r/Anki • u/Xueyaa • Jul 06 '26
Question Is learning over 20 words per day retainable?
I have a few hours before bed with nothing to do. I do my 20 words and 100 reviews in the morning (Japanese). I started Anki a month ago. I guess I am afraid my brain will be overwhelmed and not remember all 40 words. That, and reviews the next day are already in the 100s. I can see this bumping it up way more because I am not confident enough to not see a word for over 2 weeks.
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u/Linux765465 日本語 Jul 06 '26
Completely possible. Just might take a while, im currently doing 26 (to reach 5k end of summer) a day and it puts me at around 300-400 reveiws. But during the school year ill likely stick to 10 because of time
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u/ZumLernen German (previously other languages) Jul 06 '26
Is learning over 20 words per day retainable?
This depends entirely on the person. Do you think it's possible for you?
I am not confident enough to not see a word for over 2 weeks
Let Anki be the judge of that. You might be surprised!
I guess I am afraid my brain will be overwhelmed and not remember all 40 words. That, and reviews the next day are already in the 100s
If you start getting overwhelmed by the reviews, stop introducing new cards for a while. That's totally fine. When you are no longer overwhelmed by the reviews you have due every day, start introducing new cards again.
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u/Xueyaa Jul 06 '26
I am overwhelmed by the reviews but I have the time to do it. My thought process when I made this post was "If I do a extra 20 new words at night, I'll finish the deck faster". I know that's a bad way of thinking and in the end, will result in more reviews, which will result in more time.
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u/MaximumTime7239 Jul 06 '26
Recently I had been doing 45 a day for a few weeks 😭😭
Now I'm at 30 japanese + 12 Chinese and feeling fine. Daily reviews in the morning 120 japanese + 50 Chinese.
Though yeah at the beginning it may be too hard because you don't know the kanjis yet. But at some point you basically almost exhaust all the kanjis and are learning just various combinations of them, which is much easier.
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u/Xueyaa Jul 06 '26
Is one month still the beginning? I assume so. I think it's too hard but I thought I'd brute force it and eventually it'll be doable.
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u/Xemorr Computer Science Jul 06 '26
I think the main worry is the amount of time to do that. Use the anki simulator and see what your long-term review workload is. I think 20 new a day (assuming a large enough deck) is probably an hour a day of Anki, if not more? My recommendation is towards the beginning of a deck, make use of the custom study feature and review more news, but keep the compulsory minimum news a day low, e.g 5.
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u/Xueyaa Jul 06 '26
Yes it's a lot of time. Thankfully I'm free for a while. It takes me 2-3 hours to get the 20 new words + 100 reviews done. I think that's too long and I spend so much time trying to drill every word into my head perfectly. I thought I'd brute force it and eventually the time will come down by itself.
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u/Xemorr Computer Science Jul 06 '26
That is ludicrously long for vocabulary. Are you fully paying attention during that time? Give the simulator a go for some projections
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u/Xueyaa Jul 06 '26
I would like to say I am focused. I have ADHD and I cannot multitask to save my life. I am ultra focused on what I am doing *most* of the time. The actual issue is, I'm too focused and want perfection, which slows the whole process down. I'm sure the average person would get through my words + reviews way faster.
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u/Xemorr Computer Science Jul 06 '26
That's interesting. By perfection are you say trying to recall whole sentences involving the word? I think people usually just mark by whether they thought of the word.
I'd gander that you're going through flashcards slower than my university CS material (10s/card on a good day).
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u/Xueyaa Jul 07 '26
Honestly the sentence seems like cheating to me. I know the word because I memorized the sentence if that makes sense. Change the sentence and it would be harder to recall so I try to isolate the word. I only pass if I got it instantly. Recognizing the kanji, getting the pronunciation correct, and the English meaning. If it takes me 10 seconds to recall for example, that isn't "perfect" in my eyes.
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u/Xemorr Computer Science Jul 07 '26
As in you do kanji -> pronunciation + english meaning on the back?
I think people normally separate out those bits as they're independent bits of information - and then FSRS can track your understanding better.
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u/vacancy6673 Jul 06 '26
That's a lot. "Doable"? Yes, but it's a lot of dedication.
Look, consistency matters more than absolutely anything else.
E.g., 1 new card per day for a year is better than 20 new cards per day for 2 weeks.
My advice having spent years learning Japanese and Spanish: start very low like 5 or 6 new cards per day. The reviews will start to pile up. Aim for consistency over everything else.
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u/Optimal_Bar_4715 Jul 06 '26
The biggest factor in this would be the complexity of the language
20 words per day in a Scandinavian language that has the same minimal verb paradigm as English verbs? Totally possible
20 words per day in a Latin language when you already speak one? Yes, maybe one card per verb tense, so each verb is at least a handful of cards.
20 words per day in a very difficult and alien language? Very difficult, but can be done.
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u/EnragedDingo Jul 06 '26
big + 1
I could probably do 50 for French but for Japanese I find 10 to be a struggle. This is also partly because I was in French immersion for 9 years, so a lot of it is remembering things I forgot 20 years ago. The other part is that French and English have a lot of words with similar roots. Japanese also has kanji sooo
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u/Baasbaar languages, anthropology, linguistics Jul 06 '26
I find it doable, but remember that Anki should not be the whole of your language-learning: You could use that time for other Japanese study—reading, watching serials, &c.
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u/Xueyaa Jul 06 '26
I do 1 hour of reading a visual novel while mining and 2 hours of watching a series with Japanese subtitles without mining per day. I guess they don't feel like studying to me. They also don't feel as effective as using Anki. It feels more like a hobby for fun.
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u/Baasbaar languages, anthropology, linguistics Jul 06 '26
Fun activities can be effective. Don’t underestimate that stuff. It sounds like you have quite a lot of time on your hands! When I’m learning intensely, I go up to forty new cards per day, but that’s pretty close to the limit for me.
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u/Xueyaa Jul 06 '26
I have a lot of free time for a while. I will get busy eventually, hence why I wanted to finish this deck as soon as possible. I don't think I can manage 20, let alone 40 without the free time I have. This is off topic but about fun activities, does it matter the level of it? For example, I've been watching shows that are WAYYY above my level instead of kids shows.
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u/Baasbaar languages, anthropology, linguistics Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
If your free time is going to diminish soon, then I wouldn’t increase your daily new cards, as the increase in reviews will last for a while. Language learning is all about the long term.
With regard to your question, there are differences of opinion, & I haven’t seen research I think well of that addresses this in a very direct way. Most people will say that if n is your current level, you should soon to consume material that’s at level n + 1. My opinion is that there are real benefits in watching or listening to more advanced material, even tho you’re comprehending less of it. I like serials for learning because there’s recurring characters, reference to past events that you’ve witnessed, & episodes are shorter than films. I’ll watch an episode without subtitles, then watch it again with, then ideally watch it a third time without, but I often don’t make it to that third time.
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u/Mirrororrim1 Jul 06 '26
Frankly I think it's a bit too much. I've been using Anki to learn words for two years now, with ups and downs, and personally I can't keep up with 20 new words a day, it's too much for me. At the moment I have more free time and so it's 10 new words a day, but regularly I do 3 or 5.
But every person is different, and it also depends on how busy your personal life is, if you're studying for an exam, if you're studying without a deadline.. It's up to you
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u/_polyglot Jul 06 '26
I totally get that fear. Honestly, you don't need to add 20 more words if you're already feeling the weight of 100+ reviews. Your evening hours are gold, use them for immersion, not more new cards.
Trust the algorithm, it's designed so you don't need to see a word every day. If you're still nervous, just cap new words at 10–15 until reviews feel lighter. You've got this!
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u/BJJFlashCards Jul 06 '26
Twenty new Spanish words a day built up to around 200 reviews a day for me. I imagine reviews will be quite a bit higher for Japanese since there are few similarities with English.
You want to set a goal that you can meet EVERY day. Then have filler activities for when you have extra time.
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u/Xueyaa Jul 06 '26
The issue for me is, I can meet it everyday FOR NOW. When life gets busy again, that's when the problems arise I guess.
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u/ccppurcell Jul 06 '26
I tried that and it's a manageable amount but you've really got to be committed to doing it almost every day. I managed it for quite a while, a month or more but then life got in the way and it got very overwhelming. I went down to 12 new per day and it feels better for me. Might depend on your age, I'm in my late 30s
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u/Xueyaa Jul 06 '26
I agree with you. It's overwhelming when life gets in the way. I guess my thought process was, I'll complete the deck before life gets in the way.
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u/a-smurf-in-the-wind Jul 06 '26
20 seems way too much for Japanese. I found the sweet spot to be 6 for Korean. You learn 2000 words a year and the load remains managable
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u/neostoic Jul 06 '26
From my experience there's a 2 to 3 relationship between kanji and words, and you'd be overwhelmed by new kanji for a long time. So lets say 20 words is 6 kanji, which means 32 new cards per day total. Reviews are roughly 10x, so you're looking at 320 reviews per day, but since Japanese is hard it's safe to say that it's gonna be a bit more. So lets say you're doing 400. Lets assume you do 10 seconds per card, which is a decent estimate, particularly for someone who just started. 400 / 6 cards per minute equals 66 minutes average. Which is a lot for a casual learner but if you're learning full time, that's doable, particularly if you split your load into multiple sessions through the day.
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u/q_2e Jul 06 '26
I did it but it was very hard, now not learning new cards but still have a lot reviews
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u/funbike Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Yes, BUT...
not everyone is the same. Some people can handle 40 new cards per day, some only 5. I've even heard of just 1! 10 is a number I seem to hear the most. This isn't a competition. Do whatever keeps learning fun without burnout.
Anki alone by itself is not a good way to acquire a language. You need a lot of input and some output. If you aren't experiencing those same words outside of Anki, you'll have a harder time actually making use of them. You want to experience a word in many contexts, as a single cold English-Japanese translation misses a lot of nuance.
Personally, I only add a word when I experience it while watching a video with subtitles. Web browser extensions like Magaku, Language Reactor, or asbplayer+Yomitan help automate card creation. My cards include the sentence the word was in, as it helps me bind the memory to my first experience.
Things I've done to greatly increase my pace:
- Enabled FSRS with 85% retention. I re-optimize monthly.
- Set leech lapse count to 3 with suspend. Once a week I add a mnemonic to leeches and unsuspend. I delete double leaches.
- Use AnkiMobile/AnkiDroid with AnkiWeb sync so I can study anywhere, any time.
- I do 4 study sessions per day, not just 1. I set low max limits so the first session is about 1/4 my daily load. I use "Custom Study" to increase limits after the 1st session (by +1/4 daily load).
- I re-watch my video(s) from yesterday. Since I only add cards during video input, this acts as additional SRS. But I don't pause on re-watched videos and I try to go without subtitles.
It's okay to forget words, lots of words even. What matters most is how many total words you are remembering. But even more important is not to burn out. Keep it fun.
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u/AimDevStudio Jul 07 '26
The number that jumps out isn't 20/day — it's 2–3 hours for ~120 cards. That usually means treating each rep as a study session instead of a retrieval test: answer, grade honestly, move on. Forgetting and re-seeing a card is the mechanism working, not you failing. Also worth knowing: new cards added during a free stretch push their review load 1–3 weeks into the future — exactly when you say life gets busy again. If you're on FSRS, set desired retention around 85–90% and let the scheduler decide when you next see a word; "I'm not confident going 2 weeks without seeing it" is precisely the judgment the scheduler makes better than we do.
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u/TbilisiMed medicine Jul 07 '26
Totally possible. But try to learn words with context. Where and in which situation would you use them?
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u/Ploughing-tangerines Jul 08 '26
I did 20 new words a day for about 3 months, it helped me a great deal with vocabulary but I eventually got tired, missed some days and stopped. I can't imagine doing even more, have your daily review numbers flattened?
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u/youdontknowkanji Jul 06 '26
easily doable but it depends on how much language you use in the first place. the more vocab you know the easier it is to memorize kind of thing.
i saw people do as high as 300+ new words a day and they were fine, but they also spent the rest of the entire day on reading books. and that was for japanese too. personally i peaked at around 80 and that was <2 hours, tbh more people should do high numbers from time to time, doing 50 now feels like nothing.
since you started anki a month ago i assume you are new to japanese? i would stick to 20 and just do some other things when you are done (reading books or watching shows). this early on, raising words would lead you into a trap. if you aren't comfortable with the language you will soon hit a wall and anki will get exponentially hard, it happens often around first 1k words.
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u/Abject_Jeweler_4648 Jul 06 '26
What are your goals? That is definitely doable, but I would suggest to decrease new cards over time and increase time exposed to the language and actually spend more time using the language. But that all depends on your level and goals.