There are a lot of people out there who hate on SRS programs like Anki. A computer program can only help you so much, they say. And, to a certain extent, I agree with these people. Looking at words on a computer screen is not the most effective way to learn individual words. However, it's the best way I know of to systematically retain large volumes of words, which is what we're trying to do.

But let's look at some other ways that we can really get these words to stick…

As you study, you'll come across some words that you'll want to be able to use in conversation, along with words that seem to always give you problems.

If you're doing flashcards on your phone, you can always take screenshots of these words, then look at them in a photos folder when you're bored and have nothing to do. It's like double Anki!

You can also set them aside in a list of “words I want to use," for example, and you can try to use them the next time you take a lesson on italki, write a journal entry on Lang-8, or talk to your cat.

The other day, I was reading a very interesting article on How to Learn Spanish Online titled, “How to Learn Vocabulary, Especially Foreign Language Vocab – And I Mean LEARN, Not Just Memorize." Yeah, it's kind of a long title. If you have some free time, I recommend reading the entire article. If you're feeling lazy daisy, though, I'll give a brief overview of some key points that I think are quite helpful for learning vocabulary words.

Like any BA language site these days, the author of that article does in fact recommend using Anki… because, well, it's awesome. At the same time, however, he points out there learning and memorizing are quite different concepts.

For example, I have over 17,000 Japanese flashcards (Note: I actually have quite a bit more than this now, but I can't keep updating this number every time I learn a new Japanese word! ^_^).

Of those 17,000, I'd guess that around 14,000 are vocabulary words. I feel pretty comfortable saying that I know and understand at least 14,000 Japanese words. However, there is no way that I can use that many in conversations. There is a huge difference between being able to understand a word and being able to use a word. Just because you study a bunch of vocabulary on Anki does not mean that you'll be able to use those vocabulary when interacting with Japanese people.

Granted, there are times when I suddenly blurt out a word that is in my flashcards for the first time, and I feel quite proud of myself, but usually when I gain the ability to use a word in a sentence that I've created, it's thanks to a bit of extra attention and effort.

In that article about learning Spanish words above, there is quite a bit about substituting words for others that you can visualize and using a variety of mnemonics similar to those I talked about earlier in this guide. Personally, I've never gone above and beyond trying to “learn" vocabulary words. I just make lists of words I want to be able to use, then I make an effort to use them the next time I'm speaking in Japanese.

This is most helpful if you're talking with someone who will correct you, because there is nothing that will help you remember better than a stupid mistake. And trust me, we are going to make some stupid mistakes, and people are going to laugh at us. And we'll laugh along and play nice, but deep down we'll feel shame and self-loathing, which are two great tools for memorizing vocabulary.

With that, we're finished with Chain Item #1. Here's a picture of a bald guy with lightning bolts coming out of his head (because, of course):

Moving on…