Articles in the ‘Learning outside class’ category Page 4
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Hacking Chinese Podcast three-year anniversary Q&A
This is a Q&A to mark the third anniversary of the Hacking Chinese Podcast! Should you drop everything you’re doing to learn Chinese for one year? How should you approach reading at an intermediate level? And how do you choose the best resources for learning?
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Insights from the new HSK 7-9: Interview with Sara Jaaksola
Are you curious about the new HSK? Do you want to know what it’s really like to take and pass the advanced level? And how should you prepare to ace your own exams?
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How narrow reading and listening can help you bridge the gap to real Chinese
Varying your diet of Chinese reading and listening practice is often considered good, indeed necessary, for your learning, but this could be wrong. In some cases, variation makes things too difficult, and then narrow reading and listening is a better option!
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Seeing through the illusion of advanced Chinese learning
Courses and textbooks encourage narrow but advanced proficiency in Chinese, but if you want to be able to communicate well, you need to see through the illusion.
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Why travelling isn’t the best method to learn Chinese
Travelling is often touted as one of the best ways to learn a language, but is it really? What are some downsides of travelling to learn Chinese, and how should you travel to get the most out of it?
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Skritter review: Boosting your Chinese character learning
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 resource, it has enough edges over more generic, free services to be worth it in my opinion.
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Get to know your Chinese voice to level up your speaking ability
Have you listened to a recording of yourself speaking Chinese, only to find that your voice sounds unfamiliar and strange, like another person? Then you’re not alone!
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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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Learning Chinese is more like walking a thousand miles than running 100-metre dash
Learning Chinese is more like walking a thousand miles than running 100-metre dash. Make sure that your strategy works in the long term!
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Vocabulary lists that help you learn Chinese and how to use them
Learning new characters and words from a list is rarely a good idea, but there are exceptions! Let’s have a look at five types of vocabulary lists how to use them to learn Chinese.
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