I have been struggling a lot with the "connect definition to the correct japanese word" questions. Currently my brain is just trial and erroring without learning much at all. I have no clue what I am doing wrong but I really need something to work with what helps my brain to finally connect the words correctly
Disclaimer: I actually don’t study this vector, mostly because I don’t consider it all that useful. My tip would be to not try to memorize the association directly, but to picture the object, action or situation and try to see which Japanese words you know that might apply.
A lot of the time when you try something new it's going to be a lot of trial and error at first. Your brain needs to get used to that type of question before it can get good at them.
Part of getting good at that style of question is being able to produce Japanese words on demand. A fun way to get used to producing Japanese words is the Shiritori game. You can find this under Games -> Shiritori. That will help in being able to produce words and becoming familiar with them.
The next phase is not only producing words, but producing them base on a desired meaning. A good way to get experience with this is trying out the Question Corner under the Community Tab.
Another trick is, a lot of the time you can guess what the word is by putting together the kanji that would describe that word. e.g. If you know the kanji for child and the kanji for dog, and you need the word for puppy you can guess that puppy = child + dog = 子 + 犬 = こ + いぬ = こいぬ
In the dictionary, under the "View usage notes", there are usually some mnemonics, which can help you to remember the word.
Also in the settings there is an option "Quizzing->Write to reinforce". If you make a mistake, it'll require that you type the answer before you can continue. This can help with the memorization.
For me it the words just take a while to stick. After a long time they should get easier even if it doesn't seem like they will. Don't cram too much at once, the more you do the longer it takes before you know those terms well. Trial and erroring is how you begin to learn them, I wouldn't worry too much even if you're getting most of them wrong.
The vocabulary schedule crossword puzzles have been really helpful for me.
If you tap the name of a vocabulary schedule on your dashboard, there will be a tab at the top for generating a crossword puzzle using your learned vocabulary from that schedule. And when you've completed it, you can generate another one.
The clues are the English definition of a word, and you fill in the Japanese word. When there's a word you can't remember, you can fill in the overlapping words to give yourself some hints, or you can look up the word in the renshuu dictionary and then go back to your crossword.
I've been doing two or three vocab crosswords a day, and it's really helped with my vocabulary retention.
Personally what i do is try to remember a sound and wen i hear it i think of a picture in my head, for me wen i was learning english i would think Leche instead of milk, then whenever i heard the word milk i would picture a milk carton. i hope that helps :)
The vocabulary schedule crossword puzzles have been really helpful for me. I've been doing two or three vocab crosswords a day, and it's really helped with my vocabulary retention.
Wow, that’s impressive. ごくろうさまです。
I mostly use the crosswords in Kanji-to-Kana mode. They are great for practicing reading kanji too.
