I've been wondering about this, and perhaps it's already been done and tested: Has anyone sorted a foreign language that doesn't use kanji such as Korean or French using simple Japanese or Chinese definitions of those words?

Assume: You have a top 10,000+ list of common words derived form a program that tabulates commonality from a 10,000 book/websites/blogs/news post list of data.

From these words, you use have a google translate or even more dependable list of simple one or two word definitions/equivalent words in Chinese or Japanese with emphasis on words that have kanji

Use Cangy's sorting program combined with the KO2k1 optimized order to sort the foreign language list

Group the common word list into 500 for the first group, another 1500 for the second group (2000 total), then after that into groups of 2000. This gives you a list of words with diminishing returns (most used learned up front), however you have words that are grouped into common meanings thanks to their Japanese or Chinese kanji inferring similar concepts. The idea then being you learn these words in a group more intuitively.

If anyone's done this, is there a link to the post about it? Now, I realize there are resources for most foreign languages out there. The problem with such resources, it's hard to get things from a book into an Anki friendly spreadsheet. This method seems like a method that can work for your average do-it-yourself structured learning type person not interested in mining a college textbook glossary.

Last edited by Nukemarine (2012 April 10, 9:13 am)