Keeping track of everything

Question

I have Anki for vocabulary and it keeps it all organized. What do you guys do to save/organize phrases and new grammar rules (on the computer is best if you have any ideas)?

Gracias de antemano

Answer 1

I personally carry a small notebook with me most of the time. Since I am in a Spanish speaking country presently, I hear words and expressions that are new to me many times each day. On Saturday, a group of teens was being directed towards "la guagua". I learned that this is a term used for van, bus, etc., so I immediately wrote it down to look up later. I guess you could do this on a smaller electronic device, but I find the writing process better for my memory.

When I returned to the home I am staying in, I took out a larger binder I keep and listed that under the "Sustantivos"section. I have the binder divided by nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, etc. I also have a separate section for phrases, expressions and idioms. I just added ¿Qué fue?, which I heard a friend use repeatedly the other day. Ultimately, the goal is to have all of these new words and phrases committed to memory, but until that time, they remain in the binder.

You can organize vocabulary in a similar way on the computer. I just prefer to have it in writing. It helps with the learning process (for me). I can refer to it on the plane while waiting for takeoff or during times when electronic devices need to be turned off, bring it to the beach, etc. But basically, I just separate words according to which part of speech they are. I often write notes to the side as to when I heard or learned something or I might jot down who taught me the word and what the situation was. I have found that adding that bit of personal information cements it into my memory rather than just keeping lists and lists of vocabulary words that might not be necessarily important for me to learn just yet.

Answer 2

Hi Bafalck,

On Anki, to organise phrases and grammar rules, I assign tags to each card 'Pretérito', 'Imperfecto' etc. You can assign multiple tags to one card.