How to make monolingual TSCs for vocab and grammar?
The process of making monolingual TSCs for grammar and vocabulary is essentially the same, as there's no significant difference between the two.
After you go monolingual, you'll continue sentence mining in much the same way as before. While reading books, watching things with subtitles, browsing the web, you will come across sentences where you know everything in a sentence except for one grammar point or one word. Take that whole sentence and put it on the front of your SRS card. On the back, put the monolingual definition for the grammar point or word you didn't know.
Some preparations, as explained in the main article:
- Download and install monolingual dictionaries for tools like GoldenDict, Rikaitan, etc.
- In Rikaitan, keep JMdict enabled (but hidden) for times when your monolingual dictionaries don't pick up certain words. Monolingual dictionaries tend to be smaller than JMdict.
- Mine sentences as you usually would. Don't add English definitions to your cards. Having both English and Japanese definitions is acceptable only during the transition period.
You will run into grammar points that only have English definitions. Use Rikaitan to identify the grammar pattern, then consult Weblio or any search engine to look it up. Searching the web should lead to explanations in Japanese. Additionally, try monolingual dictionaries for grammar. They cover additional topics and can help when other dictionaries fail. Some people would prefer to install as many monolingual dictionaries as possible to cover even more ground and minimize the need to look up words online.
Once you learn the very basics, the strict distinction between grammar points and vocabulary pretty much dissolves. For instance, take the phrase ならでは. While JLPT might classify this as a grammar point, I see it simply as another piece of Japanese. If you look up ならでは in a monolingual dictionary, you'll find what it means. Similarly, if you take ながら, looking it up in a monolingual dictionary will show you how it's used and what it means.
Beyond the basics, there isn't a clear distinction between vocabulary and grammar points. I would just think of them as pieces of the language that you don't know yet.
Whether that's a noun, or an adverb, or a verb in a specific form, or whatever, everything will be in the monolingual dictionary somewhere. You just have to know how to look it up correctly. The process remains the same. Place the sentence on the front of your card and what you need to understand it on the back. When reviewing the card, read the target piece, ensure sure you can read the kanji, ensure that you understand what the target word or grammar means roughly, and what the overall sentence means roughly. If you can do that, you're good to go.
Tags: faq