Techniques to Learn Chinese Vocabulary with Success

Here we’ll share with you all kinds of tips for learning new Mandarin words, developing and broadening your Chinese language vocabulary and of course, we will even throw in a few very useful Chinese vocabulary lists with pronunciation and translation.

Our aim here is to make the Chinese vocabulary learning process is easy for you. 

So, don’t worry if you’re a beginner! We’re here to help you.

Having a board of vocabulary is going to assist you to converse mush more smoothly in Chinese and discuss several interesting topics. Though, it is building up your Mandarin vocabulary that’s the challenge.

We are firm believers that Chinese vocabulary is the cornerstone of a language, no grammar! 

Now, wait, and just think about it for a while…

If you wanted to ask someone for direction in the Chinese language and you knew the right way to ask but you did not know the right word for the area you were going to… then how on the planet would that assist you?

On the other side…

If you did know the right line or word, then even if you did not know the right word order, likely, you’d still be understood!

Yes! That is the power of vocabulary.

How to learn Chinese vocabulary with success from flashcards?

When starting to learn mandarin as a beginner it is often quite awesome. Suddenly, you are faced with a totally new language, which has a fully new structure and totally new and weird sounding and looking words! 

Yes, it is true!

But, on earth where to start?

The answer is so simple:

If you select a good resource, then you would not have to worry about what Chinese words to learn because it’s likely the course or book you have chosen will already contain the most useful Chinese words for every beginner.

What you’d concerned about is how to learn the new Chinese words. It is vital to not easily memorize Chinese vocabulary from a word list.

Rather, you’d be looking to understand words from basic context.

Why? 

Let me explain to you…

We, first of all, you’ll be capable to remember the character better if you’ve seen it or heard it in a sentence, and 2nd of all, it is a lot simpler to gauge a word’s meaning when you’ve been exposed to it in basic context.

In the Chinese language, words can also have a couple of meanings, so it is a lot easy to understand a word’s with different meanings by hearing or seeing it utilized in context. 

Understand….?

This is something I learned when I was a beginner. I would often spend time memorizing new Chinese vocabulary, but I later found myself a little confused as to how to utilize those words when writing or speaking I had not actually seen or heard instances of how natives used them in the discussion.

This brings me to my 2nd point;

Learn conversational Chinese vocabulary

Most learner’s aim when learning Mandarin is to be able to speak it and have a fluent conversation with natives. If that is not your aim – feel free to skip this part of the advice!

When I was in the learning process, I’d bring my textbooks to the teacher, who’d then assist me to work via the dialogs and lesions. One main reason that it was so helpful to have a teacher was that he’d point of Chinese that was extremely formal or rarely used in the discussion.

I was surprised!

This saved me from wasting a lot of time learning Chinese vocabulary that I’d probably never utilize would extremely rarely encounter in usual conversation.

So, my point is very simple.

Ensure the words you are learning are practical and really used in discussion, otherwise, what is the point?

Sure, when you are more advanced in vocabulary and you want to know the talks or news about politics, you can learn more professional or formal Chinese vocabulary. Though, as a beginner learner, it does not make a whole lot of sense.

By learning Chinese that you are likely to hear and use in discussion, it is likely that they’ll more simply stick in your long-lasting memory.

And what about the Chinese character….

I am a huge advocate of waiting two or three months before starting to learn characters. So, if you are a beginner I’d just focus on learning Chinese words via Pinyin initially. Once you’ve passed two-three marks and want to start learning Chinese characters, then it is going to be simpler because you’ll already have built up a basic Chinese vocabulary and can begin learning the character for the words you already know!

Now the question is how do you do all this?

Well!

If you have followed my tip about learning conversational Chinese vocabulary then once you start learning the process of high-frequency Chinese characters, you will find that several of these wills corresponds to the words you already know, so there is no further effort needed on your part. Just ensure you pick the best resource to work from when learning Chinese characters.

To sum up, starting out learning new words is relatively smooth but if you are really looking to bolster your Chinese vocabulary with a lot of new Chinese words you are going to have to find these new words somewhere. 

Top ways to remember Chinese words 

Once you’ve chosen your learning platform and started diving into conversational and dialogue in Chinese, you are going to need a better way to review the Chinese words you’ve learned. 

For this, there’re 2 ways I can highly recommend to every beginner.

• Using Chinese-flashcard and Chinese-copybook-generator

Chinese-flashcard and Chinese-copybook-generator are a truly powerful method to review Chinese words or any small piece of info you wish to keep in mind. These are the best tools for learning Chinese vocabulary I recommended everyone who is a newbie and want to learn Chinese from the flashcard.

It also makes use of some spaced repetition – a very clever algorithm that only shows flashcards that you are about to forget. The main feature I like most about these CCHATTY Chinese-flashcard and Chinese-copybook-generator tools is flashcards it generates are printable which is very handy to memorize Chinese Vocabulary.

• Using gold lists

This method for keeping in mind Chinese vocabulary is in contrast to the primary technique I discussed before.

You see, utilizing this method, you do not consciously try to keep in mind words at all. It sounds a bit strange at first.

I am right?

But it is remarkably clever and so simple to utilize as it needs no technology to implement.

One major similarity between the technique and the flashcard technique mentioned above is that they both make use of spaced recurrence.

For this technique, all you’ll need is a notebook, a pen, and a list of Chinese words you wish to remember.

So simple!

Once it has been assembled, now it is time to make your primary gold list. Open your notebook on a dual page and on the left side write out twenty-five words, and all on separate lines, going to the notebook page. Number every line and put any useful info about the Chinese words next to it, such as translation and pronunciation, etc.

Do not rush via the procedure of writing every word, as the physical procedure itself will assist to anchor the Chinese words in your mind. Once you are done, now read through the list to yourself, out loud.

This is great for better understanding!

You can repeat this procedure several times, with new words of course, just ensure to number every subsequent list and write the time and date above too.

Now, we need some extra focus! 

Here comes the most important part, do not look at those words once again for approximately 2 weeks.

I know you thought, why? I am right?

Because your goal is to get the words into your long time memory via spaced repetition. 

So for a minimum of 2 weeks, go back to your 1st list and ask yourself which of the words you’ve remembered the best. Put a mark beside the eight words you feel you’ve remembered the most and rewrite the remembering seventeen words at the peak of the empty right side page. This is your primary distillation.

No, it is time to keep repeating this procedure, being certain to leave at least two weeks in among every review. 

You’d goal to mark off about thirty percent of the remaining words every time and then carry over the remaining 70 percent. Eventually, every word will work them into your long time memory without you having to deliberately make an effort to keep in mind them!

Sound great to be true?

Now it is up to you, try it for yourself!

Both these techniques are efficient for remembering Chinese vocabulary; it is up to you which you wish to you. You’d even utilize a mixture of 2.

Tips to expand your Chinese vocabulary

Building up a wide Chinese vocabulary word will allow you to converse about a number of different niches.

So, how do you ensure you are building up a wide Chinese vocabulary and not a narrow one?

Don’t be confused, I here to help you!

The finest way to do this is by studying Mandarin from several resources which all look at the language somewhat differently.

By learning from several resources, as opposed to just one course or book, you’ll able to accumulate a well-rounded Chinese vocabulary. 

Why?

Because different resources teach different Chinese vocabulary words!

Much of the time you will find some resources tech a lot of similar Chinese vocabulary words, but this is OK too because these will be presented in various contexts, offering you more methods to keep in mind them and understand their meaning properly.

Using multiple resources is like attacking an enemy with multiple approaches as opposed to just striking him from 1 angle – it is just a lot of efficient.

Studying Chinese vocabulary from various resources is also more fun and a better way. It is simple to get bored of a textbook if that is the only thing you are studying each day. Choosing courses that teach too many Chinese vocabulary words is also vital for being able to learn new words.

Personally, I do not consider a grammar book as a base learning resource. It is more of a reference or additional resources you can go to for a fast overview of grammatical structure.

In fact, why utilize a grammar book?

As I said before, pick resources that keep a huge content in the form of dialogs and spoken. 

Need some help?

Check out our tools, CCHATTY dictionary, and courses of Chinese learning resources.

Why it is vital to have a huge Chinese vocabulary?

There’re several reasons why knowing huge numbers of Chinese vocabulary words is really good. A few of the key reasons include…

• To boost your understanding of spoken and written mandarin
• To enjoy listening to more amazing things
• To let you communicate more efficiently, with little Chinese grammar

Knowing too many words will enhance your knowledge of the language as a whole. 

Why? 

Because vocabulary is the base of any language, the more words you knew, the faster you can learn new words. You see, as your Mandarin vocabulary grows, you’ll start to pick up on patterns as to the way words are designed.

So, when you learn a new Chinese vocabulary word, it is often simply to liken it to 1 you already know and make an anchor in your brain, so you would not forget it.

Let me explain to you!

The word 办法 mandarin means Way. I already know this when I learned a new, 方法, Method. 

Do you notice how the previous character is the same?

I was capable to link this 方法 to 办法 and keep in mind effortlessly.

When listening to Mandarin natives, talk, you’re going to need some sizeable Chinese vocabulary to understand what they’re saying.

But why!

Well, just think about how many words utilize in a simple conversation in your language. Now, think about your buddies and the style they speak. You will realize that not anybody speaks similarly. Depending on their personality, gender, age, etc. they’ll use different styles and words in conversation.

So to be capable to understand natives in basic conversation, without too much of an issue, you can’t just rely on the words you want to learn from a textbook.

Listening grasp is also where Chinese vocabulary trumps grammar. If your vocabulary is huge enough that you can understand most of the words being spoken, then that is normally enough to make sense of what’s being said, even if your grammar is not up to mark.

Initially, it is more vital to focus on learning new Chinese vocabulary words than it has to focus on using this process yourself. Though there comes a time where you’ll start to speak and when you do, it is the best way to convert entire your passive vocabulary into active.