Memorizing Language / Spelling Techniques?

NotesSensei writes "My kids are learning Chinese in school. While the grammar is drop-dead simple, writing is a challenge since there is no relation between sound and shape of the characters. I would like to know any good techniques (using technology or not) to help memorize large amounts of information, especially Chinese characters. Most of the stuff I Googled only helps on learning speaking."

Comments

Spaced Repitition.

[SanityInAnarchy]

Bollocks to you, also.

If you're commuting, or only have a few minutes, that's what a smartphone is for, or the web interface.

Anki is basically designed to be something you spend only 20 minutes or so per day doing. It uses a similar algorithm to SuperMemo, and the original idea behind SuperMemo (and Anki) is to predict when you're about to forget a given card and flash it to you before that happens. The longer you do this with a given card (without forgetting), the longer the interval gets -- thus, a card you know well, it'll only flash every few months (or even years!), giving you more time to focus on the ones you actually need.

Plus it can tie to multimedia -- so, record yourself and compare it to a reference recording to check your pronunciation.

Even without the multimedia, this is something you really can't do with dead trees -- you'd be spending all your time calculating and scheduling cards, and none of your time reviewing.