You know what? The truth of what you’re saying about flashcards dawned on me as I found myself using the same word in different circumstances/meanings/etc. Like, duh, Sara! How are you supposed to grasp the different (sometimes as many as 8 or 10 or more) various meanings or even subtle shades of meaning off of one flashcard? Once that dawned on me (OK, sometimes I’m a bit slow), all your points made sense. I know I’ve made a lot of progress this past year, and with applying more of your suggestions, and a bit more patience on this end, I’ll be even better this year. (And sloely but surely, I see myself getting out of the translation habit. Was so happy yesterday when I talked with my husband yesterday and realised that I don’t translate everything like I thought!)

But, thanks again. I’m glad your point finally dawned on me!

I’m currently learning French; I’m not yet fluent.

Two substantial comments, and neither commenter did what was asked:
“I’m going to ask that everyone who leaves a comment begins their comment by stating how many languages they speak fluently.”

It seems to me, Randy, that those arguing against you aren’t even reading your posts in entirety. Come on, people!

I speak two languages fluently: German and English. I learn French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese, and I am partially fluent in these languages.

Erm — I thought he was saying that he wanted proponents of flashcards to state their language fluency, but I suppose I misunderstood. That said, I’m fluent in English, getting there in German, and used to have a decent command of Latin (don’t use it, you totally lose it.) But I’m not a proponent of flashcards. I used them early on, and considered using them again, but now I’ve realised that if I’ve made this much progress without them (i.e. – the vast majority of my daily interactions are in German, often times even if the person is German-speaking but speaks to me in English, and my husband and I speak in a mixture of German and English), then, hey — why bother going back to flashcards — especially if they can’t really pinpoint for the the 5 or more different meanings of enthalten. I’m keep using the language, and if that doesn’t get me fluent in another year or 2, then, yeah, maybe I’ll be the first person running back to flashcards.

In general, that is what I meant. What I’m interested in finding out is whether people are for or against flashcards, and how many languages (beside their native language) they speak fluently.

I expect to find that most flashcard users are still learning their first language, and some have probably finally become fluent in a second language, but that few or none are polyglots… which would be strong evidence that once you figure out how to learn languages, you figure out that flashcards don’t fit into that picture.

In other words, you speak one language fluently.

I’m fluent in Czech and Spanish and have learned and am learning other languages and flashcards have always helped me a lot to build my vocabulary and review it in various languages.

I also know a few polyglots who speak a lot more languages than me and they swear by flashcards as an essential part of their learning process.

I should add though that I like your blog and think you have many interesting ideas.

Hi everyone!

My native language – Latvian, I speak fluent English and Russian. And here’s an interesting thing – I studied German for 7 years at school but it’s all gone. On the other hand, I can still remember all conversational Romanian that I picked up when working with Romanian lads 8 years ago… I think that goes to prove that real-life language use beat academic studies hands down!

As for flashcards – I have a good point to make in this regard.

When I came to Ireland 8 years ago, I realized my English was s*&$t (contrary to what I had thought previously) and it was no good for real-life conversations. So I started improving my English by all means possible. For some reason (I reckon the traditional academic language learning experience had something to do with it…:-) I chose to cram hundreds upon hundreds of English words into my brain by using a method that is essentially the same flashcard technique.

I was writing the words down in a notebook with a translation in Latvian and memorized them. About 5 – 10 new words daily. Repeated them all the time – I was carrying the notebooks with me and made meticulous effort to memorize every single word out of the thousands that I wrote down.

The results were good. I started speaking English much better. But while I seemingly improved my English vocabulary, I started experiencing terrible issues:

1) I couldn’t get rid of my native language in the back of my mind when I tried to speak English (anybody can tell me why? :-) – and this resulted in messed up speech, hesitation and stuttering, let alone the terrible unnatural sentence structures!

2) Whenever I was trying to remember a certain English word, I involuntarily VISUALISED the word. I was driving me nuts, but I couldn’t help it, because by memorizing the words I was creating a very, very strong bond with the WRITTEN WORD instead of an ABSTRACT image as it should happen if you acquire vocabulary in a natural way!!!

3) I could tell you were a particular word is written in one of my many pocket dictionaries, but I was struggling to use them in real conversations. My English vocabulary was brilliant for writing (when you can create sentences slowly, pick the right words from your inner SUPER-VOCABULARY :-) but useless when speaking!

I stopped cramming English word lists in my brain when I realized what it does to you; but I can’t understand to this day how I could be so blind for years without seeing the truth – only by USING (Randy has gone great lengths to stress the importance of USING A LANGUAGE!!!! in the previous blog post) a language you can learn it and improve it!

I like how you are trying to get proof as to why flash cards are bad, but aren’t you suspicious that people are going to lie about the number of languages they know?

I think it is the real reason why people are so adamant when it comes to flashcards – they’re looking for a silver bullet in language learning. Just think on it – every industry has one, and it’s very easy to fall for it!Language learning – learn 5000 words using SRS – and you’ve learned the language!Fat loss – use these incredible pills twice daily and lose 100 pounds in 60 days!Internet marketing – make 23,523.234$ a month – all you need to do is join this membership site and we’ll help you set up your business in no time!People are buying into the hype because it yields some results and they believe it works for 100%, and what’s worse – they believe it’s the RIGHT thing to do!…

Finally, someone with a concrete example!

I would still argue that the flashcards were a good prep for the event, but that it was the event itself which burned those word into your mind.

So I still don’t believe that you “learned” from the flashcards, but I will give you credit for being the first commenter to suggest a good use for them!

Randy, I’ve used flashcards extensively in the past, and never had troubles with the translation step. I just didn’t translate things in my head, mainly because I soon switched over to Spanish-Spanish items, and had enough single language input to keep me from translating stuff in my head.

That the people you quote only used to spend a few hours a day with their target language, didn’t use the right flashcard method and didn’t take in enough input from native materials, doesn’t mean flashcards are bad.

Flashcards aren’t holy, or the best thing after sliced bread, but they work for many people. In fact, most people I know that speak their target language fluently (without translating in their head), used flashcards extensively. How would you explain that?

I definitely appreciate that you’re after the thought, and not a word. That tells me that in general, you understand how the brain works, and regardless of what method you choose, you will likely learn just fine.

I could continue to argue that flashcards aren’t the best or most effective method for what you do, but I think it’s down to a matter of personal preference for you.

And if you were my blog’s only reader, I would spend all the extra time I needed to make sure you understood my point. However, judging by the dozens of private responses I’ve gotten from people thanking me for these posts, it seems that I’ve been more than clear enough for most people, even in spite of all the vehement disagreement from people simply don’t like what I’m saying.

Is there really any vehement disagreement here? You’re getting a lot of responses from people who do use flashcards and to some greater success. All I can do is hope that you trust me when I say my Spanish is decent, just as I trust your ability in languages is good. I take your word for it that what you’re promoting works. I certainly do all of it, and I appreciate everything you suggest. But flashcards alone don’t do the trick. It’s the constant repetition, in a melange of contexts that does it. All the flashcard does is provide one more potential blip of a repetition, but it’s seeing the word in real life that makes it stick. And you can’t get that without plunging yourself into the language, in whatever way you can, and that includes conversations, reading, podcasts, you name it. So I guess I can’t see how flashcards can hurt. I’m not seeing comments from anyone saying you’re wrong, only that they like using flashcards.

As with so many other comments, what I see here is another case of someone essentially telling me I’m right, and then trying to frame that as an argument in favor of using flashcards.

What really works — and you said it yourself — is LIVING the language. USING the language.

There’s nothing personal about pointing out a flaw in your logic.

But it’s obvious that your tender feelings have been hurt, as evidenced in your whiney post telling the world how rude I am.

I’m starting to see why Benny banned you from his comments. If your purpose here is just to call me a “big meanie”, don’t waste your time. I’m not here to win friends, I’m here to help people learn languages. I really don’t care about your feelings. Not one bit.

And frankly, if I say things that are unpopular, that means I’m doing my job, because you can’t learn something new by doing the same old stuff you’ve been doing.

I can’t say anything about ajatt or woo, because I don’t get into chinese or japanese. But I am qualified to criticize Kaufman, who after 4+ years of Russian study still sounds like a damn fool when he tries to speak. Apparently his methods pale in comparison to my own, which had me at basic fluency in one year.

It’s all just anecdotal evidence and implied causality.