Learning efficiently and effectively

[Chris8080]

Hi,

I'm learning chinese since more than a year now. Started like a crash course for a trip, so I know a lot of things like subway, taxi, bus, rice, vegetables, I want to go there, which bus etc.

Then I started to do it in a more structured way and bought the first three books of New Practical Chinese Reader and made it to chapter 7, book one. But I'm really not interested in words like little brother, grandma of my mom and journalist and I never use them - unnecessary for me to learn at the beginning.

Next I downloaded a list of 3000 most common Chinese characters (http://www.zein.se/patrick/3000char.html) and imported it into my flashcard software and learned it with mnemonic which was the first time I really improoved everything a lot - now I can memorize 150 of the most used characters (according to that list) + maybe 100 like elephant, bamboo, little brother, etc.

Now I would like to go on. How should I do it in an efficient and effective way? I can't find a list with most frequently used words, but I could need some vocabulary to put them into my sentences.

where is the bridge

where is the next telephone

I read about another approach:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=199326&postcount=3

Reading newspaper, underlining and learning these words - sounds good so far. Unfortunately I barely know the word boundaries (often know single characters), so is it too early for me to use that way?

Or is it exactly the right time to jump into this thing?

Thank you in advance

Bye, Chris

[gougou]

If you're not interested in the word journalist, reading a newspaper is probably not the right way to go...

I get the impression that you only want to learn survival Chinese at the moment; chances are you won't find that in a newspaper. Maybe you can find some simple stories that fit the bill? Emphasis on simple though, as 250 characters really ain't that much.

If you're planning to read the newspaper at some point in time, I'd recommend you to stick to the textbooks and get a good foundation in vocabulary first.

[phyrex]

Or if that stuff bores you to pieces, as it does me, just get a good dictionary, and whatever interestes you (movies, comics, books, music), and just get working. Interest is more important than your level.

[valikor]

What about the HSK vocabulary lists? They might not necessarily be the "most commonly used words" (since there will be some "impractical" ones in there), but I think most of them are useful for simple daily conversations in China. Just make sure you learn how to use the words, not just what they mean. (Or else you'll become like me. I know so much vocab that I can't use!)

I mention this because you, like me, sound like the kind of person that likes working from lists (you said you started learning from a character frequency chart).

I really know what you mean when you say that you don't like learning words that you won't use... I raised exactly the same complaint about the New Practical Chinese Reader (in this thread http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/5993-new-practical-chinese-reader-good-books&page=2 ).

But, sometimes you have to trust the book. For example, the word journalist is 记者. While you might be able to live in China for a long time without using this exact word, you won't be able to live a long time without using related words, that are built from the same characters. In a way, then, learning the word "journalist" can be very practical in terms of learning Chinese.

Ultimately though, I think it's a good book, and you might benefit from the structure of a textbook.

[renzhe]

Keep in mind that "mother", "brother", "father" and everything related to them are among the most important words in the Chinese language.

You might not use them often, but the Chinese do. And not only when talking about their families.