Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles tagged with ‘Pinyin’

  1. Hacking Chinese Pronunciation: Speaking with Confidence is now open!

    Hacking Chinese Pronunciation: Speaking with Confidence is now open for enrollment again! Take this opportunity to boost your pronunciation and improve your ability to communicate in Mandarin. The courses closes again on midnight Tuesday, February 25.

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  2. The Hacking Chinese guide to Mandarin tones

    Learning tones is a unique challenge for most learners of Chinese. What are tones? How important is it to learn tones? And how do you learn to both hear and pronounce them?

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  3. Student Q&A, November 2023: Reading Pinyin or characters, comprehensible vs. compelling content and reading tools

    How do you transition from reading Pinyin to reading characters? Are compelling texts better than comprehensible texts? And which tools should you use when reading Chinese?

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  4. How learning some basic theory can improve your Mandarin pronunciation

    Listening, mimicking and getting feedback is the best way to learn Chinese pronunciation, but unless you’re a small child or extremely talented, adding some theory to the mix can also be helpful.

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  5. 7 ways to write Mandarin tones

    There are many ways of writing down the tones of Mandarin beyond the standard tone marks. Which are they and what pros and cons do they have for learners?

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  6. A guide to Pinyin traps and pitfalls: Learning Mandarin pronunciation

    When learning to pronounce Mandarin, you need to learn both the sounds and how they are written, usually with Pinyin. Did you know that many student errors actually come from a poor understanding of Pinyin, rather than the sounds themselves being difficult? Welcome to my guide to Pinyin traps and pitfalls.

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  7. 6 challenges students face when learning to read Chinese and how to overcome them

    Learning to read Chinese comes with several challenges, some of them unique to Chinese. What are these challenges, what do they mean for you as a student and how can you overcome them?

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  8. What’s the difference between Chinese pronunciation and Pinyin? Does it matter?

    It’s not uncommon for both students and teachers to treat Chinese pronunciation and Pinyin as the same thing, but they are not, and thinking that they are can lead to certain problems.

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  9. Chinese input methods: A guide for second language learners

    There are many different input methods available for Chinese characters, including phonetic typing, non-phonetic typing, handwriting and speech recognition, but which method is best for people who study Chinese? And why?

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  10. The most serious mistake students make when learning Mandarin pronunciation

    Learning to hear and say the sounds of Mandarin can be tricky, but it’s made much more difficult by the way many students go about it. By focusing on reading over listening, they are making themselves a big disservice!

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