How best to structure cards for Japanese vocabulary?

[db2]

I'm still figuring out how to use Flashcards Deluxe for the purposes of Japanese vocabulary. I like the advanced layout option that allows for studying both E->J and J->E, but I haven't quite worked out how I should structure the cards.

These are the separate pieces of information I'd like to capture:

1. The original Japanese, with kanji.
2. Japanese, with readings and/or furigana (not sure if I want this to be separate from item #1, e.g. for quizzing kanji readings, or just try to incorporate furigana directly in #1).
3. English meaning.
4. Example sentence.
5. Example sentence, with the word masked out (for quizzing production in context for E->J).
6. Possibly part-of-speech or other comments and usage notes.

For J->E, I would have side 1 show Japanese, possibly reading (that might be part of side 2/the answer), and example sentence. Side 2 would have Japanese, reading, example sentence, and English meaning.

For E->J, side 1 would have English and the masked example sentence, and side 2 would have English, full example sentence, Japanese, and reading.

I'm not really sure what I want to do with the extra details, since there are only 5 main text fields to work with. I could maybe put part of speech with the English meaning or reading, e.g. [v1t], [adv], [na-adj], etc. and more detailed notes in the two extra info/notes fields.

How do you folks like to structure your Japanese vocabulary cards?

[Ernie]

I'm not studying Japanese, but I study Chinese. Use currently use 4 sides:

Chinese (characters)
Pronunciation
English Definition
Part of Speech

By splitting the parts out, you can have more flexibility how you show your flashcards.
You can have up to 9 different text items. You must define these in a spreadsheet (which I think you should anyway) if you use more than 5.

If I study Chinese->English
Front: Chinese
Back: Chinese + pronunciation + definition + part of speech

English -> Chinese
Front: English
Back: Chinese + pronunciation + definition + part of speech (same as above)

You should be very familiar with "card layout". If you have "adv layout" on, tap layout name, then "Card Layout". (Sorry, too many "layout" descriptions.) Here you can see what is on "Side 1", "Side 2", etc. You can put whatever you want... up to 5 different text items. You can can make say "part of speech" in smaller text, for example. You might decide to create 3+ sided cards for some studying.

In summary, often times breaking the information into smaller pieces and using different text items allow for greater flexibility when creating cards for studying.

You mentioned a sample sentence with the word hidden, for a fill-in-the-blank type question. You might find that you don't want answering of these questions to affect progress on your normal vocabulary. In this case, you'll make sure the layout uses a different statistics set, for example, "statistics set 3" for your "fill in the blank" layout.

[db2]

Oh cool, didn't realize you could have up to 9 text fields. I've been building a deck for Japanese For Busy People II (so many business words I need to learn) using Excel, so that'll be easy to throw in another column or two if necessary.

I'm assuming once you've done that, the app will allow you to add Text 6-9 to the sides of the card using the layout editor, right? Or do you have to manually edit the layout strings in the spreadsheet too?

I agree with you on the different statistics sets. Recognition and production are quite different skills, especially when you consider whether it's in-context or out-of-context. I noticed when doing advanced layout, you can edit one of the layouts and get to SRS settings. Am I correct in thinking that each layout within a deck can have its own independent SRS settings (interval scaling, etc.), or do those apply to the whole deck? For instance, I might want more relaxed intervals for in-context cards, since that tends to be a bit easier. And if that's not a per-layout SRS config, then can you achieve similar results by just making a combined deck with only one deck in it?

[Ernie]

You can't add text 6-9 from within the app. Sorry. You can edit, but can't add.

Settings are generally on a per-layout basis.

Spaced repetition settings that are per-deck are:

Cards Become New
Max New Cards
Max Cards in Round
Due Cards Priority
Postpone Due Until