I can only really share what has worked well for me. When I make flashcards (now and when I first started) I always do one language on one side, and the translation in the other language on the other. That’s really the whole goal of interpreting, isn’t it?
Something I’ve really benefited from lately has been doing flashcards where instead of putting a single word, I’ll do a part of a sentence. As we both know, some words mean different things in different contexts, meaning how we translate it will be different. Example: “to seek input” vs. “sensory input.” The word “input” in the first case is more like to seek suggestions or contributions, whereas the word “input” in the second sentence is more like “data.” So I’ll create a flash card for both “uses” of the word, one for “to seek input” and one for “sensory input.”
But there are some other reasons why you might want to make flashcards, some of which might be beneficial to have in a single language. These might include: learning medical roots, prefixes, and suffixes, memorizing brand names of generic medications, or even memorizing the conditions that certain generic medications treat. These are all great reasons to create monolingual flashcards, though you could certainly create flashcards with one language on one side, and another language on the other for everything I just mentioned, except brand names!
However, one big reason people make flash cards in a single language, and something I actually don’t make flashcards for is when I’m trying to understand a concept as a whole. Many people will simply create flashcards with the term on one side, and the definition on the other, both in the same language. I find that that just doesn’t work for me and isn’t very effective.
So what do I do instead?
I will read about the topic or concept in both languages (oddly enough some aspects of dialysis made MORE sense to me in Spanish than in English), watch videos with visuals, and maybe write a whole page of notes on it with doodles and stuff. Then, I might explain the concept to someone else, like one of my interpreting colleagues or even my husband or my stepson. Teaching something to other people and helping them to understand it is a great way to learn something yourself! Additionally, understanding how everything works together has really helped me when I interpret. It helps me know what to expect when a provider starts explaining how something works, and it also helps me to anticipate the things that patients might bring up.
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