[dgs_sgd]

I've used Anki every day for almost a year now for Spanish vocabulary. My deck has over 4000 cards. Most are one-to-one translations of nouns and verbs, but some are phrases and Spanish idioms.

To your first point, it has basically become a habit for me. The key is to really commit to it for the first several weeks and establish the habit, then you won't feel tired of it as reviewing your cards daily becomes something you "just do".

Definitely agree with point 2. The Anki practice really shines when I combine it with my conversational practice. Memorizing the words alone doesn't make me a better speaker, but it does mean there's a lot fewer "what's the word?" moments in the middle of a conversation.

I believe Anki memorization + regular conversational practice is second only to full immersion as the best learning strategy.

[Jtsummers]

> I believe Anki memorization + regular conversational practice is second only to full immersion as the best learning strategy.

I'd extend this:

  Memory + Synthesis = Useful learning strategy

Blindly learning facts with no intent to synthesize them into something else will help you win at trivia contests. Learning to integrate those facts into something else (like conversation, with languages) is how you effectively learn. Both aspects are needed in order to become effective at whatever subject you're studying.

That said, with Anki or any other tool these rules are incredibly handy:

https://www.supermemo.com/en/archives1990-2015/articles/20ru...

[a9h74j]

When I first heard the term "revising your notes" I assumed it meant the kind of synthesis you speak of, or at least finding errors in lecture material. No, apparently it just means looking at them again, at least as a minimum.

[michrassena]

I believe "revision" is used in British English to mean reviewing or studying.

[ru-lai]

Nice man. Yes, why not use both immersion and spaced repetition?

[Jtsummers]

Immersion is great if you can do it. When I traveled up Argentina to visit my wife’s family I wrote down a lot of words and phrases that were new to me for cards.