本文作者分享了其学习韩语词汇时遇到的困境，即词汇的识别能力远超回忆能力。通过使用Anki学习工具，作者发现传统的词汇学习方法可能存在问题。作者尝试了一种新的学习方法，即将已知英语单词作为提示，回忆对应的韩语单词，以此来提高回忆能力。作者认为这种方法可能更有效，并分享了自己一周的实践感受，希望与读者交流讨论，探讨更优化的词汇学习策略。

🤔作者在学习韩语词汇过程中，发现自己对词汇的识别能力较强，但回忆能力明显滞后，这导致了学习效率的降低。

💡作者认为传统的词汇学习方法可能存在问题，例如Anki等工具中，通常是先展示外语单词，然后学习其对应的母语解释，这种方式可能不利于提高回忆能力。

🔄为了改善回忆能力，作者尝试了一种新的学习方法：将已知的英语单词作为提示，尝试回忆对应的韩语单词。作者认为这种方法可能会提高学习速度。

⏳作者已经尝试这种新方法一周，虽然时间尚短，但感觉有所改善。他表示，这种方法至少不会降低词汇的获取速度，并希望与大家交流，探讨更有效的词汇学习策略。

Published on April 11, 2025 12:01 AM GMT

I've been learning Korean for a while now. I am finding a rather asymmetric aspect to my vocabulary learning process and results. I use Anki as the learning tool for vocabulary. What I find is that fairly quickly I get to a good recognition^[1] performance. But I find my recall performance is significantly behind. I've got some ideas on why this type of asymmetry occurs but the bottom line is that I am beginning to think I've been approach vocabulary building the wrong way.

A quick google about the asymmetry suggests that this is a fairly common problem for language learners. I wonder if it's not because most settings for developing one's vocabulary in a new language tend to follow the same approach I see in the Anki decks I've downloaded or created myself. You get the foreign word on the front and then learn what the native language word is on the back.

So what I've though is maybe that is backwards. I'm starting a test to see flipping the approach, putting the word I already know up first and then having to come up with the Korean word as the "answer" might perhaps improve my recall performance, which I suspect would have no affect on my recognition ability.

If my supposition holds here then I expect I will improve my learning speed and more quickly.  As it is now it's a bit of a slow slog of, what seems like, the process of hammering things into my head until I can recall the word on demand rather than recognizing the word when seen (or to some extent heard). And, at the end of the day that is the goal as I don't want to just read but be able to actually interact with others in a day-to-day type setting.

I've been trying this approach for a bit more than a week now. Too soon to say if it's actually working better for me but I have that "fuzzy" feeling I'm doing better. I am highly confident that reversing the process here cannot reduce my vocabulary acquisition rate. 

I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this and if they found it helped or not. Or what people think of the shift in approach in general.

 

 

1. ^{^}

   I will use recognition and recall in a pretty obvious way but for clarity, recognition is about seeing the Korean word and knowing what English word would have the same meaning. Recall is the ability to, without any English prompt, come up with the Korean word.

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