Japanese Vocabulary

I just can't seem to remember any Japanese vocabulary

Everytime I try I seem to hit a brick wall.

Throwing me some random vocab, putting them in Anki and "trying" to remember them just doesn't work, even after 3 days I still forget them after 5mins, it's terrible.

I got Slime Forest, it's fantastic for the basic meanings of the Kanjis, I could do 50 a day. Then I tried the vocab, didn't work, couldn't remember them and it kept adding some without having mastered the previous ones.

I found out I learn better if I read it and translate it myself. Like I was playing Seiken Densetsu 3, on the equip screen there's a slot with nothing equipped. "Nashi", apparently it means "without". Here, I did this once and I still remember it. But here's the problem, I can't go translate every word because all of these damn Japanese > English online dictionaries are terrible, can't translate it 3/4 of the times.

So yeah, I need something better than "Watch that word and remember it!" because it just doesn't work. Taking classes are not an option.

Right now I use Human Japanese to learn some sentence structure and LiveMocha to learn some vocab (it does work, but there's not that much on the site plus they explain jackshit about the sentence structure... In fact, they explain jackshit about anything)

So, anybody have any ideas, tricks? Anything? My goal is to be able to play Japanese vidya.

Thanks in advance

You could just try remembering them. Or play the Jap vidya in Engrish

The pilgrimage through Mecca and the Jain pilgrimage become a nightmare if somebody is unable to take them in person, although taking them spiritually are teh only way to take them at all.  This nightmare has culminated in a house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  From here all paths fall away.  the house next door has been used as leverage by female attorneys against the will of the people.  There is no gender or racial judgment or religious discernment in my pronunciation against this procedure, but it is unjust.  My advancement as a spiritual being has been thwarted by a government gone haywire.

>>1
Are you sure you're using Anki right? I'm having a fine time learning lojban gismu with it. Make sure you're not overrating the ease with which you remember a kanji (e.g., if it's hard, press 2, and if you only get it kind of right, press 1). Don't worry if some kanji take a while to stick. It might help you to do both a morning and an evening study session. Don't try to do to much in a day. Perhaps most important of all, think of a visual mnemonic for every kanji you can manage. These will help you a lot on cards you haven't memorized well yet, and it should be fairly easy to do. For example, you can say to yourself that the kanji for mountain looks like some mountain peaks, or the kanji for fish has fins on the bottom. If it's the Japanese words themselves you're having trouble with, you can do much the same thing, although it may be harder to find a phonetic resemblence to something you know. You'll definitely need to find some low-level reading material to solidify your vocab, and throughout your day, try to come up with the Japanese word for various objects and situations.

>>4

I have no problem with my kanjis, but the problem is only with the vocabulary, the moment it takes more than 2-3 characters, I  always instantly forget them, even if I practice 20 times a day for 3 days

Well, right now I'm trying again, only 10 at a time, it's not so bad, I get them quite well, but after I quit Anki, I just can't remember them until the next time I see them again, it's pretty annoying and slow as hell, I'll never get anywhere with this pace.

>>6
How long have you been at it? It can take a while before you're recognizing them out of context. It's probably not going to be helpful to engage in extreme practice. Perhaps two or three ten-to-twenty minute sessions a day, and you can reduce the number of new cards per day to twenty or even fewer. Again, mnemonics will be very helpful. If you can make up a little story, no matter how stupid, it can be easier to remember things. I'm not sure what kinds of phonetic cues kanji provide, but if you're having more trouble remembering the spelling than the word itself, paying especial attention to those will help.

>>7
Oh, and are you writing them? Writing them will help.

Or you could just start listening to shitloads of japanese 24/7, and after a while the words will stick easily cause you're used to the sounds and have heard the words before.

try Assimil or (somethnig)

>>8
Even if I try to learn the same 10 for 3 days without any new words, I still can't remember them well

Writing could help, I know the Hiragana/Katakana well enough, but I can't write them. Perhaps the problem is there, I don't know them enough.


>>9
Assimil sounds great, if I can't learn well by just staring at it, perhaps I'll learn better by listening


Well, I liked Slime Forest, you had to write them, it worked like a game and it was pretty fun. Except that it introduce new things way too fast. And Livemocha was great because of the quiz, with the listening part, reading part, then you had to form the sentence with scrambled words. You know? Is there a flash card program that you can do multiples games with the cards. You know, something more dynamic than staring and remembering.


Thanks for the answers