Ways to use the Chinesepod dictionary for study

wei1xiao4
September 20, 2007, 01:18 PM posted in General Discussion

I don't know about the rest of you, but it takes me a long time to make a word "mine".  I have to see a knew vocabulary word several times and in several contexts, speak, and write it and maybe it will finally stick.  The new Chinesepod dictionary has helped me in many ways.  When I study a new lesson with a word that I know I have been exposed to before but I can't quite remember where, I type it in and it shows me all the dialogs it has appeared in and I say to myself, "Yes, I know this word."  It is a wonderful tool that no other dictionary can perform because it brings me back to my first introduction and lead me to other examples of usage.  It is a real time saver rather than leafing through old dialogs.

Another way I use it is to break words apart into their individual characters.  If I just can't remember a word, sometimes I can remember it better when I learn its parts.  For example, today I was exposed to sun1zhong4 which means respect, for those of you on my level.  So I looked up sun1 which means honor and I knew zhong4 meant heavy, so now I have heavy honor, which makes sense to me as respect.  And hopefully I will remember it after I hear it about 10 more times, but you get the idea.  Just a tip from a fellow learner.  The Chinesepod dictionary is useful in many ways.  Anyone else have a learning tip to share.

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