I know most of you probably drill and drill and drill vocabulary, kanji and all the other vital aspects of Japanese that you need to learn, I'll be the first one to tell you that it isn't cutting the mustard, it's just not effective (for the most part) and their are easier, less boring ways of going about it. So what am I preaching about this time you ask? ANKI! yes, Anki, I decided that it was so good, so vital, such a time saver that I would dedicate a whole post to it.

Anki is a free "spaced repetition flashcard program" that is designed to help you memorize... anything, as effectively as possible, and my gosh does it work! Basically you have a deck of virtual cards, you go through them one by one and click a buttons to tell the program how well you remembered the card and depending on how well you memorized it the time that the card next comes up is changed, if you did well it comes up later if you did badly it comes up sooner, simple yet effective.

There are lots of shared decks of cards available to download that spread across many fields of study, including  Remembering the Kanji, Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese and many more (not just Japanese based) and to add to that you can create your own!

One thing that I do a lot is while I'm listening to a Japanese podcast, or watching a Japanese show, any new and useful words I come across I write down on a notebook I always have handy. Later on I then put this vocabulary into an Anki flashcard deck ready to review later, you can also add in sounds in case you want to put in the pronunciation and also pictures. This way the new vocabulary really sticks in my mind and next time you hear it, you will be able to understand just that bit more! There are endless possibilities to Anki study methods, so I invite you to try it out and find out what works best for you! If you have time, please post a comment on your favorite Anki study methods!