Why I Was Happy to Pay $30 for the Anki iOS App
Anki is a digital version of index cards. It has been my go-to solution since I went to university. I was never a huge fan of index cards because they took a ton of effort to put together. I focused more on getting an overview and understanding before memorizing everything based on my model. Index cards seemed limited to language and vocabulary learning.
I have been learning Portuguese for about 3.5 years. Since my wife is Brazilian, I have a huge motivation to understand my Brazilian family. I mostly rely on a private tutor for one hour a week. I also have a Duolingo streak of about 1350 days. However, I am not really practicing conjugation in my lessons or on Duolingo. I practice implicitly through speaking, which has led to many confusing moments with my mother-in-law.
Anki has come to my rescue. I found an amazing Anki package with the conjugation of many Portuguese words I want to practice. Anki is not just a simple index card tool. The Portuguese package I found includes additional meta information and examples. Anki shuffles the index cards and ensures repetition for effective memory. You can mark each card as hard, good, or easy, and Anki uses these scores to resurface the cards in future sessions.
I am excited about this and recommend Anki to everyone. You might not get the learning benefit of creating the index cards, but you will benefit from repetitive learning.