My Virtual Pin boards about China and Language Learning

I recently found a Virtual Pinboard called Pinterest . I started posting China related things that don't exactly match the theme and purpose of my Weblog Chinese Mandarin Learner.

So on my Pinterest I have several boards related to China and Language Learning. Lots of things like infographics (facts and figures presented in an attractive and accessible way), pictures of China, some Chinese comics and other China related things. The majority are still language learning sites and connections (mostly Chinese) . Have a look and see what you think of my Pinterest Boards.

I think I like this media site as it is so so easy to aggregate useful sites and information.

As I prepare for my looming CHIN201 exam...

Dropbox

As I prepare for my looming CHIN201 exam I am using every moment of my time to prepare. Something that is helping me a great deal is a free app called Dropbox. This is helping me automatically sync my flashcards, study notes, books, audio, video and other Chinese resources. It is able to sync between my home and work. It is also syncing all my files between my computer, iPod and iPad. If you sign up and install Dropbox you have 2GB of free online storage. So as long as I have placed things in my Dropbox folder I have access to my study material. I think this has helped me a great deal as I have no excuse not to study. 

Have a look at Dropbox.

我每天使用Dropbox的。

Wǒ měi tiān shǐyòng Dropbox de.

Try Dropbox

Dropbox

泥娃娃 ní​wá​wa​ Clay Doll

泥娃娃 
ní​wá​wa​
Clay Doll

泥 娃 娃 ， 泥 娃 娃
ní wá wá ， ní wá wá
Doll of Clay, Doll of Clay

一 个 泥 娃 娃
yī gè ní wá wá
A Doll of Clay

也 有 那 眉 毛
yě yǒu nà méi máo
She has eyebrows

也 有 那 眼 睛
yě yǒu nà yǎn jīng
She has eyes

眼 睛 不 会 眨
yǎn jīng bú huì zhǎ
but eyes that cant wink

泥 娃 娃 ， 泥 娃 娃
ní wá wá ， ní wá wá
Doll of Clay, Doll of Clay

一 个 泥 娃 娃
yī gè ní wá wá
A Doll of Clay

也 有 那 鼻 子
yě yǒu nà bí zǐ
She has a nose

也 有 那 嘴 巴
yě yǒu nà zuǐ bā
She has a mouth

嘴 巴 不 说 话
zuǐ bā bú shuō huà
But mouth cannot speak

她 是 个 假 娃 娃
tā shì gè jiǎ wá wá
She's a fake baby

不 是 个 真 娃 娃
bú shì gè zhēn wá wá
Is not a real baby

她 没 有 亲 爱 的 爸 爸
tā méi yǒu qīn ài de bà ba
She doesn't have a dear dad

也 没 有 妈 妈
yě méi yǒu mā ma
There is no mum

泥 娃 娃 ， 泥 娃 娃
ní wá wá ， ní wá wá
Doll of Clay, Doll of Clay

一 个 泥 娃 娃
yī gè ní wá wá
A Doll of Clay

我 做 她 爸 爸
wǒ zuò tā bà ba
I'm her dad

我 做 她 妈 妈
wǒ zuò tā mā ma
i'm her mum

永 远 爱 着 她
yǒng yuǎn ài zhe tā
love her forever

| Repeat from start|

The Major Differences Between Education in U.S. and China

I found this an interesting infographic about the differences between American and Chinese Education.  Click for a detailed view.

Click for a detailed view

Created by: Online University Rankings

10 Free Chinese Lessons

Grasp Chinese.com has to free multimedia lessons. Topics include;

• Saying Hello
• Introduction to tones
• Ordering a Coffee
• Airport -arriving
• Taxi – going to the hotel
• Hotel – checking in
• Numbers
• Breakfast
• Shopping
• Introducing yourself

Lesson include; Video, practice listening, writing words, writing sentences and a vocabulary list. Creating an account will track your progress and keep score of what you have done. All lessons are in Pinyin and English.

While all of these lessons are now too low level for me, I still think they are of a good quality. The attempt to create some interactive and basic lessons is quite good.

Not bad for free. Grasp Chinese

In Sync with feeds and emails

For some reason my formal Mandarin learning at UNE and some of my supplementary resources are somewhat synchronised. I subscribe to some feeds and emails that deliver daily Chinese words and phrases. For the past week or more these words and phrases align with the vocabulary of my texts. I find the feeds and emails help me to pick up a quick phrase or be able to practice a new word.

Here are some links to some of the subscriptions and feeds that I am currently getting;

MDBG Vocabulary Feeds All the HSK levels

About.com Daily Mandarin Lesson

Chinese Word of the Day

Chinese-Course.com has a daily sentence email 

You can subscribe to my blog Chinese Mandarin Learner

 

I also subscribe to other blogs and websites of language learners. While these learners are often at a very different level to mine, they are still very useful. Sometimes it is enough to know that others are on the same learning journey as myself. The other blogs inspire me to learn more.

Mandarin Tone Change Rules

This is the best explanation of Mandarin Tone Change Rules. I have struggled with this all year and now I finally found a clear and concise summary of tone changes.

On another page on the same site is a clear explanation of Mandarin Tones. It begins

"Tones are probably the biggest difficulty for anyone learning to speak Mandarin. As a learner, you have to go through a long process from total unawareness of tones to eventually mastering them (which will probably take years)."

I am relieved to hear that it takes such a long time to learn the tones as I thought I wasn't mastering this as well as I could. As I am learning Chinese via distance / online education, have no opportunity to speak with native speakers and am often time poor, I feel a bit better about not mastering the tones at this stage of my learning. Much appreciated East Asian Student.

Memrise Flash Cards

I am trying a new flash card website called Memrise It is a free online flash card program / system. The first time I used it I didn't like it much...but returning to it I have found it useful. To make your own card set is not as easy as it could be, but I persevered and ended up getting useful set for NPCR lesson 16. There are many wordlists already created for HSK and multiple Chinese text books. I prefered to use my own as I much prefer my pinyin with tone marks instead of numbers.

The learning methodology behind Memrise is that it uses memory techniques to optimise learning. It uses spaced repetition system. As well as this it has an interesting interface with a garden metaphor. So you plant seeds in a green house, plants in a garden and water plants. It is expressing the the growth of you memories. The idea is to experience the flash cards in a dynamic environment. The Memrise Blog explains all this in some detail.

Something I haven't explored in detail yet is the Mem Stream a page where you can make mnemonics and have them rated by other language learners. There is also a Leaderboard which has your ranking out of all the users for the day, week, month and alltime. At present I am 4102^nd....I was 6532^nd yesterday.

So I am going to persist with Memrise for a while to see if it helps me learn my vocabulary. I will of course also contine to use Quizlet ( I really like the tests that can be generated) and Hanlexon to make hanzi practice sheets and lists.  

Learning Chinese? Infographic

Just found a very interesting Infographic from the Asia Society

Take a look Asia Society Infographic  

Here is another What are the Hardest Languages to Learn?

I am not sure if I am inspired or overwhelmed about the comment on the bottom left corner of the above infographic.

Lastly  China vs. America in Education America Meet China Interesting facts with huge numbers. The graphics do a great job to present the information, but the numbers are incredible.


What do you think? Your comments and feedback are very welcome.

BBC Languages Chinese

The BBC website has an excellent and informative beginners Chinese language learning site. The pages would be very useful for beginners and travellers. The site contains two sections titled “An Introduction to Chinese” and “Chinese for beginners”. Within these sections you will find “A guide to Chinese – 10 Facts about the Chinese Language”, “Quick Fix – Essential Phrases”, “Real Chinese – Mini Guide” and similar pages. The site is very much like an on-line phrase book. There is a lot of attractive multimedia; pictures, animations and audio. If you are looking for a quick introduction to Chinese or need Chinese for your travels this is a good place to start. Have a look at BBC Languages Chinese.




BBC Languages Chinese

Make your own customised Hanzi Worksheets

I have been using Hanlexon Chinese to generate my custom hanzi practice sheets.  I like to do this when I need to focus on specific core vocabulary. Halexon will let you include stroke order and pinyin as a guide on the practice sheet. You can also make lists, print out flashcards, make online flashcards.  I find Hanlexon Chinese very useful for my hanzi writing practice.

How do you say Bali (the tropical island in Indonesia) in Mandarin？

Here is something that came up during the weekend Intensive school I recently attended.  

How do you say Bali (the tropical island in Indonesia) in Mandarin？

This was important because bālí 巴黎 is how to write / say Paris (capital of France).

The answer is bālí dǎo 巴厘岛, Bali Island.

Most important when booking flights with Chinese travel agents. 

现在我喜欢旅行去巴厘岛。

再见 Jonathan