Language Learner's Journey

At the beginning of this year, I started Vietnamse as my 5'th foreign language, and I found it's extremely difficult to memorize the exotic words. Chinese letters had been swept out and they no longer use them. So I needed to memorize all the weird sounds and words, which is very difficult - there are too many similar syllables. Not very easy to remember...

Quite recently I started a new trial - memorizing words by SRS system. Spaced Repetition System (SRS) is known to be the most successful way of memorizing things effectively. Based on the theory of neuro-cognitive psychology, SRS mainly deals with repetition interval to maximize the memorization effect.

I have installed AnkiDroid (an SRS application) on my phone and downloaded 7 decks of words (2 for Japanese, 2 for Chinese, 2 for Vietnamese and 1 for Esperanto). Everyday, on my way to work and back home on the commuting train, I tried to memorize the words by the Anki-droid's schedule. It shows me word after word and I answer by selecting one of four difficulties. The repetition interval is changed after my answer - a very clever software.

Now I think I can manage 5 languages within my memory, if I use this software long enough - maybe 1 year or so?