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Once youve created and memorized a lot of ashcards (I recently passed 20,000
ashcardsgeesh), youll start to notice that not all cards are created equal. Some
ashcards are easy to remember, theyteach you precisely what you want to learn, and
they generally make you smile when you see them. Others make you want to throw your
smartphone out the window. Good ashcards can make the di erence between sticking
with a language until uency or giving up after a few months, so Im making this guide to
the Pictorial Superiority E ect.The basic idea is that we remember pictures ridiculously
well, and we pretty much suck at remembering words. Unfortunately for us, languages
are full ofwords, not pictures, so at least on the surface, were screwed.
than pictures alone. Why? You wrestle with the meaning of that word
in conjunction with the picture. Why is APPLE there? What does that
So add pictures. All the time (at least on one side of each ashcard). Youll remember a bit
better if those pictures havesomething to do with what youre learning, but that
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shouldnt be hard, given the 45 billion images currently hanging out on Google Images.
I never used to do this (in my personal French deck, for instance, most of my grammar
cards are just ll in the blank exercises without pictures), but I started adding pictures to
my grammar exercises in Russian, and it made ahugedi erence. Now I dont make any
words. For the rst couple of months, Russian kicked my butt. I dutifully made my cards,
added pictures, and studied daily, and yet couldnt seem to remember anything for longer
than two weeks. Sometimes you need more stimulation than a single ashcard to
remember information thats particularly far removed from your every-day experiences.
For me, Russian words were simply too weird to remember easily, with their strange
sounds and odd-looking letters. Fortunately, you can make multiple, di erent ashcards
The more cards you make for a single topic, the easier and better youll memorize it. At
least for words, there are two main avors of ashcards worth using: cards that test
comprehension (whats achien?) and cards that test production (whats a furry animal
The former put the word alone on the front side of the card:
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Comprehension Cards
Your job is to think about what the word means. Thesecards do an awesome job of
building associations into a new word pictures, sounds, bits of grammar, etc. That way,
the next time you encounter that word in a new context while reading or listening, those
associations will come right back. In general, these cards have a single word or two on
their front sides without any added context. On the back, theyll have pictures, example
sentences, and any other goodies you decide to put on them.
If you move the word to the back side of the card (and the picture or context to the
Production Cards
These cards require you to recall a word (chien), its grammatical features (un
masculine), its spelling and its pronunciation. They work as reinforcement for passive
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cards and make the words easier to recall when you want to use them in speaking or
writing.
Ive tried to use exclusively production cards, thinking that I would save myself time, but
it didnt work; I couldnt remember chien if I didnt see the exact same dog picture,
which didnt happen very often in real life. Now, I do both types of cards whenever I can,
and I only skip the productive cards if Im sureI never want to say a word (but will
probably read it). When in doubt, just make both. Anki makes it easy to do this without
adding any extra time, and it will make your overall review process much easier. I keep
speaking or writing. I want to reinforce a words sound and usage whenever I can.
When you see words grouped together on vocabulary lists, you may be tempted to keep
them in their original groups. Why spend time making seven cards for the weekdays when
you could make one or two? In my rst French deck, I grouped together the days of the
week, the months of the year, various types of fruit, and anything else I could jam into a
single ashcard. This was unfortunate. Until I split them up, I wasnt able to remember any
of these words.
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Cards like these are problematic because your ability to recall each of the answers is
di erent. If you start o knowing Monday very well, Tuesday decently and
Wednesday poorly, then youll be repeating all three every time you have a problem
with any of them. Its too much, both from a time standpoint (why waste time repeating
Monday when you know it well already?) and from a learning standpoint (youre
repeating the card too often to push any words into long-term memory). Separate cards
like this into their smallest constituent parts, each with a single answer:
Whenever possible, your goal is to test one conceptper card, because it will save you
time in the long run. A simple card is easy to remember and helps produce a quick
response; you either know it or you dont, and if you dont, then youll repeat it until you
do. Net time wasted on Monday: seconds. Net time spent memorizing Wednesday
very well: seconds. Sweet.
A note: There are shades of grey when it comes to the one-concept idea.
Youre welcome is a single concept, but you certainly could make two
cards out of it if you wanted to: (Thank you! ___ welcome!) (Thank
you! Youre ___!). Over time, youll get a sense for how much information
you can store at once, but to begin, Id suggest that you aim for more,
simpler cards rather than fewer, more complex ones. Nearly every time Ive
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Both plate and dish are perfectly ne descriptions of this picture. Do you have to
remember bothof them?
Well, no. As long as one of those words comes to mind, youre doing just ne. Youll learn
each word separately through your comprehension cards anyways, so if someone holds a
gun to your head and demands synonyms, youll be ready for him (or her):
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This approach also works for words with multiple de nitions. A bar is usually for drinks,
but bars of gold and chocolate bars certainly exist. Cards like these arent a problem:
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But the other direction is trickier.What goes on the back side of this card?
Front side of
bar card
You have two options. You can either put the main de nition on the back side, or you can
put multiple de nitions on the back side (and if you remember any de nition, then mark it
as correct):
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Neither approach is better than the other, and I tend to use them interchangeably. In
both cases, youll tend to remember one de nition best, which then becomes the anchor
point for new de nitions. With that anchor in place, its very easy to connect a new
concept to the rst one (Chocolate bars use the same word as normal bars!), and a
single additional card (like card with the single picture of a chocolate bar, above) will be
enough to create that connection, making you an expert in all things bar-related.
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This was, arguably, one of the worst ideas ever. Weeks later, when I tried to remember
any of these words, I would remember both instead:
Whats the weather like today? Its very hot or cold today.
What did you think about the movie? Why, it was excellent/terrible. It was de nitely one
of the worst/best movies Ive ever seen. The lead actress was so beautiful/ugly, and she
It took me months to x the damage to my poor French, and I dont know if my French
ever forgave me. Pay close attention when making cards for closely related ideas, and
make them as independent as possible. Your language will thank you. This applies to
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thematically related words like stoplight, crosswalk, street and sidewalk and antonyms
like cold/hot:
Your brain is quite good at being lazy (and e cient). Over the course of practicing a card,
you will memorize the words closest to the missing word, and youll tend to ignore the
rest of the card. In this case, you will commit to memory the following: in some month
of some year, the spork is the. Unfortunately, this is totally useless. Keep your questions
as simple and direct as possible, and you will be rewarded with robust, useful memories:
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What?
Understand what youre teaching yourself before you memorize it. While there is a place
isnt the most e ective use of your time. Use examples you can understand, and youll
learn more from them:
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Good: Straightforward,
comprehensible examples work
best
This card is concise, clear and comprehensible. Heres the problem: When you read an
incorrect sentence, youre more likely to believe that its correct in the future, even if you
know its incorrect originally. I just made you more likely to say you eats hamburgers in
the future. Now Ive done it twice. Sorry. Known as the Truth E ect, it makes familiar
things more credible than less familiar things, no matter how untrustworthy the
source.Every time you read a mistake like this, youre more likely to do the mistake in the
future, so if you wish to put corrections into your ashcards, do it like this:
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If you rearrange mistakes into ll-in-the-blank tests, you eliminate the Truth E ect, and
get an e ective, concise ashcard in the process. You can use this type of card to teach
yourself grammar.
What about when you make a mistake by accident? Youll be making thousands of cards,
Do whatever you can to avoid this, but if it happens, youll nd that these cards will cause
trouble all the time. Youll have serious trouble remembering erroneous cards for more
than two weeks. This is a good thing. Your brain is very good at picking out
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inconsistencies. If you feed it ashcards with con icting information, it will sound an
If you notice that youre having major di culties memorizing what appear to be easy
cards, double check to make sure that you dont have an unintentional error lurking
somewhere. Either you will nd an error, or your cards are too hard. Thank your brain, x
Thats it! If you have questions and additional suggestions, leave them in the comments!
Gabriel Wyner
I am an author, opera singer and polyglot based in Chicago, IL. After reaching uency in German
in 14 weeks with the help of the immersive Middlebury Language Schools, I fell in love with the
process of language learning, going on to spend two months in intensive Italian courses in
Perugia, Italy. Searching for ways to bring the immersion experience into the home, I began to
develop a system that rapidly builds uency in short, daily sessions. In 2010, my e orts paid o . I
learned French to uency in 5 months, and Russian in 9 months. After Russian, I started writing
my book, working on a related Kickstarter project, and studying languages at a more relaxed
pace, learning Hungarian and a good chunk of Japanese over the course of a year and a half each.
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