How to create word list posters

[GenericName02]

Hi,

 

What is the best way to create posters of word lists.

 

I want to print out lists of words and phrases that I'm trying to learn. I will update it every other day. I want to have pinyin above and a translation on the right side of the poster. Just a simple A4 to stick on my bathroom wall.

 

Originally I wanted a whiteboard so I could write and rub out easily. But it's hard to stick my white board on the wall.

 

Has anyone tried designing and printing out custom word lists?

 

What ways do you integrate your Chinese language learning into your environment?

[becky82]

I use XeLaTeX to compile LaTeX documents.  The lists I created for the HSK 3.0 vocabulary use LaTeX code that looks like this:
 

Quote

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[margin=0.7in]{geometry}

\usepackage{xeCJK}
\setCJKmainfont{wqy-zenhei.ttc}

 

\begin{document}

\centering

\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 爱\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 爱好\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 八\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 爸爸\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 吧\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 白\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 白天\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 百\end{minipage}
\\[2em]

\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 班\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 半\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 半年\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 半天\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 帮\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 帮忙\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 包\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 包子\end{minipage}
\\[2em]

\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 杯\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 杯子\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 北\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 北边\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 北京\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 本\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 本子\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 比\end{minipage}
\\[2em]

\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 别\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 别的\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 别人\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 病\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 病人\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 不大\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 不对\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\resizebox{0.9\textwidth}{!}{不客气}\end{minipage}
\\[2em]

 

[snip]

\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 子\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 走\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 走路\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 最\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 最好\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 最后\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 昨天\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 左\end{minipage}
\\[2em]

\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 左边\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 坐\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 坐下\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{0.12\textwidth}\centering\huge 做\end{minipage}
\hfill [385--500]

\end{document}

 

Getting the actual word list (and making sure there are no errors) is the hard part.  There was a bit of faffing around, since we need to change the font size depending on the number of characters in the word.

 

If you want to add pinyin as well, you might want to try the xpinyin package (but be aware you'll need to manually correct for 多音词).