Did you miss any Newbie vocab?

bababardwan
September 05, 2012, 11:33 AM posted in General Discussion

Thought I'd make a little list of some vocab I've struck in the Newbie lessons that could represent some holes in ones vocab. They are generally to be found in the supplementary vocab.

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bababardwan
September 05, 2012, 11:33 AM

移民

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bodawei
September 07, 2012, 07:27 AM

On the subject of holes in your knowledge, and generally keeping humble, how about the word 协 xié,协助的协 xiézhù - a fairly high frequency word (to assist, to harmonize hehe) but I did not realise until today that the radical is the little fellow on the left. It is 十 but it takes this other form when appearing on the left - which it does in just ONE character, 协! 

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bababardwan
September 05, 2012, 10:12 PM

苗条

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bababardwan
September 05, 2012, 10:12 PM

丰满

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bababardwan
September 05, 2012, 11:02 PM

馄饨

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bababardwan
September 05, 2012, 11:10 PM

调味料

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bababardwan
September 05, 2012, 09:35 PM

奶精

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bababardwan
September 05, 2012, 11:46 PM

火柴

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bodawei
September 06, 2012, 01:12 AM

Ha - good one, Baba. I always listened to the Newbies - actually for general usefulness in everyday living the Newbies are the best. The other levels generally decline in usefulness as you get higher (just my personal point of view). The higher levels are often very entertaining - that's the trade off I guess. 

And I can't be 100% sure of the meaning of ANY of the above - a couple I think I might guess. (If they are recent lessons I probably missed reading/listening to them.) 

'holes in ones vocab' 

I've got plenty.  Holes that is.  :) 

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bababardwan

"for general usefulness in everyday living the Newbies are the best"

yeah, well one reason I decided it was high time I listened to all the newbie dialogues...see what I'd missed out on, try and shore up any holes, and for the first proper time, do some revision...try and get newbie level tucked away, haha.

"And I can't be 100% sure of the meaning of ANY of the above"

hehe, yeah, thanks for your honesty...makes me feel better.

"a couple I think I might guess"

...yeah me too...often I know the individual characters but haven't struck the combo

"If they are recent lessons"

..no, I've worked chronologically from the start and have just reached the point where I joined in Aug 2008....but for the year or two before that there was nothing new...it's starting to seem like the older lessons had more higher level type stuff thrown in the supplementary vocab. There almost seems to be a definite line where things changed around that time not only in the supp vocab but also the quality of the dialogues.

"I've got plenty. Holes that is"

hehe, yeah, me too :)

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bababardwan

btw, regarding "a couple I think I might guess", be careful with the second one mate, hehe

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bodawei

'be careful with the second one mate,'

I still don't know Baba (see my post below). I guess I am not very imaginative. Expressed mother's milk?? Just a guess.

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bababardwan

So as to avoid a spoiler for anyone who may want to try and work it out here, I'll just give you the lesson it was taken from:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/how-do-you-take-your-coffee#vocabulary-tab

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bababardwan
September 07, 2012, 12:04 AM

....I'd be interested to hear from any other poddies who have moved past newbie whether any of these represent holes for them.

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podster

good grief . . . I thought I was an intermediate, but now I realize I should have started with Newbie! (and maybe should still be there) Curses, you've ruined my day. My Chinese is built on a foundation of Swiss cheese. I guess if I plug any of those into the search box for glossary I can find out what lesson they are in. I presume they are part of "supplementary vocabulary."

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bababardwan

"good grief"

haha, I love that expression, but it always reminds me of Charlie Brown...perhaps that increases it's appeal

"Curses, you've ruined my day"

hehe, sorry mate. Actually, I think CPod became more and more structured in their approach with time, and developed a stronger sense of what vocab was appropriate for each level, but still, sometimes I've seen very simple newbie like vocab listed under vocab tab of Intermediate, even Uppers I think, and in the cases I've listed above I wouldn't be surprised to find them also as being vocab for higher level lessons. The newbie dialogues themselves are all very simple and have stuck to the level, but I think it was in the end actually exclusively in the supplementary vocab [yes you're right] where these words were found. I guess they may not have been necessarily thinking here's some high frequency newbie words for you, but rather, here's some topic related vocab for you in case you are wondering/ want to expand.

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chris

A great little test Baba. I recognised 1, 4, 6 and 8, but more because I think these have recently cycled around on my Anki SRS flashcards! I certainly don't remember them from Newbie lessons and, like you, I have worked through all of them chronologically from 2005 to today. Some of them admittedly seem quite tough for a newbie lesson.

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bababardwan

"I guess if I plug any of those into the search box for glossary I can find out what lesson they are in"

...actually I just tried this with 奶精 above so as to give bodawei a link and came up with zippo [so had to go search for it amongst the many newbie beverage lessons]. If nothing else, at least that tends to suggest maybe it isn't such a high frequency word after all. In retrospect, I guess I should have provided a link to each lesson from the start [or should I....the lesson link gives a hint to the subject, and if it was to be a true test, you'd have no such clues]

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bodawei
September 07, 2012, 04:50 AM

For someone living in China these are fairly low frequency words - now I am interested in how some of them came up in Newbie lessons!

I hope it doesn't spoil the exercise but ...

Tips & Tricks

1. 移民 – China Mobile [BTW that is a clue - not the meaning] .. I know the characters but could not put the meaning together. Low frequency use in China ha ha!

2. 奶精 – jing1 (semen) – I have read one dictionary meaning of 奶精 nai3jing1 (it is not in many dictionaries), but I don’t think that this word has much frequency. I cannot think how to use it. No doubt the lesson in question would be informative.

3. 苗条 – You either know it or you don’t; I would never have guessed. This is idiomatic, not to mention weird – young fry …??

4. 丰满 – Probably the easiest of the words for me; I guessed this one, knowing both the constituent characters well. At least it is in the dictionary …

5. 馄饨 – Of course I don’t eat these anymore but maybe they are one of the best things about Shanghai. We don’t have them out here and although I easily recognise the characters I could not remember the meaning!

6. 调味料 – You can see it has something to do with food, the 味 wei4 and the 料 liao4 help, although 料 has applications not related to food.

7. 烟囱 – I have learnt and forgotten this a few times, because I never need to use it. Low frequency word. Perhaps I have learnt it this time. Interestingly the second character has no independent meaning – it only goes with the first character [according to 现代汉语词典].

8. 火柴 – Another low frequency word – there are almost none of these in China, I have only found fancy ones, not functional ones – exceedingly difficult to buy. Everyone uses cigarette lighters.

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bababardwan
September 05, 2012, 11:27 PM

烟囱