As a general rule, I have tended to eschew tactical learning advice in favor of the strategic. Tactics are (superficially) quicker and easier to deal with, and we all need to experience the joy of rubber meeting the road, the beauty of that friction, the traction of reality, the simple pleasure of grinding…BUT…because they can be applied in the total absence of an understanding of the philosophy (i.e. strategy) behind them, context-free tactics also tend to lead to dogmatism, misunderstanding and self-harm.

Again, we all need tactics and I would be doing a disservice if I didn’t share some of mine with you (like I’m about to do now) but we also need to realize that tactics must needs be mutable where strategy is more permanent. Tactics are like the wind. Strategy is the (fist of the) north star.

So, yeah. Tactics. Here we go. Um…up until now, the general advice (from me) on how to make MCD cards was that you should remove any and all furigana (kanji readings) from the front of the card. So the front of your base card (before inserting the clozes) would look like this:

【半値】
定価の半分。半分の値段。 「半値以下に値下げする」

After several months of experimentation, I am pleased to inform you that this is not necessary — and that you actually want to leave the furigana there, right on the front of the card, so:

はんね
【半値】
定価の半分。半分の値段。 「半値以下に値下げする」

And include it as part of your base clozetexts, so: はんね 半値
Remember, these are base clozetexts, so combinatorial explosion applies, meaning that you actually end up with (in this case) nine clozetexts, like so: はん　ね　半値　半　値　は　んね　半値　ん
Surusu, the world’s sexiest SRS, handles the creation of extra clozetexts for you; just give it the base clozetexts and set “JPNZ (n00b) (Japanese newbie)” as your clozemode.

Why does this work? Short answer: it just does. Long answer: it gives extra context, which is always good, and makes the card easier without making it too easy; it’s especially valuable to leave the furigana on the front of the card when you’re trying to learn proper names (i.e. proper nouns), which tend to lack intrinsic ¹ meaning. Obviously, proper nouns in Japanese transparently mean something because kanji mean something, but “豊臣秀吉” does not mean “ancient awesome samurai guy”; it’s just a certain ancient awesome samurai dude’s name.

Also, leaving furigana on the front turns your learning into a divide-and-conquer proposition, and this is a good thing. A very good thing. Specifically, we separate learning (testing) the readings of a new word from testing kanji knowledge of that same word. Ironically, while this makes each individual card easier, it actually sharpens your knowledge of both kanji and readings, and, going forward, prevents “native-like forgetfulness” where you can accurately produce a reading but not necessarily always a kanji from memory (the whole “I can read ‘Massachusetts’ but not spell it correctly” effect).

Note that this doesn’t make the old, “no-furigana-on-the-front” cards obsolete, it just adds a new dimension, another card style, to your toolbelt.

If none of the above made any sense to you, don’t worry about it. Just get the MCD Revolution Kit to learn more and get up to speed . It’s all in there.

Never say I never did nothing for the peoples!

To commemorate the beginning October…

…Coz I’m all about commemorating October…

…Myeah, not really…

But just for the heck of it anyway, here are a dozen free, real-life (i.e. from or inspired by actual cards in my actual decks) examples of MCDs. There are three basic types. Bilingual, tranny I mean transitional, and monolingual. ¹

Some people give you roses. Some sacrifice virgins. I give you SRS card examples that make your learning fun, easy and effective. I think it’s quite clear who’s really looking out for your best interests : the virgin-sacrificing people; they’re really going all out. But I imagine I’m a close second.

Remember, the basic MCD principle is this: instead of having 1 card with 9 unknowns, you have 9 cards with 1 unknown each. But you keep the same massive context as when you had a single big, bad, intimidating, f-off card. 9 is a fake number.

Talk longa. Action brevis. Begin!

First things first, here is the format for these examples:

1. FRONT
   BACK

The front contains the cloze (the blank represented by ＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃ or some other equally awesome marker).
The back contains the clozetext (the correct answer to the blank; the filler to the donut hole, if you will) as well as additional materials like definitions, readings, sound files and any other relevant reference material.

Bilingual

Bilingual MCDs are good for when you lack the knowledge — or the context — to happily handle monolingual cards. Beginners, noobs and nervous nellies should focus just on bilingual cards. Just as with old skool sentence cards, don’t go writing your own translations. If you’re noob enough to need a translation, ya shouldn’t be rolling your own.

1. 一＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃に行きます。
   I shall come with you.
   緒
    一緒に行きます。
   I shall come with you.
   いっしょ【一緒】 1 〔共に同じ事をすること〕 毎朝學校へ一緒に行ったものです We used to go to school together every morning. 一緒に行ってくださいませんか Won’t you come with me? 一緒に遊びませんか Won’t you join us in the game? クラスが一緒でした We were in the same class. 途中までご一緒しましょう I’ll 「go with [((文))accompany] you part of the way. 
2. 一緒＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃行きます。
   I shall come with you.
   に
   一緒に行きます。
   I shall come with you.
3. ＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃覚を研ぎ澄ますことじゃ。そうすればわかる。
   Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will.
   感
   感覚を研ぎ澄ますことじゃ。そうすればわかる。
   Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will.
   かんかく【感覚】 1 〔知覚〕a sense; (a) sensation
   スターウォーズセリフbot (StarWarsbot)さんはTwitterを使っています is.gd/1C7oZr 
4. 感＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃を研ぎ澄ますことじゃ。そうすればわかる。
   Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will.
   覚
   感覚を研ぎ澄ますことじゃ。そうすればわかる。
   Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will.
   かんかく【感覚】 1 〔知覚〕a sense; (a) sensation
   スターウォーズセリフbot (StarWarsbot)さんはTwitterを使っています is.gd/1C7oZr 
5. 感覚を＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃すことじゃ。そうすればわかる。
   Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will.
   研ぎ澄ま
   感覚を研ぎ澄ますことじゃ。そうすればわかる。
   Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will.
   とぎすます【研ぎ澄ます】  II 〔精神を鋭くする〕 研ぎ澄まされた芸術的感覚 a keen artistic sense
   スターウォーズセリフbot (StarWarsbot)さんはTwitterを使っています is.gd/1C7oZr 
6. 感覚を研ぎ澄ますことじゃ。そう＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃わかる。
   Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will.
   すれば
   感覚を研ぎ澄ますことじゃ。そうすればわかる。
   Use your feelings, Obi-Wan, and find him you will.
   とぎすます【研ぎ澄ます】  II 〔精神を鋭くする〕 研ぎ澄まされた芸術的感覚 a keen artistic sense
   スターウォーズセリフbot (StarWarsbot)さんはTwitterを使っています is.gd/1C7oZr 

Transitional

Tranny ² I mean transitional cards are useful for when you’re trying to crack the same risqué joke twice in a single blogpost, or just actively making the (get this) transition ³ to using monolingual dictionaries. Basically, they’re MCDs of dictionary definitions of simple words you already know. The front of the card is monolingual, the back of the card is bilingual (so we have an English definition of the definition we’re clozing). Contrast with bilingual cards, which are bilingual on both sides, and monolingual cards, which are monolingual on both sides.

1. 【＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃る】１ 食物を噛んで、呑み込む。「生で＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃る」「ひと口＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃てみる」
   食べ
   た・べる【食べる】 ［動バ下一］［文］た・ぶ［バ下二］《尊敬語「たぶ」（四段）に対応する謙譲語》 １ 食物をかんで、のみこむ。「生(なま)で─・べる」「ひと口─・べてみる」
   たべる【食べる】 I 〔食う〕eat
2. 【食物】 ＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃物。生物が＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃て身體の栄養とするもの。
   食べ
   しょく‐もつ【食物】 食べ物。生物が食べてからだの栄養とするもの。
   しょくもつ【食物】 food 食物をとる eat (food) 腐りやすい食物 perishables 食物繊維 dietary fiber 食物連鎖 a food chain
3. 【＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃く】 １ 向こうへ移動する。「はやく＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃け」
   行
   い・く【行く／逝く／▽往く】 ［動カ五（四）］ １ 向こうへ移動する。「はやく─・け」
   ゆく【行く】 ⇒いく(行く) 1 〔目的地に向かう〕go
4. 【＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃】１ 命がなくなる。息が絶える。また、自ら命を斷つ。「交通事故で＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃」「世をはかなんで＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃」「＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃か生きるかの大問題」「＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃ほどの苦しみ」「死んでも言えない」⇔生きる。
   死ぬ
   し・ぬ【死ぬ】 ［動ナ五］［文］［ナ四・ナ変］《古くはナ行変格活用。室町時代ころからナ行四段活用が見られるようになり、江戸時代には二つの活用が並存。明治以降はナ行四段（五段）活用が一般的になったが、なお「死ぬる」「死ぬれ（ば）」などナ行変格活用が用いられることもある》 １ 命がなくなる。息が絶える。また、自ら命を斷つ。「交通事故で─・ぬ」「世をはかなんで─・ぬ」「─・ぬか生きるかの大問題」「─・ぬほどの苦しみ」「─・んでも言えない」⇔生きる。
   しぬ【死ぬ】 1 die

Monolingual

Monolingual cards are especially well-suited to long, context-rich passages of L2 text. Having said that, they will of course work on short passages as well: they don’t know how long your passage is .

If you don’t get how these are working, don’t worry: you’re not supposed to get it…yet. Focus first on bilingual and transitional cards. Get a few thousand of those under your belt. Your time will come.

1. 【彼氏（アメリカ人）との喧譁について】
   今付き合って三ヶ月になるアメリカ人の彼氏＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃。
   喧譁はいつものことですが、今日彼氏と大喧譁をしました。
   がいます
   【彼氏（アメリカ人）との喧譁について】
   今付き合って三ヶ月になるアメリカ人の彼氏がいます。
   喧譁はいつものことですが、今日彼氏と大喧譁をしました。
   彼氏（アメリカ人）との喧譁について – Yahoo!知恵袋 is.gd/J3ur32 
2. 【「真犯人は＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃」…ＰＣ遠隔操作「犯罪予告」】
   他人にパソコンを乗っ取られ、気づかないまま犯人にされてしまう──。
   殺人予告メールを送ったなどとして逮捕された男性２人のパソコンから「遠隔操作型ウイルス」が見つかった事件は、無実の男性が誤って逮捕された冤罪の可能性が高まった。
   サイバー犯罪は、パソコン、インターネットの普及とともに巧妙化しており、男性を犯人と斷定してしまった搜査関係者の間には動揺が広がった。
   卑劣
   ひ‐れつ【卑劣／×鄙劣】 ［名・形動］品性や言動がいやしいこと。人格的に低級であること。また、そのさま。「─な行為」 [派生]ひれつさ［名］
   【「真犯人は卑劣」…ＰＣ遠隔操作「犯罪予告」】
   他人にパソコンを乗っ取られ、気づかないまま犯人にされてしまう──。
   殺人予告メールを送ったなどとして逮捕された男性２人のパソコンから「遠隔操作型ウイルス」が見つかった事件は、無実の男性が誤って逮捕された冤罪の可能性が高まった。
   サイバー犯罪は、パソコン、インターネットの普及とともに巧妙化しており、男性を犯人と斷定してしまった搜査関係者の間には動揺が広がった。
   「真犯人は卑劣」…ＰＣ遠隔操作「犯罪予告」 : ニュース : ネット＆デジタル : YOMIURI ONLINE（読売新聞） is.gd/97O97H 
3. 【「真犯人は卑＃＃＃＃＃＃＃＃」…ＰＣ遠隔操作「犯罪予告」】
   他人にパソコンを乗っ取られ、気づかないまま犯人にされてしまう──。
   殺人予告メールを送ったなどとして逮捕された男性２人のパソコンから「遠隔操作型ウイルス」が見つかった事件は、無実の男性が誤って逮捕された冤罪の可能性が高まった。
   サイバー犯罪は、パソコン、インターネットの普及とともに巧妙化しており、男性を犯人と斷定してしまった搜査関係者の間には動揺が広がった。
   劣
   ひ‐れつ【卑劣／×鄙劣】 ［名・形動］品性や言動がいやしいこと。人格的に低級であること。また、そのさま。「─な行為」 [派生]ひれつさ［名］
    【「真犯人は卑劣」…ＰＣ遠隔操作「犯罪予告」】
   他人にパソコンを乗っ取られ、気づかないまま犯人にされてしまう──。
   殺人予告メールを送ったなどとして逮捕された男性２人のパソコンから「遠隔操作型ウイルス」が見つかった事件は、無実の男性が誤って逮捕された冤罪の可能性が高まった。
   サイバー犯罪は、パソコン、インターネットの普及とともに巧妙化しており、男性を犯人と斷定してしまった搜査関係者の間には動揺が広がった。
   「真犯人は卑劣」…ＰＣ遠隔操作「犯罪予告」 : ニュース : ネット＆デジタル : YOMIURI ONLINE（読売新聞） is.gd/97O97H

And so it came to pass that twelve free MCD examples were given. And there was much rejoicing throughout the land ⁴. And it was good.

Questions? Comments? Confusion? Let me know.

Also, you might want to talk to the MCD Revolution Kit…it’ll almost certainly have your answers .

Ever notice how we like to do things that are easy, and we don’t like to do things that are hard?

For example, maybe you aren’t really into this episode of “Is the Food Delicious or Not?” but the remote is out of arm’s reach, and you’re pretty comfortably settled onto the couch, and you have an adorable cat lying on top of you. Guess what you’ll end up watching.

Well, there’s good news for us lazy slobs. MCDs are insanely easy to make.

Surusu can create up to 512 MCDs in a single click.

Not a Surusu user? AJATT+ member tokyostyle created a plugin for Anki that automatically generates MCDs. As if this didn’t get him enough awesome points, he constantly checks feedback and suggestions from the users who post their comments in the thread and updates/tweaks the plugin accordingly.

Copy/pasted for non-AJATT+ members:

 Main Project: code.google.com/p/mcdsupport/

Development: github.com/tarix/mcdsupport

Installation

1. Click File -> Download -> Shared Plugin …

2. Search for “MCD Support for Anki”

3. Select “MCD Support for Anki v1.2”

4. Click OK

5. Restart Anki

 

Deck Preparation

1. Open your Sentences or MCD deck.

2. Click Settings -> Deck Properties …

3. Click the “Add” button

4. Select “Add: Japanese MCD” and click OK

5. Close the Deck Properties window

 

Adding MCD Cards

1. Open your Sentences / MCD deck

2. Click Tools -> Add MCD Cards OR Press F9

3. Paste the passage you want to learn into the “Text” box

4. Add any notes you want on the back of the card to the “Notes” box

5. Add the words, kanji, kana, etc. you want clozed in the Clozes box

6. Make sure all of your clozes have spaces between them!

7. Add any tags you want these cards to have

8. Click the Add button

 

* If all goes well you will soon see a small status line telling you how many cards were just added.

Try it out and leave some feedback for tokyostyle on the forum.

So now you have no excuse to not try MCDs. Make some and post your thoughts/insights/revelations in the comments!

Why are MCDs so effective?

My hunch (and limited experience) is that MCDs convert into output faster and more accurately than the “original glazed” sentence cards because we’re doing a deeper form of practice.

[link]

Both vanilla sentences and MCDs familiarize you with the language and expose you to vocab and syntax, but the key difference is that sentences are passive whereas MCDs are active.

This active form of practice leads to easier, faster, and more natural output.

I find that I use MCDs simply for writing.  … I already knew what it meant from the Kanji and also from my sentence deck.  I knew what it meant but I couldn’t write it. …

中華料理…I can write that on command thanks to MCDs.

[link]

I personally don’t use MCDs exclusively.

I love my vanilla sentence deck, and I still add to it daily. But I’ve found that MCDs are amazing for helping me memorize 四字熟語. Before experimenting with MCDs, I had a few 四字熟語 in my sentence deck, but I could only recognize and read them. I couldn’t write them out from memory.

Now that I’ve gotten into MCDs, I can write those suckers one right after the other without breaking a sweat.

Here’s an example of how I would use MCDs to learn 合縁奇縁:

Front:

親同士がすすめた結婚で、お互いに不安だらけのスタートでしたが、まさにXXXXX縁奇縁、たいした喧嘩もせずに、いつのまにか50年になりました。

Back:

合
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

合縁奇縁　あいえんきえん

Front:

親同士がすすめた結婚で、お互いに不安だらけのスタートでしたが、まさに合XXXXX奇縁、たいした喧嘩もせずに、いつのまにか50年になりました。

Back:

縁
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

合縁奇縁　あいえんきえん

Front:

親同士がすすめた結婚で、お互いに不安だらけのスタートでしたが、まさに合縁XXXXX縁、たいした喧嘩もせずに、いつのまにか50年になりました。

Back:

奇
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

合縁奇縁　あいえんきえん

Front:

親同士がすすめた結婚で、お互いに不安だらけのスタートでしたが、まさに合縁奇XXXXX、たいした喧嘩もせずに、いつのまにか50年になりました。

Back:

縁
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

合縁奇縁　あいえんきえん

I would also add a vanilla sentence card with no cloze deletions just for learning the readings.

Based on what I’ve read at the AJATT+ forums, some users love MCDs and have completely scrapped the sentence method. Some have tried MCDs and found that sentences were a better match. Others, like myself, are experimenting with a combination of both. Some write out their MCD answers, others don’t ¹: I know that Khatz is lazy, so he can’t be bothered. See what works best for you.

The magic of MCDs comes from using super super simple cards to learn complex things.

The simplicity can’t be stressed enough.

Back in my misled ganbaru days of learning Japanese, I used to make cards for writing kanji compounds that looked like this:

FRONT:

りょうり

cooking

BACK:

料理

That doesn’t look so bad, does it? But it is. It’s a bad, bad card. Bad. This ↑ is not how to learn. Not effectively.

Never quiz yourself on two kanji at once. Unless you’re simultaneously writing with a pencil in your left hand and your right hand, you will never write two kanji at one time. No matter what you’re writing, whether it’s 元気 or 財団法人自治体国際化協会, you’re going to write it one kanji at a time.

After struggling with MCDs in the beginning, forum sempai 安藤 sees the light:

Once they finally clicked for me, it was like a new world opening up. … I honestly couldn’t see myself finally learning terms like 注意欠陥・多動性障害 or 朝鮮民主主義人民共和国 with the “traditional” sentence card format, but, as should be obvious from the fact that I totally just typed those out from memory, I can learn them super-easily now since instead of having one card with a nine kanji term I’ve gotta remember, I’ve got nine cards with one kanji to remember. 1/9th of the difficulty!

[link]

MCDs = Making hard stuff easy. Making you rock at [foreign language of choice].

Previously I wrote a brief introduction to MCDs, a card format popular at AJATT+.

Why use MCDs? Instead of answering that myself, I’ll just quote some forum sempais:

ダンちゃん:

Individual MCD cards have a lot more character for me. …This seems to make it easier to remember the words linked to them. …I love how much easier it is to make them. Copy, paste, cloze, repeat several times for same material … It also pressures you towards choosing authentic content over example sentences provided by dictionaries.

[link]

Drewskie:

It’s so much more fun to grab whole posts and paragraphs… Taking things whole preserves a lot of the material’s character and context, which makes reading the cards a lot more fun, which of course makes doing reps a lot more fun.

[link]

stevie:

I’ve found MCDs are a LOT less painless (and seem to have a much better retention rate) than sentence cards where I was finding it pretty much impossible, or at least very little fun, to do I+1 given how many words and character readings I don’t know in Mandarin.

[link]

ダンちゃん:

Having a part hidden that I have to guess seems to make things more fun. I guess because I can show off to myself by ‘winning’ the game.

[link]

Drewskie

 Having eliminated all barriers to 2ch, I’m finding that exploring different boards and making MCDs out of posts and conversations is probably the most fun I’ve had while sentence mining.

 [link]

dtcamero

 Personally I think the cleverness of the MCD is in adding compelling context to sentence cards. Otherwise they get boring and boredom is the enemy…

[link]

RevenantKioku

The strange thing was MCDs made me feel less badder about failing them and more gooder about getting them right.

[link]

stevie

It’s just amazing how fast I can go from grabbing a news article on more or less anything … and in some cases go from under 50% understanding to 100%.  …  MCDs make this easy, fast, fun, and with an instant payoff in terms of understanding.

[link]

In summary: using sources you are interested in and combining lots of context with simple cloze deletions, MCDs help you learn more, make reading easier, and improve recall and output.

In the summer of 2010, I innocently started experimenting with a new SRS technique.
Easy, effortless and effective, the technique rapidly ballooned in scope, creatively destroying all that came before it.
It worked. Devastatingly well.
On October 18, 2010, my sentence deck breathed its final breath, and the “10,000 Sentences” method literally died, a happy victim of the very process that had brought it about: experimentation and discovery.

All the while, only a select group of people even knew this was all happening.
Despite — or perhaps because of — their massive impact and the implications for the future of getting used to languages, the technique — MCDs — remained a closely guarded secret.
And time wore on…
“MCD”. An enigma. Wrapped in a conundrum. Wrapped in a mystery. Wrapped in a cryptic acronym. Wrapped in….I dunno…my bad writing.
Only people in AJATT Plus (and, later, SilverSpoon) were allowed to know the whole truth and enjoy the benefits of this amazing technique.
Until now.

Dude, WTF Are MCDs Anyway?

Language. In a word, “Massive-Context Cloze Deletions” or “Massive Context Cloze-Deletion Cards”.

So They All Have To Be Massive?

No, there is such a thing as miniMCDs or μMCDs (microMCDs).

Why Do You Keep Making Up New Acronyms?

To impress your mom? How do you expect me to even answer a question like that? Your mom and I love each other, okay? And that’s all there is to it. She deserves to be happy. She deserves to be with an acronymic man.

How Can You Do This To Us?! How Can We Ever Trust You Again? You Keep Effing Changing Methods!

Look. I know I’m young and thin and beautiful and handsome, okay? I know I have nice thighs and a perky butt, okay? I know I look like Michelangelo’s David, okay? Wait…pull back. But you know what? Even I’m not perfect. The so-called AJATT method not changing would mean that it was perfect when it came out. That simply isn’t the case. Don’t get me wrong. It’s an amazing method. But you know what? It can get even more amazing.

There is no AJATT “canon”, in my opinion. Or if there is, it’s an open canon.

To me, AJATT is more than a set of techniques, it’s a mindset, a meta-method. A method of methods. Method of methods in the sense that it’s the dog’s bollocks, but also method of methods in the sense that it’s an approach to method itself. The true “AJATT method”, the meta-method is: do what’s fun, do what works; answer to no one but the results.

The true “AJATT method”, the higher, deeper “AJATT method”, is not about being bound by tradition. Even your own tradition.

Do you think human history ended when fingers went to keyboard and the first five AJATT posts came out? Do you really think…oh my gosh, I just snorted ginger tea up my nose…where were we…ow…hot…yeah, no, but…I may have written the best word when it comes to getting used to languages ¹, but I certainly didn’t write the last word.

Things change. Things evolve. Things get better. Things get faster. Things get easier.

Does This Mean That Ye Olde Sentence Method is Broken?

Well, was your cable connection “broken” when you switched to fiber optic?
Are mountain paths “broken” because stairs exist?
Are stairs “broken” because we have elevators?
No, you just moved on. You can still connect via cable; cable still works, but you use optical fiber now. ‘Coz it’s better. It’s faster.
That’s what’s happened here with MCDs.

How Can We Be Sure Whether This Shiz Works? I Need Guarantees!

Oh, please. Funnily enough, that’s exactly what people said about the so-called sentence method of AntiMoon. Indeed, it’s exactly what I thought: can it really be this easy?
I approached the whole sentences thing with intense skepticism. But I suspended my disbelief and just gave it a try.

I ran experiments.

That’s the scientific method (well, kinda), baby. We let the results speak for themselves. We let the results do the talking. Not authority. OK, “scientific” is a bit of a strong word to describe what we/I do. Probably the word we’re looking for is “empirical”. Be skeptical if you want, but don’t use skepticism as an excuse for stagnation and inaction. Be empirical ². Be an empiricist about this.

So How Should I Go About Getting Into This MCD Thing?

Slow down, tiger. Chill, Winston. Whoa there, big boy. I only just got outta bed with your Mom. Relax. I’m gonna show and tell you how in a sec…

So Should I Delete All My Sentence Cards?

First of all, there is no “should” in AJATT (pedants, do me a favor here: don’t Google search “site: alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog should” and count the number of matches for the word “should” just to embarass me )

Mmmm…I mean, you could if you want.
But there’s no need to do anything that drastic right away unless you really want to.
I wouldn’t.
What I would do is:

1. Make a new, separate, MCD-only deck
2. Fill it with stuff I love (as you’re going to learn how to do in “MCD Revolution”)
3. Use Surusu’s custom functions (e.g. “Spinoff Card”) to convert some of your favorite and/or most problematic sentence cards into MCD cards.

But that’s just me.

Ultimately, there’s no reason that both methods can’t co-exist.
It’s not an either/or thing. I mean, I find MCDs to be awesome and better, and so do most people who taste the fruit of the MCD tree. I eventually made a total switch to the MCD way. And my entire sentence deck went the way of the dinosaurs (back in October 2010), resulting in the literal death of 10,000 sentences — actually about 15,0000 sentence cards died that day — in name and in form. But you might be that chick who only gets turned on by being kissed on her elbow [insert Mom joke], and that’s okay.

It’s been a long time since I started using MCDs for getting used to Japanese. It was a whole summer’s experimenting (back in 2010), and I didn’t say goodbye to my sentence deck until that Fall. Elite groups of AJATTeers have been using it with great success since about the same time. It takes me time to transition, and it may take you time as well. Probably less time than me, because I already done blazed a trail for you and all. But still.

Why The Motherloving Heckshizzle Did It Take You So Long To Tell The World About MCDs?

You’ve waited this long to announce [MCDs] on PORAB [The Plain Ol’ Regular AJATT Blog — i.e. outside AJATT Plus and other premium services]? Meaning everyone has been continuing with sentence decks this whole time?! That’s heartless!
Brityan, AJATT Pluser

New ideas and techniques are a privilege of AJATT Plus members. They get to see new things first because they have proven themselves worthy.
When you’re an AJATT Pluser, a member of AJATT Plus, you get to be privy to previews, to see things early. You get the latest and greatest. And you get freebies up the wazoo.
AJATT Plus is all rainbows and gumdrops . It cures cancer, obesity and acne.
But fear not, there are rainbows and gumdrops outside AJATT Plus, too. It just sometimes takes them a year or two to make it out , that’s all.

Does This Mean All The Sentence Packs You Done Sold Us Are Now Crapola?

Not at all. Absolutely not. Not by any means. Sentence packs work perfectly well with MCDs, and I’ll show you exactly how to make them work…

What’s In It For Me? What Are MCDs Going To Do For Me? How Do I Benefit? Why Should I Bother?

Dude. There are way too many reasons to list here, but since you asked, and since you deserve to know, I’ma give you a little snippet from MCD 101: 101 Reasons Why You Should Switch to MCDs — Learn About the Secret Technique That Has Killed, Pwned and Destroyed Sentences (All 10,000 of Them).

• MCDs teach good, adult reading skills — they teach you to use context but not become bogged down in it.
• MCDs allow you to access more fun, interesting and varied content.
• MCDs themselves are more fun, interesting and varied content.
• MCDs free you from the shackles, the crushingly unnatural brevity of short, near-context-less sentences. You don’t have to learn boring, disconnected stuff just because you’re a beginner. You don’t have to keep things short for the sake of quick reps even though you’re advanced.
• MCDs (ironically) also free you from the mental and physical burden of overly long sentence cards.
• MCDs work for all levels of language game — beginner, intermediate or advanced. They are sufficiently challenging for advanced players, but (paradoxically enough) also forgiving of the incomplete knowledge of early-stage players = beginners = noobs, because you only have to get the hidden text right.
• Because they give you a more powerful “workout” — deeper practice — MCDs build powerful predictive capabilities (“in this context, it’s most natural to say XYZ”), the sine qua non of fluency in a language. Lots of power going on here.
• MCDs are low-stress and easy to do reps on, because there is only a single point of comparison/failure (that point may be repeated within a single card, but it’s the same point). MCDs turn a mountain of learning into a flight of stairs, or, with Surusu’s automated card generation…an elevator journey.
• MCDs train both vocabulary and grammar, easily and virtually effortlessly — no need for you to make arbitrary — and perhaps even false — distinctions between the two any more.
• Says Kalek, an AJATT Pluser: “my understanding of both written text and speech has gone through the roof since beginning MCDs.” | Massive-Context Cloze-Deletion Cards (MCDs) | AJATT Blog Posts | Forum | AJATT Plus j.mp/hkpQ34
• MCDs are easy to make — especially in Surusu, where you can generate them automatically.
• The MCD technique is unique to AJATT. While it was inspired by SuperMemo and Daniel Coyle’s Talent Code, there’s nothing quite like it anywhere else — be it SuperMemo, AntiMoon or even WikiPedia. In fact, the examples in those sources would make very bad (difficult, ineffective) MCDs.
• MCDs are an embodiment of the AJATT principle of “engineered inevitably” — they enable you to memorize and internalize information speedily and effortlessly.
• MCDs are topic- and language-agnostic. They’ll work for Japanese, Chinese, ophthalmology exams, European languages…and impressing your Mom.
• Learning — which is to say, getting used to — a language used to be like climbing a mountain. With MCDs, it’s like taking a gentle flight of stairs. Everything becomes i+1, because we’re only ever handling one thing at a time.

What Has Other People’s Experience With MCDs Been?

Here’s just some of what AJATT Plusers and SilverSpooners have had to say about MCDs:

• ダンちゃん (Danchan): “SRS can be about engagement with the language, immersion if you will, rather than a break from it. It’s Krashen’s basic principle enhanced by the steroids of SRS.” [Emphasis added]  | The Death of 10,000 Sentences | AJATT Blog Posts | Forum | AJATT Plus j.mp/y5Oyzo
• sargon: “MCDs have exposed a weakness with particles that I didn’t know I had.  Doing normal sentence cards, I had been glossing over them and guessing the meaning, but with MCDs now I’m actually learning them. ナイス！” | SilverSpoon BigBoi Day 37 of 495 | AJATT SilverSpoon j.mp/wrk1Fr
• ダンちゃん (Danchan): “OK, so I’ve given MCD’s a try, and I have to say I really like them. The way the greater context combines with the cloze deletions seems to be a great way for me to dramatically improve my output in a relatively short time (especially written, I think).”  | Massive-Context Cloze-Deletion Cards (MCDs) | AJATT Blog Posts | Forum | AJATT Plus http://j.mp/hkpQ34
• Amelia F: “I like the idea of “closing in” on a point you want to learn.”  | How to Pwn Grammatically Complex European Languages Using MCDs | AJATT Plus j.mp/eSpznE
• 黒澤譲/David/CurryIsYummy: “I can see [MCDs] ending people’s problems with all kinds of prepositions/post-positions in all languages. When you think about it, that’s exactly what people who are even really good at languages, have the most trouble with. Most of my Japanese friends, they can use the right words almost all the time, but seem to always mess up things like “for”, “to”, “from”, “of”, “the”, “a”, etc. In Japanese we can, quite easily be rid of the issue of when to use は and が.” [Emphasis added] | How to Pwn Grammatically Complex European Languages Using MCDs | AJATT Plus j.mp/eSpznE
• nacest: “For some reason[,] I never tried using cloze deletion[s] before I started testing…MCDs. Now I’m all over it. Thanks, Khatz  ” | Aren’t cloze deletions great? | SRS | Forum | AJATT Plus j.mp/s3OVYw
• Dani: “Takes better advantage of SRS by only testing me on one thing at a time.” | Dani’s Japanese Resources j.mp/yQPZw3
• Dani: “The ability to add sentences based purely on interest rather than having to turn away otherwise good sources because they are “too difficult” | Dani’s Japanese Resources http://j.mp/yQPZw3
• 安藤 (Ando): “I’m knowing which particles to use without even knowing why and it’s freaking me out.”  | Massive-Context Cloze-Deletion Cards (MCDs) | AJATT Blog Posts | Forum | AJATT Plus http://j.mp/hkpQ34

Waitaminute! You Dirty, Brown, Effing Capitalist One Percenter Weasel! Isn’t This Just A SuperMemo Thing? Isn’t This Just Fill-In-The-Blanks?

Actually, no. While the idea was inspired in part by SM (SuperMemo — overlapping cloze deletions) ³, MCDs differ in significant ways from any other example of cloze deletions I have ever seen, be it by Dr. Wozniak (SM), Coyle, Ishii or even WikiPedia’s discussion of cloze deletions and their history. Every other example of cloze deletions I have seen, online or off, would make for a bad MCD, SRS boredom and significantly impaired “learning outcomes” (OMG, I love talking educationese; it’s like wiping your derrière with silk; I mean, I’ve never actually wiped my derrière with silk, but I can only imagine…mmmm).

In short, MCDs are a game-changer; MCDs are an evolution. They didn’t spring from nowhere, and they share “DNA” with other methods just like humans share DNA with chimpanzees. But ultimately, MCDs are fundamentally, qualitatively, quantitatively different from everything that has preceded them. That’s kinda why they have their own name. And kinda why they were incubated for so long. And kinda why a relatively big deal is being made about them. Because they are a big, new deal.

Hit Me With Your Knowledge Stick! I Want To Learn More About MCDs!

Your Mom wants to learn more about my knowledge stick. OK, stop. Stop. Enough. Um…Sure. Whatever. If you want more detail (that you can’t even find on AJATT Plus, actually), you’re welcome to join the revolution: you can Pre-Order the MCD Revolution Kit, which includes:

• MCD 101: 101 Reasons Why You Should Switch to MCDs: Learn About the Secret Technique That Has Killed, Pwned and Destroyed Sentences (All 10,000 of Them)
  • + free lifetime access to updates and extensions
• MCD 102: Real MCD Examples From The Very Decks of Khatzumoto
  • + free lifetime access to updates and extensions
• MCD 150: 50 Tips and Pointers To Help You Get The Most Out of MCDs
  • + free lifetime access to updates and extensions
• MCD 120: 20 Common Noob Questions And Answers About MCDs
• MCD 200: Beyond Japanese — Using MCDs for Other Languages and Topics
• 1 Free copy of ARES-3: The Science-Fiction Sentence Pack
  • Because sentence packs are not dead. They’re just being reborn into a new world of MCD awesomeness.
  • + free lifetime access to updates and extensions
• 1 Free month of AJATT Plus — premium multimedia AJATT content combined with access to the AJATT+ Forum: The Most Intelligent, Civilized and Trolless Forum in the Multiverse (for free!)
  • For your convenience, your AJATT Plus membership will automatically renew after the free period, so you can keep getting awesome premium content, freebies and forum goodness.
  • However, should you prefer, you can also easily cancel your membership at any time, online, 24 hours a day.
  • Even if you were to cancel, you can still continue to enjoy your free month!
• 1 Free smile…at your Mom. No, but, seriously: she has needs.
  • Smile needs.

There are only 100 pre-order slots available. Each comes with a 20% pre-order discount. The hard pre-order deadline is March 7. Pre-order ends at the deadline or when copies run out, whichever comes first. So, I doubt we’ll make it to March 7, kids. After March 7, you can just order the kit all regular like

What are you waiting for, son? ⁴ Join the revolution!

Pre-Order Now

>>Get Yours Now<<

But I’m Not Playing With Japanese or Chinese! What About European Languages and Stuff?

I’ve already got you covered, homeslice . What, you didn’t think I was going to leave you hanging and not give you the hook-up, did you? I brings the hook-ups. ⁵ In terms of examples, the MCD Revolution Kit covers English, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Swahili, your Mom...it’s all in there.

Fo’ Shizzle Refund Guarantee

Hey. I’m only almost-perfect. Let’s say you get this kit, but due to an incredibly unlikely confluence of incredibly unlikely probabilities and circumstances, a literal Green Swan Event, you don’t like it? Just ask me for a full refund. And you’ll get a full refund. And I’ll even let you keep the kit . ‘Coz I rocks like that. All you need do is send an email to refund at ajatt dot com with the subject line: “I love you. You’re so good-looking. The MCD Revolution Kit and I just need some space right now. I promise I’ll be back.” Easy, breezy, fo’ sheezy…shizzle.

No, really.