Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles published in June 2017

  1. Hacking Chinese meet-up in Beijing, July 4th

    There will be a Hacking Chinese meet-up in Beijing on July 4th. The meet-up is meant to be a relaxed occasion where a common interest brings people together to exchange ideas and have a good time.

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  2. Task-based Chinese learning and teaching

    Task based language learning and teaching is built around working with tasks in the target language with a clear focus on meaning (communication). Focus on form should come after the task has been completed.

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  3. Let’s play 迷霧中 (Into the Haze)

    Let’s play 迷霧中 (Into the Haze)! In this post, I share a video where I play a small part of the game, summarising and commenting on what’s going on in English (the game is of course in Mandarin).

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  4. Learning (or not learning) Chinese slang

    Learning slang in Chinese can be fun, but it’s worth remembering that in most situations, it’s actually much less useful than more standard ways of expression. Slang is used in a limited context and changes quickly.

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  5. Playing Codenames to learn Chinese and other languages

    Codenames is one of my favourite games, and it also happens to be an excellent game for language learning! In this article, I suggest ways of playing it in Chines, along with a tool that generates grids of code words for direct use in the classroom or elsewhere!

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