Websites to learn Chinese vocab

Here are some great ways to learn Chinese vocab. These are good for learning characters or any other type of Chinese such as speaking.

Get over the great wall of Chinese with these tools to learn Chinese characters!

Quizlet

www.quizlet.com

Users can ;

• make their own sets
• import them from elsewhere
• use shared sets which other users have made

The site's best mode for learning a set is, of course, learn. It requires you to type in the answer which makes it active recall (more on this later). However the flaw with learn is that there is no way to go through the set in any way other than all at once - and as a one of. This isn't practical or efficient for big card sets.

Options for accents and advice for typing in characters make it quick to create decks. As the site is so popular there are lots of shared decks.

Anki

Anki is a free program. It uses 2 great scientific techniques to make it really easy to learn the flashcards you add to it.

• Active recall testing. From Anki's website; 

"Active recall testing means being asked a question and trying to remember the answer. This is in contrast to passive study, where we read, watch or listen to something without pausing to consider if we know the answer. Research has shown that active recall testing is far more effective at building strong memories than passive study."

• Spaced repetition;

"every time you answer a question, you tell the program how well you were able to remember it - whether you forgot completely, made a small mistake, remembered with trouble, remembered easily, etc. The program uses this feedback to decide the optimal time to show you the question again."

You can see a full review of it on ChineseMusings.com.

Memrise

www.memrise.com

This is a great website however you don't have much control over what you learn other than by selecting the course. Most courses are big and they can't be skipped through so you may find yourself learning some vocab you don't need

On Memrise you find courses - basically sets of words which you want to learn. However each time you first see a word (or get it wrong) you see a mnemonic which someone has created of that word to help you remember it. This is a great way to remember things. Memrise also has an element where you can compete with your friends - it's addictive!

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