I've been studying Mandarin for many years now, and whilst I'd consider myself intermediate, there is still a huge wall of vocab to be learned before I'm satisfied with my level. Sometimes it feels never ending. I also recently started picking up some Cantonese vocab over the past month, I haven't started actively studying Cantonese yet, just acquiring basic vocab and learning the tones.
Here is the vocab I learnt for both languages in April 2024.
Mandarin Vocab
农历 - Lunar calendar
起源 - Origin
诗人 - Poet
灭亡 - Perish
老百姓 - Common people
广泛 - Extensive / Widespread 吃素 - Vegetarian (I knew alternative ways to say vegetarian but this was a new one!)
素菜 - Vegetarian dishes
吓 - Scare
不管怎样 - Regardless
之外 - Outside
其中 - Among
受欢迎 - Popular
合算 - Worthwhile
喝彩 - Cheer
坡路 - Slope / hilly path 屋顶 - Roof
尸体 - Corpse
岸边 - River Bank
不带 - Without
建立 - Establish
影响力 - Influence
爱国 - Patriotic (I guess this is common sense)
房价 - Housing price
撑 - Support
旅馆 - Hotel (I'm not sure how common this is because I already know 2 other ways to say hotel)
曾经 - Once / previously
朴素 - Simple
激动 - Excited
煮熟 - Cooked
猛烈 - Intense
当作 - Regard as
睡午觉 - Nap
破坏 - Destroy
神像 - Idol
礼品 - Gift
端午节 - Dragon Boat Festival
粽子 - Zongzi (Sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves)
纪念 - Commemorate
习俗 - Custom
自杀 - Suicide
夸张 - Exaggeration
说法 - Saying
豆沙 - Bean paste
跳进 - Jump in
锥形 - Cone-shaped
预定 - Reserve
风格 - Style
香囊 - Scented sachet
驱散 - Disperse
惊吓 - Scare
龙舟 - Dragon boat
竹叶 - Bamboo leaf
鱼虾 - Fish and shrimp
馅 - Filling
隧道 - tunnel
保留 - preserve / retain
叛逆 - rebel
台州 - Taizhou (city)
地理 - geography
将强 - strong
挖 - dig
整洁 - tidy
东海 - East Ocean
歌迷 - fan of a singer
海滨 - coast
海风 - ocean air
海水 - ocean water
特殊 - special
自豪 - proud
痛苦 - painful
赶到 - hurry / rush to arrive somewhere
默默无闻 - obscure
Cantonese Vocab
起身 - hei2san1 - wake up
朝早 - ziu1jou2 - early
來自 - loi4zi6 - to come
乖 - gwaai1 - well behaved
每日 - mui5jat6 - everyday
誇張 - kwaa1 zoeng1
佢 - keoi5 - he/her
佢哋 - keoi5dei6 - they/them
早餐 - zou2caan1 - breakfast
去 - heoi3 - to go
返工 - faan2gung1 - go to work
廣東話 - gwong2 dung1 waa6 - Cantonese
邊個 - bin1go3 - Which one?
西方 - sai1fong1 - the west