The proven system to learn foreign language

vocabulary and not forget it

OLLY RICHARDS
IWillTeachYouALanguage.com
Copyright © Olly Richards 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods,
without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other
noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Contents
About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
CHAPTER 1

Key Success Principles for Learning

Vocabulary with Spaced Repetition . . . . 13
SECTION 1

What is Spaced Repetition? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

SECTION 2

Getting Started with Spaced Repetition Flashcards . . . . . . . 18

SECTION 3

Integrating Flashcards into Your Language Learning . . . . . 22

SECTION 4

Working with Vocabulary in Full Sentences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

SECTION 5

How to Study with Flashcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

SECTION 6

Consistency – The Key to Success. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

SECTION 7

Making Vocabulary Accessible in Conversations . . . . . . . . 40

SECTION 8

Q&A – Studying with Flashcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

CHAPTER 2

Quickstart Guide:
Setting Up Your Flashcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53
SECTION 1

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
SECTION 2

Which Software is Best? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

SECTION 3

Step-By-Step: Setting Up Your Flashcards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

SECTION 4

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Language Learning Foundations Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Anybody can
become fluent in
another language
with the right
guidance.

6
About
Hi, I’m Olly Richards and I’m the creator of the I Will Teach You A Lan-
guage blog.

When I was 19, I went to live in Paris. There was one small problem,
though. I didn’t speak French. Not one to back down from a challenge,
I decided to learn it. Within six months, and after a lot of trial and error,
and ups and downs, I was conversationally fluent.

I had caught the language bug!

I went back to London, and continued to learn new languages. Since
then, I’ve become fluent in seven of them, including some of the world’s
hardest languages, like Japanese, Cantonese and Arabic.

One day, I decided to start writing about how I do it, and started a blog.

These days, I continue to learn new languages and spend my time

producing the highest-quality educational material out there to help
others replicate my success.

With hundreds of students, and more than a smattering of success

stories, I’ve discovered that anybody can become fluent in another
language with the right guidance.

To find out more about me, why not visit the blog, or check out this
interview with me, filmed in Cairo, Egypt!

Best wishes,
Olly

MAKE WORDS STICK 7 OLLY RICHARDS

Introduction
Learning vocabulary
is the most important
element of making
quick progress in a
new language

In order to do
this you need an
efficient system
for learning

Flashcards with are

spaced repetitionand
one such system ctive
are extremely effe lary
for learning vocabu

8
 Of all the challenges facing you in a new language,
learning enough vocabulary is probably the biggest of
them all.

It’s disarmingly simple, when you think about it.

Whatever else you do, whatever else you learn, however else you study,
often your ability to understand someone, or to make yourself under-
stood, depends on one simple thing: Do you know enough words?

For me, there are two important implications of this. Firstly, learning
new vocabulary must be your number one priority when taking on a
new language. Secondly, you need an efficient system for learning
that vocabulary.

You often hear people talking about the importance of enjoying the
learning process and having fun with the language, and this is abso-
lutely true. However, it’s also true that a certain amount of heavy lifting
is needed if you’re to get anywhere with the language.

Given that we’re all busy people, often with limited time for language
learning in-amongst other commitments, any heavy lifting that we
decide to do has to count!

This guide is all about how to do that heavy lifting.

It’s about how to learn foreign language vocabulary
quickly, and not forget it.

If you’re looking for an easy-going, relaxing, pencil-and-paper method

for learning vocabulary, look elsewhere. The flashcard system that I
describe in this guide does not claim to be particularly fun. However,
it does claim to be effective.

MAKE WORDS STICK 9 OLLY RICHARDS

By the end of the guide you will know exactly how to use spaced
repetition technology to memorise vocabulary, how to make sure you
don’t forget it, and even better, how you can learn in such a way that
you have all that vocabulary ready on the tip of your tongue when you
come to speak with someone.

It’s a bold promise. But after learning seven foreign languages myself,
it’s the most effective and efficient way I know to grow a solid vo-
cabulary core quickly, and to start speaking fluently in months rather
than years.

It is nonetheless true that some

people do find flashcards bor- It’s the most
ing and dislike using technology.
Rather than simply saying: This
effective and
is not for you, however, I want- efficient way I know
ed to offer a solution to people to grow a solid
who feel this way, such that they
can still benefit from the huge vocabulary core
advantages of spaced repetition quickly, and to start
technology.
speaking fluently in
If you fall into this category, you months rather than
should pay particular attention years.
to the advice in Section 5 and
Section 6. Although the basic
study methodology will be the
same, by being highly selective
about the vocabulary you attempt to memorise you can drastically
reduce the amount of study time required every day.

By keeping your study time to bite-sized chunks, you can benefit from
spaced repetition to help you learn the most important vocabulary of
all quickly, whilst still leaving you time to study in other ways and do
the things you enjoy the most.

10
Lastly, this guide has been kept
deliberately short.
By being highly
I’m a huge proponent of the
selective about the
80/20 rule, which states that vocabulary you
80% of your gains will come
attempt to memorise
from only 20% of the things
you do. Learning vocabulary with you can drastically
flashcards is no exception. reduce the amount of
study time required
I could have easily included five
times the amount information, every day.
such as more advanced learning
strategies, or tips on adjusting
flashcard settings, for example,
that, whilst very interesting, are not particularly important in the grand
scheme of things.

80% of your success in using

this method for learning vocab-
ulary will come from following a
80% of your success few simple principles properly,
in using this and it’s these principles that are
covered in this guide.
method for learning
vocabulary will come Good luck, and if you have any
from following a few questions or feedback for me,
you can reach me any time at
simple principles olly@iwillteachyoualanguage.
properly, and it’s these com.
principles that are
covered in this guide.

MAKE WORDS STICK 11 OLLY RICHARDS

Spaced repetition is
a system for learning
information based on
our understanding of
human memory.

12
CHAPTER 1

Key Success
Principles
for Learning
Vocabulary with
Spaced Repetition

MAKE WORDS STICK 13 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 1

What is Spaced Repetition?

Spaced repetition is
a system for learning
information based on
our understanding of
human memory
You input new vocabulary
into flashcard software
and indicate how well you
know each word

shown
Vocabulary is then rvals
gi c in te
to you at strate e
m or
(unknown words ickly
qu
often) so it enters emory
m
into your long-term
it
and you don’t forget
By studying in this w
spend more of your ay, you
tim
studying vocabulary e
you don’t yet know that
w
thereby making lear ell,
ni
extremely efficient ng

14
 Spaced repetition is a system for learning information
based on our understanding of human memory. It is
often used by flashcard software, to make the learning
process more efficient.

Let’s imagine you’re trying to learn ten new words. After inputting them
into your flashcard software, you will indicate how well you know each
word.

At the beginning, each new word will be shown to you quite often, so
that you have plenty of opportunities to memorise it. As you study,
you will naturally start to remember two or three of the words, and you
will tell the software which ones. Those two or three words will then be
shown to you less frequently.

The better you know the words, the less frequently you will see them,
until it gets to the point where you might only see some words every
6 months in order to keep them ticking over.

Certain words, however, you will find harder to learn. You will keep telling
the software that you don’t know them yet, and you will see them more
often – as much as every five minutes!

This is controlled by the spaced repetition algorithm of the software,

which knows, based on the forgetting curve how often you need to see
a word for it to enter into the long-term memory.

This system, then, is similar to the paper flashcards that you might
have used in school to remember geography facts or dates in history.
The big difference, though, is efficiency.

MAKE WORDS STICK 15 OLLY RICHARDS

With paper flashcards, there is no system. You waste huge amounts of
time reviewing cards that you already know, at the expense of unknown
cards that you really need to see more often.

With spaced repetition, however, you automatically spend more time

on things you don’t know, and less time on things you do. The result,
when applied to learning foreign languages, is that you can learn new
vocabulary many times quicker, by a two-step process:

1. Seeing unknown vocabulary more often, so you learn it

quicker

2. Reviewing vocabulary that you know better at strategic

intervals so that they enter quickly into your long-term
memory

As long as you keep using this

system to study over the long
term, all vocabulary (howev-
With spaced repetition er well you know it) will be
you automatically brought back automatically
for you to revise at key inter-
spend more time on vals, meaning that you never
things you don’t know, forget it.
and less time on
It’s no wonder, then, that
things you do. spaced repetition has become
such a huge part of learning
foreign languages. It’s an ex-
ample of a situation in which
technology has been a genuine gamechanger, and made the dream
of become fluent that much easier.

16
By this point, hopefully you are sold on the potential of spaced rep-
etition as a language learning tool. If you’re like me and you want to
dive right in, you might like to go straight to Chapter 2, download my
recommended software, play around a bit, and then come back to the
rest of this chapter later.

If it’s your first time using flashcards, familiarising yourself with the
software first might help you make more sense of what’s to come.

Otherwise, we’re going to get stuck into the nuts and bolts of exactly
how to use spaced repetition flashcards to learn foreign language
vocabulary effectively.

MAKE WORDS STICK 17 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 2

Getting Started with Spaced

Repetition Flashcards

You should use your

flashcard software as
the one place where
you store all your new
vocabulary – no more
old notebooks! By doing this, the so
ftw
can keep track of al are
l
new vocabulary, mak your
sure you keep review e
it, and that none of ing
it gets
forgotten about

Making flashcards is easy –

simply write word or phrase
in the target language on
one side, and the equivalent
in English (or your mother
tongue) on the other

18
 In order for any system of learning vocabulary to work,
it can’t involve too much extra work. This is especially
true of a system involving technology. After all,
technology is supposed to make our lives easier, not
more complicated!

Now, the main principle in any

system of learning vocabulary
is this: You need a place to
store new words and phrases.

In order to memorise new vo-

cabulary, you need to go back
to it over and over again. If all
the new vocabulary you want
to learn is scattered around in
different places (notebooks,
random bits of paper, Skype
chat boxes, etc), you’ve built
your foundation on chaos.

What you’re going to do

from this point on is simplify
everything.

Here’s what the inside of my

flashcard app looks like, and
what you’re looking at are dif-
ferent decks of cards.

Inside each deck are a lot of cards. What they represent is all of the
vocabulary that I’ve set about learning over the last year. (Naturally,

MAKE WORDS STICK 19 OLLY RICHARDS

there is other vocabulary that I’ve learnt incidentally, but everything in
these decks is something I’ve intentionally tried to learn.)

Now, here’s the important bit.

After having a language exchange, after reading a book, after watching a

movie, after hearing something new on the street, I transfer new words
and phrases that I want to learn immediately into a flashcard deck.

I put the target language on one side of the card and English (my
mother tongue) on the other.

20
This flashcard app becomes my one place for organising all new vo-
cabulary that I have any intention of trying to learn.

It’s all in one place.

No more scraps of paper and random notes on my iPhone... I have

one centralised place where all my new vocabulary goes. As a result,
two things happen:

1. I can use the search function to immediately find any word

I’m trying to remember

2. All my new words and phrases take their turn in the spaced
repetition system, so the software does all the work of
deciding when I need to review them next

Can you see how, by organising your learning in this way, the task of
actually learning vocabulary is reduced to one simple job?

Simply open the app and review your flashcards each

day.

You don’t need to worry about which method you’re using, you don’t
need to fret about words that you wrote down somewhere and might
forget about, you don’t need to worry about that notebook you filled
up 6 months ago and is somewhere on the shelf...it’s all there under
one roof.

This is the first and most important part of simplifying your language
learning (80/20) – simply remove all the unnecessary parts and focus
on doing what matters – memorising the vocabulary.

MAKE WORDS STICK 21 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 3

Integrating Flashcards into

Your Language Learning
Learning vocabulary
with flashcards is
not a stand-alone
language learning
system

h o u ld b e seen as
It s ent to a
a supplem -rounded
good, well learning
language
ery new approach
Don’t try to learn ev ss.
word you come acro and
e
Instead, be selectiv r of
sm al l nu m be
choose a at you
ph ra se s th
words and
ly useful
think would be real now.
for you to learn right Then, use
fl
only on the ashcards to focus
what you tr se. By limiting
ensure it h y to learn, you
a
impact and s maximum
overwhelm doesn’t become
ing.

22
 In the last section, I gave you an overview of the
flashcard system that I use. Hopefully it seems pretty
straightforward and manageable, because that is the
aim – simplicity. However, having showed you what
the system is, I want to talk a bit about what it is not.

Using flashcards in this way is not a stand-alone language learning

system. The idea is not to cram in every word you can get your hands
on until you know them all!

As you will quickly discover when you start to experiment with flash-
cards in a spaced repetition system, your decks of cards can easily
become bloated, unwieldy, and get right out of hand if you don’t have
a system for selecting what goes into them.

Flashcards should be used primarily as an add-on to a good, all-round

language learning approach. If you make flashcard study your sole
focus, you may well learn a lot of words, but you won’t know how to
use them.

Flashcards should be used

primarily as an add-on to
a good, all-round language
learning approach.

So the thing to do is to use small amounts of flashcards in addition to

other things to quickly learn key vocabulary.

MAKE WORDS STICK 23 OLLY RICHARDS

Here’s how I’d best describe what I’m suggesting:

1. Your main strategy should be to learn your target language

by getting as much quality input as possible. This
means: using good textbooks, reading interesting material,
listening to natural language through TV or music, having
conversations with native speakers, and so on. This is real
language, and there will never be any substitute for that.

2. From all that reading, listening and studying that you’re

doing, there will be certain words and phrases that you’ll
want to memorise above all. This is where flashcards come
in. You can take this important vocabulary that you really
want to learn, store it in your flashcards, and use the power
of spaced repetition to review it every day until you
have it memorised.

It’s like saying: In amongst everything I’m learning, there’s some vo-
cabulary that I absolutely must learn. I know the flashcard system
works, so I’m going to use it for the vocabulary that really counts to
make sure I remember it!

As I’ve hinted at above, the most important mindset of all is not to do

so much of it that it bores you, but to do small, targeted amounts of
flashcard study in order to learn the most important stuff as quickly
and effectively as possible.

24
The most important
mindset of all is not to
do so much of it that
it bores you, but to do
small, targeted amounts
of flashcard study.

MAKE WORDS STICK 25 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 4

Working with Vocabulary

in Full Sentences
le
learn sing
Don’t try totheir own.
words on arn the
Instead, le phrase that
complete ord came in
Learning whole phrases the new w
is not usually much more
difficult than learning single
words, but it is considerably
more effective, as words
in context are much more
memorable
Put complete
phrases into your
flashcards (not
single words)

Studying whole phrases

gives you much more
exposure to the target
language (as opposed
to single words) Keeping your
vocabulary in context
also teaches you how
to use your new words

26
 The biggest mistake I see people making is trying to
learn single words, where complete phrases are much
more beneficial.

Let’s look at an example. Imagine you heard the following phrase from
your teacher in your target language: I have some time in-between
lessons, and that the word in-between was new for you.

You might be tempted to write down the word in-between in your

notebook and try to learn it.

The approach I recommend is different. In this situation, I recommend

writing down the whole phrase: I have some time in-between lessons,
which, of course, includes your new word right there in the middle.

What you’ll do later is transfer your paper notes into your flashcards.
When you come to make your flashcards, it is the whole sentence that
goes on to your flashcards, not the single word alone.

It doesn’t much matter where these phrases come from:

• From your textbook dialogues

• From your environment (eg. train station, TV, movies,

street signs)

• From your teacher/tutor/exchange partner (e.g. on my

favourite tutoring service iTalki)

• Proactively thinking what you want to learn and asking

someone how to say it

MAKE WORDS STICK 27 OLLY RICHARDS

Pretty much any time you hear or read something in your target lan-
guage there’s plenty of new vocabulary for you to learn.

Let’s talk about why I recommend doing things this way. Why avoid
learning single words? Well, clearly, if it’s a choice between learning a
single word or nothing, then learning a single word is fine.

However, if you focus all your

learning on single words, then
you will end up thinking (and
therefore speaking) in single If you focus all your
words. learning on single
words, then you will
But, of course, language
doesn’t function in groups of end up thinking (and
single words. Language is spo- therefore speaking)
ken in chunks – set phrases,
if you like – such as: How are in single words.
you?, Do you think you could...,
If I were you, I would...

All words exist in context with other words, and so when you learn
them you have to keep that context. By treating them as single
words, you are depriving yourself of much of the meaning and usage
of those words.

This is why the phrase context is king is often repeated.

At this stage, you may be thinking: But how can I memorise entire
phrases? Surely that’s much more difficult!

28
That may be the case if every word in the phrase is new to you, but
in all likelihood, unless you’re an absolute beginner, you will probably
know many of the other words.

As such, it’s usually not much more difficult to learn an entire phrase
than it is a single word. This sounds counter-intuitive, but give it a try!

The reason is that other words in

the phrase give you something
It’s usually not to anchor the new word onto –
something to help you remember
much more difficult what it is.
to learn an entire
phrase than it is a Trying to recall a single word that
you’re struggling to remember
single word. can be very difficult. But if you’ve
learnt is as part of a phrase, it’s
much easier to recall because
you’ve got multiple points of ref-
erence – other words in the phrase that act as a kind of memory trigger.

For example, I’ve recently been trying to remember the Egyptian Ar-
abic word for change, as in small change. I struggled and struggled
to remember the word. Every time I needed to use it in a shop or in a
taxi, I would draw a blank.

However, one day, I went into my local shop with a friend, and he asked
the shopkeeper: Can you give me some change?

I never forgot the word after that. The reason is simply that the phrase
as a whole was much more meaningful than the word change on
its own. By learning words in context, you are much more likely to
remember them.

MAKE WORDS STICK 29 OLLY RICHARDS

The broader point to remember here is that, if you are constantly dealing
in phrases rather than single words, you increase your exposure to
your target language by 4-5x or more.

Think about it. There are usually at least four or five words in a sen-
tence (often many more). If you’re always looking at sentences, you’ll
be looking at 4-5x more of your target language than if you were just
looking at single words.

Thats one thing. The other (more important) point is that you learn
to use new words much more naturally because you get to see how
to use them in context.

This is a big deal.

If you follow my whole flashcard

strategy from this guide but only
implement it with single words, you By learning
will find it much harder to grow your
vocabulary. words in context,
you are much
As I said, it can sound counter-in- more likely to
tuitive and much more work to
memorise phrases rather than the remember them.
words alone, but please give it a go
and see for yourself!

For a video showing you an example of working with complete phrases,

visit http://youtu.be/wkddc5gubf4

30
If you’ve learnt a word as
part of a phrase, it’s much
easier to recall it because
you’ve got multiple points of
reference – other words in
the phrase that act as a kind
of memory trigger.

MAKE WORDS STICK 31 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 5

How to Study with

Flashcards
It is crucial to keep to
manageable amounts
of study. 20-30 new
flashcards per week is
a good place to start. y
If you make too manend
flashcards you will log
up with a large back get
that is impossible to
through.

inutes
Aim for five may.
of study per d

5 minutes is a short-
enough amount of time
to trick your brain into
getting started, but you
will almost always
do more once you get
started.

32
 The single most important thing to remember about
studying with flashcards is that you must keep to
manageable amounts of study.

The spaced repetition system brings back unknown cards on a regular

basis – five minutes, 1 hour, 2 days, 1 week, 6 months.

Cards become due for study at

these points. If you make too
many flashcards and don’t keep
on top of them, you will quick
I suggest adding no
amass a huge backlog that you more than 20-30
won’t be able to clear. new cards per
This also means that you will nev-
week, and studying
er reach the latest cards you put them for five
into your deck because you’ll be minutes a day.
too busy clearing the old ones.

By contrast, if keep it to manage-

able amounts, and stay on top of
studying the due cards, then you will avoid getting caught in the backlog,
learn the cards more thoroughly, and also be able to revise the more
recent cards that you add to your deck.

As a starting point, I suggest adding no more than 20-30 new cards

per week, and studying them for five minutes a day.

This may seem like a small amount, but 20-30 new items of vocabulary
per week, thoroughly learnt, can be very powerful.

MAKE WORDS STICK 33 OLLY RICHARDS

 Is five minutes enough?

Try it and see. You’ll be amazed how much progress you can make.
Now, in all likelihood, you will do far more than five minutes.

The hardest part is getting started,

and so finding a way to get started
The hardest part is your top priority.

is getting started,
Once fire up the flashcard app on
and so finding your phone, review a few cards, and
a way to get feel the enjoyment that comes from
learning, you’ll find it hard to quit
started is your after only five minutes.
top priority.
The 5-minute rule is a strategy I’ve
been using for a long time to make
a lot of progress in my languages.
If you’re anything like me and have
trouble getting motivated to work, try out this simple trick to fool your
brain into getting going.

Only five minutes? Sure I can do that, then we’ll get back to the TV!

30 minutes later, you’re still going!

34
The 5-minute rule is
a strategy I’ve been
using for a long time to
make a lot of progress
in my languages.

MAKE WORDS STICK 35 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 6

Consistency – The Key to

Success
Your daily study
target is five
minutes
You’ll alm
certainly dost
once you o more
started get

It is more effective
to study a few times
throughout the day
than to do one longer
session
If you find this hard,
aim for short bursts
of 1 minute each

The most
convenienflexible and
study flas t way to
your smar hcards is on
tphone

36
 Five minutes is one half of the equation, but daily study
is the other. Whatever language learning strategy
you’re talking about, 80% of your gains come from
the fact of studying a little bit every day.

I can’t underestimate the importance of this. Commit to doing five

minutes of flashcards at least once a day, but preferably at regular
intervals throughout the day, keep it up every day for a couple of weeks
and you’ll be amazed at the pro-
gress you’re making.

Some people find it easy to make

Commit to doing five resolutions like this and stick to
minutes of flashcards them, but others don’t. I certainly
fall into the latter category.
at least once a day,
but preferably at What I’ve found helpful in the
regular intervals past is to set trigger points
throughout my day, which re-
throughout the day. mind me to do whatever I’m fo-
cusing on – in this case a short
burst of flashcard study.

You can think of a trigger point as a rule, which says: As soon as

I_ , I will_ .

Without these trigger points, I often find that I get distracted by any
number of other things around me, forget to do what I’ve committed
to, and before I know it the day is over. Sound familiar?

MAKE WORDS STICK 37 OLLY RICHARDS

Here are examples of trigger points that I’ve used successfully in the
past:

• As soon as I wake up, I will review my flashcards for five

minutes

• As soon as I sit down in the train on my way to work, I will

review my flashcards for five minutes

• As soon as I sit down at my desk after lunch, I will review

my flashcards for five minutes

• In bed, before sleeping, I will review my flashcards for five

minutes.

I decide which times throughout the

day it makes sense for me to study, By writing down
and I actually write them down in a
notebook. your goals, you are
42% more likely to
Writing this down may seem like achieve them.
a trivial step, and you’re probably
tempted to skip it, but I’ve found it
to be surprisingly effective, probably
because it’s just an extra level of
commitment that makes you more likely to follow through.

I got the idea from research by Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican Uni-
versity in California which found that, just by writing down your goals,
you are 42% more likely to achieve them.

38
It’s a small step that takes you less than a minute, but with this kind
of data backing you up, can you afford not to do it?

Be sure to decide on trigger points that work for you. The more you
can fit these new study habits around your life (rather than bending
your life to fit around what you’d like to happen in an ideal world), the
more likely you are to be successful.

It should also be becoming clear to you why I recommend studying

flashcards on your smartphone; the flexibility it gives you is huge.

Can’t do five minutes? Do two. In fact, just do 30 seconds!

It’s worth repeating: Consistency and repetition are the things that will
help you retain the most vocabulary. Quick study bursts of 30 seconds
done 10 times per day, are more effective than one five-minute slot.

And don’t forget, the power of the five-minutes-per-day rule is that,

however much you forget to do
it, however tired or busy you may
be, you can always fit in a quick
five-minute flashcard session be-
fore you go to sleep at night.
Consistency and
repetition are the
The system I’m describing to you is things that will
designed to be achievable, however
busy or lazy you may be. If you think
help you retain the
this can’t work for you, for whatever most vocabulary.
reason, I’d like you to email me right
now and tell me why not.

MAKE WORDS STICK 39 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 7

Making Vocabulary
Accessible in Conversations

Set up your software

to display the
English side of the
flashcard first

This forces you to

think in your target
language
u better
...and this makes yo oring
able to speak by irr rough
m
th
the process you go target
when speaking your
language for real

40
 So you start to put together your flashcards and you
end up with lots of cards – English on one side and
your target language on the other.

Now when you come to study them, which side do you display first? If
you display the target language first, and English on the other, is that
a good thing? If you set them up like that, what goes through your
head when you study?

(Take a second to think about it.)

Now, if you display English first, and the target language on the flip
side, how does this change things?

This may seem rather unimportant. After all, either way, you end up
learning the vocabulary, right?

Well, by displaying the vocabulary in the target language first, all you
have to do is remember what it means. Flipping the card and display-
ing the English simply confirms whether you successfully remembered
the meaning or not.

This is a very passive way of studying. After a few rounds, it becomes

easy and very little challenge for you.

Now let’s look at it the other way.

By displaying the English first, this is no longer a case of simple rec-

ognition. You are forced to recall and produce (say) the phrase in the
target language.

MAKE WORDS STICK 41 OLLY RICHARDS

So, in this case, rather than sim-
ply recognising the new word By displaying the
and remembering what it means
in English, you now have an Eng-
English first you are
lish word in front of you and you forced to recall and
have to remember how to say it
say the phrase in the
in the target language.
target language.
How many benefits can you see
to this?

Although doing things this way round is certainly more challenging,

and takes longer to learn the vocabulary well, displaying the English
side of your flashcards first is critical. Here’s why.

Doing it this way is like a speaking rehearsal.

In other words: Think what you want to say in English, then come out
with it in the target language!

It mirrors the process you go through when you’re speaking your target
language for real.

Why wait until you’re

in front of a real per-
By setting up your flashcards son to start produc-
ing the language? By
in this way, and revising setting up your flash-
often, you are constantly cards in this way, and
revising often, you are
practising the act of figuring constantly practising
out what you want to say the act of figuring out
what you want to say
and how to say it.
and how to say it.

42
After studying in this way for a while, when you come to speak your
target language out in the real world you will find yourself speaking
considerably more fluidly, as new vocabulary will much more accessible
to you and will come to mind much more quickly.

Note: See page 65 for how to adjust these settings in your flashcard
software.

MAKE WORDS STICK 43 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 8

Q and A
Studying with Flashcards

This section is dedicated to questions that I have received

from readers about studying with flashcards. If you are new
to flashcards, much of this might not make much sense to
you at this stage.

If this is the case, don’t worry!

I recommend coming back to this chapter after a few days of

experimenting with flashcards, at which point you may well
find yourself asking similar questions.

If you have other questions, please email me and I’ll add

them to future editions of the guide:
[email protected]

44
Q I’m trying to remember a word in Italian.
Should I include extra sides to a flashcards
with the word and example sentences? For
example, I can create a flashcard with four
sides: Side 1 – Italian word, Side 2 – English
word, Side 3 – Italian example, Side 4 – English
example).

A I don’t recommend this. Having the English

and Italian words on their own is unnecessary.
Remember, we’re looking to always see
vocabulary in context. You should just keep two
sides to the flashcard – the example sentences
(one in English and one in Italian).

It’s not that seeing the words on their own is

objectively a bad idea, but it makes the whole
process less efficient, as you’ve gone from two
sides of the flashcard to four. This doubles the
amount of work you’re doing, unnecessarily.

Q I’m using the Flashcard Deluxe program. One

thing I find a little confusing is that when I
load say 30 cards in, it seems like several days
go by before I ever see many, even most of the
cards. Is that how it’s suppose to/you prefer it
to work?

A This is a result of the spaced repetition settings.

You can choose how many new cards you need
to learn before moving on to the next ones. The
default is 10, and that works fairly well for me.

The principle is that you should be confident

with the first lot of 10 cards until you move on,

MAKE WORDS STICK 45 OLLY RICHARDS

 thereby ensuring that you spend time on what
you don’t know yet, whilst not overwhelming
you at the same time. So, assuming you don’t
know the 10 active cards very well yet, then yes,
you won’t get to the other cards in the queue
until you know these ones better.

However, there is a simple way round this,

which is when you start reviewing a deck, you
choose new cards rather than active cards from
the popup menu. That should bring up the next
lot.

My approach to this is:

1 I want to know my current active cards well

before I move on (10 is the default number, but
you can change this in the settings – you might
prefer 15 at once, for example)

2 If there are some cards that I get stuck on, I

usually just exclude them because I don’t want
to waste too much energy on stuff that isn’t
going it

3 I don’t put too many new things into my decks,

otherwise I end up with a big backlog, like
you’re finding now

4 ...and this is why I recommended limiting

what you enter into flashcards (only the most
important new vocabulary).

It’s worth remembering that this isn’t an exact

science, and the most important thing is to find
the system that works best for you.

46
Q So one follow-up question then. Realistically
how many times a day will you attack a given
deck? I’m just curious how the flow works for
you. If you say go all out and do it 6 times,
then I suppose you will advance forward to
new cards more quickly, but on the other
hand, I would think the spaced repetition will
log all those successful attempts and figure
you know the cards well and then reintroduce
them less often. So I’m just looking for that
balance. I’m looking to tell myself when I get
up (I’m going to review X, Y, and Z decks n
times today). But I don’t know what n is right
yet for me.

A Good question. Here’s the honest answer...

I just do it as and when I can, and fit it around

my schedule. I have five minutes in a taxi to and
from work, and I have a bit of time waiting for
the barista to make my coffee, and then I get a
study reminder on my phone at about 10pm, so
I do a bit then (usually more).

It has to fit around your lifestyle in order to work.

The important thing is to just keep at it. Some
days I do the minimum five minutes. Other days
I’ll have a long taxi ride and do 20 mins. It just
comes down to the daily habit, and... whatever
else happens... just do those 5 mins!

MAKE WORDS STICK 47 OLLY RICHARDS

Q What do you think of having gap fill cards,
e.g. “Q: The weather is _ today, isn’t it? A:
Muggy.”

A My view is that this is a waste of time. The

reason is that you will very quickly remember
which word fills the gap, and the card stops
presenting any kind of challenge. This system
also doesn’t force you to really produce (say)
anything, rather just remember the answer,
which doesn’t move you forward in your
language learning.

Q Is it important to break down words into

individual parts to understand the meaning
fully, thus help memorization?

A You should always understand the meaning

of what you’re trying to learn, but it’s not
necessary to understand all the grammar in
the sentence you’re learning (providing you
understand the meaning).

In fact, this is a very good indirect way of

learning grammar, because rather than trying
to remember rules, you’re learning real phrases
that use accurate grammar. After enough
examples, you’ll find the grammar starting
to “make sense”, even though you haven’t
explicitly studied it.

48
Q How important is the use of audio when
learning vocabulary?

A Accurate pronunciation is important. Most

flashcard software allows you to add an audio
recording to individual flashcards, so you can
have a native speaker record certain words or
phrases that you find difficult, if you want.

I’d say that if you’re comfortable with the

pronunciation, then you don’t need to add the
audio. If you’re unsure, add it if you want.

Q How important is the use of visual aids (like

pictures) when learning vocabulary?

A It’s important as you need it to be. They can be

helpful, but they certainly aren’t necessary. If
you find that a picture helps you remember a
word, then by all means add it to the flashcard,
but I find that mnemonics (i.e. pictures in your
mind/word association) are more effective,
because they then live inside your head and will
always be there.

MAKE WORDS STICK 49 OLLY RICHARDS

Q What is your view on pre-made card decks
and 3rd party language flashcard apps, i.e.,
Wordpower, Visual Dictionary Pro with pre-
made flashcards with audio, visual aids, etc.

A You should never use pre-made decks...however

tempting it may be! One part of this method
is learning vocabulary. The other part, which is
just as important, is choosing the vocabulary
you want to learn right now.

Pre-made decks have been made by other

people, and you’ve had no input into them at
all. They are often not accurate, and usually
contain single words, rather than complete
sentences, which goes against one of the
most important principles in this approach to
learning vocabulary.

However, above all, as we covered earlier,

the most powerful thing you can do to make
flashcard study useful and effective is to
personally select the words and phrases that
will make it onto your decks. In order to keep it
all manageable, you can’t throw every new word
into your decks, and so you need to prioritise
the things that are most useful to you – the
vocabulary you feel a burning desire to learn
right now!

Using pre-made decks is the antithesis of this,

and I strongly urge you not to use them. The
exception would be decks that have been made
to help you learn to write the script of a foreign
language (e.g. Japanese hiragana, or the Arabic
alphabet). These are probably ok, since there’s
no interpretation required – it is what it is!

50
Q Even though you mentioned that grammar will
come by its own accord, would it be helpful
to know basic grammar rules when learning
vocabulary and its usage?

A Yes, absolutely. As I cover in my Language

Learning Foundations video course, working
steadily through a textbook is fundamental,
because you will learn the grammatical basics
of your target language.

MAKE WORDS STICK 51 OLLY RICHARDS

Integrating small amounts
of flashcard study into your
life whilst you’re out and
about means that you need
a solution that is fast, easy-
to-use and reliable.

52
CHAPTER 2

Quickstart Guide:
Setting Up Your
Flashcards

MAKE WORDS STICK 53 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 1

Introduction

54
 There’s plenty of flashcard software out there that uses
spaced repetition. The first decision you have to make
is whether you’re most comfortable learning on a
computer or on your smartphone.

People like studying in different ways. Personally, I hate being glued

to the computer when studying, but there are others who equally
dislike studying on mobile devices and prefer to sit at a computer and
concentrate.

It’s up to you.

My personal recommendation is to go with smartphones for the simple

reason that it’s always with you. At any time in the day you can whip
out your phone and blast your flashcards for as little as 30 seconds.

As I mentioned before, it’s the regularity that really makes the most
difference. Three five-minute blocks of studying during the day are
much more effective than one single 15 minute session at night.

I also don’t have the strongest willpower in the world, so sitting down
to study for a fixed time every evening doesn’t always work for me.

On the other hand, if I can chip away for a few minutes at a time dur-
ing the day, whilst I’m having lunch or waiting for a train...no problem!

MAKE WORDS STICK 55 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 2

Which Software is Best?

I recommend
Flashcards Deluxe as
the most powerful
and user-friendly
flashcard software

Other good options

include Memrise
and Anki

Study preferences ile

(e.g. desktop or mobk
device) and networ
connectivity will sion
influence your deci

56
 Unfortunately, there is no single best app or piece
of software that integrates well across all platforms
such that you can continue your studying seamlessly
between devices.

One of the problems is that some of the better websites don’t have
their own smartphone app, meaning that you’re forced to access their
website via the browser on your phone.

If you have a fast data connection and an unlimited internet package,

then this is not so bad, but it’s still slow and a bit cumbersome.

Integrating small amounts of flashcard study into your life whilst you’re
out and about means that you need a solution that is fast, easy-to-use
and reliable. For me, the solution is a smartphone app.

The Winner: Flashcards Deluxe

Flashcards Deluxe has the perfect balance of power and accessibility,

making it extremely effective for fast-paced, flexible language learning.

The power is in the simplicity. You can get very technical if you want,
and introduce all kinds of features onto your flashcards like multiple
choice and countdown timers.

However, what you really need is the basic functionality of simple, clean
flashcards that are nice to look at and a spaced-repetition system
that’s easy to control.

MAKE WORDS STICK 57 OLLY RICHARDS

 • You can be set up and ready to go in under a minute

• All your data is stored inside the app itself, meaning it’s all
off-line and no data connection is required

• Lightning fast, easy to use

• Cheap: $3.99

• Only on smartphone and tablet – there’s no website or

desktop software

Ultimately, for reasons I’ve mentioned earlier, keeping your flashcards

portable, with quick easy access, is the biggest advantage you have
in creating an effective and sustainable language routine, and so I
recommend you use this app.

Of course, if you don’t have a smartphone, or you’re certain that you

can only learn on a desktop computer, then you can use either of the
two pieces of software below. All the functionality is there, although
you will have to work a bit harder to get up and running.

Runner-up 1: Memrise

Memrise is growing in popularity and is an extremely good option for

those who are more creative. Although you enter your own words and
phrases into the software just like flashcards, Memrise does not use
flashcards as such.

Rather than simply test yourself on both sides of the flashcard in the
traditional way, Memrise prompts you to fill in the gaps, rearrange words
in the sentence, translate back and forth, and so on. This engages
different parts of your brain and works very well for some people.

There are three major disadvantages to Memrise.

58
 1. The smartphone app requires a data connection to
function, which might exclude it as a good option for you
depending on your circumstances

2. When reviewing your vocabulary in the software, you are

often prompted to manually type in your phrases as a form
of review – which is excellent. However, if you’re learning a
language with a difficult script which doesn’t have a stand-
ardised way of writing in the roman script (e.g. Cantonese,
Arabic), then this makes life difficult, because your answer
is deemed incorrect if you make even one small variation.

3. The creative, interactive methodology is not direct enough

for me. I like the fact that with standard flashcards you get
to simply flip the card and test yourself right away.

Sure, it’s not as fancy, but it gets the job done. I find myself getting
frustrated with Memrise sometimes and thinking: Just tell me what it
means...I don’t want to type it out again!

Runner-up 2: Anki

Anki is perhaps the best-known spaced repetition software around,

and is popular in many circles. It’s an undeniably powerful piece of
software, but there is a steep learning curve and the user interface is
horrible.

This is, unfortunately, enough to exclude it as a good option for people

that aren’t too tech-savvy and want to get started quickly.

What’s more, iPhone/iPad users need to pay $25 for the mobile app,
although there is a decent 3rd party Android app that is free.

MAKE WORDS STICK 59 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 3

Step-By-Step:
Setting Up Your Flashcards

60
This is a step-by-step, screen-by-screen guide for getting started using
Flashcards Deluxe to learn your new vocabulary right away.

For other software, please refer to the installation instructions provided

– they’re usually very good.

Step 1

Download and install the app for your device.

Step 2

This is the home screen

you see when you start
the app.

Click the plus sign to

create a new deck.

MAKE WORDS STICK 61 OLLY RICHARDS

Step 3

Select Empty Deck.

Step 4

Select Deck Name.

62
Step 5

Enter the name for your new deck, then select Save, followed by
Create Deck.

MAKE WORDS STICK 63 OLLY RICHARDS

Step 6

Inside your new deck, click the plus sign to add your first card.

64
Step 7

Create your first card by entering the vocabulary in the target

language into the first box (for side 1 of the card) and English in the
second box (for side 2 of the card).

Side 1 here Side 2 here End result looks like this

MAKE WORDS STICK 65 OLLY RICHARDS

 Step 8

Go back to the first screen

and you’ll see your new deck
created at the bottom.

Step 9

Click the deck, and you’ll see

the first card you created.

Click the Settings icon in the

corner.

66
Step 10

Select Card Order.

...and make sure Spaced

Repetition is selected. If you
don’t do this, your cards will
always display in the same
order, making the whole
process redundant!

MAKE WORDS STICK 67 OLLY RICHARDS

Step 11

Select Side 2. This will make sure that the second side of the card
will be displayed first.

Note: Remember, what you want is to display the side with English (or
your mother tongue) first. If you’ve made your cards differently, you’ll to
choose the appropriate side to display first.

68
Step 12

Click back into your deck and you should find the English side (side
2) displayed first.

At the moment, there’s

only one card in your
new deck, so you’ll need
to add more by following
steps 6-7 above (it’s really
simple once you’ve done
it a few times).

To study a deck use the

following actions:

• Swipe down if you

don’t know the
card

• Swipe left if you’re

not confidence
with the card

• Swipe up if you
know the card well

...and you’re good to go!

MAKE WORDS STICK 69 OLLY RICHARDS

SECTION 4

Conclusion
In this guide we’ve covered everything you need to start learning more
vocabulary than ever before...and not forget it!

In Chapter 1 we talked about the key principles of how we learn vo-

cabulary, and how to make the most of spaced repetition so that you
never forget it.

What I’ve given you is the 80/20 rule – the small number of really
important things that will bring you 80% of your results.

In a nutshell, it’s this:

1 Choose a small amount of really important vocabulary to

learn

2 Use flashcard software to store it

3 Record vocabulary in full sentences in your flashcards

4 Use the spaced repetition system built into your flashcard

software to control how often you see each card

5 Review it on a daily basis, starting with only five minutes to

make sure you get it done

6 Keep it up over the long term, so that old vocabulary is

brought back and you don’t forget anything

70
There is a lot of tinkering that you can do with this system, to be sure,
but I encourage you to start by following these simple principles, and
getting those right first.

Once you’re up and running, you can start to experiment with mod-
ifications to the system to suit your learning style. But just be aware
that whatever you do decide add, change, or takeaway it’s unlikely to
be as impactful as covering the basics thoroughly.

In writing this guide, my aim has been to make it dead simple to follow.
If you found any parts confusing, would like any clarification, or have
any suggestions for improvements, don’t hesitate to contact me by
email here: [email protected]. In fact, why not just
drop me a line and say hi anyway!

I hope you’ve found this guide useful and now have a clear way forward.

Until then, best of luck with your language learning!

Olly

MAKE WORDS STICK 71 OLLY RICHARDS

HOW TO BECOME FLUENT
IN ANY LANGUAGE...
WITHOUT WASTING TIME

72
If you found this guide useful, then there’s a lot more where this came
from!

The best place to start is with my video course, Language Learning

Foundations, which teaches you the exact, step-by-step system that I’ve
used to become fluent in over 7 foreign languages. It covers everything
from finding the best materials and finding native speakers to practise
with, to making an effective study schedule and staying motivated.

What’s cool about it is that it focuses on the early stages of learning a

new language. You know, that stage where you start to get overwhelmed
by all the options and just want a clear path to follow that is guaranteed
to bring you results and get you speaking quickly?

Just like this guide, it’s designed to be really straightforward and easy
to follow, and many people have used it to make huge strides forward
in a new language.

For more information click here or visit the main blog page and click
on Courses: www.iwillteachyoualanguage.com.