Flash Cards Archives

Remember Your Spanish with Flashcards

Friday, March 4th, 2011 at 3:19 pm  
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How do you remember words that you learn? If you don’t do anything to remember them, chances are that they float gently out of your memory over time.

I am a fan of using flashcards, and I have used paper ones and electronic ones. I like them both. When I was in Mexico, I did some articles about using them. Here is a list of them, taken right off my sitemap.

If you click on the first link, you will go to a page that shows the beginnings of the articles, so you can read a bit and then click through on the ones that interest you. Or just guess from the titles here and go right to them.

Whatever you do to work on your Spanish, do include flashcards and remember more of what you have learned. My free ebook, available in the sidebar of this page, explains more of how things move from short-term to long-term memory.

Now I Am Liking Physical Flash Cards More

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 8:50 am  
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I use an old checkbook box and cut-up index cards. The three labels say Learning, Reviewing, and Know.

I’ve written about using flash cards for learning Spanish before, but most of that has been about using inexpensive or free programs that you can use on your computer. (Scroll down and click on Flash Cards in the sidebar to see those articles.)

Today I want to make a case for using physical flash cards… as well as, or instead of, the computer kind.

Why? Because I consider all  flash cards to be an important tool in remembering what you have studied or heard someplace. Physical ones have some benefits I will mention shortly.

The way our memories work, if we review a new word or phrase at increasing intervals,  we have a far better chance of its entering our long-term memories than if we don’t review it. Now that I have more gray hair than brown, I really notice the benefits of reviewing, but this concept is true at all ages.

Language scholars have varying ideas about how often you should review, and some of these ideas are worked into the computer programs. In a nutshell, here is a simple scheme that you can use: Click to read more >>>

Oops, Been Bogging Down on Flashcards

Monday, February 2nd, 2009 at 8:41 am  
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I am convinced that using computer flashcards  is an incredibly valuable way to learn Spanish vocabulary.  Even essential — unless you are a child or have a photographic memory.

I feel even more strongly about this now than when I wrote my ebook Five Keys to Learning Spanish Rapidly — the link takes you to my page that describes it — and next time I revise it, I will improve the flashcards section.

But… recently I bogged down. You don’t need my  long list of excuses, but in a nutshell I got busy with other things and my long-term goal of speaking better Spanish almost disappeared off my radar.

This is not a “True Confessions” blog but when I wanted an article for today, it seemed to me that writing about bogging down might be useful, because we all do it.

Drifting away from studying Spanish (or practicing vocabulary with the flashcards) is not the problem.  Because,  as I said, it’s something we are all going to do now and then, sooner or later. The important question is how to get back into learning Spanish. This is different for everyone, and different for any one person at various times.

For me, a few days ago, the moment came when a Mexican friend used a word that I didn’t know,  even in context — and I knew that I had put that word into my flashcard program after she had used it once before.  That annoyed me so much that I ran the program  that evening. I gulped when I discovered I had almost a hundred words and phrases ready to review, but I caught up. And now I’m back on track, maybe not quite as diligently as at other times, but I’m doing it.

As I’ve been writing this, the old song “Pick Yourself Up” kept going through my mind.  I found a version at YouTube sung by one of my favorite singers, Diana Krall. Want a bit of motivation? Take about three minutes and go listen to Pick Yourself Up, Song by Diana Krall on YouTube.

And see if that helps your Spanish! Or whatever is really important to you right now. You can get the essence in the first 30 seconds, if you’re really rushed.

Tackling Past Tense Verbs with Flash Card Programs

Monday, January 12th, 2009 at 2:02 pm  
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I’m becoming more and more of a fan of using flash card programs, as I’ve been using VTrain long enough now ( a few weeks) to notice that I’m remembering things I tended to forget before.

So I decided to tackle past tense verbs with the help of flash cards. It’s been working great. I’m just working with the two main past tenses, the ones you would use to say, for example, “We ate at the new new restaurant last night” or “We were eating when….” Click to read more >>>

Flash Card Programs and Your Memory

Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 11:14 am  
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Of course you know how paper flash cards work, for learning Spanish or anything. You turn them over and see if you had it right, then make piles of which ones you know and which ones you don’t. I thought I was pretty creative a few years ago when I started putting my homemade cardstock Spanish flash cards into three piles: I know, I kinda know, I don’t know.

The flash card software you can get online takes that simple idea of

Click to read more >>>

VTrain Flashcard Software: A Review

Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 8:55 pm  
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When I was looking for a good Spanish flashcard program to use on my computer, I came across several recommendations for VTrain… that’s short for Vocabulary Trainer. You can download it and try it for 30 hours, after which the price is under $30; I paid about $24 US but am not sure if that was a brief special or not.  They have the noteworthy comment, “If you honestly can’t afford the list price, contact us for a discount or a free license” and there is a part of the site where they describe what they will do, especially for people in poorer countries.

To  practice at first, you can use some sample card decks that come with the program, but generally you will want to make your own decks, to have exactly the words or phrases you want to learn.

Here’s what the program looked like after I got it going: Click to read more >>>

Anki: A Popular Free Spanish Flash Card Program

Saturday, December 27th, 2008 at 12:04 pm  
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Anki is a free language flash card program for Windows, Mac, Linux, and some mobile platforms which I turned to after exploring another one called Mnemosyne. For an overview of Spanish flash card programs, this link takes you to my first article in this series. I really liked Anki, but ended up myself with another program called VTrain, which I will review next.

After spending an hour or two with Mnemosyne, Anki was more complicated but I was able to ignore some of the advanced features to get started. I found its grading system easier to use than that of Mnemosyne, and I really liked that the program told you how long it would be till you saw the card again.

The series of short online videos — made by the creator of the program — got me up to speed right away. I like how the videos give you an explanation Click to read more >>>

Mnemosyne: A Free Spanish Flash Card Program

Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 11:30 am  
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Mnemosyne is one of two free programs descended from a commercial flash card program called SuperMemo. SuperMemo  exists but I found a number of references online to its being buggy and these two programs being better than it, so I didn’t pursue it. The other free program is Anki, which I will review in my next article in this series. See my overview of flash cards for some comments about why I think flash card programs are a really important part of learning Spanish.

Click to read more >>>

Spanish Flash Card Programs: An Overview

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 at 9:55 am  
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There are flash card programs that will present you with the cards at intervals that correspond to how our memories work, and they come in both free and low cost versions. I examined three programs that seem to be widely used. I will do reviews soon on each one of these, with screenshots:

  • the free Mnemosyne (for Windows, Mac, and Linux), basic but effective.
  • Anki , also free (for Windows, Mac, Debian/Ubuntu Linux, iphone/iPod, Zaurus, and Windows Mobile) with more features than Mnemosyne.
  • VTrain, around $24 US with a free trial period (for Windows, which can also run on Mac or Linux by using programs which emulate Windows, like Wine). I ended up with this one for myself. Click to read more >>>
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