How should I answer flashcards?

When reviewing flashcards, you'll be presented with these three options:

"Answering" the flashcard requires you to select one of these, but which answer do you choose and when??

Short answer:

Hit the smiley face 99% of the time. 🙂

If you're studying with a keyboard available, press the spacebar a bunch ^^

See the full list of keyboard shortcuts you can use during reviews.

Long answer:

NativShark reintroduces you to concepts and vocab you’ve already seen in new contexts, so you don’t have to worry too much about pressing much else than the smiley face 🙂.

Here's why:

Going wider (seeing more Japanese in more contexts) tends to be more helpful in the long run than going deeper (trying to memorize something perfectly before moving on).

To make sure the above happens, we generally want to minimize the time we spend in our reviews and maximize the time we spend experiencing new Japanese in new contexts.

These two articles go into more depth on why the above tends to be the case:

The power of moving on when stuck

There is no passing or failing when learning

With the above in mind, I generally recommend to keep in mind that reviews are reminders. Not tests. When you see something you've forgotten, well, now you have a reminder so it's okay

Take the reminder and keep moving to experience more Japanese in more contexts, and make more efficient progress toward your study goals.

There is a common trap that we learners can easily fall into, and that's spending a lot of time in reviews.

After all, spending a lot of time in reviews and trying to memorize things perfectly feels like we're doing a lot for our Japanese ability.

This makes intuitive sense. We want to make sure we have our foundation set before we move on, right?

Unfortunately, this tends to be counterproductive in the long run. The above two articles are full of details on why this is the case ^^

Instead, here's what we can do to efficiently reach our language goals:

Hit the smiley face 🙂 on reviews to keep the time you spend on them low (so you can do steps 2 and 3!)
Hit "Study Now" after reviews are done to get you in contact with new Japanese and reinforce the Japanese you already know
Go have fun with native materials and learn new Japanese in new contexts while solidifying the Japanese you've learned in NativShark!

With that said, let’s talk about…

How the buttons work

Smiley face 🙂

Sends the card out at an interval optimized for memorization.

Most of your button presses should be this button, thanks to you studying in the comprehensive system that NativShark is.

This helps reduce your review time so you can continue your progress and experience more Japanese in more contexts, which is one of the most helpful things for any learner to do after reviews.

Neutral face 😐

Sends the card out at a slightly lower interval based on previous answers.

This is best used when you have almost no grasp of the card and aren’t able to recall the general idea of the card overall.

However, if the card still looked familiar in some way, it's better to press this than the cry face.

If it was on the tip of your tongue or you were in the same ballpark, then you should hit the smiley face 🙂 option and not this one.

Cry face 😭

Shows the card to you again immediately and resets the study intervals.

This is your emergency button (and only for emergencies!) when you have literally 0 idea what is going on with this card.

You only want to press this when you're confused about how it got in your deck because you’re 100% sure you’ve never seen it in your life.

❗

Seriously.

I (Ty) press the cry face less than once every 3 months, and Caleb doesn’t even remember the last time he pressed this button.

There is also something to be said about being kind to yourself during your studies.

Sometimes, things take a while to set in. That's okay.

Learning a language is a lifelong journey. All we need to do is enjoy it no matter where we are.

Pressing the smiley face button as much as possible allows us to go out and do the things in Japanese we find the most fun. I think that sounds better than being stressed out and stuck in reviews

What are the intervals you’re talking about?

NativShark uses a proprietary spaced repetition system (SRS) that is designed to space out how things are shown to you based on your answers above.

For example, when you first see a flashcard and hit the smiley face, you will then see it again the next day as well.

From there, you will see the flashcard sooner or later depending on what answers you choose, with the smiley face 🙂 being the longer option, the neutral face 😐 being the shorter option, and the cry face 😭 being the emergency reset option.

NativShark will handle the details from there so all you need to do is keep showing up and pressing the Study Now button ^^

Speaking of which...

FAQ

When a review flashcard has a highlighted part, should I answer based on how well I remembered the highlighted part or how well I remembered the whole sentence?

You can answer based on the highlighted word.

We do generally recommend listening and/or reading the sentence you see it in, but it's generally best to take the reminder of that word and keep moving.

Why do some cards have 3 answer options while others have 2?

During reviews, the default is to have the 3 answers discussed above, which are the cry face, neutral face, and the smiley face.

However, if you press the cry face on a card, then the cry face will be missing the next time you see it. This is to prevent you from getting stuck in a review loop. You will learn this card with time and consistency. Seeing it multiple times in a single review day doesn't really affect your long-term memory of a given concept.

On cards like the above, the neutral and smiley face function the same as they would elsewhere.

Additionally, new content has two answers as well. The red X will cause you to see the card again, similar to a cry face answer, and the green check means you'll see it tomorrow, similar to a smiley face answer.

Why is the approach so lenient? How can we learn Japanese if we're told to not memorize the flashcards?

NativShark is a comprehensive system, and the SRS (flashcard system) is just a single part of that.

One of the biggest advantages that NativShark provides is a path to a high level of proficiency that you don't have to spend hours and hours planning for yourself, worried if there are gaps in your plan.

If a concept is important for a high level of Japanese proficiency, we'll teach it to you eventually.

And once we teach you something, we reinforce and expand upon it by showing you that concept in later Units, dialogues, lessons, and so on.

All you have to do is make sure you reach those pieces of learning content by hitting Study Now after your reviews and going through new Units.

The rest is just details ^^

As a comparison, many learners may use Anki decks. It's arguably more reasonable for them to be more strict with answers there because it's an isolated system and many/most Anki decks don't tend to reinforce their content later down the line. They also don't teach in lessons with context, or have Dialogues / natural conversations in natural contexts between multiple native speakers.

Check out these articles for more details:

How long will NativShark last me?

How content is organized

The best way to learn Japanese

For kanji flashcards, should I answer based on the meaning, the pronunciation of the words, or both?

Honestly, I want to say "neither" to this ^^

Just hit the smiley face. Or archive them

Kanji flashcards are simply there to warm you up to the idea of a kanji. We have some updates to their design on the way that will hopefully help us relay this more intuitively.

Kanji are "truly" learned in words, sentences, and contexts. So you should spend the least amount of time on these.

In other words, you'll learn kanji just by being in the rest of the NativShark system, and going out and experiencing native materials.

Many learners immediately (or nearly immediately) archive kanji flashcards when they see them. And it seems that these learners actually progress toward their language goals the fastest thanks at least in part to a reduction in both stress about kanji and daily review time.

I would recommend experimenting with these various approaches in your own studies as well

Why are there no English-to-Japanese flashcards?

Please see this article for details.