Learn how your comment data is processed. Hacking Chinese A better way of learning Mandarin. Pop-up dictionaries — This is by far the most important tool of all. The main point is that if you can look something up in a fraction of a second, you can suddenly deal with texts that would have been impossible without otherwise.
This type of scaffolding is so powerful that you might be tempted to use it too much! Spoken text — For people who have more problems with reading than listening, being able to hear the written text can help a lot. There are many ways of doing this. To start with, you can use the same type of resources as you do for listening provided that they have transcripts, but instead focus on the written text first. Text to speech is also becoming better by the day and is now at a level where it actually works well for understanding.
Visualise the text — Most I said above about visualising audio can also be done for text, such as reading news articles with pictures or using the subtitles of a TV series or movie as your main focus turn off the audio to remove scaffolding, turn it on to add it. Annotate the text — There are multiple ways you can annotate the text to make it easier to understand. This includes generating custom word lists check Mandarin Spot adding pronunciation in Pinyin, Zhuyin or just tone marks check Purple Culture.
However, remember that you will learn what your brain processes! Click here for advice about how to learn Chinese as a beginner Mandarin Bean Level: Beginner , intermediate Topic: Reading , Listening Type: Resource collection Mandarin Bean offers a large number of beginner-friendly texts that come with a recording, Pinyin you can toggle on and off, as well as pop-up dictionary that shows you meaning, pronunciation and HSK level of the words used.
Back to index My Chinese Reading Level: Beginner , intermediate Topic: Reading Type: Resource collection This website offers fairly few but mostly well-written texts suitable for beginners. First Name. Share this Brendan says:. Olle Linge says:. Adam Stout says:. Jeremy Carman says:. Kai Carver says:. Kim Wright says:. PedanticCorrector says:. Christopher McColl says:. Calle says:. Leave a comment Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can read more about this in our privacy policy. Accept Read more Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website.
We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. Necessary Necessary. She was able to speak and listen like a Chinese toddler.
This is indeed some progress to applaud. She later on opted for a lesser intense daily program. She still attributes her success to her intense program due to which she got her fundamentals in place. Even if you opt for a one on one tutoring program, you will not see results if you do not practice it every day. You can choose whatever you wish to watch.
It is not a bad idea to watch some cartoons if you enjoy them. To begin with you can start watching a single show or mini-series. Once you are hooked onto the storyline then you are motivated to continue to watch it. This also helps to enhance your listening skills and mark the accents of the speakers. This will also give you a platform to meet and interact with other Chinese netizens.
Presently you will not be able to use Facebook or Twitter in China. There are around six levels of achievements in this exam. The most basic one tests you on just words while the toughest one will check your ability to more than words. At times people take the HSK to procure admission into a Chinese university while others wish to get a short-term language study scholarship.
For those individuals who do not have any specific reason for learning Mandarin I recommend considering the skill mastered as the final goal. In case you have a specific goal in mind then you are motivated to do better. However, hundreds of millions are still diverted from learning it by misconceptions and stereotyping.
This article explains why some commonly held myths about learning Mandarin Chinese should be forgotten. It is not much more difficult than any other language. Many studies have consistently demonstrated that adults perform even better than kids under the same conditions. Every Chinese character has its meaning and then used as a part of other words. Letters used in both words have no meaning on their own.
As a conclusion of this passage, good memory is not a must. It is Mandarin that helps to improve memory — whatever is your age! Myth 3: It is impossible to sound like Chinese due to the difficult tones Truth: Mandarin is a tonal language.
Practicing Chinese four tones is necessary but pronunciation in any language needs practice, too. The good news is that the number of syllables in Mandarin is very limited.
Some people think that each Chinese character has its own pronunciation and students have to learn endless number of sound combinations.
It is completely wrong! In the chart below you can see pinyin transcription for all possible Chinese syllables. The same transcription is used for dozens of characters so no worries about this! Myth 4: Mandarin is completely different from other languages; nothing in common with European languages Truth: Mandarin Chinese has many distinctive features but you will be surprised by some similar concepts.
Basic grammatical terms are the same. There are nouns, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, etc. The sentence structure has much in common with other languages.
Moreover, some proverbs and idioms have straight forward translation into English and Russian I am sure there are even greater examples in other languages. If you persevere, you can achieve whatever goal. Myth 5: It takes years to be able to speak Mandarin on basic level Truth: Mandarin grammar is much simpler than that of most European languages.
There are no articles like in English , genders like in German and French and cases like in Russian. The verb is not changed to express the tense. The time of the action is indicated in the context. Many foreigners are satisfied with learning just typing in Mandarin on a computer. Typing with pinyin romanization is easy. Myth 7: Living in China is necessary for learning Mandarin Truth: Of course, it is always good to practice what you have studied in everyday life but even if you have no such a possibility you still can improve speaking skills.
Learning via Skype and other similar tools is very helpful since you can be guided by a native speaker. Myth 8: Learning Mandarin is waste of time since it will never substitute English as global language. Truth: I am pretty sure that English will retain its role as a global language but anyway the knowledge of Mandarin gives you amazing career opportunities.
In terms of business, China will definitely remain the biggest market for years credit trisha. Knowledge of Mandarin is a great foundation, especially when paired with other skills business, computer science, design, engineering, etc. Oh, you are crazy! Do you speak Mandarin? Just try it! How to Find a Really Good Chinese Teacher to Guide Your Learning Here are some facts: I have many foreign friends who are learning Chinese Mandarin and complain to me that Chinese is too difficult to learn, even though they have private tutors to help them.
At that time, I always tell them that they are so right and I suggest finding a professional teacher to teach them if they want to learn Chinese seriously. The fact is the Chinese language is a far-distance language from Indo-European language for most western learners. To reach the superior level, more hours are needed for a western learner to learn Chinese than one who is learning Spanish.
With more detail, we will see the durations of language programs in American Defense Language Institute where 24 foreign languages were taught. The following scale shows the duration of formal instruction 25 class hours a week of these language programs for English speakers. In order to save time, it is worth to pay a good and qualified teacher to help you learn Chinese language. However, this thought is a very big misunderstanding. These Chinese native students studied Chinese Language and culture knowledge, foreign language mostly English and the methodologies to teach Chinese to foreigners.
In short, their training goal is to teach foreigner to speak Chinese in the most efficient way. When you look for a Chinese teacher, do firstly look for someone with the academic background of Duiwai Hanyu. Here is what Hanban developed as standards for Chinese teachers. What is an application letter? An application letter is written to answer a job posting or job advertisement.
In some instances, an application letter is used not. To the untrained eye, Chinese characters can be a confusing mess of lines. But characters have a logic to them, revealing clues about definition. There are around six levels of achievements in this exam. The most basic one tests you on just words while the toughest one will check your ability to more than words. At times people take the HSK to procure admission into a Chinese university while others wish to get a short-term language study scholarship.
For those individuals who do not have any specific reason for learning Mandarin I recommend considering the skill mastered as the final goal. In case you have a specific goal in mind then you are motivated to do better.
However, hundreds of millions are still diverted from learning it by misconceptions and stereotyping. This article explains why some commonly held myths about learning Mandarin Chinese should be forgotten. It is not much more difficult than any other language.
Many studies have consistently demonstrated that adults perform even better than kids under the same conditions. Every Chinese character has its meaning and then used as a part of other words.
Letters used in both words have no meaning on their own. As a conclusion of this passage, good memory is not a must. It is Mandarin that helps to improve memory — whatever is your age!
Myth 3: It is impossible to sound like Chinese due to the difficult tones Truth: Mandarin is a tonal language. Practicing Chinese four tones is necessary but pronunciation in any language needs practice, too. The good news is that the number of syllables in Mandarin is very limited.
Some people think that each Chinese character has its own pronunciation and students have to learn endless number of sound combinations. It is completely wrong! In the chart below you can see pinyin transcription for all possible Chinese syllables. The same transcription is used for dozens of characters so no worries about this! Myth 4: Mandarin is completely different from other languages; nothing in common with European languages Truth: Mandarin Chinese has many distinctive features but you will be surprised by some similar concepts.
Basic grammatical terms are the same. There are nouns, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, etc. The sentence structure has much in common with other languages. Moreover, some proverbs and idioms have straight forward translation into English and Russian I am sure there are even greater examples in other languages.
If you persevere, you can achieve whatever goal. Myth 5: It takes years to be able to speak Mandarin on basic level Truth: Mandarin grammar is much simpler than that of most European languages. There are no articles like in English , genders like in German and French and cases like in Russian. The verb is not changed to express the tense. The time of the action is indicated in the context. Many foreigners are satisfied with learning just typing in Mandarin on a computer.
Typing with pinyin romanization is easy. Myth 7: Living in China is necessary for learning Mandarin Truth: Of course, it is always good to practice what you have studied in everyday life but even if you have no such a possibility you still can improve speaking skills. Learning via Skype and other similar tools is very helpful since you can be guided by a native speaker.
Myth 8: Learning Mandarin is waste of time since it will never substitute English as global language. Truth: I am pretty sure that English will retain its role as a global language but anyway the knowledge of Mandarin gives you amazing career opportunities.
In terms of business, China will definitely remain the biggest market for years credit trisha. Knowledge of Mandarin is a great foundation, especially when paired with other skills business, computer science, design, engineering, etc.
Oh, you are crazy! Do you speak Mandarin? Just try it! How to Find a Really Good Chinese Teacher to Guide Your Learning Here are some facts: I have many foreign friends who are learning Chinese Mandarin and complain to me that Chinese is too difficult to learn, even though they have private tutors to help them.
At that time, I always tell them that they are so right and I suggest finding a professional teacher to teach them if they want to learn Chinese seriously. The fact is the Chinese language is a far-distance language from Indo-European language for most western learners.
To reach the superior level, more hours are needed for a western learner to learn Chinese than one who is learning Spanish. With more detail, we will see the durations of language programs in American Defense Language Institute where 24 foreign languages were taught. The following scale shows the duration of formal instruction 25 class hours a week of these language programs for English speakers.
In order to save time, it is worth to pay a good and qualified teacher to help you learn Chinese language. However, this thought is a very big misunderstanding. These Chinese native students studied Chinese Language and culture knowledge, foreign language mostly English and the methodologies to teach Chinese to foreigners. In short, their training goal is to teach foreigner to speak Chinese in the most efficient way.
When you look for a Chinese teacher, do firstly look for someone with the academic background of Duiwai Hanyu. Here is what Hanban developed as standards for Chinese teachers. I personally use some references to distinguish amateur Chinese teachers from experienced ones. Q2: Does the teacher speak too fast?
Q8: Does the teacher use too much translation or medium language? Q9: Does the teacher speak more than you? Q Does the teacher often butt in and correct your reply?
Some people believe since an adult is smarter than child, then the problem must come from their teacher. The teacher teaches grammar rules incorrectly, they should just teach their adult learners in a natural way as their mother did.
In other words, this theory believes that language should be learned naturally over time and practice. For teachers, it means just simply give students enough in-put before asking for out-put. For students, he or she should try to guess and use the language rather than analyze it. However, we are not children anymore. Since the aim to learn these languages is limited to reading ancient classic literatures as formal education rather than use it as a modern language in daily life communication.
However, they gradually realized that there is no such a thing called the best method or one pattern that fits all. Maximum learning opportunities 2.
Facilitate common interaction 3. Minimize common mistakes 4. Activate intuitive hands on learning 5. Foster language awareness 6. Contextualize language information 7. Integrate language skills 8. Promote learner autonomy 9. Ensure social relevance Raise cultural awareness Conclusion After looking at these multiple approaches to learning a second language, you can decide on which you think works best for you.
Though there is no right way to learning the language, you can take strategies from multiples approaches that best suit your learning style. The important key is that you find what works best for you when it comes to learning Mandarin. Here are some reasons why a textbook is needed in most situations. Topics and materials in a textbook may not be relevant or interesting to all. But we should always keep in mind that any textbook should be chosen carefully and used judiciously.
How to Choose a Good Chinese Textbook? While the quantity of Chinese textbooks has increased dramatically in recent years, it is difficult to select a good textbook. This process can be used to choose a Chinese textbook. The common-core criteria and analysis questions can be summarized as following: Does the Textbook Follow a Specific Teaching Approach?
I have taught Mandarin Chinese in Beijing, Shanghai and in Kentucky for over ten years and have used many of textbooks in different situations. I cannot say which specific one is the best because it is situation-sensitive. However, here are ones that I personally prefer and have used. The Beijing Language and Culture University Press first published this book in and it unexpectedly became a star item. The main reason for its popularity was how well it fit the need of a short-term course.
This book uses basic sentences to build up conversations in various daily situations. Learners could master simple Chinese sentences in a short period of time.
Kuaile Hanyu is initially designed for Britain middle school student aged from 11 to Therefore, it suits the psychological level and learning requirements of young learners. It has fun content while it uses few and simple words to covers topics of school and daily life.
Hence practical choice for teachers and students. It takes the task-based teaching theory where these textbooks integrate trainings on speaking, listening, reading and writing skills; while focuses on difficult and important key languages points. It is a balance between basic listening, speaking, reading and writing skills as well as the ability to communicate effectively in Chinese.
This textbook widely used among Confucius Institutes and overseas Chinese schools. Accompanied with this textbook are hours of video materials, comprising dramatic episodes, cultural segments, and animations all shot in China by Hollywood producers.
It immerses learners in the Chinese language and culture through video episodes. Chinese Structure Complete Guide i. Chinese Pronunciation Pronunciation is the basic part of mastering mandarin Chinese. No matter which level are you in, making sure your pronunciation correctly is definitely necessary and never too late.
All in all, a good beginning is half the battle. With this guide, you can learn Chinese pronunciation easier in a correct way. Part 1: What is Pinyin? Chinese is not a phonetic language. Pinyin is the special system, created for people to learn Mandarin pronunciation. Pinyin transcribes the Chinese characters so people can pronounce it. It may be used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into computers or electronics as well.
The writing of Pinyin is similar to English alphabet. You can pronounce every single sound out in Chinese using pinyin. However, you should aware that the Chinese pronunciation and spelling of pinyin letters are different from English letters. The sounds, which the letters of pinyin represent, do not correspond exactly to the sounds that the letters of English represent.
One Chinese sound is associated with one syllable and each Chinese character has its own pinyin syllable. There are three parts in a pinyin syllable, which are the Initial, Final and Tone. Initial and final represent the segmental phonetic portion of the language, rather than letter by letter. Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language, which means that the way a sound is pronounced directly affects the meaning of what is said. There are four main tones and one neutral tone in mandarin Chinese or, as some say, five tones.
Each tone has a distinctive pitch contour, which can be graphed using the following Chinese 5-level system. This idea is mixing up two different concepts. However, in Chinese, even with the same initial and final, different tones represent different characters and meanings.
There are many Chinese characters with the same initials and finals. But the writing script should remain unchanged as the third tone mark. It is a fourth tone syllable by itself and when followed by other four tones then the following will happen. It is pronounced in the second tone when it precedes a fourth tone. Part 3: Why Tones Matter? And there are also many embarrassing situations you will encounter when communicating with Chinese people.
I met many Chinese learning quitters.
0コメント