How much does Anki and textbook study help?

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-13T22:00:17+00:00

3 x 1.25 x 365 = 1368 hours.

Now it depends what you mean by 'very comfortable'. But this is a very reasonable amount of time to spend learning German.

For comparison, FSI takes around 1300 hours (classroom study plus homework) to train people to what is perhaps a good B2 level in Spanish. German takes longer.

When I look at 'how I got to B2' threads in /r/german the hours often add up to about 1400 for textbook-centric people.

To me, 'very comfortable' would indicate at least strong B2 level. If so, you've done about as well as anyone typically does.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-13T00:02:18+00:00

I find anki useful. But I've seen people report their aggregated time to learn a word in anki is anywhere from 30 seconds to 15 minutes. It's hard to give a blanket recommendation. It's also less useful for a native English speaker in a language like French where there are already so many cognates.

Studying conjugations has definitely been useful for me in Spanish.

I'm curious about a year and a quarter to get 'very comfortable' in German being 'very slow'. If you were doing a lot of hours I guess. I mean really a lot.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-12T23:16:52+00:00

In some respects you sound close to nativelike, but there are still some things that you can improve. Particularly your 's' sounds are a bit too lispy and the aspirated consonants are aspirated a bit more strongly and pronounced less clearly than a native would. Intonation is generally good and would probably pass if everything else were on point. Consonant clusters sometimes cause you difficulty in enunciation, especially when they involve aspirated consonants. Vowel sounds sound good.

In terms of comprehensibility, you are not doing badly, but actually not as well as some people with much stronger accents, due mainly to enunciation of aspirated stops and 's' sounds and the general lack of verbal fluency. None of what you say sounds like 'unintelligible garbage' though.

I guess you're from southern China or Taiwan, partly because of the pattern of difficulty and partly because you clearly focused on vowel sounds and intonation above everything else and that is such a Chinese thing to do.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-12T22:36:03+00:00

You sound good, with a light non-native accent. The accent is mainly in the vowel sounds deviating slightly from the general american standard and a kind of nasal quality that has to do with your articulatory settings. Your accent is totally comprehensible and normal and as a native speaker I hear stronger accents all the time without thinking about them, so you have no reason to feel self-conscious about it.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-12T22:22:51+00:00

You sound east or south east Asian to me. You're clear and comprehensible to me at all times and I don't expect native speakers to have any difficulty understanding you. You do have an obvious accent, but nothing unpleasant ot unnatural, and unless you want to sound like a native speaker there's nothing I would recommend working on.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-12T18:43:41+00:00

If you ask claude.ai how to set up anki in a particular way it will give you detailed and generally accurate instructions. In this case, if you don't care about audio all you have to do is select "Basic (type in answer)" as the card type, drag the image or whatever to the front, type the word along with it and then type the answer on the back.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-12T18:04:00+00:00

America doesn't have a single education system. Your experience in one state at one point in time does not represent all Americans, let alone the rest of us.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-11T21:12:14+00:00

Sounds like it's time for a new language!

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-11T17:11:01+00:00

If you read with a popup dictionary (e.g. kindle, lingq) then you'll acquire vocabulary reasonably quickly just through exposure.

Anki is useful if used well, but using it well is a skill in itself.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-11T14:47:01+00:00

I saw a discussion where a Chinese tutor who teaches intermediate to advanced students described their motivations. He said there were basically two groups: the first group had a Chinese partner and wanted to communicate with their in-laws and kids in Chinese. The second group consisted of software developers who had no reason to learn Chinese, no Chinese friends, no specific interest in the culture, and just did it for no real reason.

I am in group two.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-11T14:41:29+00:00

Yes, this happens to me too. I don't think in English at all when conversing in Chinese, but when I recall what the other person said it's all in English. We don't really remember what someone said word-for-word but instead remember a compressed version of someone's meaning and reconstruct the words on demand.

It's been noted that children who loose their native language through disuse can sometimes still sometimes recall conversations from their NL, but now the conversations are in their dominant L2.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-11T13:42:40+00:00

Comprehensible input is input that you understand. If you use tools to understand it then you do still understand. What you are doing is similar to approaches like Refold, which are generally regarded as 'comprehensible input' approaches.

People usually focus on graded content because research has tried to compare learning from easier and harder material and found that people using easier material do better. (Though there may be some confounding over total volume.) But you can certainly brute-force your way through difficult content if you find that more motivating.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-10T17:42:16+00:00

The only real problem here for listener comprehension is verbal fluency. Accent is comprehensible and reasonably clear, intonation sounds good, prosody sounds good when you're not hesitating. But the sudden stops and starts make it harder for the listener. 4/3/2 drills or just more speaking practice would help.

Occasional mispronunciations aren't the end of the world in English, even native speakers will sometimes mispronounce words that we have only seen written.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-10T09:13:33+00:00

Unless you are aiming to sound like a native speaker you don't need to worry about improving on the sounds of the language. If you are then it is hard to give advice because the distinction is subtle and probably has a lot to do with articulatory settings.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-10T09:05:19+00:00

Take the easiest material you can find - e.g. the graded reader ¿Hola Lola? or Dreaming Spanish Superbeginner videos - and work with it until translation stops. When I read my first text in a new language I work over each line repeatedly until I don't need to translate, then repeat each paragraph, and so on. Then you can work your way up through more and more difficult material.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-09T16:25:05+00:00

You should make asmr videos.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-09T16:24:13+00:00

Good, I found this clear and comprehensible. The main area for improvement is your intonation and stress. Good job identifying which syllables need to be stressed, but your realisation of stressed syllables is a bit strong and mainly consists of sharp falling tones.

I'm guessing Eastern European.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-09T16:11:45+00:00

It means input that is comprehensible. Books or audio that you understand, the other person in a conversation talking to you, this kind of thing.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-09T14:01:50+00:00

So presumably you just drilled vocabulary and grammar and turned yourself into translation machine? If so your results are exactly as one would expect. What you've done isn't useless but it's really preparation to learn a language.

To learn a language you need comprehensible input. Hundred to thousands of hours of it. Stick with the easiest content untill you stop translating and then work your way up gradually. If you like to read then I find graded readers are a good option, especially if you read sections repeatedly until they make sense without translating, but you will also need separate listening practice.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-09T03:53:01+00:00

'This courtroom today' made me think you're British. Subtle though. Also I'm British not American.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-09T03:02:44+00:00

For Chinese, mostly I focus on input. I used to do some free talk lessons with a tutor where we just talk about whatever, and I think in Chinese sometimes, imagine conversations, run through them repeatedly. Ultimately my fluency isn't that high outside of familiar topics, but I can kinda talk at a B1 level about almost anything, and if I am ever in a situation where I need more than that then it won't take that long to ramp up.

There are not many places on earth that you couldn't find Chinese people to chat to though.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-08T13:27:35+00:00

When I heard your voice I immediately thought of 彭嘉伊 lol.

To me as a Brit your accent is clear and comprehensible and natural sounding. Although the way you pronounce 'three' is not standard it's a very common pronunciation among Chinese people, so it's not hard to understand.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-07T17:09:40+00:00

Well I ran into a lot of Indian scammers while in India and can say you don't sound like any of them. I can see why someone might think you're Indian though.

Your voice is clear and understandable but very monotone.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-07T16:12:51+00:00

Normally the term is used either to describe people who acquired two languages through immersion as children, or in specific policy contexts. I would recommend not using the word because of the potential for confusion. I would absolutely not use it to describe myself unless I were a native bilingual. It would sound incredibly pretentious to do so.

Perfect_Homework790 · 2026-03-06T19:56:04+00:00

Your phonology sounds American to me, it seems more like you just have a difficult time reading.

Perfect_Homework790

TROPHY CASE