post-3999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advanced","category-beginner","category-intermediate","category-learning-outside-class","category-vocabulary","tag-anki","tag-decks","tag-flashcards","tag-manual-editing","tag-skritter"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why manually adding and editing flashcards is good for you<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Creating your own flashcard is not a waste of time, even if you can find the deck you want on the internet. I have created a fair number of public decks and wouldn&#039;t have downloaded those decks even if they would have been available at the time. Creating your own flashcards gives you control over your deck and facilitates learning in many other ways.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why manually adding and editing flashcards is good for you\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Creating your own flashcard is not a waste of time, even if you can find the deck you want on the internet. I have created a fair number of public decks and wouldn&#039;t have downloaded those decks even if they would have been available at the time. Creating your own flashcards gives you control over your deck and facilitates learning in many other ways.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hacking Chinese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HackingChinese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-22T21:00:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-31T18:59:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/UniversalEditButton3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Olle Linge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@HackingChinese\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@HackingChinese\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Olle Linge\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Olle Linge\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fd696a7384c7de665cc9d67c15205b15\"},\"headline\":\"Why manually adding and editing flashcards is good for you\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-22T21:00:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-31T18:59:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1016,\"commentCount\":13,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/UniversalEditButton3.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Anki\",\"Decks\",\"Flashcards\",\"Manual editing\",\"Skritter\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Advanced\",\"Beginner\",\"Intermediate\",\"Learning outside class\",\"Vocabulary\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\\\/\",\"name\":\"Why manually adding and editing flashcards is good for you\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/why-manually-adding-and-editing-flashcards-is-good-for-you\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.hackingchinese.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/08\\\/UniversalEditButton3.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-08-22T21:00:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-31T18:59:32+00:00\",\"description\":\"Creating your own flashcard is not a waste of time, even if you can find the deck you want on the internet. 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I have created a fair number of public decks and wouldn't have downloaded those decks even if they would have been available at the time. 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