The problem with Anki (or any flash card system) is that they help you memorize but don’t teach you. I don’t know anything about law school, but when you’re learning a language, you can learn the vocab from flash card, but you need much more than that to actually learn the language—grammar, culture, pronunciation, and speaking, reading, and writing practice. Some of those you could encode in a flash card (“whenever you see this card, write a paragraph in your target language”) but you still need some form of teacher.
For language learning I think I’ve found “one weird trick”: watch a youtube video of someone reading a text in the language (with the text onscreen), mimic the pronunciation of each sentence after hearing it, and look up each unfamiliar word in google translate as you go. Last year I did that with German, spending about 5 minutes every weekday morning before going to work. Basically each video would take me a few weeks to get through and then I’d switch to another one. Other than that, I did absolutely nothing—no grammar, no flashcards, no teachers. Then signed up for an official test (reading+writing+listening+talking) and passed it easily.
That’s a very interesting approach, I am usually against using google translate but of course it can’t be helped if you’re an absolute beginner. I’m currently learning Italian. I think I’m gonna try your approach.
My English learning journey (I’m not a native speaker): I used some average textbook for self-learners going through the exercises to understand basic grammar structures such as tenses. I was only around a third into it when I quit and started watching movies in (American) English without subtitles. It was tedious at first, but after half a year or so I had managed to fully enjoy the experience. New grammar structures and vocabulary sank into me automatically
When I want to look up an unfamiliar word, I use Cambridge Dictionary to read various meanings as opposed to translating.
I wonder how this method could apply to Italian in my case. It’s somewhat different since I had been exposed to English at school for years (yeah my country is really bad at languages) before embarking on the self-learning adventure.
The problem with Anki (or any flash card system) is that they help you memorize but don’t teach you. I don’t know anything about law school, but when you’re learning a language, you can learn the vocab from flash card, but you need much more than that to actually learn the language—grammar, culture, pronunciation, and speaking, reading, and writing practice. Some of those you could encode in a flash card (“whenever you see this card, write a paragraph in your target language”) but you still need some form of teacher.
For language learning I think I’ve found “one weird trick”: watch a youtube video of someone reading a text in the language (with the text onscreen), mimic the pronunciation of each sentence after hearing it, and look up each unfamiliar word in google translate as you go. Last year I did that with German, spending about 5 minutes every weekday morning before going to work. Basically each video would take me a few weeks to get through and then I’d switch to another one. Other than that, I did absolutely nothing—no grammar, no flashcards, no teachers. Then signed up for an official test (reading+writing+listening+talking) and passed it easily.
That’s a very interesting approach, I am usually against using google translate but of course it can’t be helped if you’re an absolute beginner. I’m currently learning Italian. I think I’m gonna try your approach.
My English learning journey (I’m not a native speaker): I used some average textbook for self-learners going through the exercises to understand basic grammar structures such as tenses. I was only around a third into it when I quit and started watching movies in (American) English without subtitles. It was tedious at first, but after half a year or so I had managed to fully enjoy the experience. New grammar structures and vocabulary sank into me automatically
When I want to look up an unfamiliar word, I use Cambridge Dictionary to read various meanings as opposed to translating.
I wonder how this method could apply to Italian in my case. It’s somewhat different since I had been exposed to English at school for years (yeah my country is really bad at languages) before embarking on the self-learning adventure.