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I finally did it. I broke $100k!
Thread poster: Michael Marcoux
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 11:16
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
To each their own. Feb 11, 2021

Rachel Waddington wrote:

Lingua 5B wrote:

Dan Lucas wrote:

Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei wrote:
This is a great idea. Hope you don't mind if I copy it!

I used paper flash cards when learning the kanji 30 years ago. I used Anki when learning Chinese 10 years ago. Anki is a far superior solution.

Kind of surprised it's not better known by a bunch of linguists like the esteemed members of this forum.

Regards,
Dan


I somehow managed to learn things and get education without those cards, miraculously.


Me too, but new ideas are always good, right?


If it helps someone, I support it. I found inconsistencies in his report, ie. he took the time to gather 5,000 flash cards then saying how it saves him time. Hm, that's a contradictory statement. It probably took him quite some time to collect them and prepare/update them.


 
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei  Identity Verified
Ghana
Local time: 10:16
Japanese to English
What's strange about it? Feb 11, 2021

Lingua 5B wrote:

If it helps someone, I support it. I found inconsistencies in his report, ie. he took the time to gather 5,000 flash cards then saying how it saves him time. Hm, that's a contradictory statement. It probably took him quite some time to collect them and prepare/update them.

It's not that strange. Anki is a memorization aid, more or less. Yes, it will take some time to compile and revise all 5,000 cards. However once you've got all the critical terms memorized, you can dictate your translations quickly without stopping to look up unfamiliar words or check a dictionary.

Think of it as 100 hours of work upfront in exchange for 25% less time spent on all future projects (random numbers off the top of my head). If you work in a field where the same terms come up again and again, it's a move worth considering.


Michele Fauble
Dan Lucas
 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 11:16
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Not everybody has the same memorization or learning style. Feb 11, 2021

Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei wrote:

Lingua 5B wrote:

If it helps someone, I support it. I found inconsistencies in his report, ie. he took the time to gather 5,000 flash cards then saying how it saves him time. Hm, that's a contradictory statement. It probably took him quite some time to collect them and prepare/update them.

It's not that strange. Anki is a memorization aid, more or less. Yes, it will take some time to compile and revise all 5,000 cards. However once you've got all the critical terms memorized, you can dictate your translations quickly without stopping to look up unfamiliar words or check a dictionary.

Think of it as 100 hours of work upfront in exchange for 25% less time spent on all future projects (random numbers off the top of my head). If you work in a field where the same terms come up again and again, it's a move worth considering.


Fine. All this doesn't mean it'll be suitable for everyone. Not everybody has the same memorization or learning style.

You just described the process of translation memory or glossary creation that we pull up when/if we need a term. In CAT tools it pops up on its own. Most of us are already doing it in one way or the other.

If the same term comes up again and again, I won't need any reminders, it'll stick on its own.

[Edited at 2021-02-11 11:12 GMT]


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Anki panki Feb 11, 2021

It's certainly an interesting idea but (1) I just can't imagine ever finding or needing 5,000 terms, and (2) if they come up time and time again in your work, wouldn't you remember them simply from using them?

Flashcards also give me flashbacks to obnoxiously pushy parents...

But if they work for you, that's great!


 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:16
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
This and that Feb 11, 2021

Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei wrote:
To clarify, I've been using pre-made Anki decks to learn Korean recently, but I hadn't thought of creating glossaries for Japanese terminology. In the future, anything that gives me a hard time will be going straight to my new deck.

Ah, I see, sorry, I misunderstood. That's what I do - maintain a spreadsheet of obscure terms for export to an Anki deck. Although I am usually looking not so much for a definition but for a thesaurus-like view of similar terms.

Lingua 5B wrote:
I somehow managed to learn things and get education without those cards, miraculously.

So did I, but there are better ways (for me at least). I learned Welsh by a kind of osmosis as a child, French in secondary school without any cards, Japanese with paper cards as a university student, and Chinese with spaced repetition cards on my smartphone as adult in a successful career. For me, the latter approach was by far the most efficient.

he took the time to gather 5,000 flash cards then saying how it saves him time. Hm, that's a contradictory statement. It probably took him quite some time to collect them and prepare/update them.

Well, I would disagree, because free time spent learning flash cards is different to the limited time you have when aiming at a deadline. If you can shave a few hours off the time required for a project of a given size (say, 5,000 words) compared to your peers, or compared to the you of a couple of years previously, then that's potentially a significant advantage when it comes to inducing a client to assign the job to you.

The client won't know or care that you invested 200 hours in learning flash cards at odd times of the day or night over the previous year. However, they might care that you can finish the job by Monday 09:00 instead of Monday 13:00, or 17:00. Or maybe the same efficiency allows you to take on multiple jobs in parallel with more relaxed deadlines. Can't really see it as a disadvantage.

Whatever. Different strokes, as you say. I have no reason to doubt the OP's motivation in posting this and I think it behoves us to be generous with our praise in such situations, rather than erring on the side of mean-spiritedness, so I'm determined to be happy for the OP.

Regards,
Dan


Christopher Schröder
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Rachel Waddington
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Michele Fauble
 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 11:16
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Interpreting. Feb 11, 2021

How would it look if he were an interpreter? Would he have 5,000 flash cards in front of him during interpreting session?

 
Rachel Waddington
Rachel Waddington  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:16
Dutch to English
+ ...
Anki etc. Feb 11, 2021

I have found the kind of spaced repetition provided by Memrise and presumably also Anki to be an extremely efficient way of learning.

I wouldn't use it for memorising terminology myself simply because in my work every customer tends to have their own particular name for each gizmo so learning them all would be a waste of effort.

For language learning in general, I think it's a great aid and can accelerate the process massively.

In any case, it's interesting
... See more
I have found the kind of spaced repetition provided by Memrise and presumably also Anki to be an extremely efficient way of learning.

I wouldn't use it for memorising terminology myself simply because in my work every customer tends to have their own particular name for each gizmo so learning them all would be a waste of effort.

For language learning in general, I think it's a great aid and can accelerate the process massively.

In any case, it's interesting to see how others approach things.
Collapse


Dan Lucas
Christopher Schröder
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
 
Thaís Caroline Silva
Thaís Caroline Silva  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 07:16
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Great advise for beginners Feb 11, 2021

I'm new here and l really liked your tips.

Christopher Schröder
Rachel Waddington
Eric Azevedo
 
Dan Lucas
Dan Lucas  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:16
Member (2014)
Japanese to English
If he has already memorised the flash cards... Feb 11, 2021

Lingua 5B wrote:
How would it look if he were an interpreter? Would he have 5,000 flash cards in front of him during interpreting session?

...he won't need them in front of him! Whether he's learned 5, 50, or 500, those terms will be in his head for prompt recall. I think that's the point of learning something by rote.

This is not intended to be a snippy comment, but you say that you've never used flash cards, so perhaps you have misunderstood how they are used?

Dan


Rachel Waddington
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Michele Fauble
 
Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member because it was not in line with site rule
IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
Local time: 05:16
English to Russian
+ ...
What's wrong with some colleagues? Feb 11, 2021

Just curious.

Diminishing, policing, patronizing, offending... What did OP do to you?

OMG, how right I was mentioning once before that translators' circle can turn into a nest of vipers in a flash, just like Hollywood or drama theater divas.

Michael, congratulations! I am very happy for you.

Irina


Michele Fauble
Christopher Schröder
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
Jennifer Richmond
Isabella Modanese
 
Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member because it was not in line with site rule
IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
Local time: 05:16
English to Russian
+ ...
Why should he? Feb 11, 2021

Lingua 5B wrote:


He left his original post announcing what he achieved and then did not interact one single bit with anyone throughout the thread


Yield to a rude, unfriendly and totally uncalled for interrogation by people who don't have an ounce of right to do so? I wouldn't answer a single question or proceed with the conversation with the tone set in this forum.

His only fault was to trust in goodness of comrade-in-arms and share a simple good news.

That's exactly why I'll never have any social media accounts - too many unsolicited advisers and self-righteous critics.

I doubt my posts will go through...


Christopher Schröder
Maciek Drobka
Beatriz Ramírez de Haro
 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Mervyn Henderson (X)  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 11:16
Spanish to English
+ ...
That's nothing Feb 11, 2021

I made three times as much as that only last month, and I was sick for at least half of it.

P.L.F. Persio
Christopher Schröder
Dan Lucas
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
That don’t impress me much Feb 11, 2021

I just gave four times as much to charity.

And I’m not Brad Pitt.


P.L.F. Persio
Mervyn Henderson (X)
Rachel Waddington
 
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I finally did it. I broke $100k!







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