Anki flashcards

I’ve been studying languages for many years and one of the most common learning tools is flashcards. A very popular learning method and tool is known as SRS, or spaced repetition software. One such software is Anki. I have avoided Anki for many years thinking that it would be too boring for me, however I have recently begun using it and I have to say that it is quite effective. It is open-source and available on Windows, Mac, Linux/BSD, iOS, Android, and can even be used from a browser. On top of that, they have a website that you can sync your decks to, as well as your progress. That way, you can study on your computer, have it sync to the site, then continue studying on your phone without having to re-review flashcards unnecessarily.

I created my own deck of the 4808 most commonly used characters (according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Education) and cross-compiled it with the definitions from CC-CEDICT. While this deck will probably not be useful to most people, it is for my own personal goal of learning more 漢字. If you happen to want to use it, you may find it on the AnkiWeb site here or here.

You can learn more about Anki and its many uses here: http://ankisrs.net. Many other people have also uploaded their own decks, so you can very easily find already-created decks for Chinese here: https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/chinese.


Here are a few screenshots of the Android app for Anki:


anki 糞


anki 盧


anki 努


As you can see, I am using Bopomofo (注音符號) for my pronunciations, however I have also included pinyin in my deck if you want to use it.


While learning single 漢字 is great, I am a firm believer in learning character compounds when learning a character. That is why while I am studying each character, I learn compounds that go with each one. For example:

For 糞 I learned 糞肥 and 糞便.

For 廬 I learned 結廬 and 廬舍.

For 努 I learned 努力 and 努嘴.


Anki has been a great tool for me so far. I hope you find it useful as well.