dnoblett Posted March 28, 2013 Report Share Posted March 28, 2013 Thread of links to sites that may be useful when learning a language either Chinese or English. Some are paid sites, most are free. Here are a few: Chinese Language:Hacking Chinese: http://www.hackingchinese.com/ (Free)UCLB: http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/ccol/content.htm (Free)Yellow Bridge http://www.yellowbridge.com/ (Some free tools, some paid)UMF Maine: http://hua.umf.maine.edu/ (Free)Chinese Language: http://chineselanguage.org/ (Free)Wake Forest University: http://users.wfu.edu/moran/ (Free study aid links at bottom of page)MIT (Free Courses): http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/index.htm#foreign-languages-and-literaturesFive good Facebook pages: http://www.digmandarin.com/top-five-facebook-pages-for-learning-chinese.htmlDig Mandarin Blog: http://www.digmandarin.com/ESL: I will keep adding to this as time permits. 2 Link to comment
Dennis143 Posted March 28, 2013 Report Share Posted March 28, 2013 I used to try and learn to say a new Chinese phrase each week. What is your name. I am pleased to meet you. Where are you from. You are very beautiful. Are you married? I would try out each new phrase on almost every Chinese that crossed my path... I realize now that the local dialect and accents vary greatly in China. And, where I might say something phonetically perfect to one person, it may become garbled to another. Of course, my Chinese friends are forgiving of my bad Chinese and they are also appreciative that I try. Thanks for the links, Dan. I will give them a try and then bounce them around and see if anything catches. Link to comment
dan1984 Posted March 29, 2013 Report Share Posted March 29, 2013 I used to try and learn to say a new Chinese phrase each week. What is your name. I am pleased to meet you. Where are you from. You are very beautiful. Are you married? I would try out each new phrase on almost every Chinese that crossed my path... I realize now that the local dialect and accents vary greatly in China. And, where I might say something phonetically perfect to one person, it may become garbled to another. Of course, my Chinese friends are forgiving of my bad Chinese and they are also appreciative that I try. Thanks for the links, Dan. I will give them a try and then bounce them around and see if anything catches. True, but I think most people would be able to recognize Mandarin Chinese, even if they speak a local dialect on a daily basis, or their own spoken Mandarin is not as clear when compared to their own dialect. I'm sure you spoke it clearly, and it is not a language problem, but maybe a "skin color" problem. Some of my American-Chinese friends here in China speak little or no Chinese, but if we go to a restaurant and I say something in Chinese to a waiter, the waiter will act as if I'm speaking Swahili. Then the waiter looks at my American-Chinese friends, one of them says the same exact thing, but in a more sputtered-unclear way, and it all makes perfect sense to the waiter. I'm guessing this could be what you encountered, because they just assumed you couldn't speak any Chinese whatsoever, and when you starting spitting things out, they were just flabbergasted! hahaha But, ehhhh, I don't know.......... Link to comment
Randy W Posted March 29, 2013 Report Share Posted March 29, 2013 I used to try and learn to say a new Chinese phrase each week. What is your name. I am pleased to meet you. Where are you from. You are very beautiful. Are you married? I would try out each new phrase on almost every Chinese that crossed my path... I realize now that the local dialect and accents vary greatly in China. And, where I might say something phonetically perfect to one person, it may become garbled to another. Of course, my Chinese friends are forgiving of my bad Chinese and they are also appreciative that I try. Thanks for the links, Dan. I will give them a try and then bounce them around and see if anything catches. True, but I think most people would be able to recognize Mandarin Chinese, even if they speak a local dialect on a daily basis, or their own spoken Mandarin is not as clear when compared to their own dialect. I'm sure you spoke it clearly, and it is not a language problem, but maybe a "skin color" problem. Some of my American-Chinese friends here in China speak little or no Chinese, but if we go to a restaurant and I say something in Chinese to a waiter, the waiter will act as if I'm speaking Swahili. Then the waiter looks at my American-Chinese friends, one of them says the same exact thing, but in a more sputtered-unclear way, and it all makes perfect sense to the waiter. I'm guessing this could be what you encountered, because they just assumed you couldn't speak any Chinese whatsoever, and when you starting spitting things out, they were just flabbergasted! hahaha But, ehhhh, I don't know.......... Exactly - I was asking where the 'kele' was at the grocery story (the shelves where being rearranged), and got an admonishment to speak 'Putonghua'. It's just NOT what's on their mind when they hear you say something. Also that many of the Mandarin sounds are not really distinguishable as Mandarin sounds, unless you expect someone to be speaking Mandarin. Link to comment
Dennis143 Posted March 29, 2013 Report Share Posted March 29, 2013 I used to try and learn to say a new Chinese phrase each week. What is your name. I am pleased to meet you. Where are you from. You are very beautiful. Are you married? I would try out each new phrase on almost every Chinese that crossed my path... I realize now that the local dialect and accents vary greatly in China. And, where I might say something phonetically perfect to one person, it may become garbled to another. Of course, my Chinese friends are forgiving of my bad Chinese and they are also appreciative that I try. Thanks for the links, Dan. I will give them a try and then bounce them around and see if anything catches. True, but I think most people would be able to recognize Mandarin Chinese, even if they speak a local dialect on a daily basis, or their own spoken Mandarin is not as clear when compared to their own dialect. I'm sure you spoke it clearly, and it is not a language problem, but maybe a "skin color" problem. Some of my American-Chinese friends here in China speak little or no Chinese, but if we go to a restaurant and I say something in Chinese to a waiter, the waiter will act as if I'm speaking Swahili. Then the waiter looks at my American-Chinese friends, one of them says the same exact thing, but in a more sputtered-unclear way, and it all makes perfect sense to the waiter. I'm guessing this could be what you encountered, because they just assumed you couldn't speak any Chinese whatsoever, and when you starting spitting things out, they were just flabbergasted! hahaha But, ehhhh, I don't know..........I think you do know, Dan. And, I think you're exactly right. Too often they're expecting to hear English words coming out of the mouth of this white man and are completely thrown when hearing something else coming out. 1 Link to comment
dnoblett Posted May 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2013 Free Flashcard app for iPod iPad and iPhone http://flashonary.com/ http://itunes.com/apps/flashonary Link to comment
Fu Lai Posted May 19, 2013 Report Share Posted May 19, 2013 http://www.drdict.com/ Dr. dictionary Link to comment
AmourChina Posted January 27, 2014 Report Share Posted January 27, 2014 I find http://www.nciku.com a great dictionary, though somehow their website recently is not that reliable anymore. Link to comment
Joecy Posted June 5, 2014 Report Share Posted June 5, 2014 I used to try and learn to say a new Chinese phrase each week. What is your name. I am pleased to meet you. Where are you from. You are very beautiful. Are you married? I would try out each new phrase on almost every Chinese that crossed my path... I realize now that the local dialect and accents vary greatly in China. And, where I might say something phonetically perfect to one person, it may become garbled to another. Of course, my Chinese friends are forgiving of my bad Chinese and they are also appreciative that I try. Thanks for the links, Dan. I will give them a try and then bounce them around and see if anything catches. True, but I think most people would be able to recognize Mandarin Chinese, even if they speak a local dialect on a daily basis, or their own spoken Mandarin is not as clear when compared to their own dialect. I'm sure you spoke it clearly, and it is not a language problem, but maybe a "skin color" problem. Some of my American-Chinese friends here in China speak little or no Chinese, but if we go to a restaurant and I say something in Chinese to a waiter, the waiter will act as if I'm speaking Swahili. Then the waiter looks at my American-Chinese friends, one of them says the same exact thing, but in a more sputtered-unclear way, and it all makes perfect sense to the waiter. I'm guessing this could be what you encountered, because they just assumed you couldn't speak any Chinese whatsoever, and when you starting spitting things out, they were just flabbergasted! hahaha But, ehhhh, I don't know.......... My husband went to a Chinese restaurant all by himself to test his hard work on learning Chinese. He called the waitress: fu wu yuan She came. He said: I want la ji. (spicy chicken) She was shocked: Garbage?!! Link to comment
Allon Posted June 5, 2014 Report Share Posted June 5, 2014 http://www.mandarintools.com/ has a lot of useful tools and links to other links. The "language shock" that was mentioned when someone like "us" speaks a word or two is very familiar to me. I lived in Spain when I was a kid and speak Castilian (or properly, Castellano) quite well, thank you. It shocks the heck out of them when I let people speaking Spanish know I understand what they are saying about me and I look like I just got off the boat from Norway. For me, because of the differing structure of Mandarin and the "helping" words (particles), Mandarin is tough to learn. And like all languages, they change. Dui bu dui is becoming just Dui?, which it should. And 43 different meanings for the word Shi? Jeez. But I'll stumble through it. Mandarin is actually a fun language too. I like when the phrasing is almost like a song. You would think two people are actually singing to each other. Link to comment
dan1984 Posted June 6, 2014 Report Share Posted June 6, 2014 I used to try and learn to say a new Chinese phrase each week. What is your name. I am pleased to meet you. Where are you from. You are very beautiful. Are you married? I would try out each new phrase on almost every Chinese that crossed my path... I realize now that the local dialect and accents vary greatly in China. And, where I might say something phonetically perfect to one person, it may become garbled to another. Of course, my Chinese friends are forgiving of my bad Chinese and they are also appreciative that I try. Thanks for the links, Dan. I will give them a try and then bounce them around and see if anything catches. True, but I think most people would be able to recognize Mandarin Chinese, even if they speak a local dialect on a daily basis, or their own spoken Mandarin is not as clear when compared to their own dialect. I'm sure you spoke it clearly, and it is not a language problem, but maybe a "skin color" problem. Some of my American-Chinese friends here in China speak little or no Chinese, but if we go to a restaurant and I say something in Chinese to a waiter, the waiter will act as if I'm speaking Swahili. Then the waiter looks at my American-Chinese friends, one of them says the same exact thing, but in a more sputtered-unclear way, and it all makes perfect sense to the waiter. I'm guessing this could be what you encountered, because they just assumed you couldn't speak any Chinese whatsoever, and when you starting spitting things out, they were just flabbergasted! hahaha But, ehhhh, I don't know.......... My husband went to a Chinese restaurant all by himself to test his hard work on learning Chinese. He called the waitress: fu wu yuan She came. He said: I want la ji. (spicy chicken) She was shocked: Garbage?!! The first time I got to China in 2005, I was lost and about as helpless as it gets. My program set me up with an apartment (and helped me apply for my university Chinese classes). As I was getting lost every time I stepped more than 500 feet from my apartment, all I could eat for the first week was chips and cookies from the small corner shop right below my apartment. After 7 days I finally mustered up the courage to go to a restaurant (at that time I still didn't have any classmates or friends or anybody), I ordered 口水鸡 (cold chicken dish) and rice. I ordered the chicken after looking at the menu and only recognizing the character for chicken, ahhhh, chicken and rice, can't go wrong with that......little did I know that this was a cold dish - chicken with blood remnants and, well, cold chicken!! I ate my rice and left the chicken, and ran back to my apartment thinking what was wrong with this country I found myself in. Who would have thought, almost 10 years and many dinners later, 口水鸡 is something I enjoy when it is ordered. How far I've come.......... Link to comment
lhp Posted July 6, 2014 Report Share Posted July 6, 2014 Memrise has some great Chinese courses and lots of English courses, and it's free. I started with their HSK Level I class and it made a huge difference. Link to comment
credzba Posted July 6, 2014 Report Share Posted July 6, 2014 Memrise has some great Chinese courses and lots of English courses, and it's free. I started with their HSK Level I class and it made a huge difference. I was wondering about your retention on the characters.I finished all of the hsk level 1 about 4 months ago, and I keep reviewing and practising.I only range from 60 - 80% on most review sessions. Is this normal ? Link to comment
lhp Posted July 31, 2014 Report Share Posted July 31, 2014 (edited) I very rarely get 100%. Usually forget some tones or don't get a definition exactly right. I think the proof is in the pudding…try doing some reading! From Amazon.com you can get the Chinese Breeze books (the ones with red covers are Level 1). They've got fun stories and the Memrise HSK 1 class was just about enough to get me through them, with the occasional help of Pleco and my wife . I haven't bought any of the Mandarin Companion books yet, but they also look good. Edited July 31, 2014 by lhp (see edit history) Link to comment
credzba Posted July 31, 2014 Report Share Posted July 31, 2014 Ordered one today, we'll see how it goes.I enjoy reading, would be great to read in Chinese. Link to comment
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