which new word are you adding?

[yedafu]

Hi everyone!

i was wandering according to what condition your deciding to add a new word for your srs/notebook?

for me i think it goes by the following conditions:

 

1) i have some kind of interest in the word (for example i was going to  the clinic and wanted to buy a bottle of mouthwash so i have to learn the word 漱口水) 

2) the word is very practical 

3) the word contain a character i dont know.

4) a word i heard very frequently.

 

so i was wondering what is yours preconditions for learning a new word, hope you can share it here:) 

 

[Lu]

- I don't know the word in Chinese (or don't know it well, for example if I often get the tone wrong) but do know it in English, or it seems like I might be able to come across it at some point

- It has a fairly clear definition and no more than 2-3 meanings (this is for ease of SRS-ing).

- For Dutch to Chinese: I am reasonably sure that there is indeed at least a large subset of Chinese speakers who uses this specific word for this thing (it's not just translatese or a very niche term for the thing).

 

I should add that I'm not a very faithful SRS-er, often weeks or even months go by without me adding anything, but I figure as long as I keep doing it sometimes, my vocabulary is still increasing.

[yedafu]

Lu thanks for the comment- actually the English/Chinese compering is something i'm doing too:) 

I think your comment about "large subset of Chinese speakers who uses this specific word for this thing" is an great advice and i will sure use it from now on.

 

[Headache]

If I don't recognize the character, I'd learn it... and then proceed to slowly forget it 

[abcdefg]

I add a whole lot, just doing it as I look the words up in Pleco. Add everything that I look up. I don't import ready-made vocabulary lists like I did nine or ten years ago.

 

In other words, if I hear it today and don't know what it means, I simply look it up and add it to a flashcard list. I review these additions every day or two, usually while riding the bus. At the end of the week, I go through and toss out the words I don't care about, in order to keep the list from getting too bulky.

 

Am fairly relaxed about the deletion process, since I know by now that if I actually need a word in daily life, I'll run into it more than once. Things that really matter will usually be encountered again and again either when out and about on the streets or when talking with my friends or when watching TV or reading the newspaper. 

[vellocet]

Every time I want to say something in Chinese and can't, I write the English word or phrase in a text file on my smartphone.  Then later, I translate it and add it to the SRS pile.  Thus my vocabulary grows and I learn another practical word.  The downside is my vocabulary is like an unpruned tree, it grows all over the place without any systematic plan.  

[Guest realmayo]

These days my SRS automatically suspends any card I get wrong twice. So I'm less fussy about what new words I put in. But back when I was building up a core vocab base I was more picky, often checking new words off against HSK vocab lists, for instance.

[Lu]

The downside is my vocabulary is like an unpruned tree, it grows all over the place without any systematic plan.

Mine does that too, but for me it's a feature not a bug. I'm at a point where I can say most of the general stuff, so everything I add now is specialised one way or the other, ranging from household tools to math to literature vocab. My reasoning is that since I can say all that stuff in English, my second language, I should know it in Chinese too.

[Demonic_Duck]

Agree with Lu - learning vocab in a way that is tailor-made to your own experiences and requirements is much better than learning lists compiled by someone else. A neuroscientist is going to have much more use for the word 神经元 than a software engineer; meanwhile, the software engineer is going to have much more use for the word 二进制 than the neuroscientist. It'd be absurd to say that either of them shouldn't learn the vocabulary associated with their respective professions because of the low absolute frequency of the words.

 

With that said, I'm lazy as hell with my language learning these days and don't use flashcards because I no longer find them engaging. I rely on getting the requisite frequency of repetition for new words from materials I consume. Unfortunately, this only really works for vocab directly related to my work.

[yedafu]

Thanks everyone for the wonderful insights! 

I'm currently asking a new study question on the "General study advice and discussion" thread hope you can share more of your insight there.