326 pages
English language
Published Sept. 6, 2014 by Harmony Books.
I agree with the advice in the book, though most of it I've already heard before. This book does emphasize how important it is to make your own cards (which I've never done before and am now motivated to do).
This book proposes three basic keys to language learning:
1. Learn pronunciation first
2. Don’t translate
3. Use spaced repetition systems (an “SRS”, like Anki)
It also has some other things building on those, but the main focus is on using an SRS to achieve your goals. Helpfully, it goes into how to use what are basically flash cards to learn more complex mnemonic devices, as well as abstract concepts and grammar. This is really where the book shines. It could however benefit from more non-English examples just to act as full L2 example cards. It does, surprisingly and refreshingly, argue for the benefits of creating your own cards instead of downloading or reusing someone else’s. Overall, a lot of practical language-learning advice that I look forward to experimenting with.
time to admit i'm never going to finish this book.
while a lot of the contents are interesting and could be quite helpful, i found the authors fanatical devotion to Anki a bit off putting. the last quarter of the book is just an in depth Anki tutorial, and while it's free on the web is exorbitantly priced for iPhone, where I do most of my on the go learning. to top it off things like Memrise which ARE free across ll platforms and work very similarly are never mentioned.
ah well, I learned some interesting Language learning stuff and will probably put some of it to use on the next language I learn.
time to admit i'm never going to finish this book.
while a lot of the contents are interesting and could be quite helpful, i found the authors fanatical devotion to Anki a bit off putting. the last quarter of the book is just an in depth Anki tutorial, and while it's free on the web is exorbitantly priced for iPhone, where I do most of my on the go learning. to top it off things like Memrise which ARE free across ll platforms and work very similarly are never mentioned.
ah well, I learned some interesting Language learning stuff and will probably put some of it to use on the next language I learn.
