Managing Vocabulary: a question for Premium ChinesePod users

I agree with Lunetta. To tag all or tag selected items would be great.

There're several things I would like to change about the vocabulary but there's one thing I especially would like to see: tagging multiple words with the same tag in one go. I've begun to use the vocabulary for vocab that come from other sources and it quickly becomes time-consuming to tag them all individually.

Hey John,

one more minor thing that I remember. When you add words to "vocab" from the CPod dictionary, it would be nice if you could add the tag during the selection process so they would add to the vocab list already tagged. Right now it is a two step process (as far as I know). You have to go back into vocab later and add the tags one by one if you want to keep them all in one flashcard set. Not a big issue unless you are adding 20, 50 or 100 words at a timet. It is still worth it however, since somehow the electronic "flash cards" seem to work much better for me.

There have been many questions re how to best learn characters as a Pod Person. My strategy has been to learn by rote memorization the 1000 most used characters and after that, learn all the characters that are new in each published lesson before moving on. In this way you continually and simultaneously add to your vocab and character recognition in a way that makes them easier to remember. (They are each tied to, and associated with, a story line). Just my way, but I find it is working well for me.

Oh yea, and I would like some cheese with my "whine" and could I please borrow Xiaohu's private tutor? A massage would also be nice since I learn much faster when relaxed. My memory also seems to improve right after sex but the effect is short lived. Try, and repeat. Even if you don't learn anything, you can have fun trying. Its always better to study with a partner. Remember what your mother told you about studying alone.

In all seriousness, CPod is a FANTASTIC tool and I don't want anyone to loose sight of that in the middle of all our "suggestions" and the "complaints" associated with the collateral damage created by ramming icebergs. You guys are doing a great job and I wouldn't trade my Cpod experience for all the tea in China.

-RJB

Hi John - thanks for the explanation. I understand it takes time. Good to know what's happening. Keep up the great work!

brooke,

Yes, that's gist of the problem. There's also an issue with words from old lessons that weren't recorded using the current system. We're working on updating the old lessons, but with 700+ lessons in the archive and a new lesson still coming out every day, it's no quick fix.

brooke- that very well may be. It could be that some words simply dont have sound files yet. I cant remember for sure but it seemed like some of them worked sporadically but again - I am not sure.

RJ - I have noticed the sound file problem also. Most of my words do have the pronunciations, but a few don't. It seems maybe the ones that do are those already found in cPod lessons, and those that are user-added to the dictionary don't have any audio yet. John - am I right on this? Would there be a way for you guys to keep track of the newly added vocab and record audio for it? Thanks!

Tvan - agreed. also if you delete a word on page 3 it bumps you back to page one. Annoying if you are trying to go through the list and delete words you know really well. I have also noticed if I add words from the dictionary the sound file rarely works on the flashcard.

To clarify my comment above, I find that if you take the time to go through the vocab each day and tag each word individually, it doesn't take much time and allows for more meaningful use later, particularly with the flash card tool. Of course, if you wait fifty lessons or so...

A very minor note, when clicking the add tag button, the browser moves to the top of the list. No big deal, but then you have to scroll down to click the next character tag.

John,

I would like to maintain the ability to tag words but the numeric tags for each lesson are hard to remember and therefore are pretty much useless to me. I would like to see a global replace feature so with one click I could change all of the "0735" tags to "Tennis" for example.

Sorry but to be honest, the idea of you messing with the vocab architecture scares me after iceberg. Vocab is now finally working again at almost a100% level and I would like to keep it that way. More important to me than new bells and whistles.

henning,

You're right, but a whole lesson title is impractical. Some of them are quite long. And if you start using parts of lesson titles, you run into potential ambiguity between lesson titles and actual user-entered tags.

John,

not with the lesson number - but with its name. Because who knows what "0602" is supposed to mean?

Thanks a lot for all this feedback, everyone.

What I'm hearing is that you all definitely do want to know what lessons the words are associated with (possibly for the express purpose of export, like billgloveruk), but you're not especially enamored with them as tags.

This is valuable feedback. Keep it coming if you have more to add.

I find that I use the lesson tags more than any of the other tags. I do most of my vocab review offline. When I complete a lesson I export the vocab for that lesson into iFlash and run through it there. So for me, these lesson tags are invaluable. But, they do look somewhat messy and I think there may be a better way. If the vocab page for each lesson had the ability to export the related vocabulary, there would be no need to tag words in the vocab manager. People who study offline like myself could export the vocab for each lesson without cluttering up the tags of people who use the tag manager.

"custom fixes with the bookmarked vocab"

That's what I'm talkin' 'bout... would be a really nice feature to have.

What about using the function tags as "default tags". Would make life easier for us lazy people.

The most important feature I miss right now is a "deactivation of vocab transfer" option in Expansion & Dialogue. I hate those pop-ups informing me about yet another piece of junk vocab accidentely entering my vocab base.

But I have to admit that I reduced using the vocab section after the introduction of "The Fix". Mid term it would be cool if we could design or own custom fixes with the bookmarked vocab (I know - that would mean recording of the English text for all vocab),

Thanks Mikey. I completely missed that...although I still think it would be useful to see some different ways and there are newer features like Qing Wen, Movie Madness, and the grammar guide that aren't factored into that 10 step list.

Oh... and the ID tags... since it already is possible to find the lesson titles/links by clicking the + button on the far left, it seems unnecessary to have the lesson ID number. Perhaps other users have found productive ways to use them that would be interesting to learn about. In the meantime, I hope you don't mind me reiterating a question from another thread... how possible would it be to take the small vocabulary audiofiles and have them availalbe without also having to expand the + button? It would be nice going right down the tagged list and playing all the new vocabulary successively. Many thanks!

As a very recent premium subscriber, I'm still playing with all the bells and whistles.... little by little I'm learning how to use Chinepod "smarter" rather than longer... this thread (and Dave's question) got me curious. As I started combing around on the "help" page, I found the "In 10 Steps" link. That seems to have just what you're looking for, Dave.

John, I think the tags are useful, or rather they could be, but I wouldn't use them in their current numerical form. I can't speak for other members, but I'm heavily influence by topic, so a numeric tag would never entice me to click on it. If there was a way (again with the pull-down menu?) to show the names of the lessons in which that vocabulary appeared, I might be more likely to go exploring.

Thanks. I was thinking of something along the lines of how best to use all the features together and what particular order they might be best used in, For example:

steps:

1) listen to the audio

2) listen to the fix

3) listen to the expansions

4) exercises (test yourself)

5) bookmark new vocab

6) grammar guide stuff

Things get a bit hazy for me after step 4 because (shamefully) I admit I haven't used the vocab or grammar guide much. Some of this might sound like common sense but for me it would be useful to see other peoples' learning strategies/suggestions and maybe try them out and see if I discover some new ways of learning.

I don't know if I qualify as a "heavy user", but I do attempt to use the flash cards and concentration game at least once per day.

Since the tags don't mean anything in themselves, I mostly use them to remind me that I need to go back through that lesson and retag the vocab into something meaningful to me. I guess my answer would be that they are marginally useful, not essential.

Dave,

I think that's a great suggestion. I'll start thinking about that.

Any specific suggestions? Just "how to use your vocabulary"? That would have to wait until the new changes are done.

Brooke,

Thanks for putting some thought into your answer. We will be introducing a sort function, but it's not so simple to just "sort by tags," because one word can have multiple tags. One word can also appear in multiple lessons.

I like the idea of other options in the drop-down portion, though. We'll see.

OK, so that's one "no" vote for the lesson ID tags. Thanks!

Is there a manual or a thread about ways of using Chinesepod efficiently? I realize everyone studies differently but some suggestions would be great. There seem to be so many new features and I feel like I haven't fully taken advantage of them.

Oops - third paragraph should read "If the user selected "lesson" it would show all the names (and numbers?) of the lessons their vocabulary words are used in..."

Hi John - I don't know about everyone else, but I don't use the lesson tags. I usually group my words by topic, type, or usage, so I don't really need the lesson tags.

I guess my thoughts would be that the drop down menu for each word showing which lessons contain it could perhaps be modified in some way to help those who want to study a specific lesson. For example, would there be a way for each word to have a drop down with the lessons it's in (as you have now), and the lesson number, whereupon a person could click that number and have it show all the vocabulary they've saved to their list from that lesson?

Or maybe could there be a "sort by" feature on the page, where you could select "lesson" or "tags." If the user selected "lesson" it would show all the names (and numbers?) their vocabulary words are used in and a sample of which words are used in which lessons.

I'm just thinking off the top of my head, and now I'm thinking this may be more complicated than anything else, but maybe it'll spark a less complicated idea in your own mind or that of someone who reads this.

In any case, to answer your question, I don't personally use the lesson tags, but they don't bother me either. Whew - what a long answer! ;- )