Anki and SRS
You know you've seen this word before. You've studied it. But standing there, staring at it, you can't remember what it means. Every language learner knows this feeling. Spaced repetition is built to prevent exactly that.
Spaced Repetition System (SRS) is a study method that schedules reviews based on how well you remember something. In vocabulary learning, for example, words you know well come back less often. Words you struggle with come back more. It is one of the most effective ways to make things stick.
Anki is a free SRS flashcard app. It has no content of its own. You make your own cards, or download decks made by communities. It can be intimidating at first, but also extremely powerful if you know how to use it. It's free on desktop and Android. The iOS version is unfairly expensive, but it's a one-off payment and it's worth it. Or you can use AnkiWeb in the browser if you want to avoid that.
There are also other SRS apps on the market for Japanese learners. Some come with content built in, like WaniKani for kanji, Bunpro for grammar, or JPDB for vocab. You sign up and study what they give you. There are also other blank flashcard apps like Mochi and Kitsun, but Anki is free (except on iOS), open source, endlessly customisable, and has by far the largest library of community-made decks.
Anki Is Your HP
Think of Anki as your HP. It doesn't level you up. It doesn't teach you new things. What it does is keep you alive. It keeps what you've learned alive until you encounter it often enough you eventually catch it. It won't level you up or unlock new skills by itself, but without it, you'll forget too much to progress.
It Needs an Anchor
An anchor is whatever you're actually learning from. For beginners, that's usually a textbook like Genki or Minna no Nihongo. As you progress, you add graded readers, podcasts, manga. Without an anchor, you're memorising words in a vacuum.
You learn something new from your anchor. You refresh it in Anki. Then you meet it again in your anchor. That's the cycle that makes things stick for real.
If It Feels Like Grinding, Fix the Setup
A lot of people hate Anki. Here's why it usually goes wrong:
Starting with 20 or 30 new cards a day feels manageable in week one. By week four, your daily reviews have ballooned to 150+ and it feels endless. Start with 5 to 10 new cards. You can always increase later.
Not all decks are equal. Some have poor translations, missing audio, or cards that test things in unhelpful ways. If the deck is frustrating, it's not you. It's the deck. Switch.
Reviewing random vocabulary with no connection to anything you're reading or studying feels pointless. Because it kind of is. Tie your deck to your textbook or your reading material.
Anki works best when it's a small, low-pressure daily habit. Five minutes on the train. Ten minutes with coffee. The moment it becomes a chore you dread, something needs to change. Fewer cards, easier deck, shorter sessions.
Anki is not supposed to feel like grinding. If it does, fix the setup, not your willpower.
Getting Started
- Download Anki
- Pick your anchor
- Find a deck for your anchor, or a generic deck that suits your level
- Set new cards to 10 per day (if it gets harder later on, decrease to 5)
- Show up every day
Genki and Minna no Nihongo both have dedicated community decks. If you also use other supplementary materials, generic decks like Kaishi 1.5k or Core 2K are solid starting points.
We'll cover decks in more detail in another post in this series.
This is the first post in our Anki series for Japanese learners.
