Learning guessable words

[Guest realmayo]

Bit of a vague question this:

Some of the vocab that I come across which I've not seen before is quite guessable: I've seen both 微 and 型 in lots of words and contexts before, so 微型 becomes guessable, with or without context.

 

However I didn't know it was a word before. And a few weeks down the line, I might well forget that it's a word.

 

Assuming there is such a thing as a vocab-learning process, would you bother to 'learn' this word if it was guessable? I mean, test yourself on it a few times, and so on, the same as with completely unguessable ones? If you were trying to limit the number of new words you learned daily to a manageable level, would this count towards that daily total?

 

 

I ask because it seems I can put away much bigger quantities of new words (including guessables) than I used to be able to and have a similar recall a month later to when I was learning far fewer. But I'm a bit worried I might be overdoing it, storing up trouble and lots of forgetting down the line.....

[anonymoose]

Depends what you are aiming for. If just passive recall, then no, but if you want it to be part of your active vocabulary, then yes, you'll have to regardless of whether it's guessable or not.

[Shelley]

I have to agree with anonymoose the it depends on how you define learning it. If you want to learn to write it, it might be ok it they are two characters you already know but just in a new pairing.

 

I suppose it could be compared with learning new words in English by context and not by precise definition, this can cause problems. Also if you have had the good fortune to have learned Greek or Latin in school, guessing meanings without context can be done but I think you need to be sure.

 

For years I thought dessicated meant chopped because I saw it only on packs of chopped cocoanut, I got laughed at when I used it to describe some chopped onions only then did I find out it meant dried

 

I think I confused the word decimate to destroy (i think it actually means to remove 1 tenth) as a similar word.

 

So it might be good to check

[Pingfa]

Prioritizing is key. It depends on how much you've learned, how frequent the words are and how useful they are for you personally at your level.

Generally I'd say if you feel the need to question whether the word is worth reviewing or not, it's not of immediate concern to you and thus it would probably be better to focus your efforts elsewhere.

[imron]

I think a lot comes down to how you are encountering these words.  If it's through the reading process I wouldn't worry about forgetting it down the line a) because you'll be able to remember it better and b) because you'll probably be able to guess it again at that point also.

 

What I would do though is look it up to get confirmation (and therefore a mental hook) that it's word, look at the definition to confirm it means what I think it does and then give myself a future memory of coming across this word and remembering that I've looked it up already and it means what I think it does.

 

I wouldn't then do further study on this word (e.g. with SRS) because I've already set up a bunch of mental hooks for when I next see this word that will confirm I've looked it up before and my guess to its meaning was correct.  If it's a useful word it will come up regularly enough that this will be enough, and if it's not a useful word then there's not much point putting more effort in to learning it.

[Guest realmayo]

Thanks for the replies. I'm mainly focused on passive recall. 

 

I think a lot comes down to how you are encountering these words.

 

I'm encountering them via a useful programme called Chinese Text Analyer. And the texts I put into that useful programme are newspaper articles and book chapters that I then go on to read.

 

I think the main issue is the number of new words that I'm learning each day: it used to make sense to keep these to a manageable daily number (10+). I'm nervous of doubling that number but I think that, if the additional words are all guessable, then there's no real harm in doing so except for some slightly scary numbers in my SRS programme. 

[imron]

No harm, but then sometime down the line half of your reviews are going to be for things you could easily guess from context, which will all add up.

 

Anyway, if doubling the number makes you feel nervous, try a smaller amount to begin with to see if you can handle it.