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How to actually remember words

Spaced repetition, what it is good at, and the point at which it stops helping.

Spaced repetition is the best-evidenced technique in language learning for one narrow job: moving individual items into long-term memory. Review a word just as you are about to forget it, and the interval before the next review lengthens. It works, it is not controversial, and most of the benefit comes from spacing at all rather than from any particular algorithm.

It is also frequently misused. Three rules make the difference.

Learn words in context, not as isolated pairs. A card that says 'to eat — खाना' teaches you a translation. A card with a short sentence teaches you the word doing its job, including the gender agreement and the postposition it takes.

Say the answer aloud before flipping. Recognition and production are different abilities, and only one of them is worth having. A deck reviewed silently builds the one you need less.

Be honest with 'easy'. Marking something easy because you nearly remembered it is how a deck quietly becomes useless.

And know the limit. Flashcards will get you your first thousand words. They will not teach you to produce a sentence you have never rehearsed, to somebody who is not waiting patiently. Nothing except conversation does that.

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