Supplementary Vocabulary
go_manly
February 25, 2010, 10:30 AM posted in General DiscussionJust wondering if anyone does more than just a quick scan through the Supplementary Vocab lists for each lesson. Personally, I find them the least useful part of a lesson, as they relate neither to the dialog, nor the expansion sentences.
bababardwan
February 25, 2010, 01:37 PMI think they're useful for a few reasons. I think they are often slightly more challenging words,more often unfamiliar words,are related to the topic and if not provided would likely have been asked what they were.I haven't done many exercises in a while due to time constraints [but will get back to it],so I may be wrong, but I thought I recalled them sometimes showing up in the expansion or exercises.I'm surprised you say this as you've done some transcripts mate and to me perhaps the most useful thing I've found is that they help in the transcripts as nearly always they come from the banter.Also it is usually the banter that poddies complain about difficulty in following.Anyway,each to their own of course ,whatever floats your boat 'n all that,but that's the way I view it.
go_manly
Actually, I have found that typically they don't come up in either the Expansion sentences or the banter.
bababardwan
Ok,I've adopted your habit of counting things.In this lesson:
http://chinesepod.com/lessons/voucher-promotion-at-the-mall/vocabulary
..half of the supplementary came up in the banter.On reflection I think this is likely typical IMHO...ie not all may appear in the banter but a sizeable proportion.But maybe my sampling is too small to be truly reflective.
JasonSch
Hmm...translating the supplementary vocabulary, I rarely bump into words that seem completely irrelevant to the topic. I just went back and looked, and it appears to me that although they're not always mentioned in the banter, they all seem to be pretty topical. (Check out the hotel lesson this week, or today's lesson, etc)
At higher levels they tend to stray a bit, but that's because the lesson covers a far wider spectrum of language/topic.
It should be noted though, that I do sometimes have to ask the teachers why they chose a certain word for the supple. vocab, and there's usually a pretty good reason. So, that being said, if you're curious as to how a word relates to the topic (which isn't always apparent to a non-native speaker), you could try asking in the comments.
Thanks for the input though. I'll try to keep an even sharper eye on their relevance in the future.
go_manly
February 25, 2010, 08:44 PMActually, I have found that typically they don't come up in either the Expansion sentences or the banter.
andrew_c
February 25, 2010, 11:03 PMThe ones from the banter are useful to refer to(it came in handy when Jenny mentioned 王婆卖瓜自卖自夸). Others are useless, I can't learn vocab in isolation, I need a sentence. Therefore, I never bother with supplementary vocab. Maybe 10% of my study time is listening to John & Jenny, 90% of my study time is dedicated to the expansion sentences. The expansion sentences are also far from perfect. They go way off-topic and introduce too many off-topic, difficult words . Instead they should be slight variations of the dialog
sentences with similar/analogous vocab.
xiaophil
February 26, 2010, 05:38 AMI tend to think the supplementary vocab is even more useful than the dialog vocab because I more often find unfamiliar, interesting words there. Relevance to the lesson isn't a strong factor for me. I am always happy to learn a new word regardless if it is or isn't related to the lesson at hand.
go_manly
But how does one remember words when they are not used in a sentence? I have have never been able to remember long lists of facts (vocabulary, dates, spelling lists, etc.). I find the Expansion sentences the most useful part of a lesson. They might have a lot of previously unseen vocabulary, but this vocabulary is immediately put to use, and is usually pretty obvious from the context.
zhenlijiang
I agree, you need to see vocab words used in a sentence. Any vocab words I'm interested in I look up in my dictionaries and/or nciku. Example sentences are always provided.
xiaophil
I can't say I disagree. I can only say I found my way and it seems to be different than yours. I never try to drill vocabulary in any sort of way anymore. I don't really do any exercises either. I just try to read as much Chinese as much possible and hope that words reoccur so that eventually they stick.
xiaophil
I think that is only sometimes true. Some words are very contextual, but if you learned the word 鹦鹉 (parrot) for example, surely you would know how to use it?
I like a surprise word. A word I didn't know I wanted to know, but after seeing it, realizing it's a good word to know.
bababardwan
I agree mate.I haven't gotten round to really concentrating on nailing the vocab through regular drills.Hoping to see them again is what I'm after too.The second time round ,it's more like ...ah,that's right [as opposed to the first time which is more of a ..is that so?..moment...or in some cases where you can see where the derivation has come from...a hey that makes sense moment].It definitely helps having seen it before even it you haven't owned it.I think the lesson at least gets you in the ball park of context...mastery of the word can come later but at least you've been introduced...a more intimate relation to follow in good time,hehe.
go_manly
February 26, 2010, 06:28 AMBut how does one remember words when they are not used in a sentence? I have have never been able to remember long lists of facts (vocabulary, dates, spelling lists, etc.). I find the Expansion sentences the most useful part of a lesson. They might have a lot of previously unseen vocabulary, but this vocabulary is immediately put to use, and is usually pretty obvious from the context.
changye
February 26, 2010, 06:56 AMI think today's supplementary vocab, " Visiting the Hospital with a Fever", is not so bad.
simonpettersson
February 25, 2010, 11:05 AMI don't use it at all, but then I rarely look at the vocab page, anyway. I add the vocab by clicking on the words in the dialogue page. That way I'm sure to get all the words I don't know.