Vocabulary Tab

mastiche
December 06, 2008, 07:48 AM posted in General Discussion

Can anyone tell me how to use the vocabulary section?

I understand that you have to go through each lesson and save the words to get your vocab bank bigger. And now I have so many unorganized words and don't know how to make them work effectively. On the vocabulary tab, it seems you have two places to change the labels. Why? How do you creat a new label? Another problem is that if you choose 100 words per page, it will take forever to show the list.

Could someone tell me briefly how the Vocab Tab works or tell where I can look for a help. Thank you!

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calkins
December 06, 2008, 10:24 AM

mastiche, it's not the most user-friendly system.  Here's a video explaining the Vocab. Tab (at about minute 1:52).  This helps a little, but not a lot. 

I think the easiest way is to click on "Edit Labels" near the top of the vocab. manager:

Show: [Edit Labels]

That will take you to a new page where you can add new labels.

Or you can click the "Apply Label" pull-down menu and scroll all the way down to "New Label".

[Add Word]

To use this, you must have at least one vocabulary word selected.  Then a box will popup for you to write the new label.

I hope this helps.

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mastiche
December 06, 2008, 10:59 AM

Great! Thank you.

I remember watching the video a couple of month ago (I recall it was JP's voice, but now by John?) and I watched it again. Vocab section was brief, but it was helpful because I could review and learn about other sections.

I kind of understand the label function. Here is another question: I sometimes see "someone's vocabulary set was created" under the Latest Study Activity. Can I go into that person's vocab set and import it to mine? If you want to do the same thing, you need to create the set and save as "sharing" or something?

Also, there are Plus signs on the right side of the list. What are they?

By the way, I've been reading your post and admire your work. Amazing! You must have been putting so much time studying the mysterious language.

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mastiche
December 06, 2008, 11:08 AM

I don't know if this is the right place to ask but I suspect you know it. I'd like to study Chinese in both traditional and simplified 字. This site is basically designed for simplified characters. As a result, I have to go to http://www.hao123.com/haoserver/jianfanzh.htm and copy everything there and output the traditional ones. Is there any other way to do it?

Thank you!

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qingwa1
December 06, 2008, 11:01 PM

mastiche says:

I have to go to http://www.hao123.com/haoserver/jianfanzh.htm and copy everything there and output the traditional ones.

The problem is: if you enter 干, you always get 幹.

But simpl. 干 may be trad. 幹, 乾 or even 干!

So this tool is only a very unintelligent converter.

 

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mastiche
December 07, 2008, 01:06 AM

qingwa1

Really? Wow, I didn't know that! Do you happen to know any other site where you can see all possible characters when converting?

Thank you for pointing that out.

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calkins
December 07, 2008, 02:28 AM

There's a traditional support plug-in for the website.  More info. on installing it from the Help Section.  The major drawback is that you are forced to use Firefox.

Here's a good website for copying and pasting characters for converting (simp. to trad. or trad. to simp.):

Simplified to Traditional Converter

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mastiche
December 07, 2008, 07:22 AM

Thanks! I don't like to use Firefox since I share my computer with my sister, so I will try Chinese-Tools.com.

Wait. I just tried typing 干 on Chinese-Tools.com. The same word 干 appeared as the result. Well, I believe, as qingwa1 pointed out, 干 can be changed to more than one traditional 字. therefore, the system would pick just one of them. You can only hope for that is the right one! Anyway, thank you both for your advice!

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Cornelia
April 15, 2009, 08:57 PM

Does anybody know how to sort my list of labels alphabetically? I fear the order is just chronologic...