Any use anki?
I started using anki which is a great flashcard program. I like the program on here, but anki allows you to pick how well you are able to recall a word, and then it trains you based how well you remember. Similar to what pimselur does.
Anyone have a list of good sets?
18 Answers
I would recommend this program to anyone, but I would avoid single translations for words with multiple meanings, and do that only for those like "acera", where there is a perfect one to one match. With words with multiple uses I would focus on complete sentences.
Three new things long time users might not know about:
(1) Anki is now available for mobile devices!!
(2) There now is an online web only version.
(3) You can search for decks you may want to download and use.
I would recommend this program to anyone, but I would avoid single translations for words with multiple meanings, and do that only for those like "acera", where there is a perfect one to one match. With words with multiple uses I would focus on complete sentences.
I agree with this assessment. I have used Anki in the past and found that the most effective manner to use it was simply to search the internet for instances in which the word or expression was used in context and then to dedicate about a half dozen or so cards for each of these sentences (for a given word or expression). Studying each expression in various contexts is often a far more productive manner of studying than to follow the word/translation method that is often employed by flashcard users.
The truth, however, is that I stopped using Anki a while back, in favor of other audio visual media. I would have liked to have been able to couple the spaced repetition of Anki with audio/visual files, but sentence mining for such material proved to be extremely tedious and inefficient at the time.
On the other hand, I have long felt that if there were some sort of "Anki exchange," it would be a very effective study tool. That is, if there were some repository where English and Spanish natives might add 5 or 6 voice recordings per theme for their respective languages (that is 5 or 6 example sentences per target word/expression), these could then be used to great advantage to the language learner when coupled with Anki's system of spaced repetition. In this way, an Anki users could work in unison with others to build a library of useful audio resources that would be available to learners of multiple languages.
Even if there were no online repository, Anki users of different language backgrounds might still be able to help one another by simply "trading" phrases and expressions in a similar manner, i.e. 5 or 6 sentences per theme (perhaps using an online format such as youtube or archive.org). In any case, these are just some ideas that have run through my mind in the past in regards to Anki.
A post about AnkiDroid was mistakenly marked spam. 
AnkiDroid is free, safe, and open source software. SD members might find it a useful upgrade/addition
All the instructional videos are on youtube. You should definitely watch the first three or four videos to get the most out of it (there are seven in all, but the last one pertains specifically to Japanese language support so you can skip it). The main advantage of Anki system over traditional flashcards is that each "item" in the deck can be programmed with more than 2 fields (e.g. front and back). You could have one item in the deck that includes lots of things... word, definition, example sentences, part of speech, etc and then generate several different cards quizzing the info in that item in different ways.
For example, you could enter an item in your deck with the following info:
word: beber definition: to drink sentence: Yo bebo cerveza.
Then, using "models," you set up card templates to take this deck entry and generate multiple cards that test recognition and recall seperately. For example:
Q: What is the definition of "beber"? A: To drink
Q: What is the spanish word meaning "to drink"? A: beber
Q: What does beber mean in the following sentence: Yo bebo cerveza. A: To drink.
It sounds a little complicated, but it really isn't when you get the hang of it.
My anki is of no use whatsoever. Having used it for 3 years without washing it, it now has the texture of a paper bag, should probably throw it away...
One of the students on my course very kindly copied all the vocabulary lists from our course books. They are probably a bit basic for you Heidita but if anyone else wants a look they are under Portales Book 1 to book 6.
The flashcards are great now I have them downloaded but I find their actual website very confusing, or I would post a link to the cards.
I started using this program last week and now I am literally ADDICTED to building vocab! It's awesome. I've learned like 200 words so far this week. The interface takes a little getting used to, but if you take time to watch the intro videos and learn about more advanced features like templating and modeling then you can really take your spanish learning to the next level. I'd definitely recommend it to everyone.
Yeah, I've been using it since I started learning Spanish and have some odd 4000 words in my vocab set and around 1500 phrases in my phrase set. It's the nicest flashcard thing I've used and is really great for me. Basically anytime I find a new word or an expression that I want to remember I just pop it into anki.
You might also want to check out Memrise.com. It works similarly to Anki, in that it is flashcard-based graduated interval memorization training. It is a growing (and free) website and there are TONS of vocabulary, phrase, and idiom lists not only in Spanish, but many other languages as well. I have been using it for about the last 6 or 8 months and love it.
I think these kinds of programs (Anki, Memrise, etc.) are the single best vocabulary-building tools out there. I have found them to be far superior to simply studying vocabulary books. The secret lies in continually coming back to the newly-learned word/phrase and reinforcing it at increasingly large intervals.
And no, I am not associated with the Memrise.com website -- other than as a happy user.
Totally. I luckily found it a few months ago right when I started getting more serious about Spanish. I use it every day, although it's beginning to take quite a while, at least, longer than the recommended ten minute practice (I stuck with the default 20 words per day). Give it a shot!
De verdad. Suertamente, lo encontré deste hace unos meses cuando me entró a estar más decidido sobre el español. Lo uso todos los días, pero empieza a llevar mucho tiempo, al menos, más que la practica recomendada de diez minutos (me quedé con la opción por defecto de 20 palabras cada día). ¡Próbalo!
Thanks I appreciate that I wanted to know what specifically some of the other users were using though
Can anyone recommend or send me a link via pm for a great card set?
Ion, ANKI looks good. I installed and started reading the list of flashcard sets. I found 3 sets in Spanish before I started to try one of them. Works great!!
I haven't seen any videos except the first one. Where are they? Can the Spanish sets be isolated from the amino acids, etc.?
Thanks for bringing ANKI to my attention. I really like the way the Spanish is in sentences and not isolated words. [Edit: The creator of the set made the cards of this particular set in sentences.]
I recommend it to anyone, it's really useful. I started to use it but stopped for some reason, I should get back into it.
