Is my glossary out of control?

[issemiyaki]

Is it just me, or is my glossary getting out control?

I used to have 5 or 6. Now I just have ONE and I funnel everything through it.

As you can imagine, it's growing by the day, and taking longer to review.

It’s not a word-list glossary, per say; it’s more of a phrase glossary made up of all the turns of phrase, idiomatic expressions, etc., that I had trouble with during my lesson. (I record all my lessons, and jot down mistakes or cool turns of phrases my teacher says.)

I’ve even tried to make the glossary interactive with fill-in-the blank sentences on the left and the answers on the right. (I just cover the right side when I want to test myself.)

I have attached a link so you can see a sample copy. https://we.tl/t-zmPHrIdGXv

Currently, I’m experimenting with making my own audio glossaries. I listen to the English phrase, and then say the French equivalent out loud.

But what about you? How long to you continue to review items in a glossary? I feel like one of those Anki users who ends up with decks so large it takes days to review them all! And then you feel like you’re spending most of your time maintaining glossaries instead of practicing and consuming the language.

What's your take?

[samfrances]

You mention anki. Why don't you just put your glossary into anki and let it take care of review scheduling for you? One less thing to think about, at least.

[alaart]

And then you feel like you’re spending most of your time maintaining glossaries instead of practicing and consuming the language.

I can't speak for written glossaries, but if you compare it with Anki addiction I can say a couple things. The important question is: How much time per day do you spent on average on it?

I'm an Anki addict and I spent around 45 minutes to 1 hour, I'd say. I have spent more, but I feel if it is like longer than 1 hour / 90 minutes at most, I'm not doing myself a favor. I usually deactivate huge sets of cards I feel I know ~ok after some time. And will use input instead.

As for your PDF, it is a review sheet. I make cards like this too, find them useful. This is especially useful for: a) Grammar patterns b) learning words in sentences / context. - so why not?, personalized reviews are effective, especially for memorizing things after you heard them the first time.
If it feels you are reviewing too much old material, don't worry. Put it on the side and get some input or move forward in your grammar book. The concepts of the things you are reviewing now will also be reinforced there. You can come back to the reviews later when you feel like you need them.

[白田龍]

You need to keep ajusting your review schedule and discard policy until it feels confortable to you.

In the beginning I did a lot of reviews, but over time my discard policy has become more agressive in order to cope with growing decks.

Also bear in mind that high-frequency words and patterns are bound to be repeated on your material soon enough.

[issemiyaki]

Hello, all.

Thanks for your input. 白田龍 , and others, you made me think hard about my process.

I have decided to divide my vocabulary learning into 2 phases: Intensive Learning Studyand Extensive Learning Study.

It follows the same concept of Intensive and Extensive reading.

There's no way I can underline and highlight my way to fluency. It's slow and tedious. Not to mention, I end up with some 300 new words a week, 90% of which I can't remember because I'm greedily underlining new words the next week.

Moving forward, I will limit the words I put in my glossary. Particularly because some expression and grammatical notions need time to marinate.

As 白田龍 said above, many of these words will come up again, and they will make time for themselves to be learned. I need to trust the process. (But you should have seen me, I was underlying words and phrases as if I was never going to see them again. Ha! Funny looking back.)

Thank you all, and look forward to your advice on my next post where I'll be asking some questions about the relationship between writing and listening comprehension.