Ways to build Up Chinese Vocabulary

[Chinese]

Learning vocabulary
Once you have got to grips with the fundamentals of a language (pronunciation, orthography and basic grammar), you can concentrate on learning vocabulary. This is probably the most important and time-consuming part of learning a language. Below are a few techniques to help you with this task.

Testing and revision
To ensure the words stick in your memory, test yourself on them at regular intervals. If you learn some new words in the morning for example, check that you can still remember them later that day, the next day, a week later and a month later. If you find some words hard to recall, try thinking up different associations for them. You may need to try several different associations before you find one that works.

Learn related words & phrases
When learning the word for hand, for example, try to learn related words, such as parts of the hand; actions of the hand; other parts of the body, and things you might wear on your hands. Also try to learn words with the same root and phrases which include the word hand.

As you learn more words you will start to spot connections between words. The more words you learn the easier you will find it to guess the meanings of new words.