Articles tagged with ‘Grammar’
-
Real communication: What it is, why you want it and how to get it
A language is a structured system used for communication, so the idea to focus on communication when learning Chinese sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly new and rarer than you think!
Read → -
7 things you were taught in Chinese class that are actually wrong
Some things your Chinese teacher tells you or you read in your textbook are well-meant simplifications. This is okay, because the whole picture might be overly complicated and not very helpful. Some other things your Chinese teacher tells you or you read in your textbook are just wrong, though. This article lists seven examples of things that are often taught in Chinese class, but are actually incorrect.
Read → -
How to Approach Chinese Grammar
In this article John Pasden discusses how to approach Chinese grammar as a foreigner, starting by debunking a few myths and then going on to how to actually learn grammar. Chinese is a language where you can very far with just a few basic concepts and patterns, so make the most of what you learn and try to use it immediately. Then extend your knowledge gradually and return to old patterns for a more detailed look later when you actually need to. Grammar learning should be driven by an actual need for better ways of expressing yourself or understanding what people say to you!
Read → -
Asking the experts: How to learn Chinese grammar
How should we learn Chinese grammar? This article collects the best answers from more than 15 experts and experienced learners.
Read → -
The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese
What does learning Chinese have to do with the Cthulhu Mythos? Quite a lot, actually. This article is about your bubble of safety and what happens when monsters (weird, difficult cases) appear and what you should do to avoid insanity. In short, don’t poke the monster in the eye; when encountering strange cases, either ignore them or memorise them, don’t waste time understanding everything you hear or see.
Read → -
Improving your Chinese by translating from another language
I think translation is one of the best ways of improving writing ability. Translation forces you into linguistic environments you wouldn’t have ended up in if you wrote the article yourself. This article is about how translation can be used to improve your written Chinese.
Read → -
Chinese listening strategies: Improving listening speed
A lack of listening speed is what stops you from understanding spoken Chinese even though you know most of the words and sentence patterns being used. I think the problem is generally overlooked and in this article I explain what listening speed is, why you need it to understand Chinese. I also talk about how to practise listening speed.
Read → -
Use the benefits of teaching to boost your own Chinese learning
Teaching is a very powerful way of learning. Explaining complicated topics with simple language helps you grasp them and remember them. If you don’t have someone to teach, you can imagine that you have and teach yourself. Making simple explanations explicit works almost as well as real teaching.
Read → -
Using search engines to study Chinese
Studying on your own comes with certain problems I think all language learners have encountered many times. If you encounter a concept you don’t know how to say in the target language, you have to look it up. The first natural thing would be to look in a dictionary or a corpus, but some kinds of questions can’t be answered in this way. Asking a search engine is a very powerful but often neglected tool that I use on a daily basis.
Read → -
Chinese listening ability, a matter of practice?
Many people have asked me how to improve listening ability, not only when learning Chinese, but when learning any language. The problem is that there seems to be no tactic to employ and no smart tricks; to get better at listening, you simply need to practice. Is this really the case? Is listening ability simply about listening a lot? Can’t you hack it?
Read →