Managing Vocabulary: a question for Premium ChinesePod users

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! ;- )

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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..."

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),

"custom fixes with the bookmarked vocab" That's what I'm talkin' 'bout... would be a really nice feature to have.

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.

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.

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

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, 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.

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.

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.