Reaching an advanced level of Chinese is a significant achievement, akin to completing a university degree in terms of time and effort invested....
Category: Chinese
Three things I wish I had known as an intermediate student of Chinese: The time machine, part 2
Looking back at my Chinese-learning journey, it’s easy to in hindsight identify things I could have done better. I now have fifteen years of...
Time quality: Studying the right thing at the right time
Looked at the wrong way, Chinese is a subject to study or an activity schedule like any other. Looked at the right way, learning Chinese seeps into...
Timeboxing Chinese: Get more done in less time
There are three ways to improve how you learn Chinese. First, you can upgrade your method to become more efficient. Second, you can make sure you...
Tone errors in Mandarin that actually can cause misunderstandings
Tones are important when learning Chinese. I usually explain this to beginners by saying that tones carry about as much information about the...
The tones in Mandarin are more important than you think
How important are tones, really? They are an integral part of Chinese, we all know that, but do you actually need them all the time? In this...
Student Q&A, October 2024: Pronouncing the final -i after sh-, the initial z- and if Pinyin is a good transcription system
This week’s podcast episode is a reader and listener Q&A, where I answer three questions about Mandarin pronunciation. This time, I’m answering...
Student Q&A, September 2024: Slowly spoken Chinese, passing listening exams and understanding numbers
This week’s podcast episode is a reader and listener Q&A, where I answer three questions about listening in Chinese. This time, I’m answering...
A student’s guide to comprehension-based learning
In two previous posts, Diane Neubauer has discussed what comprehension-based teaching and learning is and why it’s useful. In this third and last...
Study more Chinese: Time boxing vs. micro goals
Image source: freeimages.com/profile/timucin If you want to get things done in life, there seems to be one general truth that is applicable in...