HSK Vocab Lists/Semi-Funtional Literacy

[weilian]

Hey all,

Some background, I've studied Chinese for the first five months I arrived in China in an intensive one-on-one program that brought me from zero to a descent spoken level. I took off the past six months and worked, enjoyed the Olympics and now I'm back at the same program in a non-intensive one-on-one course. I'm studying two hours a day and I'll have time for a language exchange with a friend several times a week probably for a total of 6-8 hours as well.

While a one to one student teacher ratio helped out my oral Chinese, I've been quite frustrated that my written isn't up to snuff. Not being able to glean much from a newspaper without a opening a dictionary every fifth word is a big bummer too.

I'll have time to do some out of class studying, independent of the language exchange (which I hope will fill in some holes in my oral vocab).

Now to the question - I'm thinking about taking the HSK database and putting it into a Mnemosyne file. I've put the first level in an its obviously easy, going through about 150 words a day (both writing and reading because it helps it stick). I'll slow down a lot with level 2.

What do ya'll consider the efficacy of this to be? Also...my formal study has also switched to more reading/writing/grammar versus oral communication.

Best,

Weilian

[renzhe]

1) There already is such a file for Mnemosyne

2) I have very positive experiences doing this. The key is to combine this flashcarding effort with reading, speaking, listening, and anything that will help you hear the words in context.

Virtually all the words in the HSK lists are really important and something you should learn sooner or later. I found it to help my oral vocabulary too (more in terms of listening than speaking, though, but I guess it's a matter of practice).

[roddy]

I'll echo that. You're going to end up learning all those words anyway, might as well do it now. I wouldn't recommend you just go on a word learning binge and do nothing else, but it sounds like you're doing a range of stuff. My only comments would be that if you're looking up every fifth word in the newspaper, you're probably either not quite ready for reading newspapers, or are being a bit hard on yourself and referring to the dictionary when you could guess and move on.

[c_redman]

Just learning the first 2 levels was an immense help to my reading ability. Before, I knew about 2000 words and couldn't understand why I was still stuck at an elementary/lower intermediate level and couldn't understand most of what I read. It turns out that a lot of what I knew were incidental, Chinesepod-like, words like 冰淇淋 (ice cream) and 比基尼 (bikini), which are interesting words to know, but not very helpful in reading. I studied both the level 1 and 2 together, as I knew about 40% of the words already. After 2 months of studying just those words, there was a dramatic increase in reading ability, and it was clear from the words I newly recognized that it was because of that study.

There's still a ways to go in reading ability, but to go from understanding almost nothing to understanding the gist of every sentence is to move from discouragement and drudgery to the start of enjoying reading.

[stoney]

weilian,

Sounds like you were happy with your intense one on one course. Can you tell me what program / school this was with? I'm considering doing the same.

Thanks

[weilian]

http://www.blichina.com/

Is their website, I've told them a few times that it doesn't serve them well. Their in the process of getting it redone. I'll send you a message with their email, that's the best way to reach them.

Weilian

[rimmhou]

Hi renzhe,

I download the file, there is a folder with some files in it, how can I open the file? I am not very good with computer, thanks.

[renzhe]

You will need to download the Mnemosyne program from the same website and use the "import" function from within it to load one of the xml files.

Alternatively, you can download the list from http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/17309-anyway-to-convert-a-txt-file-or-list-into-supermemo&page=2 in a format that is readable with any text processor and can be loaded into a spreadsheet like Excel.

Still, I recommend using a flashcard program, like Mnemosyne. It makes learning vocabulary much easier.