What Is Spaced Repetition? | \u4ec0\u9ebc\u662f\u9593\u9694\u91cd\u8907\u6cd5?<\/h2>\n
Spaced repetition is a learning technique that schedules reviews at gradually increasing intervals \u2014 one day, three days, a week, two weeks, a month \u2014 instead of cramming everything at once. Each time you successfully recall a word, the gap before its next review grows. Words you struggle with come back sooner. Words you know well almost disappear from your daily queue.<\/p>\n
The technique is rooted in the forgetting curve<\/strong>, first documented by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus in 1885. Ebbinghaus discovered that without review, we forget roughly 50% of new information within an hour and over 70% within a day. But strategically timed reviews flatten that curve dramatically \u2014 a properly spaced word can stick for years on just five or six total exposures.<\/p>\n Most Taiwan students learned English through massed practice (\u96c6\u4e2d\u7df4\u7fd2) \u2014 sitting down with a vocabulary book and reading each word ten times. This works for short-term tests but fails for long-term retention. The brain interprets repeated exposure within a single session as redundant noise and discards most of it within days.<\/p>\n Spaced repetition forces your brain to actively retrieve a word at the precise moment you are about to forget it. That moment of effortful recall is what consolidates the memory. Skip it, and the word slips away. Hit it correctly, and the neural pathway strengthens. Hit it correctly five or six times across spaced intervals, and the word is yours for years.<\/p>\n For busy professionals juggling buxiban (\u88dc\u7fd2\u73ed) classes, work emails, and the TOEIC exam (\u591a\u76ca), this efficiency matters. Twenty minutes of SRS per day routinely outperforms two hours of passive list-reading per week. The math is brutal but real: more words, less time, longer retention.<\/p>\n Anki is the most widely adopted spaced repetition software in the world. Used by medical students, polyglots, and language learners across more than fifty countries, it is completely free on desktop, web, and Android, with a one-time fee on iOS.<\/p>\n What makes Anki special is its SM-2 algorithm<\/strong>, which calculates the optimal next-review date for each card based on how well you remembered it. You rate yourself on a four-point scale \u2014 Again, Hard, Good, Easy \u2014 and Anki adjusts. The result is a personalized review schedule that adapts to your strengths and weaknesses in real time.<\/p>\n For English learners in Taiwan, Anki has another quiet advantage: it works fully offline. You can review on the MRT (\u6377\u904b) or during a lunch break in a Hsinchu cafeteria without burning mobile data. The app even syncs your progress when you reconnect to wifi.<\/p>\n Most beginners ruin Anki by making bad cards. They paste in entire dictionary entries, list ten meanings on one card, or write the Chinese translation alone on the back. None of these strategies match how memory actually forms.<\/p>\n Two principles separate good cards from bad ones, and neither is complicated.<\/p>\n Each card should test exactly one thing. Do not put a word, its pronunciation, three example sentences, and the Chinese translation on a single card. Split them into atomic units. The brain remembers small, focused pieces far better than dense blocks.<\/p>\n Bare word-to-translation cards (e.g. "ubiquitous = \u7121\u6240\u4e0d\u5728") teach you trivia, not usage. Better cards show the word inside a sentence with the target word blanked out:<\/p>\n The smartphone has become _______ in modern Taipei \u2014 every commuter on the MRT is staring at one. This format trains both recognition and production simultaneously. You see the meaning from context, predict the missing word, then verify. That dual-process is what builds true active vocabulary instead of brittle test-only knowledge.<\/p>\n Sentence mining (\u53e5\u5b50\u6316\u6398) is the practice of harvesting unfamiliar words from real English content \u2014 articles, podcasts, novels, business emails \u2014 and turning them into Anki cards. The advantage over pre-made decks is dramatic: every card you create comes wrapped in a context you have already encountered, which makes recall significantly easier and more durable.<\/p>\n Three reliable sources for Taiwan professionals:<\/p>\n The biggest predictor of Anki success is not intelligence or starting English level \u2014 it is consistency. Most learners who fail with Anki fail because they skip three days, return to a backlog of 400 cards, and quit in despair. The system is unforgiving of long gaps.<\/p>\n A sustainable schedule that fits a Taipei professional's day looks like this:<\/p>\n Total daily commitment: 20\u201325 minutes. Less time than one episode of a Netflix drama.<\/p>\n Adding 50 new cards a day feels productive for a week. Then the review pile balloons past 400 and the system collapses under its own weight. Stick to 10\u201315 new cards per day for the first three months. The cards compound \u2014 fast.<\/p>\n Once you reach intermediate level, switch to English-to-English cards. Use a learner's dictionary like Longman or Cambridge for definitions. This pushes you toward thinking in English instead of translating in real time \u2014 a key TOEIC and IELTS skill that paper tests reward heavily.<\/p>\n If a word felt difficult, click "Hard" \u2014 even if you got it right. Anki's algorithm depends on honest grading. Lying to it (always clicking "Good") creates fragile memory that vanishes within weeks and ruins your retention curve.<\/p>\n Pre-made TOEIC decks are fine as a starter, but cards you create yourself are three to five times more memorable. The act of writing the card encodes the first memory trace before any review even happens.<\/p>\n Add a pronunciation audio clip to every card. Add-ons like AwesomeTTS auto-generate audio from Forvo or Google. Vocabulary you cannot hear is vocabulary you cannot use in actual conversation \u2014 and the goal is conversation, not just passing a paper exam.<\/p>\n Anki dominates the SRS landscape, but several alternatives deserve mention for learners who find its interface intimidating:<\/p>\n For most serious Taiwan learners, Anki remains the best balance of power, flexibility, and price (free). Its only real weakness is the unpolished interface \u2014 once you push past the first week of learning curve, nothing else comes close.<\/p>\n SRS is a memory tool, not a complete language program. To turn the words you memorize into usable English, you need three more layers stacked on top of your daily Anki habit.<\/p>\n Read English novels, news, or articles 30 minutes a day. Reading exposes you to vocabulary in living context and reinforces your Anki cards naturally. The book or article becomes the test bed for everything you have memorized.<\/p>\n Podcasts and YouTube channels train your ear to recognize the words you have learned at native speed. Try The Daily, BBC 6 Minute English, or Hidden Brain \u2014 all free and 10\u201325 minutes per episode, perfect for a commute.<\/p>\n Use new vocabulary in writing or speech within 48 hours of learning it. Write one English sentence per new word in your daily journal. For Taiwan professionals studying business English (\u5546\u696d\u82f1\u6587), embed the words in mock client emails or LinkedIn posts.<\/p>\n Building English vocabulary the proven way is not a question of talent or budget. It is a question of method. Spaced repetition \u2014 implemented through Anki, fed by sentence mining, anchored by a 25-minute daily routine \u2014 has carried thousands of Taiwan professionals from intermediate plateaus to genuine fluency. The science is settled, the tool is free, and the timeline is realistic.<\/p>\n Open Anki tonight. Add fifteen cards. Show up tomorrow. Repeat for a year. The vocabulary will be there.<\/p>\n Tired of forgetting English words within a week? Spaced repetition with Anki is the proven, science-backed method Taiwan professionals use to build 10,000-word vocabularies in 12 months \u2014 25 minutes a day, completely free.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[1027,207,155,504,872,1110,247,165,201,1031,274,1111],"class_list":["post-3999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article-posts","tag-anki","tag-business-english","tag-english-vocabulary","tag-esl-taiwan","tag-spaced-repetition","tag-srs","tag-taipei-english","tag-vocabulary-building","tag-201","tag-1031","tag-274","tag-1111"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":23,"label":"Articles"}],"post_tag":[{"value":1027,"label":"Anki"},{"value":207,"label":"Business English"},{"value":155,"label":"English vocabulary"},{"value":504,"label":"ESL Taiwan"},{"value":872,"label":"spaced repetition"},{"value":1110,"label":"srs"},{"value":247,"label":"taipei english"},{"value":165,"label":"vocabulary building"},{"value":201,"label":"\u5546\u696d\u82f1\u6587"},{"value":1031,"label":"\u591a\u76ca\u55ae\u5b57"},{"value":274,"label":"\u82f1\u6587\u55ae\u5b57"},{"value":1111,"label":"\u9593\u9694\u91cd\u8907"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/spaced-repetition-english-vocabulary-anki-3-1024x768.jpg",1024,768,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/author\/admin\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":23,"name":"Articles","slug":"article-posts","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":23,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":102,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":23,"category_count":102,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Articles","category_nicename":"article-posts","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":1027,"name":"Anki","slug":"anki","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1027,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":207,"name":"Business English","slug":"business-english","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":207,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":28,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":155,"name":"English vocabulary","slug":"english-vocabulary","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":155,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":16,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":504,"name":"ESL Taiwan","slug":"esl-taiwan","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":504,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":14,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":872,"name":"spaced repetition","slug":"spaced-repetition","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":872,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":1110,"name":"srs","slug":"srs","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1110,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":247,"name":"taipei english","slug":"taipei-english","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":247,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":165,"name":"vocabulary building","slug":"vocabulary-building","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":165,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":201,"name":"\u5546\u696d\u82f1\u6587","slug":"%e5%95%86%e6%a5%ad%e8%8b%b1%e6%96%87","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":201,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":25,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":1031,"name":"\u591a\u76ca\u55ae\u5b57","slug":"%e5%a4%9a%e7%9b%8a%e5%96%ae%e5%ad%97","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1031,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":274,"name":"\u82f1\u6587\u55ae\u5b57","slug":"%e8%8b%b1%e6%96%87%e5%96%ae%e5%ad%97","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":274,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":1111,"name":"\u9593\u9694\u91cd\u8907","slug":"%e9%96%93%e9%9a%94%e9%87%8d%e8%a4%87","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1111,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4006,"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999\/revisions\/4006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"student](\"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/spaced-repetition-english-vocabulary-anki-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhy SRS Beats Traditional Memorization | \u70ba\u4ec0\u9ebc SRS \u52dd\u904e\u50b3\u7d71\u80cc\u8aa6<\/h2>\n
![\"language](\"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/spaced-repetition-english-vocabulary-anki-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAnki: The Free Tool That Powers SRS | Anki: \u9a45\u52d5 SRS \u7684\u514d\u8cbb\u5de5\u5177<\/h2>\n
How to Install and Set Up Anki | \u5b89\u88dd\u8207\u8a2d\u5b9a\u6b65\u9a5f<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"Hand](\"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/spaced-repetition-english-vocabulary-anki-3.jpg\")
![\"student](\"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/spaced-repetition-english-vocabulary-anki-3-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nDesigning Cards That Actually Stick | \u8a2d\u8a08\u80fd\u771f\u6b63\u8a18\u4f4f\u7684\u5361\u7247<\/h2>\n
Principle 1 \u2014 One Card, One Concept | \u4e00\u5f35\u5361\u7247, \u4e00\u500b\u6982\u5ff5<\/h3>\n
Principle 2 \u2014 Test in Context | \u5728\u60c5\u5883\u4e2d\u6e2c\u8a66<\/h3>\n
\n
Answer: ubiquitous (\u7121\u6240\u4e0d\u5728\u7684)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"reading](\"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/spaced-repetition-english-vocabulary-anki-4.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSentence Mining: Where Your Cards Come From | \u53e5\u5b50\u6316\u6398: \u5361\u7247\u4f86\u6e90<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"asian](\"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/spaced-repetition-english-vocabulary-anki-5.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA Realistic Daily Routine | \u5be6\u969b\u7684\u6bcf\u65e5\u8907\u7fd2\u6d41\u7a0b<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"memory](\"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/spaced-repetition-english-vocabulary-anki-6-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFive Mistakes Taiwan Learners Make | \u53f0\u7063\u5b78\u7fd2\u8005\u7684\u4e94\u5927\u932f\u8aa4<\/h2>\n
1. Adding Too Many New Cards | \u4e00\u6b21\u65b0\u589e\u592a\u591a\u5361\u7247<\/h3>\n
2. Translating Everything Into Chinese | \u5168\u90e8\u7ffb\u6210\u4e2d\u6587<\/h3>\n
3. Skipping the Hard Button | \u8df3\u904e\u300c\u96e3\u300d\u6309\u9215<\/h3>\n
4. Using Only Pre-Made Decks | \u53ea\u4f7f\u7528\u73fe\u6210\u724c\u7d44<\/h3>\n
5. Ignoring Audio | \u5ffd\u7565\u97f3\u6a94<\/h3>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/spaced-repetition-english-vocabulary-anki-6.jpg\")
Beyond Anki: Other SRS Tools | Anki \u4ee5\u5916\u7684\u9078\u64c7<\/h2>\n
\n
Combining SRS With the Rest of Your Study | \u7d50\u5408\u5176\u4ed6\u5b78\u7fd2\u6cd5<\/h2>\n
Extensive Reading | \u5ee3\u6cdb\u95b1\u8b80<\/h3>\n
Listening Input | \u807d\u529b\u8f38\u5165<\/h3>\n
Output Practice | \u8f38\u51fa\u7df4\u7fd2<\/h3>\n
A Realistic Timeline | \u5be6\u969b\u6642\u7a0b\u898f\u5283<\/h2>\n
\n
The Bottom Line | \u7d50\u8ad6<\/h2>\n
Sources | \u53c3\u8003\u8cc7\u6599<\/h2>\n
\n