Does anyone think that Anki is better than real life use for learning?
For rote memorization, yes.
For other more complex tasks, no, and it is not even its intended use.
Or is it perhaps more of a (possibly imperfect) substitute for when one cannot avail themself of a real life usage setting to apply what they have learned?
As others mentioned before, it is a complement for other study tools.
It won’t make you fluent, and probably it will not even help you directly to read/write/listen/speak, but it will make shortcuts to help you comprehend faster and make the other study sessions more effective, and it will save time for you and your tutor/teacher from the most basic things and you’ll be able to focus on more important things that the tutor is really necessary.
I’m not sure what are your objectives, but i recommend that you start doing some reading/listening as soon as can, and start adding all the vocabulary you see for the first time to Anki.
I noticed that they usually repeat themselves very often, specially when dealing with similar materials (like another news piece related to the one you’ve read before), and Anki will make it very easy to recall then in the “real life” and it will reinforce itself.
For reading, i recommend trying some wikipedia articles about something you like, e.g. a game, a famous person, etc., because you will probably already know about what they are talking about and you will be able to focus on the foreign language.
If you want another help, skim over the english language article, as they usually cover the same points.
I’m not sure about korean news, but news are also a good source of reading material, despite it being very boring at the beginning when you only catch the most basic things and it looks like it is a waste of time compared to reading them in english.
But, as you read more and more, you’ll start to stumble on news that are a continuation or very related to the ones you have read before, and there will be a huge overlap of what you already read (and memorize) and what you are reading now.
For listening, i’ve been using some japanese variety shows (which also have a huge amount of written text shown on the screen) and i try to write down every word i think i could infer or that i think it is crucial to understand what is going on.
I’m using VLC, and reducing the playback speed by 10% (the smallest step) makes a huge difference and makes it much easier and pleasant to watch.
You can also try finding some vloggers or streamers, if you marginally interested in games, and it could also be a good listening exercise.
For writing/speaking it gets harder to get a good practice, because it requires another speaker to provide feedback.
For writing i’ve used Lang-8, where you write you and a native corrects the text, and you do the same in the language you are fluent for other users.
I’ll have to look into abilities to view and slow the playback. I do watch a fair amount of Korean language shows. Not sure if Viki’s interface includes that or if I can setup PotPlayer (VLC always causes some problem on my system that I’ve never figured out—and with all the options never willing to invest too much effort in solving) to stream the shows and take advantage of the suggestion.
Side note on watching the foreign shows. Since I’m also watching for entertainment value if generally have CC turned on. However, one things I have learned is I have to be careful about getting into the habit of reading and not really listening. When that happens I just hear English in my head and it starts drowning out the Korean! Turning CC off if I want to be in pure study/learning mode solves that but trying to be in that mode 24⁄7 is really hard on the brain ;-)
Thanks for the Lang-8 suggestion, will look into that as well.
Or is it perhaps more of a (possibly imperfect) substitute for when one cannot avail themself of a real life usage setting to apply what they have learned?
As others mentioned before, it is a complement for other study tools. It won’t make you fluent, and probably it will not even help you directly to read/write/listen/speak, but it will make shortcuts to help you comprehend faster and make the other study sessions more effective, and it will save time for you and your tutor/teacher from the most basic things and you’ll be able to focus on more important things that the tutor is really necessary.
I’m not sure what are your objectives, but i recommend that you start doing some reading/listening as soon as can, and start adding all the vocabulary you see for the first time to Anki. I noticed that they usually repeat themselves very often, specially when dealing with similar materials (like another news piece related to the one you’ve read before), and Anki will make it very easy to recall then in the “real life” and it will reinforce itself.
For reading, i recommend trying some wikipedia articles about something you like, e.g. a game, a famous person, etc., because you will probably already know about what they are talking about and you will be able to focus on the foreign language. If you want another help, skim over the english language article, as they usually cover the same points.
I’m not sure about korean news, but news are also a good source of reading material, despite it being very boring at the beginning when you only catch the most basic things and it looks like it is a waste of time compared to reading them in english. But, as you read more and more, you’ll start to stumble on news that are a continuation or very related to the ones you have read before, and there will be a huge overlap of what you already read (and memorize) and what you are reading now.
For listening, i’ve been using some japanese variety shows (which also have a huge amount of written text shown on the screen) and i try to write down every word i think i could infer or that i think it is crucial to understand what is going on. I’m using VLC, and reducing the playback speed by 10% (the smallest step) makes a huge difference and makes it much easier and pleasant to watch. You can also try finding some vloggers or streamers, if you marginally interested in games, and it could also be a good listening exercise.
For writing/speaking it gets harder to get a good practice, because it requires another speaker to provide feedback. For writing i’ve used Lang-8, where you write you and a native corrects the text, and you do the same in the language you are fluent for other users.
I’ll have to look into abilities to view and slow the playback. I do watch a fair amount of Korean language shows. Not sure if Viki’s interface includes that or if I can setup PotPlayer (VLC always causes some problem on my system that I’ve never figured out—and with all the options never willing to invest too much effort in solving) to stream the shows and take advantage of the suggestion.
Side note on watching the foreign shows. Since I’m also watching for entertainment value if generally have CC turned on. However, one things I have learned is I have to be careful about getting into the habit of reading and not really listening. When that happens I just hear English in my head and it starts drowning out the Korean! Turning CC off if I want to be in pure study/learning mode solves that but trying to be in that mode 24⁄7 is really hard on the brain ;-)
Thanks for the Lang-8 suggestion, will look into that as well.