If you asked me about how to use flashcards not too long ago, I would have advised you to never learn individual words all by themselves. I’d say “Hey, you, derpface! If you use flashcards, you must use entire phrases! No isolated words! No context, no learning!”
But see there: Context. You can, in fact, learn isolated words with context too. That’s what this post is about. I know how to learn isolated words successfully now.
Making sentence flashcards can be a serious pain, so it’s a lot more attractive to just throw individual words into Anki or whatever instead. (No sponsership here, but the Takoboto dictionary app is a godsend for Japanese. Incredible in every way, but more relevantly for this post: You can click a button to send a word + reading + phrase straight into Anki!)
Now, this blog isn’t for revenue or anything, so I don’t care about bloated SEO garbage. That makes for pretty awful reads. So, long story short:
If you have an experience tied to a word, it unlocks your ability to successfully learn that word through future repitition with flashcards, even if the word is in isolation on those flashcards. An entire memory is now tied to that word, and it sticks out in your mind more easily. Simply recall that experience each repetition, at least for a little while. Sentences are always helpful, of course, but not absolutely required in such cases.
I’ve started collecting Japanese words like Pokemon: It’s fun. It’s growing a collection. Whenever I have some interactions in Japanese with my tutor (sister), I get a few new words out of it and throw them into Anki. The experience of that interaction and the things that brought up the word to begin with are the context, the memory, that allows me to successfully study those words later without trouble, even when they’re the sole item on the face of a flashcard.
TL;DR:
1. Get (visceral) input via interactions, TV, etc.
2. Load words of interest into Anki
3. Study them with your experience as context
よぅい。
Tongue Quest 