Can not remember anything!?

[chatmonchyonna7449]

I have been studying Japanese for about 2 years and I feel I cannot get very far because I can't learn any new words. I always ALWAYS forget a word I practice. Either I will forget the meaning but not the word or forget the word but not the meaning. but most of the time I just completely forget it. Even if I say it and read it and write it 100 times over over and practice saying it all day, I do not remember at all.

So when it comes up when I hear Japanese being spoken, I can't understand any of it because I don't identify any words. This is very very frustrating!

Can someone please tell me any methods or techniques they use to memorize vocabulary? I know it takes a lot of repetition and practice, but even that does not work for me. Maybe I just have a bad memory. What should I do? I need help!!!

[Javizy]

You could read something 10,000 times in a day and still forget it, unfortunately. The key isn't in the volume of review, but the timing of it.

Your mind has no way of determining if a piece of information you learn is important, and discards it after a relatively short period of time, which is why you forget things. If you review it before that happens, it's seen as important and the memory is strengthened. If you repeat this process with increasingly spaced intervals, eventually you'll remember it permanently.

So, rather than reviewing something all day and not testing your memory at all, try reviewing it once the next day, once three days later, once a week later, and so on. If something is especially easy or difficult, you can adjust the interval accordingly.

However, when you're dealing with thousands of vocabulary items, this is extremely difficult to manage. What I described above is what's known as a spaced repetition system (SRS). There are a number of applications which can digitally take care of your review scheduling for you and make your Japanese studies much more efficient.

Check out Anki, which you can use (and synchronise) on your desktop, online and a number of mobile platforms. Alternatively, try http://smart.fm/

[kageri]

I agree with Javizy on that. But I wanna add something: for me it's also hard to remember words without a relation. I tried to learn vocabulary and kanji by list (JLPT^^), but couldn't memorize them at all. I gave up on JLPT (for the time being) and just enjoyed learning japanese more. Now I memorize the words by hearing a nice sentence or reading something interesting. ANKI is a good way but you should use whole sentences in your decks. For example, if you listen to a jpod lesson and hear something interesting, put it in ANKI, or if you read a manga, do the same. This way its easier to memorize vocabulary (at least for me^^).

[BruceWizayne]

Well, we each learn differently.
I tried to cram words just like you but it didn't work for me. So now, I just look stuff up that I don't know. Its slowly effective as I'm starting to not have to refer to my dictionary for the same stuff over and over.

[joanjoshi8604]

I'm new in Japanese language as well, only know how to pronounce a very few simple phrases. I still do not know how to recognize japanese words. I'm starting my 1st class this evening, looking forward to it.

Take your time, don't rush. I think the most important is to enjoy the learning process

[kristinwold]

Hello Chatmon,
I have been learning Japanese for 2 years also and I have struggled with the same thing, particularly learning new vocabulary. I've tried flash cards, but translations just wouldn't stick. Recently, I made a breakthrough: I found that my keen interest in kanji will be my method for vocabulary memorization. I've just taken JLPT N4, so I'm still a lower-intermediate at best. However, I have learned 540 kanji and now that I can picture words in kanji, I can remember the meanings much more easily. For example, I recently learned the kanji that shows up in 表面、表紙、代表、etc. and almost immediately remembered the associated vocabulary. Since I now see this is working for me, I'm going to continue accumulating kanji as quickly as I can even though it's far outpacing my grammar, listening, etc. When I hear a new word that I want to remember, I add the associated kanji to my collection. (I use White Rabbit Press kanji cards). As mentioned, everyone learns differently, but if you are interested in kanji, perhaps this will work for you too. Good luck to you. I hope you don't get too discouraged.
Kristin

[macanudo]

I agree with kageri and javizy,

SRS or Spaced Repetition Systems are incredibly powerful, but in order for the vocabulary to be useful you need to have some kind of context. At a lower level, it can be a little difficult to find the volume of material you need to 'naturally' absorb vocabulary. Jpod definitely has a huge back catalog to pull from though, so simply listening and practicing the lessons will really help the vocab sink in.

I've found watching Tv dramas, reading books aimed at elementary school kids, and playing the occasional Japanese video game has helped put a lot of vocabulary into context. Also, I just try to use words that I learn as soon as I can. These options might be a little difficult for those outside of Japan, but there are ways of getting around the geographical limitations. For example, you could comment on a lesson using the new vocab you learned.