Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles in the ‘Reading’ category Page 6

  1. Review: Mandarin Companion: Easy to read novels in Chinese

    Graded readers are an important step on your journey to becoming literate in Chinese. In this article, I review all books in the Mandarin Companion series, including both level 1 (300 characters) and level 2 (450 characters), as well as the new Breakthrough level (150 characters). These books are useful for both beginners (extra reading) and intermediate learners (extensive reading). In all, there’s roughly 100,000 characters worth of stories here, providing an effective and enjoyable way to learn to read Chinese.

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  2. 101 questions and answers about how to learn Chinese

    This is the biggest collections of questions and answer about how to learn Chinese anywhere. The questions are sorted into categories, and each question is answered briefly before links to further information is provided. If you have a question about how to learn Chinese, you’re very likely to find the answer here! If your question hasn’t been answered, please consider leaving a comment!

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  3. Why using a good dictionary can be bad for your Chinese reading ability

    The advent of smart phones and digital dictionaries has brought great benefits to Chinese learners, who no longer need to waste much time flipping through pages, looking for the right entry. However, always having quick access to the right answer can actually stop you from learning some of the strategies you need to become a successful reader in Chinese.

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  4. Reading is a lot like spaced repetition, only better

    Learning vocabulary through reading and by using spaced repetition software are both common strategies employed by students learning Chinese, but which one is the most efficient? In this guest article, Kevin Bullaughey from WordSwing compares the two methods in terms of exposure and coverage.

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  5. Focusing on Chinese tones without being distracted by Pinyin

    When Chinese characters appear next to Pinyin, the familiar letters distract us from the characters. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could keep information about the tones, but throw Pinyin away?

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  6. 866 digital textbooks for expanding your Chinese

    Using textbooks written with the aim of teaching Chinese children about history, mathematics and biology can be great learning resources for adult foreigners as well. This article discusses how to do that, and also introduces a resource that offers almost a thousand textbooks, all easily accessible online.

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  7. New text game for Chinese learners: The Magistrate’s Gallery

    The Magistrate’s Gallery is a new interactive text game for Chinese learners. A man knocks on your door with an unusual problem: his daughter has been trapped inside one of the paintings in the magistrate’s gallery. But which one? And how can you get her out? To rescue her, you will need to travel into the paintings and unravel the story about how the girl ended up there.

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  8. Five text games for Chinese learners

    This article is about five text games for Chinese learners. It both introduces the games and asks for feedback about how they can become even more engaging and fun. Each game contains on average roughly 10,000 characters, which makes them on par with a typical graded reader.

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  9. Chinese reading speed revisited

    Learning to read Chinese is an achievement in itself, but how fast you can read also matters, regardless of your level. So how do you increase your reading speed in Chinese?

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  10. Advanced listening and reading with Skeptoid Chinese

    Skeptoid is a podcast about popular myths, using science and research to examine them critically. The Chinese version is excellent practice for advanced learners, with both text and audio!

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