Vocabulary Study Site

[trevelyan]

This is a new site that should interest anyone who finds flashcards and vocabulary lists useful:

http://www.adsotrans.com/vocab/

There are a few of sample wordlists already online for inspection. Comments and feedback are appreciated, but please be kind - everything is still new and a bit experimental. There are a few big features that help set the site apart from others though:

1. Easy content addition: once you've created a vocabulary list, adding words is as easy as pasting the Chinese text into the "Add Vocabulary" box on the upper-left corner of the website. If you're logged in, the english/pinyin for the word will be automatically pulled out of the Adso database into either the current wordlist on screen, or your most recent wordlist (yes, users can create as many as they want).

2. Integrated flashcards: We have a javascript-driven flashcard system fully integrated into the site. Anyone curious to see how it works or feeling confident about their knowledge of Chinese country names can give it a test drive in this sample quiz of lesser-known country names. The flashcard application allows for testing of chinese, english or pinyin.

3. Optional email reminders: If requested, the website will send out email reminders containing user vocabulary lists at requested interval (1-999 days). If there's interest, we can also set up a subscription service, where people can subscribe to lists created by others, possibly with different type of subscriptions (word a day, etc.).

4. Full integration with Adso and NewsinChinese: If you create a private vocabulary list and turn on the "Integrated with Adso" feature, all new words submitted to the Adso database with your login name as contributor will be automatically appended to your wordlist. This is a great way to reinforce newly-learned vocabulary. Really useful for remembering esoteric content to have it automatically recorded for later testing.

Thoughts and feedback are very welcome, as are suggestions on features to add. Blood, sweat, tears, etc...

[Xiao Kui]

Will it be integrated in the future so that we can add words that we have learned (not necessarily added to the Adsotrans base) from the newsinchinese site directly into a vocab list? Or does this feature already exist?

[roddy]

Yes. I think this is covered under no. 4 above - as long as when using the 'Quick Add' feature you enter your login name as contributor.

[trevelyan]

Yes! Anything submitted using the Quick_Add form will get put into your private wordlist if you opt for it, even if the word already exists in the database.

To simplify things though, I've just added an "Adso Vocab" link to the NIC homepage. This does exactly the same thing, only without returning the error message informing the user that the database already contains the word in question.

[trevelyan]

Will it be integrated in the future so that we can add words that we have learned (not necessarily added to the Adsotrans base) from the newsinchinese site directly into a vocab list? Or does this feature already exist?

Just to be clear, every vocabulary list has its own separate database, so you can always add/edit words that don't exist in the main Adso database. If you want to add content to your private vocabulary list without contributing them to Adso, just use the "Add Vocabulary" box in the upper left hand corner of the Adso Vocab site.

The "pulling content from Adso" feature is just intended to make it easier and more convenient to generate wordlists, and populate them with the english/pinyin of the words in question. There's a link at the bottom of every vocabulary list that allows users to edit/correct entries, so nothing is carved in stone.

[Xiao Kui]

Thanks, that's what i was trying to make sure of because the adsotrans dict already has a lot of words i want to learn that i run into when i'm reading the newsinchinese articles. i'll give it a try

[nubix]

neat! I think a useful additional field would be an example phrase field.

also... what is the format to use to import using "Source Document (URL)"?

[trevelyan]

I think a useful additional field would be an example phrase field.

Should be able to add this with minimal problem, although we don't have a lot of example sentences in the database so there probably won't be much to import. Would also like to have a better way of reviewing the wordlists available on the site.

The "Source Document (URL)" is optional -- its stores the http address of an online document and is intended for cases where the vocabulary comes from an (online) reading. If the field is not-empty, a link will appear by the list allowing users to click-through and read the full piece.

[trevelyan]

neat! I think a useful additional field would be an example phrase field.

Added. Other new features:

(1) list creators can choose which fields to display.

(2) list creators can choose how to diplay lists (alphabetically on pinyin, english, or in order of chinese words added).

(3) list creators can automatically generate pinyin for words lacking them.