Learning words in HSK(1-6)list order without regard to grade

[Pall]

Hello,

Maybe some remember I presented Radical Oriented HSK(1-6) Wordlist, divided into four parts, Part 3 coming the first, Part 2 the second, Part 1 the third and Part 4 the last. In the parts 1-3 the words are arranged according to one of their character, no matter which position it has, which is regarded as a "supporting character", and in correspondence with  the radical of that character. The Part 3 is for not so rare radicals, part 2 for frequent radicals, part 1 for very frequent ones, and part 4 for very rare and unique radicals. I felt that the list was a valuabale instrument, but I couldn't find an effective use for it. My last experiment with HSK4 words only of the part 3 wasn't successful. However, I believe now I am on the right track. 
 

I decided to learn first of all the words of the fourth part, which were the most diverse in outline. To do this, I took short Mandarin jokes and started adding sentences to them, using the words from the part four exactly as they appear, one after the other. The sample sentences were taken from various sources and have not been changed, but only slightly changed in some cases (“he” is replaced by “she” or “I”, etc.). Since I needed to follow the sequence of the words in the list, I inserted Russian connections (in the example below, translated into English) to provide the text makes sence, and the connections were sometimes quite long.  Here how it looks like

 

外宾 和 出租车 司机

一个 出租车 司机 拉 了 一个 外宾, 这个 外宾 想 去 飞机场, 但 不 会 汉语, 跟 司机 说了半 天 也 无法 让 司机 明白 他 要 去 的 地方。The driver kept repeating: “Дуэ̀йбучи̊。 请 再 说 一遍。“ 外宾 只好 张开 双 臂, 比划 飞机 的 样子。司机 恍然大悟, 说: «明白 了, 明白 了。»

司机 把 外宾 拉到 了 目的地。外宾 下 车 一看, 傻了眼: «全聚德 烤鸭 店!»

外宾: “Дуэ̀й，就是 这个 地方。我 дуэ̀й 你 有 好感。 ” 司机 站了 在 外宾 дуэ̀ймиѐн，点 了 一 支 烟，思忖 着。他 找不着 合适 的 дуэ̀йся̀нъ，心里 很 愁闷。The foreigner seemed to read his thoughts: “Дуэ̀йю́ 婚姻 千万 不能 草率。” 司机：“Women are afraid of me. 我 被 控告 谋杀 了 我的 дуэ̀йшо̊у。Дуэ̀йби̊ 一下 就 知道，我 代替 不了 他。“ 外宾: “You look very cool. Was he even cooler?” 司机: “Дуэ̀йчджа̀о 显明。” 外宾: “工作 和 学习 不 是 дуэ̀йлѝ 的，而 是 统一 的。You must have learned from your actions. And you became different.” 司机：« No, I'm a criminal. I will stick on the door of the girl because of whom we were at enmity, paired inscriptions, though this will not atone for guilt. 贴 дуэ̀йлие́н 是 中国 人 过 春节 的 一大 习俗。”

The foreigner thought for a moment and said: “我 不 фа̊ндуэ̀й 异族 通婚。”  司机：” How do you know she's black? Have you been following me?” 外宾: “ I think I read your mind. 我 好心 帮 你，фа̊нэ́р 被 你 拒绝 了。Or am I wrong about her race? Фа̊нчджэ̀нъ 都 很 悲伤。”  司机：“ Oh, I want to learn too. And it's impossible to talk to you. 在 训练 的 时候，队员们 需要 фа̊нфу̀ 练习 传 球 给 队友。” 外宾: “你 必须 按照 共产党的 政策 去 办，фа̊нчджӣ 就 会 出现 麻烦。” 司机：“Yes I know. 月亮 是 借 фа̊ншэ̀ 阳光 而 发光 的。I must be like the party.” 外宾: “You cannot be perfect. 每 一个 事物 都 有 它 的 фа̊нмиѐн。But I will tell the leadership of your Party that you behaved with dignity. 及时 的 фа̊нкуэ̀й 对 我们 改进 工作 很 有 帮助。” 司机 并 没有 фа̊нбо́。

 

Pinyin:   дуэ̀й                  duì
  дуэ̀й                  duì
  дуэ̀йбучи̊                duì bu qǐ
  дуэ̀ймиѐн             duì miàn
  дуэ̀йся̀нъ                 duì xiàng
  дуэ̀йю́                  duì yú
  дуэ̀йшо̊у                  duì shǒu
  дуэ̀йби̊                duì bǐ
  дуэ̀йчджа̀о                    duì zhào
  дуэ̀йлѝ                    duì lì
  дуэ̀йлие́н                  duì lián
  фа̊ндуэ̀й                  fǎn duì
  фа̊нчджэ̀нъ                  fǎn zhèng
  фа̊нэ́р                 fǎn ér
  фа̊нфу̀                 fǎn fù
  фа̊нчджӣ                   fǎn zhī
  фа̊ншэ̀                 fǎn shè
  фа̊нмиѐн                 fǎn miàn
  фа̊нкуэ̀й                  fǎn kuì
  фа̊нбо́                  fǎn bó

 

Then I made two kinds of flashcards, large cards and small ones. On the front side of the large card there is a Russian translation of the sentence, without those junctions (connections) in Russian, if any, and on the back this sentence in Chinese. The latter is given both in characters and in transcription. The rule is: those characters that I know how they sound in these Mandarin words are in characters, those whose transcription I do not remember (even if it only concerns tone) are in transcription. Often one of the characters of the word appears as  hieroglyph, and the other in transcription. The target word is highlighted in a different color, this will be helpful.

 

Small flashcards are made after the large cards are ready. On the front side of them is a Chinese target word, which at the beginning may be partially or completely in transcription, and on the reverse side is some word or even a word combination from the same sentence that is best associated with the target word. I mean mental association in this particular sentence, not in general. For example, at the beginning, on the front side might be '反fù', but I use mupin, and on the back, 'chuán球'。In means that I know how 反 and 球 sound, but I do not know this for the other two characters (initially the word can also be written only in transcription). These two words are taken from the sentence  在训练的时候，队员们需要反复练习传球给队友。

 

Now how to learn the words. Training goes in four directions. Firstly, small cards are taught from the front to the back, i.e. I am trying to remember the related word or phrase and write it down by hand on a piece of paper. If I remember only the transcription, then I only write the transcription, if I can remember at least one of the characters, I write it as a character, and the rest in the transcription. The words that I can't remember in the view, they are on the back side, stored in a vertical stack, the horizontal stack is for words that are considered learned at this stage. You can shift flashcards from a vertical stack to the corresponding horizontal one only at the very first viewing of the day, but a vertical stack, of course, can be reviewed many times during the day. Once the bulk of the words have been learned at this stage, the flashcards are rewritten or bleached to replace transcribed syllables with characters. I recommend changing only one character on the card at a time, usually first the target word appears in its entirety in characters, then another character is added on the back. In the end, you see all the target words as they are represented as characters, and on the back everything is also in the form of characters, and you can write it by hand (!).

 

Secondly, I'm learning big cards. While looking at the Russian translation, I try to remember both the target word and the associated word/phrase and draw them on the paper by hand, as shown in the sample marked in red on the right. First comes the target word, then the translation, and finally the word/phrase on the back of the corresponding small card. Big flashcards should not be rewritten every time you learn a word in hanzi. Use them in their original form, this is an auxiliary tool. However, after all the HSK(1-6) words are learned, you can try to practice writing in Chinese characters the phrases, which are in your language on the front side. If you want, it's optional for this method.

 

Thirdly, small cards are taught from the back to the front. So, by looking at the associated word, you are trying to remember the target word and write it down on paper.
 

Fourthly, large cards are learned in the same direction, from the front side, but you first try to remember the associated word and write it down on paper, and after that you write the target word. This is shown in the same sample at the top.

 

Initally big cards and small ones relating to a joke with contituation are kept and learnt seperately. Later they can be mixed up with cards from other jokes, firstly in about a hundred (five jokes), for example. Still later in three or five hundreds (15-25 jokes), etc. 

 

So, what are the advantages of this way of learning. (1) Words are acquired in association with other words, which ensures their stronger memorization. (2) Characters appear gradually, which makes learning more smoothly. It is similar to how an artist paints a picture with paints. First he shows shadows and light, some general spots, then he gives more details. (3) You can keep in mind phrase patterns when they are combined with each other to make sense. (4) In fact, you learn more words, but this does not slow down the learning of the target words. (5) Interestingly, I feel more able to speak Mandarin after this training, even though the method is primarily for better recognition of words as they appear in texts.