Now that ChinaTown has been (at least partially) completed, I was eager to test it out on some vocabulary words. Within the past three days, with very little effort I have been able to learn 100 new vocabulary words (A single 100-pack of index cards), and I can recall almost all of them (95%) within three seconds. I was reviewing these flashcards during little chunks of free time throughout the day; waiting in line, traffic jam, etc. I estimate that I spent around 3 or 4 hours reviewing these throughout the past three days.Index cards were used mainly for the sake of portability; I can also easily write additional information on them (Drawings, reminders, etc.) to help cement the ChinaTown locations in my head. Soon, new vocabulary words will go straight into Supermemo with no middle-man.
A couple of things I noticed:
-If I stress the location of the character, words come much quicker. The words I found to be the most difficult to remember all involve characters that have a somewhat "hazy" location. In other words, ambiguous location = ambiguous retention.
-Tones are not posing a difficulty. After reviewing a word a few times, the tones come naturally.
I'll update you again as I experiment more rigorously with remembering Chinese vocabulary.
