Vocabulary Memorization

[FinalFan18]

I'm having trouble with memorizing Mandarin vocabulary. Basically i use a combination of rote memorization and simple mnemonics. However, you get to the point where the words start to sound very similar are differ by a single component. How do you create quick, easy mnemonic devices for Mandarin words in order to master large amounts of vocabulary quickly? Any tricks to tackling vocabulary?

[imron]

Any tricks to tackling vocabulary?

Don't try to master large amounts of vocabulary quickly

I say that only half jokingly.

Personally, I find large amounts of exposure to native content more effective than trying to memorize vocab out of context.

If you search the forums (use the Google search bar at the top left, rather than the other search bar at the top right), you'll find plenty of threads on this topic.

[jbradfor]

About how many words / characters do you think you know? That might help frame an answer.

[renzhe]

You can't master large amounts of vocabulary quickly, you can just memorise them. The mastery comes from seeing the words in context many times over, which you have to develop through exposure, reading, listening, conversation.

Once you see 知道 and 麻烦 300 times, they stop interfering with new vocabulary, since you've internalised them well.

[Fred K]

"Any tricks to tackling vocabulary?"

After studying Chinese over a decade ago and forgetting most of the vocabulary and 500+ characters I learned back then, I recently have been trying to learn how to read Chinese through independent study. Here are some tools that work for me.

1. The ABC dictionary included with Wenlin software.

I think this is an amazing tool, allowing convenient look-up and a window into a digital lexicon that structures characters and vocabulary items by their graphical and semantic relations, including the frequency of the top words and characters. The reason I got enthusiastic about Chinese about 10 months ago is that I used Wenlin to read a chapter of "Dream of the Red Chamber" (the text file is included) in a week, a few hours a day. The text is way too difficult for me, so I was "decoding" it as a supplement to reading the English translation "The Story of the Stone." It was a lot of fun, and made it possible for me to imagine myself actually reading texts I am interested in within a few years.

2. Spaced Repetition Software (or web applications)

I am using two:

a) the Words - Multiple Choice section of http://www.chinese-course.com

This lowers the bar for recognizing words by letting you choose from six glosses chosen randomly from your active list. It allows you to select words from its dictionary by exploring related words (that share a character). I have also tried their Sentences (Sound) features. Access to sound requires a premium subscription after a 3-day trial, I found this useful to sharpen my listening skills, but I decided to defer work on this to focus on reading.

B) Anki SRS

I have downloaded lists of HSK vocabulary (8000) and sample sentences (20,000!), and am working through them gradually.

3. Maintaining my own lists, to track my progress and interact with material

I compile my own lists, sometimes using Wenlin documents or else a spreadsheet. I find that cutting and pasting while using SRS tools makes things less boring, and keeps me engaged with interacting the the target words/characters, and sometimes exploring related words at the edge of my memory, then coming back. I use the lists later to review, sometimes in anticipation of the schedule of the SRS tool.

I get satisfaction from meeting certain milestones in the number of characters I know (using different criteria of "know"), although I know character mastery is just a stepping stone to acquiring vocabulary. I am targeting to acquire at least 15,000 vocabulary items, as recommended by the book by Bernd Kamps http://www.thewordbrain.com/. I should reach that goal in about two more years, and then I should be in a better position to go back to reading 红楼梦.

I am also compiling lists of "families" of characters that share the same base component. Some groups of characters you can completely predict the articulation of the syllable (but not the tone, I learn tones with vocabulary items). Other groupings have weaker phonological relations (the initial or final is shifted to a related sound), but the partial predictability gives an anchor to my memory. Some characters share a graphical component, but the sounds are unrelated, I call these "gangs" rather than families, I don't try to learn the gangs systematically but I track them anyway. This kind of grouping is like that in Stewart Paton's A Dictionary of Chinese Characters Accessed by Phonetics. However, I rank the character lists by frequency, according to the ABC dictionary. The process of manipulating the lists gives way for me to interact physically with the material and explore words that need reinforcing. Maybe once my lists of families/gangs are complete, I will post them. But I'd recommend compiling your own.

(4) Traditional cardboard flashcards

I use the Tuttle cards to carry with me when I might be otherwise wasting time waiting (car trips, I don't get a head ache if I practice "pretend"-writing strokes on my leg; in airports). I've reordered my cards according to frequency (as numbered in Wenlin), so I have a tactile way of tracking my progress with characters and refreshing those characters where I have weak mastery. I've had some of these cards for a long time, and somehow I would get stuck trying to learn the 4 vocabulary items on each card, a lot of the other characters were just too unfamiliar. Now combined with the rest of my tools they are easier to learn.

(5) Texts

I use texts written for foreign learners or children, including some fully annotated in pinyin. I used the texts by DeFrancis when I first studied Chinese, and I had read Beginning Chinese Reader way back when, and I own Intermediate Chinese Reader. I've always meant to read through ICR, but I found I got stuck or bored. The design of the Readers is good in principle, a limited list of characters, a lot of vocabulary using them and short texts that present them at regular intervals. Unfortunately it is boring, a few pictures would have been nice. It's not that I'm unmotivated, but the cognitive load is just too heavy for where I am at a particular moment. Now, with the help of other tools, I find I can fiddle around to find activities where the cognitive load is just right. I find it easier to familiarize with the vocabulary using an SRS, before tackling a text. Eventually I will work up to real texts, I do seem to be making progress at a reasonable rate.

I'd be interested in hearing about other people's similar experiences, or about similar tools.

Cheers,

Fred K.

Manila