Different ways to say the same thing

[Jan Finster]

I wonder if there is any Chinese language learning material out there that gives several options on how to say the same thing. I mean conveying the same meaning, but using different words and/or grammar structures. I noticed the translators of Glossika and Chinesepod (in some videos) translate in different ways when a sentence is repeated twice (a very easy example "I am full" and I am stuffed"....). It would actually be much more interesting to learn various ways to say the same thing in Chinese. 

[大块头]

Nothing more distracting than realizing you've just used 然后 for the third time when telling a story.

[suMMit]

Interestingly, I've always felt the exact opposite. I remember back when learning basic ways of giving directions and a teacher was saying 右转 but then telling me i could say 右拐 and 后面 but i could also say 后边 but that other people would say 后边儿, At the time i was struggling enough with 左 vs. 右 and their different tones and 前 and 后 let alone all sorts of variations.

 

I still feel like its better to be comfortable with one thing, once i know it deeply and then slowly add in synonyms and complications. It seems like that does tend to happen naturally as you move up the levels anyway though, unless the teacher is unskilled(imo) and gives you everything all at once.

 

I have always felt learning a new word and it's opposite is not optimal either ie. 厚 （thick) and 薄 (thin) for me takes twice as long to remember and or I get them mixed up for a long time.

[杰.克]

1 hour ago, suMMit said:

Interestingly, I've always felt the exact opposite

 

This is probably more a question of what level you are at than anything. With being a beginner its gonna make sense to optimise, they deeper you get into mandarin, the more you want to express yourself.

[yanux]

What helped me is to stick and work through different series of learning materials (from the beginning to the end). When I started learning Mandarin in China at the Uni we were given the 汉语口语速成 (7 books in total) and 博雅汉语 (9 books in total) book series. When I left Uni and moved to a different province I continued by myself and finished off those book series (except Boya, still stuck in 高级1). I also noticed that the official HSK book series add quite a lot of synonyms/near synonyms in the HSK6上 and 下  books to sentences, situations, topics already covered in HSK5上下 books. If you can find the motivation to stick with a book series, at the advanced levels they do add quite a good number of synonyms and with review, practice the vocab will start sticking around the active/passive memory. ?