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Conflicted about whether to use digital or paper flashcards? It all depends on what your goal is. Let’s look at the pros and cons and decide!

People have varying opinions about what kind of flashcards you should use for language learning. So, are digital or physical flashcards more effective? My answer is YES. Both electronic and paper flashcards have their place and utility.

I’ve been a flashcard addict for the last 15 years, ever since I started learning Polish when I was 11. So I’ve used all kinds of cards during my language learning career. Handwritten flashcards and Anki are my favorites, but I also have experience with Quizlet and StudyBlue.

Paper Flashcards: Pros & Cons

✔️ADVANTAGES

1. You control exactly when you review each card. You can study the same card ten times in a row if you would like, and you can make impromptu piles of cards to focus on.

1. You can put a lot of detailed information on one card (such as a noun declension or a verb conjugation). When you review the card, you can cover the parts you don’t want to see yet with your hand and gradually recite all the information.

1. You avoid using your computer or phone. This is a bonus if you get easily distracted or want to cut back on screen time.

1. You write out the cards, so you get a bit of muscle memory in there. Although see what I noted above about the function of flashcards and the limited value of this advantage.

✔️DISADVANTAGES

1. As your flashcards increase in number, they become more and more unwieldy. Trust me. I’m the girl who carried around shoeboxes (yes, literal shoeboxes) of Polish flashcards in my early teens. (Yeah, I was a weird kid – and proud of it!) Anyway, my point is that it is hard to manage your flashcards and figure out which ones to review next when you have hundreds (or thousands).

1. You can’t travel easily with piles of paper flashcards. Since language learning often involves traveling and studying in the country of your target language, this deserves its own bullet point.

1. If you have a lot of cards, it is hard to find a card to update or correct it. And, on a related note, you may end up with flashcard doubles since you can’t remember what cards you have made.

1. Making physical flashcards consumes a lot of paper. If you are worried about the environment, think twice about producing hundreds of handwritten flashcards.

1. The biggest disadvantage, in my opinion, is the lack of SRS (spaced repetition software). If you have no idea what this means, don’t worry. I address it in more detail below.

Digital Flashcards: Pros & Cons

✔️ADVANTAGES

1. Number is not a problem. My largest Anki deck (my Spanish one) contains 6161 cards, and I can easily access any and all of them whenever I want. You can take digital flashcards anywhere, from the grocery store to another continent. I’ve stood in many a line flipping through my flashcards.

1. You can locate any card easily via the search function in order to make corrections or updates. This is especially relevant if you are a beginner and you haven’t quite figured out what to include on your cards yet. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about accidentally making doubles; you can easily check to see if a word is already in your deck.

1. You can download and customize other people’s flashcard decks. But always make sure you can trust the information if you are using cards that someone else has created.

1. You can add images AND audio. (Anki is especially flexible in this regard!)

1. No paper is wasted. And as long as you back your cards up, you won’t ever lose them. My cousin once lost all of her paper flashcards while traveling – what a nightmare. (I literally have nightmares about losing my cards. But we’ve already established that I’m weird.)

1. SRS! This is really the number 1 reason that I love Anki. You don’t have to decide which cards you should review on which day; the app tells you. I explain more about SRS below.

✔️DISADVANTAGES

1. Digital flashcards involve lots of screen time. But if you manage your cards well, you can get away with as little as 15 minutes a day, even with mammoth thousand-card decks. And come on, aren’t you spending at least that much time on social media?

1. If you use Anki or another program with SRS (spaced repetition software), you can’t simply repeat the same few cards over and over. This isn’t a problem if you have been studying your vocabulary consistently over a period of time, but if you are trying to cram for an exam, SRS is not your friend. (There are ways to work around this, but they are clunky.)

1. It can be hard to type certain things. For instance, I have never really done Ancient Greek flashcards on Anki because it is such a pain to type all the accents and breathings. (They aren’t part of the Modern Greek keyboard.) But don’t underestimate the amazingness of technology. I happily do my Mandarin, Akkadian, and Sumerian flashcards in Anki.

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