I am a Teen and I really want to learn Mandarin Chinese. Where should I start? I want to lean it because I’m part Chinese and I want to revive part of my lost culture (which couldn’t be passed down due to racism back then.)
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I know that there are lots of things out there that perform a similar task, and I am aware of the function in word where you can get pinyin on top of the characters with tine markers however the results end up like this (in that the words are not grouped together making it even more difficult to read).
My wife and I have been studying for a number of years and our comprehension when reading is pretty good (at the level we're at) and have been doing some transcriptions of different processes that our teacher has recorded and reading them back to her. However she wants us to practice our tones to improve them and I am having some trouble finding an easier way to do what I described above. Otherwise I may just have to use google translate and copy/paste line by line which is also OK I guess, I'm just lazy.
Also keen for any feedback on people who have done similar practice with reading as hearing our teacher say that our tones are a bit rough after a couple of years of study is a bit hard to hear.
As a child I was raised in Hong Kong and was able to pick up some cantonese. After watching cantonese dramas, I improved my cantonese but I was still unable to read or write cantonese (I could only speak it). Now I want to learn mandarin because majority of my friends speak it and I want to be able to communicate with them. Does anyone know any resources that are specialized in teaching mandarin to people who already speak cantonese? I assume it would be easier since some words only differ by the intonation. Thanks :)
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I know this is a very simple question (I’ve tried several solutions on google), but I cannot figure out how to conveniently splice the audio CD and combine the files to my phone.
Ideally, I want to listen to one continuous track (or album). Currently, I can move files but I have to play one by one and it is quite annoying. I’m using an iPhone.
My listening is terrible so I need to practice. Any other suggestions for beginner audio files would be greatly appreciated!
This is the way kindergarten in China taught me Chinese First you learn pronunciations, pinyin. Start with the 4 tones and the actual half English thing Then you learn basic characters. They are either made from 2 or more smaller characters or a small character In primary school we had to do poems, skip that stuff it's useless Back to characters, start with numbers, move to colours. Once you get rid of your accent try to talk to people if you get to visit China. This will be very helpful. When you get the hang of writing Chinese characters and character structures, learning new characters should be a piece of cake. There are 3000 characters used in normal life. Remember learning characters need to go after learning to talk, ie learning to talk is more important
You can memorize characters better by remembering strokes orders and structure rather than remembering them as an image
I can't put these words together:
家常 = homestyle 便饭 = food 照顾 = take care 不周 = do not take care
Could it mean: enjoy the food and hospitality, take care and take it easy?
Is there a chinese equivalent of the english "no u"? 不你 just doesn't seem right
OK, so I read that there are four main areas that you have to practice in order to learn a language: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Is that true?
My question is: how do I practice reading in Chinese? I have this app called "Decipher" but so far, the HSK 1 articles seem above my level. I could go through the New Practical Chinese Reader (Volume 1) again and this time learn how to write and recognize each and every character given. And then perhaps I could read the sentences that they give me. But even so, I want to able to read in Chinese. And I'm looking for advice. I also heard that "WordBrewery" is a good website to go to. I'm thinking about signing up for it. Should I?
I'm looking for even the most basic advice to the advice that only a long practitioner of Chinese would know. Please help me out here. I could really use the help right now. What apps should I use? What websites should I use? What books should I use? What should I use in general? And what should I do?
Thanks in advance.
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Credits goes to David Fan and of course me for providing us with tips and tricks to learn Chinese!
If you are a foreigner who are especially interested in learning Chinese and determined to learn Chinese well here is my advice for you to learn Chinese:
1. I suggest that you first star learning Chinese in your country by either going to a university or a training institution. If it is more suitable for you to learn with the help of the internet (online learning) then you should know that doing so is a good choice.
2. Of course, you have to study hard, including Chinese grammar, sentence structure, new words, etc. You must learn them by heart and try to use those new words you've learned while communicating with your Chinese friends. You can also try communicating with your Chinese friends by using an email service provider or other other methods to communicate with people.
3. After period of time when you feel comfortable using your Chinese you may come to China to continue your Chinese studies. Generally, I would recommend that you apply to Chinese training schools where you will have an experience with other foreigners to learn the Chinese language and experiences the Chinese culture.
4. But remember although after going to China and applying to Chinese training schools you should always try to communicate with your peers in Chinese and not English to help you maximize your learning!
5. I would advise you to go to a place where you can find Chinese people to practice your Chinese after class, every day! Such as parks, university campuses, cafes, etc. Finding a place to sit in the park or wherever you find yourself present and taking out your homework to do carefully. Ask people for help when you feel like you don't understand what you're doing! Chinese people will be happy to help foreigners who are studying Chinese.
6. You need to create an environment and get involved in the Chinese culture!
7. It is recommended that the local dialects of the city you are staying in China to be close to the standard Chinese dialect! Not like Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong dialects, which are quite different from the standard Chinese dialect, commonly called Mandarin.
8. Your friends in China should be Chinese people who can't speak English, so you force yourself to speak Chinese and not used English language as an excuse of not being able to express yourself correctly. That will only lead to not speaking Chinese and instead you'll be having English conversations only.
9. You can teach English in your spare time in China, so you can also earn money to finance your Chinese studies.
10. Whenever you encounter unknown words you should always look them up in the dictionary and keep notes of the word that you recently learned. And put the words in different categories, such as animals, verbs, subjects and etc. to make the recalling process easier. This way you will be able to speak Chinese fluently in a few years while in China and the Chinese people will not think of you as foreigner.
I hope you enjoyed this post!
Credits goes to David Fan and of course me for providing us with tips and tricks to learn Chinese!
If you are a foreigner who are especially interested in learning Chinese and determined to learn Chinese well here is my advice for you to learn Chinese:
1. I suggest that you first star learning Chinese in your country by either going to a university or a training institution. If it is more suitable for you to learn with the help of the internet (online learning) then you should know that doing so is a good choice.
2. Of course, you have to study hard, including Chinese grammar, sentence structure, new words, etc. You must learn them by heart and try to use those new words you've learned while communicating with your Chinese friends. You can also try communicating with your Chinese friends by using an email service provider or other other methods to communicate with people.
3. After period of time when you feel comfortable using your Chinese you may come to China to continue your Chinese studies. Generally, I would recommend that you apply to Chinese training schools where you will have an experience with other foreigners to learn the Chinese language and experiences the Chinese culture.
4. But remember although after going to China and applying to Chinese training schools you should always try to communicate with your peers in Chinese and not English to help you maximize your learning!
5. I would advise you to go to a place where you can find Chinese people to practice your Chinese after class, every day! Such as parks, university campuses, cafes, etc. Finding a place to sit in the park or wherever you find yourself present and taking out your homework to do carefully. Ask people for help when you feel like you don't understand what you're doing! Chinese people will be happy to help foreigners who are studying Chinese.
6. You need to create an environment and get involved in the Chinese culture!
7. It is recommended that the local dialects of the city you are staying in China to be close to the standard Chinese dialect! Not like Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong dialects, which are quite different from the standard Chinese dialect, commonly called Mandarin.
8. Your friends in China should be Chinese people who can't speak English, so you force yourself to speak Chinese and not used English language as an excuse of not being able to express yourself correctly. That will only lead to not speaking Chinese and instead you'll be having English conversations only.
9. You can teach English in your spare time in China, so you can also earn money to finance your Chinese studies.
10. Whenever you encounter unknown words you should always look them up in the dictionary and keep notes of the word that you recently learned. And put the words in different categories, such as animals, verbs, subjects and etc. to make the recalling process easier. This way you will be able to speak Chinese fluently in a few years while in China and the Chinese people will not think of you as foreigner.
I hope you enjoyed this post!
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submitted by /u/AliceHZ [link] [comments] |
Greetings r/China!
I recently started to study chinese language with a private teacher, but that is just one hour a week and I feel that's not enough since I am also planning a long stay in China for the upcoming year. In particular I'd like to train my spoken chinese more, so I am asking for suggestions: is there any website for language exchange? should I look for direct contacts? I am an italian man if anyone is interested in language exchange and I have quite some flexibility to adapt to time-zone delay.
Thanks to anyone that can help!
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Hi!
A while back I found a really detailed Japanese Character Dictionary. One of the things I really like about this book is The large images with clear stroke order, and the handwriting examples next to it. I haven't been able to find one, but I was hoping someone here may know of a similar dictionary for Chinese, traditional preferred. It's easy to find them for 200 or 300 characters, but a full one would be preferred.
![[Very Practical] 5 common Chinese Interjections: 啊(a) 吧(ba) 呢(ne) 啦(la) 嘛(ma) | ChineseQQ.com](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/EIWuKva7iqcQkllYARCx3D-iXsRzKJijYiNmZKYsOPM.jpg "[Very Practical] 5 common Chinese Interjections: 啊(a) 吧(ba) 呢(ne) 啦(la) 嘛(ma) | ChineseQQ.com") |
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ChinesePod is a creative platform for Teachers to enhance their students’ Chinese language learning experience. ChinesePod uses real life conversations and scenarios to engage the students, keeping them interested and involved in the Mandarin language. ChinesePod offers an abundance of material with over 4,000 lessons available. When used in combination with your curriculum, ChinesePod can […]
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Can you guys think of more of these?
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submitted by /u/phlexuss [link] [comments] |
tl/dr: title
Hi there fellow Redittors!
I recently started a language exchange with a Chinese friend; what she pointed out, and what I also noticed, is my pronunciation is behind other Chinese skills. My mouth is not yet accustomed with tones, and I'd like to change that of course. I decided that strictly oral practice of tones/speaking would become part of my everyday routine, along character-learning. Let me just assure you at this point, that I learn new words with their tones, and it's actually speaking part that is the problem.
I seek any practical advice on what to do, and what materials to use to practice tones by myself - YouTube videos, anki decks, your own methods and insights. Listening as well as speaking.
Additionally, If someone would be able to address somewhat more specific issue, which is having problems with 'hearing' the third tone in my mind, I would be extremely grateful. When I had this issue with rising tone, mapping it to saying "whaaat?!?" helped me a lot. Any english/slavic occurrence of a third tone would help. Other tones I can hear and reproduce better, 3rd and 4th are giving me the most trouble, both in terms of knowing what to pronounce before I do it, and actually speaking - especially in a sentence.
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submitted by /u/adaszko [link] [comments] |
Hi, guys, I'd like to share my learning Chinese story with you. I think this will be entertaining to two kinds of people: those just starting out and curious to know what a Chinese study journey is like, and those who have been on this journey and will look back fondly on some of the hardships and fun times in here.
I've been studying for about 3.5 years. I started at absolutely nothing and now I am in grad program which is full Chinese and study legal issues, economics, politics. At my part time job I translate technical software instructions from English to Chinese.
Sorry if the story is too long and boring to you. These are all just my opinions. You can disagree if you want.
I wanted to write this because I see lots of people talking about their meticulous study plans that include lots of data and tracking progress and what not. I don't really agree with that system. I think studying the language, shouldn't put up so many artificial methods. Should flow like a river. Let the study style change when your gut feels like it should. But instead of presenting it as an argument, I will just present it as a story.
The story has five tips I think throughout. You can just read these six tips and be on your way if you don't really care:
Okay, here's the story.
I graduated bachelor's in May 2013. I began studying Chinese on December 21, 2014. I had never studied a single character before that day. At the time, my hands were injured and I was forced to stay mostly at home on work comp for a few months. I got very bored and started drinking more to pass the time, which of course made things worse. I couldn't do simple things like open a door or make a sandwich without being in pain. It was chronic pain.
Finally my roommate recommend I learn a language to pass the time instead. I had nothing better to do, and couldn't do my normal hobby which is make music on piano or PC because of my hand injury. So I started learning Chinese on a program called Mango for free through my local public library. I mostly just repeated what the computer program said like a robot, for about thirty minutes a day. I also wrote out the characters for about ten minutes a day. It hurt to write, but I did it, to remind myself that I still had hands that someday I could hopefully use again.
I decided on Chinese because I wanted to teach English in China. I wanted to do this because I have a bachelor's degree in English-related field, some minor computer skills, but I couldn't use a computer at work because of my hand injury. Teaching uses mostly mouth so I thought that would be a good field to move into. I really felt like it was my only option. I thought after getting some fluency that I could get my PhD in Chinese history. I studied and took the GRE and did really great.
I wrote down every single character from Mango and practiced with correct stroke order. Every day I would write out every phrase I knew. It started with just 你好 on the first day. I would write those same two characters for about ten minutes. Then the next day I wrote out 你好，早上好. On the third day, 你好，早上好，下午好. By the thirtieth day I was writing 30 phrases.
A professor from my university recommended the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship to study in Taiwan. Coincidentally I was looking on Netflix, and one of the only shows I could find with English subtitles was 败犬女王, a Taiwanese show. So I looked into the scholarship he said. It seemed I had no chance, and applied the very last day. At this point I had only been studying Chinese for three months.
Something went right because I received a 9 month scholarship to study in Taiwan. I was very happy. Still in chronic pain, but happy. It would start in September 2015.
Having this date in my head really motivated me a lot. Finally in May I escaped from the office job that cursed me with this chronic pain. I started working in a house with autistic kids. Again, because I couldn't work somewhere like a factory or office. So this was the only short-term job I could really see myself doing with my injury before I left in September.
I started watching through 败犬女王 for the second time. I really liked the show, and I don't know why. I didn't really bother doing much other research on Taiwan. I just watched the show. To this day I've watched it all maybe four times.
I decided to go to Taichung for my scholarship. Of the 15 people in the Chicago office with the scholarship, 14 of them chose Taipei. I was the only one who didn't. I did that because the cost of living was cheaper in Taichung, and I wanted a more local feel. Taipei I thought would have too many foreigners and too easy to get lazy. I think this was probably my best decision, not because of the too many foreigners, but because of the cost of living. The scholarship worked out to 25,000 NTD a month. That's enough to survive in Taipei, but you have to really count your money. I was able to not have to budget out every single 便当. I didn't have any parental support like a lot of the scholarship kids I met. But we're not in Taiwan yet.
Over the summer, I worked part time taking care of the autistic kids. It wasn't that bad. But I was a bad employee. They mostly watched spongebob or played with toys, and I would study Chinese. I would write characters a lot, read through Practical Audiovisual Chinese I (the book used in Taiwan). I bought little Hanzi books so that I could write my characters on a grid. My boss took me aside and said I needed to stop. I promised I would. But I didn't. I just tried to hide my notebooks better. She caught me a second time and I promised that I would not do it again (I did, and was caught a third time). Honestly I think it's unfair, because we're allowed to watch TV and use our phones while the kids are playing, but we're not allowed to write Chinese characters?
On the weekends I mowed lawns for a while, and listened to Pimsleur and Taiwanese music at the same time. My favorite was 大嘴巴. I had no fucking idea what they were saying about 99% of the time on the music. Pimsleur was kind of meh. I started doing Memrise on my phone while at work, because the boss wouldn't be able to catch me. Memrise was also meh, but okay. At the same time I randomly started learning Vietnamese.
I see a lot of people statting out their progress. That's fine if that's for you. But I find that way so depressing. The only progress bar I kept track of was the characters I wrote every day. And every day I would sit and recite every single sentence that I had handwritten from the Mango app. I wrote it in English, pinyin, and characters. It started out taking only a couple minutes, but by a few months I was spending twenty minutes on the computer using Mango, and another twenty reciting what I had already learned, and it was kind of painful. But not as painful as my chronic hand pain so I didn't really care. I was spending about an hour a day on active study, and then another hour or two on passive study (like listening to Pimsleur while walking the dog and only half-paying attention, or watching 败犬女王 with English subtitles).
I was also going to community class for Chinese taught by a Sichuan lady. She was very nice. The other people there were not as serious as me, just some people looking for a little cultural experience. I had some good exposure there, and she was able to answer my questions. I really owe her a lot of thanks for her encouragement. It was only once a week for a few months. I remember driving home one day, which took about 15 minutes, and repeating 出去 over and over again to get it right. For fifteen minutes. I really couldn't get it for a long time. She gave a good tip which is the 出 is pronounced like the "chu" in "church." I also remember showing up in class one day and proudly reciting a sentence I had practiced for an hour the day before, something like 那个红色灯放在桌子上. My teacher basically just laughed and said good work.
Once I got to Taiwan, I was kind of shocked. Up to that point Chinese had just been like a Sudoku puzzle to me. When I got there I realized it was real, and people actually spoke it. My school gave me a Taiwanese buddy, who helped me set up my life. Without him, I couldn't have done it. He helped me find an apartment, buy some things, and never asked for anything in return. Okay, in return, I guess he got to practice some English with me. He was so helpful to me.
I was sick my first week. Like really bad. And I didn't even know how to get food even at the 7/11. I was too sick to really stand. I missed my first couple days of class, and my first week I barely could listen.
But eventually I got better, and I went to class three hours a day. I would study about two hours a day as well. I spent a lot of time with Korean and Japanese students. One of the best tips I learned was to hang out with them. Their English is bad, and they are in Taiwan to learn Chinese too. So we spoke mostly in Chinese. It is more of a passive aggressive battle with Taiwanese sometimes who (understandably so) want to improve their English.
I wish I had studied harder. I started learning Korean at the time because I was chasing a Korean girl. But I still focused mostly on Chinese. I also just meet lots of cool friends and hang out with people like my buddy. Eat lots of hotpot. Played basketball. I really recommend playing basketball if you want to learn Chinese. I wanted to play more, but couldn't because of my hand injury. Speak about 33% English. My teacher was really helpful, and I was lucky to get her. The other teachers weren't as good, in my opinion. My class was small, and I was the only American. There was 2 Japanese and 2 Korean as well. Only five of us. But we had a great time together, even though we were all so different. One was only 18, his parents owned a hotel in Okinawa and they asked him to learn foreign language to help with customers. He thought English was too hard, so he began learning Chinese. Another was a barber from Tokyo. Honestly I don't know why he was there. He was the 高冷type, but very nice. Then there was a Korean Jehovah's Witness. She was nice but sheltered, a little older, and her husband was Jehovah's Witness as too, and his favorite show was Seinfeld. He spoke fluent English. I guess they were there paid by their church. Final one was a Korean guy who was 26. His girlfriend was Taiwanese. They met in Australia. These days they live in Korea. But they are planning to come back to Taiwan to open coffee shop. Other higher and lower level classes had other foreign students. It was about 15% American, 50% Asian, 20% European, and 15% South American. Eventually another Korean guy joined our class whose job was to go to nightclubs in Taiwan and convince girls to come to Korea for plastic surgery. He also said "oh yeah I totally have drug dealer friends in California." Not sure about that guy.
A lot of the western international students stuck together, but I hung out more with Koreans and Japanese, and Taiwanese. Very good decision. Nothing against the western students. But they liked to drink and party. I was 25 and had enough of that in my younger years. This was a very important step I took, and I improved my Chinese a lot staying away from westerners.
I remember being so upset my first couple months, because I still couldn't even order an iced coffee from 7/11. The lines were so long at the university and I felt pressured. I told my teacher how impossible it is to learn Chinese. All this time and they still don't understand me when I just want to order a coffee.
About three months in, I get a weird email. The people in Chicago say the basically found some extra scholarships lying around, and the first people to reply get more time. I did and was like YES I WILL TAKE MORE FREE MONEY. They respond, are you sure? It's really hot in Taiwan in the summer. And I was like WHAT?? ARE YOU KIDDING? Of course I said yes. So just like that my scholarship was extended to one year.
I remember having a dream around this time where I was floating in space with Chinese characters. And I was speaking some in my dreams in Chinese.
A lot of faces started to become familiar to me, like the lady at my favorite fried rice place, or the guy always sitting on the stool outside my house. I really fell in love with Taiwan at this time.
This kind of continues for a long time. I did eventually have Taiwanese girlfriend which helped me a lot with Chinese. I tried to help her with English as well, but she was very tired from work, and I was only student, so it was harder for her. Things didn't end so well with her and she stole my house key and demanded payments to get it back. But yeah that's not really a story for here.
What was most helpful about her was that she was not very tolerant when I misunderstood her. I was her first foreign BF and that played a part. When I didn't understand, she would be mad. So I really had to learn Chinese and listen, otherwise she would be mad. She would never say, "oh, it's okay, I know you are still learning Chinese."No, more like, "how can you not understand that? Don't you say you are good at Chinese and you don't even understand?"
Finally, I was going into 7/11 and order coffee so easy. I learned that progress in Chinese should not be measured as a progress bar, because progress plateaus sometimes. Sometimes I go a month and feel like I go backwards. Sometimes suddenly things start to click.
I wanted to get my master's. But I thought my Chinese wasn't good enough yet to get into the grad program I wanted to in China. So I decided to teach English for a year. My hand injury was still hurting but not as bad as before. I had two choices of job. One at international school where I would be busier but get paid more, look better on my resume. Other was at kind of dodgy family cram school where I would work less. Of course I chose option two, because then I could focus more on what really mattered, studying Chinese.
Transition from student to work again was hard. This transition was when things fell apart with Taiwanese girlfriend. If I had come to Taiwan and started out teaching, I don't know if I would have held out. I cried after a class once, I still remember, it was so depressing how much the kids didn't want to listen. I had to discipline them, there was no Chinese helper in my class. I hated this at first, having no helper. Later I would love it, because I could teach any way I wanted to and be very creative. But I really am a nice, more gentle kind of guy. Yelling at kids is not easy for me to do. But I learned to do it sometimes. I moreso learned to be clever and make them pay attention in other ways. My boss has good routine down after 17 years. Foreign teacher is good cop and he is the bad cop. It works out.
I didn't neglect my job like before. I made sure everything was done well and I gave it my all in classes. But I didn't go the extra mile. Extra mile went into my studies. I know this sounds crazy but my previous experience as dungeon master and doing improv in D&D made it easy to teach classes on the fly. Modeling things in a game-like fashion just sort of spins off my tongue thanks to 10+ years as DM. So between classes I wrote Chinese characters, read Chinese comic books （宅男篮球 my favorite), always constantly writing characters and learning that way. I had a system where I would then manually put them into Anki. Every day on the train I would go through 100 characters on the way to work, and 100 on the way back. Sometimes on the weekend I would just chill and drink a beer, write out characters, watch some TV, play some piano when my hands allowed it. Always flowing like a river. Why did I start reading comic books? Because I stumbled across a comic book store about half a mile from my house one day.
This is when I really learned how to study Chinese. My year as scholarship student, I was still kind of lost. I didn't have to try hard to study because I had so much time. But as English teacher, I was very tired from yelling at kids and dancing like a monkey. And then have to study on top of that.
What worked for me is always finding new ways to study. There is no system that you can put into place and follow through and things get fast-tracked in growth.
The key is to constantly change up the system. That's the way to get new breakthroughs. Read comic book one week, next minute have conversation with taxi driver. Then go back to Anki and write characters, check out the textbook. I would set daily, weekly, and monthly goals. But you know what? I almost never actually reached the goals, like "read textbook 30 minutes 5x this week." I was happy to get up to 3x most of the time. Staying positive was very important. Negativity like with the coffee thing, is what kills Chinese study.
I took all the grammar from my Practical AudioVisual books and wrote them down. That's another thing for me. Writing is key. Writing traditional characters I find to be relaxing, and you can kind of play with the shapes. I don't get the same feeling writing simplified. Learning Chinese without writing the characters, I think would be way harder, actually. (I didn't learning the Taiwanese zhuyin, though.)
I took the grammar, wrote it down, and then what? I posted them on my door, all 90 or so from the first four books. Then, every day I would read one page. Only takes about 30 seconds. Each grammar has an example sentence. And I would think to myself, okay, I'm going to try to use this grammar form outside today when I am talking.
I was always shy in USA. But in Taiwan, I forced myself to talk to people a lot more. It's easier to be extroverted when you have the introvert's internal drive forcing yourself to do it. You'll notice that the people with the best English in places like China are often the most extroverted. It's just necessary to learn the language.
So if taxi driver wants to talk about how beautiful Taiwan girls are, I will talk about that topic yet again. Sometimes I will even lie and make up stories because I was bored. I started talking about politics sometimes too, and other more advanced topics, in preparation to go to grad school. Taiwan politics is really fucking fascinating. If you're one of those new age tumblr whatever types who does the identity stuff, should definitely study Taiwan. Taiwanese identity is very intricate.
It was sometimes hard to practice Chinese. I wasn't allowed to speak it at work. I followed that rule. So I would talk with the 7/11 guy when I got my coffee. There is a reputation that a lot of foreigners come to Taiwan and China because they want to get laid. I actually think it's not quite this way. Some of the girls just really want to chat with a foreigner and see what it is like, Taiwanese really can be that innocent. Taiwanese are great people. I used these dating apps as my number one way to study. Many people say the best way to improve Chinese is through BF/GF, really good class, study hard. Well my best way was to chat on Tinder and meet people that way. You learn lots of slang, and when you meet people, you can choose whatever topic you want to talk about. You already know a little bit about them so you can prepare the topic a bit. Maybe they like surfing and you can study up a bit on the Chinese words about surfing before you meet them. I did this a lot. Of course I would speak some in English with them, because usually that's what they wanted. But I always avoided girls who treat me like free English teacher. I don't like to talk about this because it's a little weird, but I think Chinese learners need to know how vital this was to my improvement. People like to say language exchange is more like a date, and not really about practice. Well, I made my dates more into like a language exchange... to be honest, social stuff like this I think is like 80% the importance of learning. All the book stuff I see on here, I think is only about 20%.
I also liked to play basketball, but my hands hurt a lot. That was the way I met Taiwan guys the most. Basketball is really a great way to meet people in Taiwan, and China too. Oftentimes people like to eat dinner after playing. And there will be lots of slang you can learn. Taiwanese can be really crazy about basketball. I see hordes of guys playing into the night with the lights off, doesn't matter, they keep playing. If you are not good at basketball but are at least average height for a foreigner, doesn't really matter then how good you are. Just stand near the basket and try to get as many rebounds for your team as you can.
Always grabbed on to every social opportunity I can. One time I went to a wedding with my friend. We take a bus home from Taoyuan back to my city of Taichung. There are some drunk old people from Kaoshiung there who are singing karaoke. They invite me to sing with them. I sing the only Chinese song I really know, and they start pouring me shots, next thing I know, I'm drunk and they are telling me to visit Kaoshiung next week. I never did visit them, but I remember that bus ride.
Always doing little things to improve Chinese. For example, I like to play Hearthstone, because it's one of the only games I can play with my hand injury. But I force myself to play in Chinese. If you want to waste time playing video game, you will have to play in Chinese, I tell myself. I bond with my Taiwanese GF about Hearthstone (before we break up). We can talk about the game and strategies. It is always a good way to find these "specialist pathways" to advance language. It seems pointless to learn about the techniques of hearthstone in chinese. But what it is really teaching you is how to quickly build these pathways in your head. So the next time you need to learn about a topic in Chinese, you can do so very quickly. These days I have to translate software instructions, and that is really hard every time I have a new topic, but within a few hours I know what I am doing no problem. It's thanks to activities like this, learning the special words in hearthstone that really matter for shit in reality, teach you exactly how to go down these specialist pathways when necessary in the future.
I was still writing characters on a grid, but now as words, almost never as single characters. I started learning 成语s at this time and trying to put them into daily conversation, but that never really worked. Still struggling with this part. Anyways, I would write the word once, then the english and pinyin, and do that for many words that I read in a book or comic book or saw on TV. A few days later, I would go back and write the words four times again. Then, another day, I would put into Anki. That was pretty much the only "system" I was doing now. No fancy thing you have to buy. I wasn't even reading the textbook anymore. I think once at intermediate level, it's more about these pathways like I say. Learning how to learn the language, because the truth is, I would forget the next day most of the stuff I learn. I would study and remember 10 characters, and the next day forget 7-8 of them.
Negativity, like I said, is the ultimate killer. At beginning, that would upset me, like with the coffee thing. I notice a lot of Chinese people get upset about this point in English, when they forget how to say a certain word, and say, wow, learning English is so hard, I can never remember this or that. And then they give up again.
But I learned to stay positive. You will always forget stuff. You will always feel like an idiot. Sometimes even today in 2018 the taxi driver is like WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT LAOWAI. Sometimes they still don't understand I don't want corn in my freaking beef noodle. I am translating software and writing papers about legal issues in Chinese, and the DiDi still doesn't understand that no, I am across from the bus station, not next to the bus station. But failing over and over again when you think you are already PAST that stage, that's part of learning the language. Honestly I love it. It's so fucking difficult and unforgiving. That just shows how few people will actually tough it out. Those are the kind of things that will actually count as accomplishments. I hated learning Spanish. But I love learning Chinese. I think a big part of it is just how inaccessible it really is. I don't know.
Anyways, I applied for the grad school, and got in. It's in China. I'm not going to talk about where it is or anything like that. Sorry. But it's in Chinese and pretty difficult. I spent a year here so far. Really miss Taiwan, but have to be in mainland China for now. My reading and writing Chinese has improved a lot. My speaking? Maybe gone down, actually, because I am speaking less. My listening? About the same, if not worse. However, my overall understanding of China has certainly spiked enormously.
I wanted to share this story for people to get a real-life example of what it is like to learn Chinese. It's not about books. I have spent 3.5 years on this road. At no point have I ever felt like I can say, yes, I speak fluent Chinese. Any foreigner who says that is either lying, or they have been studying super long time or in Chinese environment very intensely. The fluent Chinese thing is kind of a myth and a little stupid. That shouldn't be the goal, in my opinion. My goals have always been daily. Weekly. And more concrete: get this scholarship. Get into this program. Get my GF not to yell at me for not understanding her Chinese. Haha! Rather than, "I want to be fluent and work in international business."
Having head start, both at the beginning where I was only working part-time and then when I had a scholarship, improved my situation a lot. This would have been impossible without it. I would have given up, I think, if I just went straight to China as an English teacher learning Chinese on the side.
3.5 years and now I can read academic Chinese and talk about politics, although perhaps not in a super deep way or the more philosophical articles. I think that's pretty good. More importantly, I can learn quickly on the fly whatever topic I need to prepare for. I still have some chronic pain, but I can use a computer for about two hours now with light typing. No video games, no tennis, but I can play basketball for about an hour. And Chinese, practice every day wherever I can.
Hope this story gave you some cool ideas or inspiration for your own study. If you have any questions or want to 骂我, go ahead and do that. Thanks.
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submitted by /u/Vincent-Tse [link] [comments] |
Okay by now, maybe you’re tired of me talking about steamed buns. Buns, buns, buns. But before you avert your eyes, I will say that I’ve used the dough recipe for these Steamed Lotus Leaf Buns so many times that I just know it works. These steamed buns are super fluffy and slightly chewy—just the […]
The post Lotus Leaf Buns: Homemade Steamed Buns Made to Be Filled! appeared first on The Woks of Life.
I want to say "2 photos for $3" how do I do it?
兩件照片3元 or 兩張照片3元?
Also if I say 3元 would it be interpreted as 3 RMB or 3 US dollars?
There’s a lot to see along the Central Axis of Beijing – Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Drum & Bell Towers, and so much more. While it can be exhausting traveling that entire route in one day, there’s a much easier way to see the entire city of Beijing. Just head to the Beijing Planning & Exhibition Hall!
One of the coolest museums in the city.
This awesome museum has four floors full of exhibits and models detailing the urban planning of this massive metropolis. Take a look inside the Beijing Planning & Exhibition Hall in this short video:
“This is the Beijing Planning & Exhibition Hall. It’s an urban planning museum located right in the heart of the city and features a massive scale model of the entire metropolis. It covers 302 square meters and is made on a scale of 1:750. It’s a pretty amazing sight to behold.
Another exhibit is called Beijing – the World City. Here you can take a tour of the city’s important central axis, starting down in Qianmen. Move through Tiananmen Square and then into the Forbidden City. There are the Drum and Bell Towers, which mark the end of the historical central axis. There’s the modern side of the city, too, with a model of the Olympic Park.
This exhibit shows the cultural preservation of Old Beijing. While Beijing tries to hold on to its past, it also looks to the future, and specifically towards the skies. Check out the skyscrapers of the city’s Central Business District with this model.
There’s lots more to see and do here, including a pretty awesome flight simulator. You’ll also find some pretty psychedelic multimedia installations. Not the type of thing you might expect to see in a Chinese museum! Be sure to add the Planning & Exhibition Hall to your itinerary when you visit Beijing.”
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submitted by /u/zhouhaochen [link] [comments] |
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submitted by /u/idoescompooters [link] [comments] |
Hi guys. I have been trying to contact a company in China (Shanda Games) for a couple of weeks now via email, but I get absolutely no response from them.
Ive tried emails in both English and Chinese (translated via Google).
Due to not being able to navigate Chinese web content easily, the only contact details I have found for them are on this page: http://www.shandagames.com/cn/contact - One of the emails on this page (IR@shanda) doesnt even work. Just pings back a failed delivery notice.
Anyway, seeing as I cannot get a reply from them via email, I wish to write to them. On the page I linked above, their address seems to be present in that little red box. Only issue is that I cant copy/paste from that box, so I've zero idea how I would put that address down onto an envelope. All I know is that the company is in Shanghai.
Is there anyone able to write out those characters in a format for me so that I could copy and paste onto a postage label? And perhaps include a version in English?
Better still, if you happen to have a list of contact emails for Shandagames hidden in one of your pockets I would also take that!
Appreciate the help from anyone that can give it :)
I might be getting a male kitten soon, and because I’ve started learning Chinese I’m thinking of giving him a Chinese name.
Do you guys know any cute Chinese names commonly given to cats?
Thank you!!
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submitted by /u/laikeji [link] [comments] |
If you have a Chinese translation request, please post it as a comment here. Translation requests posted outside of this thread will be removed by the moderators or AutoModerator.
If you're requesting a review of a translation you have made, or have a question that has to do with grammar or details on vocabulary usage, feel free to post it as its own thread.
Community members: Consider sorting the comments by "new" to see the latest questions at the top.
This thread is for community members to practice communicating in Chinese. Please try to use Chinese in your comments as much as possible!
本帖子提供给大家多多练习读写汉语，实践交流技巧。请尽量的用汉语或方言进行评论！
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submitted by /u/laikeji [link] [comments] |
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submitted by /u/loveyouguy [link] [comments] |
I’m writing an assignment about 孟姜女，and I wasn’t sure if a sentence I wrote is correct. I am trying to write “She cried until a segment of the Great Wall fell down.” Is this correct?: 她哭了直到一大段长城倒了。
Thank you to anyone that can help.
Is there a more nostalgic kid food than chicken nuggets? Growing up, chicken nuggets (and their closely related cousins, chicken fingers) were my sister’s go-to order from the kid’s menu of any restaurant our family walked into. There’s something about that crispy breading and tender, juicy chicken that takes us back to age 9, Nickelodeon […]
The post Homemade Chicken Nuggets with Sichuan Spices appeared first on The Woks of Life.
What do I mean by this? By this I mean, that if I show someone a random Chinese character and a scribble (or a character from another language), they'll usually be able to tell which is which. How do they do this?
(I speak no Chinese)
I´ve been for over a year quitting and starting again with Chinese. I've completed HelloChinese, I finished 3 volumes of Pimsleur attended to clases for about 2 month, studying all the vocab in skritter and also I've studied few sentences on spoonfed. But I ALWAYS QUIT because I'm oversaturated and I never stop being a beginner. That's why I considered just to study spoonfed sentences for about 30min/1 hour a day and THAT'S IT. This way I make sure I will be constant and I'll never quit, maybe I will learn slow but I calculated that if I stay regular, maybe in 4 years I've completed all the sentences and practicing in the street with the people I'll reach a decent level. Do you guys think it may be enough or it's mandatory to have another audio/reading/grammar resources to really improve on chinese?
大家好。I've recently started studying Mandarin Chinese and my dictionary brings two possible translations for 'to be': 当 and 是. So I wonder if any native speaker could enlighten me with some examples on when to use each.
Hey!
TLDR: looking for ways to improve my speaking skills by December as someone who has a hard time creating sentences and has a HSK3 level of vocabulary.
I have been studying Chinese for 7 months and just finished HSK3 (not the actual test, just the vocabulary). Even though I am quite proud of my current progress (doing this next to working full time and studying for my bachelor full time) I do feel like I came to the point where I'd like some guidance. My problem is that, even though I feel like I'm quite good in memorising characters (mainly using Anki and a piece of paper), I don't feel like I'm actually progressing. I am very bad in writing full sentences, understanding and producing spoken Chinese.
Steps I've taken:
- Took a Du Chinese subscription. I play a lesson without reading (just hearing) and try to reproduce it (either by speaking or writing). This does seem to help but it doesn't give me this "breakthrough" I'm looking for.
- I am taking 1on1 classes to improve my pronunciation. I do feel like this is actually helping me but since I can't really form sentences yet I can't integrate what I've learned.
- Get a few Chinese friends. I've found Chinese people, both online as in my city, to practice with. My problem is that I always seem to shift to English because I'm afraid to make mistakes. Stupid I know, but it just... argh. I lack the confidence to speak. Even though my friends really do their best to communicate as much as possible in Chinese, it's always me who shifts to English.
My study recourses:
- Du Chinese
- Anki (HSK, SpoonFedChinese, recognizing isolated sounds)
- Chinese friends
- Remembering the Hanzi (didn't start these yet since I don't feel like they will improve my speaking)
- NPCR1 (didn't really do much with these yet)
- Chinese grammer book (AllSet Learning)
Even though I will now continue with studying for HSK4, I really want to improve my speaking. I've booked a flight to go to China in December just to put some pressure on myself and give me the opportunity to speak Chinese. I would like to be able to have very basic conversations by then.
Does anyone recognise this situation I'm in? Could anyone give me some guidance?
Hello, So I am looking for an app in which I can create custom lists that includes words with its pronounciation, meaning and context sentence. I find trainchinese app suitable and convinient but feel like it is a bit overpriced. Do you have any alternatives or do you really suggest me to stick to trainchinese? The only downside of the app rather than the price is the fact that you can't view your word list in a shuffled flashcard style.
Thanks
It’s been down for about three days anyone have any news about if it’s coming back? I miss it!
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submitted by /u/choubb [link] [comments] |
Now that tofu learn seems to be gone I am looking for an all where I can hear the character and then have to write it down or select the correct character from a list . Do you have any proposals ?
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submitted by /u/AliceHZ [link] [comments] |
A list of sentences that I've complied from many sources. It has been extremely helpful to me so far. I want to start sharing some of my study materials here because I know other could benefit from them!
Here is a version with the pinyin as well - but be warned, this is my own version of the tones which have been modified according how they are actually spoken, not the official pinyin (ni2 hao3 vs ni3 hao3). They are mostly correct but I still haven't verified some of the trickier ones (like three third-tones in a row) with my chinese friends.
Or in other words, how hard is it to get by in Hong Kong by knowing only simplified characters? I'm in a dilemma. I'm of Hong Kong descent but born overseas so I don't really know how to read/write Chinese characters, but I can speak Cantonese fluently. I'm looking to move back to Hong Kong in the future so I want to start learning how to read/write. However, family and friends have told me that simplified Chinese is more useful due to the growing influence of Mainland China (and I'm studying business where a lot of clients are from the Mainland), but in Hong Kong, people use traditional.
Any advice would be much appreciated!
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