Whether you’re learning Chinese on your own or are taking a course, textbooks can be useful resources, especially when you start out. They serve...
Category: Chinese
Why your Chinese isn’t as good as you think it ought to be
Investing time and energy into learning Chinese, but not making the progress you desire, can be very frustrating. It’s one thing to make slow...
Will Hacking Chinese help you learn Mandarin?
Is it worth spending time learning how to learn Chinese, or should you focus all your effort on engaging with the language more directly? The answer...
Wuxia, a key to Chinese language and culture
This article about wuxia is written by Sara K.. After reading this article, I wanted to read more wuxia, and I hope that you will too! Of course,...
You can’t learn Chinese characters by rote
My first semester at the Graduate Institute for Teaching Chinese a Second Language here at NTNU in Taipei, Taiwan is coming to a close. For the past...
You might be too lazy to learn Chinese, but you’re not too old
Image credit: sxc.hu/profile/LotusHead Children learn languages quickly and effortlessly; adults slowly and painfully. This is an idea I’ve seen or...
You shouldn’t walk the road to Chinese fluency alone
While it’s certainly possible in theory to be completely independent and rely on no-one but yourself to achieve your goals, it’s far from a good or...
You won’t learn Chinese simply by living abroad
A widespread myth about learning Chinese is that you will master the language simply by moving abroad to live in an immersion environment. However,...
YouGlish: A free service to hear and see Chinese words in context
Context matters. Chinese words are not used the way you’d think based on an English translation and words are not pronounced the same everywhere and...
Your slumps affect your language learning more than your flows
Let’s talk a little bit about cycling. As anyone who has ever cared about average speed knows, uphill stretches affect your average speed much more...