learning chinese vocabulary with pleco flashcards

now that i’ve stuck to using pleco and its flashcard feature for a few weeks now (started at hsk 1 and am now starting hsk 3 for vocab), i thought i’d make a quick write up of how i’ve been using it! similar to anki, pleco offers the option to study flashcards using a spaced repetition system (srs), which promotes long term memorization by showing difficult flashcards more frequently while showing older flashcards less frequently. what makes pleco great is its ease of use; the learning curve is less steep when compared to anki and because it’s specifically for chinese, it’s super easy to add new vocab into your flashcard deck.

pleco offers many different “test types” (ways to study flashcards) and the option to create different “profiles” so that you can save your customized settings to study the same deck of cards multiple ways. the two test types i’ve used and liked are self-gradedandfill-in-the-blanks. imo fill-in-the-blanks is particularly great for those who are studying handwriting. i set mine up so that i have to write the chinese character after being shown the pinyin and english definition.

screenshot of how pleco’s fill-in-the-blanks test type works (excuse my handwriting haha):

i did eventually stop using this test type in favor of purely using the self-graded test type because memorizing how to write characters isn’t as important to me as improving my reading/speaking/listening skills. pleco’s self-graded test type is similar to the traditional flashcard system where you’re shown the character and have to guess the definition. i’ve also set it up so that i can rate my “answer quality”. i.e. even if i got the answer correct, did i get it correct because i knew it well? or was it something i had to struggle to remember? being consistent with the ratings you choose will help fine-tune the srs algorithm to help it determine the length of time that will pass before you’re shown the word again. notice how pleco shows both the traditional and simplified forms of a character too! great for people like me, who are studying traditional characters but want to also be familiar with its simplified counterpart because simplified chinese is so widely used:

this was just a brief overview of a tiny subset of the many settings pleco has for its flashcard add-on, which in turn is just a tiny subset of the many features pleco offers. note that though the app itself is free, the flashcard add-on is $9.99 usd (or you could get one of the bundles that includes flashcards along with other features like a document reader and more dictionaries).

i used anki for a bit in the past and while anki definitely has more customization for their flashcards–there’s a reason why they’re the go-to program for people wanting to use srs for studying flashcards–i find the overall experience of pleco a lot better and conductive to my chinese learning experience.