Perhaps no study tool receives as much conflicting, competing, and heated advice as that surrounding the use of flashcards and spaced repetition systems (SRSs). However, using (and understanding how to use) flashcards and an SRS is essential to learning Japanese efficiently. So allow me to enter the fray.
The benefits to using flashcards to learn Japanese are well understood. But that doesn’t mean it’s obvious how to use flashcards in an efficient manner. The key to using flashcards efficiently is understanding what flashcards are doing for you in the first place.
Flashcards help you learn a piece of information so that you do not forget it, ideally in the least amount of time and with the least amount of effort possible. Flashcards are a method of study, and not to be confused with inputting, which is the only path to fluency. This means flashcards alone will never lead you to truly understand a language. But if used properly, flashcards can take you to the edge of understanding in a flash.
And that’s because flashcards are the fastest way to practice a language.
Why Do We Practice?
If you are learning how to do something entirely new, practicing is a key first step. Whether it is learning how to swing a tennis racket or learning a new word, practice is what helps you build the foundation that allows you to ultimately play a tennis match or understand a conversation. Practice primes your mind and body so that you can engage with an unfamiliar activity effectively.
The key feature of practice is that it is not the real thing–it is an isolated, simplified study.
Practicing removes variables that would otherwise limit your ability to repeat an action over and over again. In a practice setting, it’s easy to hit 10 forehands in a minute. Compare that to a tennis match where you will alternate between hitting forehands, backhands, serving, and volleying. And that’s assuming you can get the ball over the net in the first place. By practicing your forehand—an isolated study—you can get more reps in over a shorter period of time than you would otherwise by going live.
And getting reps in is key, because repetition is the key to learning something new.
Repetition helps us learn because it builds the neural infrastructure required to perform a new skill. Repetition forces your synapses to fire in a specific way, which will initially forge new neural pathways in your brain. With continued repetitions, you will myelinate the neurons along those new pathways to make synaptic transmission efficient. In this way repetition wires your brain so you can do something new, and then do it well.
Repetition also has the benefit of helping you avoid the frustration of “forgetting” what you are trying to learn. Forging neural pathways is hard work because by definition, you don’t know how to do what you are trying to learn. This means you will have to repeat your attempts multiple times to lay the necessary neural infrastructure to perform a new skill. But to make matters worse, neural pathways erode if they are not reinforced, and newly formed pathways can fall apart quickly. This means that even if you have something down on day 1, you may have forgotten how to do it by day 4.
Practice is a low-effort and quick way to get repetitions in so you forge and reinforce neural pathways so you don’t lose the benefits of the effort you have already put in. This is the key insight behind an SRS, which is an app that uses algorithms to determine when you need to practice a flashcard to avoid forgetting. By determining when you are about to forget, the SRS will have you practice the relevant flashcard at the right time. In this way, the SRS is able to minimize the amount of time you spend practicing.
This is great, because it means you can rely on a SRS to keep your brain primed for when you encounter the information you practiced in the wild (i.e., by inputting).
Practicing By Itself Will Not Create True Understanding
Practicing is effective because it allows you to efficiently get the repetitions you need so you can build the necessary neural infrastructure required to perform a new skill as quickly as possible. But gaining quick reps in an isolated, static environment does not create the finesse that is required to execute this same skill when you are in the full, dynamic environment. This means that to truly learn a new skill, you must move beyond practice to execution in the real world.
Just as martial artists have not learned a new technique until they have executed it while sparring, you will not learn a word in Japanese until you recognize and understand it while inputting. Martial artists will spend countless hours practicing a single technique with a motionless opponent before trying to execute it in a live spar. Practicing a technique prepares them to learn it by forging the foundational neural pathways and making their movements efficient. But their understanding will remain incomplete until the technique is successfully executed in a live spar and the correct neural pathway is established.
Similarly, the SRS will help direct your practice of new information in Japanese so you efficiently forge and maintain neural pathways for new words, phrases and kanji that you want to learn. But the SRS will only prime your mind to learn the information you have practiced. You will need to successfully execute what you have practiced in the real world to learn and complete the construction of your primed neural pathways.
This means you should practice flashcards no more than is necessary to prime your brain for understanding, and then input until you acquire understanding. Doing otherwise will waste your time and delay your learning.
Keep in mind that just as it takes time and effort to build your rough neural infrastructure through practice, it takes time and effort to go from primed to learn to learned. Successfully making this leap may not happen on your first, second, third, or even your hundredth attempt in the real world. Practicing does not guarantee a smooth and easy transition to understanding—it merely puts you in a position to have a shot at understanding.
It’s obvious that executing a martial arts technique you practiced against a motionless opponent is far more difficult to execute when your opponent is simultaneously trying to take you down. Similarly, understanding a word in spoken conversation that you have practiced may not happen even if you know it is coming and recognize when it is said! When that happens, don’t beat yourself up—recognize that this is just how learning works.
Flashcards Will Not Make You Fluent (But They Help)
You should see now that flashcards—and the SRS systems that direct your study—are a tool for practicing. Flashcards can help you pick up rarely used words if you are fluent, or help lay the foundation of essential vocabulary if you are a beginner. Flashcards are a quick way to get the reps you need so your mind is primed and ready to try and understand what you have practiced in the real world.
Used properly, flashcards can help you learn Japanese at a ridiculous velocity. The key is to use flashcards just enough so you are primed to learn and no more. This way you can spend your time dialing in your understanding by inputting Japanese in the wild instead of wasting your time with unnecessary repetitions.