1,500 words in 30 days

[kongli]

Okay so far it is me,Aristotle1990 and Kdavid.

Who else wants in?

[yersi]

I did 1800 words in one month when I studied in Taiwan. I was doing as much as 200 words in one day - Literally the entire day was spent cramming.

It's not useless, but there are certainly more helpful ways to study. You will forget about 80% of the words in a month or so. Good luck.

[kongli]

It's not useless, but there are certainly more helpful ways to study. You will forget about 80% of the words in a month or so. Good luck

I am hoping that reading a bunch of stuff is going to lessen the severity of the fall out.I guess. Honestly I think this can be done and a good majority of words can be retained. It will be interesting to see how things pan out though, regardless the outcome.

[kdavid]

I can do 100 words in about an hour. Keeping them there is a different story, but can be done with daily review for the first week, and then SRS afterwards.

The speed at which you can cram words into your memory seems to depend on whether or not you've trained your memory to do so. Someone who's been studying on a consistent basis for a few years (perhaps less) probably wouldn't have much difficulty with this exercise.

When are we starting?

[yersi]

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[kongli]

I can do 100 words in about an hour. Keeping them there is a different story, but can be done with daily review for the first week, and then SRS afterwards

Wow, my hats off to you. So how many words do you do usually do though? Do you often try for 100 words in an hour?

The keyword here is "I think". You're probably not in a position to judge the outcome of this, and I seriously doubt you'll pull through without some form of instrumental coercion (this forum thread doesn't count).

Hey, stop putting down my pseudo science. And the whole idea of this thread was to get others to join so we could, ya know, inspire each other and stuff.

If I was slightly more cruel I'd even pinpoint the exact time you'll give up.

you should start your own thread and place bets, whoever has the most accurate guess wins. That way you could demoralize us AND possibly make a few bucks.

When are we starting?

Tomorrow is the official start date, I would extend it if I though others might join, but I don't think that's the case.

Just me,you, and Aristotle1990 so far. Anyone else?

[yersi]

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[imron]

Bonus points if you attach flashcards to aid long-term retention.

And extra bonus points if the articles in following days also contain a portion of previously memorised vocabulary in addition to the new stuff

[kongli]

I don't mind your cavalier attitude, a haphazard dash for the finish line is always more romantic than the daily walk. But as I said, I've done this before and found it a mostly counterproductive way to study. You're free to disregard my advice - and I'm absolutely sure you will. Some people need to learn the hard way

Haha, Yea the inspiration for this challenge came from my frustration with doing the 'daily walk'. Now I just want to see if it can be done and what is gained/lost in the process. Thanks for your advice though, I do appreciate the input. You can be the first one to say 'I told you so'

[imron]

If nothing else, spite is a powerful motivator, so when you feel like giving it all in just remember how you don't want to prove Yersi correct (I tend to agree with his general point, but at the same time wish you all the best).

[kongli]

And extra bonus points if the articles in following days also contain a portion of previously memorised vocabulary in addition to the new stuff

I will attach the articles that I pull the words from, when I can (some of them might not have online copies).

For my part I'd aim for fewer words per day and higher retention. You could for example revamp this thread so that you post a short article each day along with 15-20 words to memorize./quote]

Well, I could revamp the thread to do this, and those that want to do the 1,500 word challenge still can while others can just post articles and words.

All in favor?

[kongli]

If nothing else, spite is a powerful motivator, so when you feel like giving it all in just remember how you don't want to prove Yersi correct (I tend to agree with his general point, but at the same time wish you all the best).

Well their are three of us so I hope there's enough spite to go around . But I too tend to agree with Yersi's point as well. I just want to see how far I can push my memory and see what the results are. I definitely agree Chinese is not a language to be rushed, but this sounded like a fun activity and worst that could happen is, oh my lord, I would have to memorize more words! Plus I am banking on the fact that a lot of the words will be made up of characters I already know, so it will make memorization a bit easier.

[kdavid]

Wow, my hats off to you. So how many words do you do usually do though? Do you often try for 100 words in an hour?

Once the words are in ZDT, it only takes about that long to pound them in.

I then have to do follow-up review later in the day, then again before bed.

Then I usually review twice a day (morning and evening). After a week, I put them in Anki.

To answer your question, no, I don't--I'm too lazy. That's what I like this idea. I'm curious to see if I can keep it up.

[eya323]

I'm in. I'm cramming for the Foreign Service Institute language exam in Chinese, anyway!

Next steps?

[eya323]

For my part, I'll focus on vocabulary from the major fields that foreign service officers might need. These include:

-current events

-political science

-economics

-anthropology

-law

It might help break up the vocabulary lists most of us are used to receiving, too, and will help us with newspaper reading (which is my big struggle right now).

[kongli]

Awesome eya323!

The official start time will be tomorrow at 5p.m. , that gives people another day to join up if they want.

All word lists should be posted up here in some type of study friendly format, ZDT, Pleco etc. If you can, post the article or material from which the words came out of.

I will put a caveat that should you decide to give up at any time you can still post up articles with word lists and continue reviewing at your own pace. This also means that people can join after the official start date and post up articles with word lists as well. Hopefully that will make this thread more helpful and funner for others who don't want to do the challenge, while still keeping it exciting for those who do.

Sound good?

[kdavid]

Are we doing 5 pm 北京时间?

If no one minds, I'll take the first post. I just put the list together.

I'll be pulling mainly from a few books I'd like to start reading:

《红太阳是怎样升起的：延安整风运动的来龙去脉》

《毛泽东私人医生回忆录》

《万历十五年》

And any random news articles I like.

[gato]

How can you pull up vocab from books you haven't read yet?

Attached is list of some vocabs I compiled while reading 《万历十五年》, in case people are interested. The file is in UTF-8 encoding. It's probably going to difficult to memorize these out of context, though.

WanliFlashcards.txt

[kongli]

Are we doing 5 pm

I was just thinking 5p.m. March 25th, no specific time zone, otherwise if we do Beijing time that might be 3-4 in the morning for some people.

If no one minds, I'll take the first post. I just put the list together.

What do you mean take the first post? Did you think we were gonna collaborate on lists? The problem with that is some of us might already know some of each others words, so then it wouldn't actually be new words. But we could definitely pull from each other's words if we wanted. Or what were you thinking?

Thanks for the first word list Gato! I feel encouraged already!

[kdavid]

What do you mean take the first post? Did you think we were gonna collaborate on lists?

Yes, I thought we'd each take turns posting a list each day.

I figured since this seemed to be an advanced-level activity, and that we'd be dealing with low-frequency vocabulary, that most of the words each of us posted would be new words.

I'm pretty certain I don't have the time to find 50 new words each day. That sounds sad and like a poor excuse, but I'm actually really, really busy right.

I do, however, have 30 - 40 minutes to pound in new words and review each day.