Strategy questions about vocabulary lists

[Chief123]

I'm working through the Top/Huayu vocab list and have a couple questions about the best way to handle it.

1. Many words have very short definitions compared to let's say CEDict. Should I focus on the short versions or flesh them all out with the longer versions so my learning can be more complete?

2. Many words that can be verbs or nouns are only listed as one or the other. Should I go with that, assuming that the V or N version is more popular, or research them more at first and add the other grammar "parts"?

Thanks.

[edelweis]

You have TOP lists with definition (translation)? If so where did you get them from?

The excel sheets I got from the official TOP website a while ago only have traditional characters, pinyin, and type of word.

EDIT: also, I don't know what your list says about 烤，but it was used in the word 烤肉 (barbecue) in last spring's official test, and that confused me somewhat since I didn't know about it. (the pictures showed kids grilling fish). Perhaps this should be an indication that we should learn not only the words in the list, but also combinations of those words that are themselves words and expressions. Or something.

[Chief123]

http://www.sc-top.org.tw/english/download.php has the most updated Excel sheet. 9/15 is the date on the file.

烤 kăo B (VA) "to roast, to toast, to bake" but barbecue isn't on the list. I'm using these lists as a basis for what I need to learn for real life more than the tests even though taking them is one of my goals once I fill a bunch of gaps. So barbecue would probably be something I would study just simply because we use it and eat it a lot.

[Shi Tong]

It's pretty easy to remember, 烤: kǎo​: to roast / to bake / to broil, but then if you 烤肉: kǎo​ròu: barbecue (lit. roast meat), but another easy memory key for both of these words is 烤箱: kǎo​xiāng: oven (Taiwan).

So it's pretty much anything you would put in an oven, bake, roast, or burn the skin of.. basically.

That's my take on it anyway

PS: Thanks for this list, I came here JUST for some vocab lists and this is what I needed!!

[aristotle1990]

Nice find. Just uploaded an Anki deck based on those spreadsheets; it's about time we got one for the TOP.

[abcdefg]

1. Many words have very short definitions compared to let's say CEDict. Should I focus on the short versions or flesh them all out with the longer versions so my learning can be more complete?

The approach I personally like best for such tasks is to first learn a simple, basic version and then on subsequent reviews, flesh out the definitions with additional relevant information. In other words, take an incremental approach.

[edelweis]

@chief123, thanks for this topic! I was not aware the TOP website had updated lists.

@ShiTong: the problem I had with the test may be that I couldn't identify fish as 肉 (is 肉 also used for fish meat in Chinese??) because the equivalent French word is used only for mammal meat. So since I didn't know 烤肉 (as a word) meant barbecue, I expected to see mammal meat on the grill.

[abcdefg]

FWIW, I usually hear and use 烧烤 (shāokǎo) for BBQ in the south (Yunnan，Guangxi and Guangdong.) It often refers to vegetables, chicken or seafood as well as mammal meat.

[renzhe]

If you have the official translations with your word lists, I'd use those. Adding further meanings and refining that will happen naturally later anyway. The goal is to learn the most common/important meanings, and these are not always clear in CC-CEDICT translations.