Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles published in July 2015

  1. Learning to pronounce Mandarin with Pinyin, Zhuyin and IPA: Part 2

    Which transcription system should you use for Mandarin Chinese: Pinyin, Zhuyin or perhaps IPA? Which system you start out with isn’t extremely important, but if you care about pronunciation, it certainly helps to learn more than one system. In this article, I discuss the pros and cons of all three systems and offer some advice about learning pronunciation.

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  2. Chinese listening practice with 锵锵三人行

    锵锵三人行 is one of the few Chinese TV programs I actually like. It’s also one of the best ones for language learners too, mostly because of it’s heavy focus on talking, availability of transcripts and variety of both guests and topics. This should be a key component of any immersion effort, but you probably need to be upper intermediate or above to benefit.

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  3. Learning to pronounce Mandarin with Pinyin, Zhuyin and IPA: Part 1

    Learning to pronounce Mandarin involves several steps. You need to first discriminate between and then identify the sounds, but you also need to be able to write them down and also be able to read how words are pronounced. In this article, I discuss this process and how you should go about it. It also contains advice for what to avoid!

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  4. Hacking Chinese meet-up in Beijing 2015-07-12

    It’s time for the first Hacking Chinese meet-up in Beijing! I have arranged many meet-ups in Taipei since I lived there for many years, but this is the first time I arrange a meet-up in Mainland China. The meet-up will take place this Sunday in Beijing. The main purpose of the meet-up is to meet […]

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