Articles in the ‘Intermediate’ category
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Hacking Chinese Pronunciation: Speaking with Confidence is now open!
My pronunciation course is now open for enrollment again! It was first launched in January, and after surveying students and making a few updates, I’m excited to open the doors again. The course is open for registration until midnight on Tuesday, September 28th.
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A smart method to discover problems with Mandarin sounds and tones
It’s often hard to assess one’s own pronunciation when learning Mandarin. People around you might understand what you are saying, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your tones are good. Simply asking people if your pronunciation is good won’t work either, because they will often tell you that your pronunciation is good even if it’s not. So how can you find out how good your pronunciation really is?
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Chinese listening challenge, September 2021
It’s time for a listening challenge! It starts on September 10th, so enrol, set your goal and listen as much as you can before the end of the month. This article contains more information about the challenge, some important things to keep in mind as well as suggestions for what to listen to.
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The building blocks of Chinese, part 2: Basic characters, components and radicals
Most Chinese characters are compounds consisting of two or more components, but some components are in themselves compounds that can be further broken down. But how do you know where to stop? And how do you learn and remember the most basic building blocks?
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The building blocks of Chinese, part 1: Chinese characters and words in a nutshell
Learning to read and write Chinese is a daunting task, but the challenge becomes more manageable if you focus on learning the building blocks, learning how components form characters and how characters form words. This article is the first part in a series helping adult students make sens of Chinese characters.
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Skritter review: Boosting your Chinese character learning (2021 edition)
Skritter is a modern tool for learning ancient characters. It combines research-based methods such as active recall and spaced repetition with great Chinese-specific tools and content. While it’s not a free resources, it has enough edges over more generic, free programs to be worth it, at least in my opinion.
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Chinese pronunciation challenge, August 2021
It’s time for a pronunciation challenge! It starts on August 10th, so enrol, set your goal and see how much you can improve your pronunciation before the end of the month. This article contains more information and inspiration about the challenge and pronunciation, including prizes on offer for active participants!
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Chinese language logging, part 3: Tools and resources for keeping track of your learning
Logging you language learning can be very useful, and there are many tools and resources out there to help you, but which are the best and how do you use them?Logging you language learning can be very useful, and there are many tools and resources out there to help you, but which are the best and how do you use them?
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Chinese language learning in the twenty-first century: Towards a digital ecosystem?
Digital resources have made learning Chinese considerably easier than it used to be, but another problem has appeared: How can we make sense of and navigate the vast number of resources and find what’s best for us?
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The benefits of using Wikipedia to look up words when learning Chinese
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not a dictionary, but did you know that it can be better than a dictionary for looking up words when learning Chinese?
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