Multimedia Chinese Teaching System

Found another Chinese language learning resource. The Rutgers Multimedia Chinese Teaching System has four levels of lessons for first year to fourth year students. It has plenty of content in simplified hanzi, pinyin, audio and English. There is also content in traditional characters.The scripts for learning are quite detailed. Accompanying these pages of scripts are grammar explanations.  There is plenty of content in this site.


However, despite the content navigation for the site is very poor. It is difficult to navigate around the site as menus are not consistent. Sometimes links at the bottom and sometimes the left side navigation changes from English to Chinese Hanzi.   I do not know if this is intentional (perhaps it is an attempt at partial immersion in Chinese). Definitely makes moving around the site challenging. Some of the pages are not set out well. It is difficult to find related content quickly. 


 If the site were redesigned with a consistent navigation it would be better. This site may be useful to supplement your main study. It is a pity that it is difficult to find specific information as the materials and grammar are detailed.

"The Rutgers Multimedia Chinese Teaching System (RMCTS). This is a computer based multimedia curriculum to supplement First year, Second year, and Advanced Chinese (Third and Fourth year) language instruction at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey."

Multimedia Chinese Teaching System 

Chinese Songs for Learning Mandarin

Chinese Songs for Learning Mandarin

For learning Chinese vocabulary singing songs is an excellent method. It is not really my prefered method for learning language. However, some of my fellow students really enjoy doing this. These sites will have a variety of popular and traditional songs.




Sing Chinese Songs - Listen to Chinese music and learn Chinese with famous Chinese songs

Chinese Songs - Chinese Tools.com

English and Chinese Conversation Topics

Found this practical list of sentences on 一步一个脚印 (One step at a time) blog.

100 English and Chinese Conversation Topics (with Pinyin) 


'via Blog this'

Feed your brain with Chinese Vocabulary

I have written about some of the features of MDBG in a previous post. MDBG also has a Web 2.0 feature of delivering Chinese vocabulary to you. This feed feature can be found here. MDBG Vocabulary Web Feeds. You can subscribe for all six levels or just one or two levels of HSK vocabulary feeds. I find this useful to learn and revise vocabulary. Try it and let me know via comments what you think.

MDBG Feeds

Tones are more important than you think - Hacking Chinese

This is an excellent explanation on why getting tones right is so important. It dispels they myth that you will be understood despite getting the tones wrong.

Tones are more important than you think - Hacking Chinese

Open University Beginners' Chinese

Quite often on the Chinese learning forums I read there are people seeking a place to begin learning Chinese. I Found this free course yesterday. Aimed at absolute beginners this course has excellent explanations of the basics. Very thorough texts on a variety of must know beginner information. The modules of work include;

• The Chinese Language
• Introducing Yourself
• Describing Activities
• Names of Languages
• Food and Drinks

Each of these main catagories has many sub sections. This is a Moodle course and has many quizes and tests that you can reinforce your learning. The quizes are corrected and you can get instant feedback. Redo these as many times as you need to get a better score. Overall this course is an academic yet practical course in basic Chinese. If you are a serious about learning Chinese this is an excellent place to begin Open University Beginners' Chinese

Beginners' Chinese

Another Free Chinese Mandarin Learning Resource

Another Free Chinese Mandarin Learning Resource

I found another resource 好好学习天天向上 hǎoháo xuéxí tiāntiān xiàngshàng or the English title Day Day Up! - Chinese Free Online Chinese Mandarin Text book. I think it is a rather long winded title in Chinese and English. However, it is indeed free.

The methodology is that vocabulary and sentences are presented in small pieces or chunking the information. There is lots of repetition. The vocabulary is very practical. Most of the sentences are well explained with grammar notes. The site claims to have PDF downloads of each lesson but I could find none. There are MP3s in each of the lessons. It is not the easiest site find what you are looking for. 

The topics are;

Elementary

• Origins and Nationalities
• Relationships and Modifiers
• Coming and Going
• Time

Elementary II

• Study
• Wants and Desires
• Likes and Dislikes
• Work

There is even some humour scattered throughout the text. “It presents authentic and practical language that is immediately useful – no more dialogues about Beijing opera”. I have to thank my friend / fellow Chinese Mandarin Learner, Christine, for finding that gem.  At the end of some sections you will find “The horrors of pronunciation.” and “You cheeky monkey!”, to name a few of the sections.

Alas it looks like this site was intended to also cover pre-intermediate to intermediate II levels, but these pages are blank. It is a pity as it makes a very good quick reference resource.

The site has a similar feeling to the 中文Red中文Green and 中文Blue pages that I reviewed earlier. Overall, I find 好好学习天天向上 a useful site that I find myself visiting occasional.  Day Day Up Chinese!

Chinese Character Etymology

When learning characters I often find one of the best ways to remember is by learning the etymology of the hanzi. This method helps me a great deal. By looking at how the characters have changed over time and seeing their original forms creates links in my memory. I much prefer this to rote learning the hanzi.

I have found three sites that are useful to look up hanzi etymologies.

YellowBridge has a Etymology Explorer which allows you to draw the character (using a mouse) to aid lookup. There are other methods of lookup too; English, Pinyin and others. After finding the hanzi, the explorer can then show the formation method, simplification method and character decomposition.

Hanzi Etymology Explorer

 Another site Chinese-Characters.org has a Pinyin index and a Radical index. Unfortunately the last entry into the weblog was in 2009 and the home page explains that it was a huge project and a labour of love. Do not expect this site to have everything. 

Chinese-Characters.org

Chinese-Characters.org

Third site that you can find much detailed information on hanzi etymology is 中文.com. While I like this site it does look very busy and complex. It displays the hazi with every associated compound. It does have multiple ways to lookup. You can even make quizzes with the learn page. 

Hanzi Etymology Explorer

Hanyu.com

So three very useful sites for etymology look-up. 

Does anyone know of any others? Leave a comment if you have a similar site to recommend.

MDBG English Chinese Dictionary

MDBG English Chinese Dictionary is the best online dictionary I have found so far.  The dictionary The word dictionary contains information about Chinese words, consisting of one or more Chinese characters. Results of searches in the word dictionary will show the following;

• Simplified / Traditional Chinese, the Chinese words matching the query
• Mandarin, the Mandarin pronunciation in Pinyin or ㄅㄆㄇㄈ (Zhuyin Fuhao)
• English, the English definition
• Traditional / Simplified Variant, the Traditional / Simplified variant if available
• HSK, the HSK level(s) in which this word occurs

I find it very useful as it has animated stroke order and you can hear the hanzi pronounced.   It will break the hanzi into character composition. The interface is very easy to use. So a very useful tool for a Chinese Mandarin Learner. Have a look for yourself MDBG Character Dictionary

Why do Chinese often ‘adopt’ Western names?

Why do Chinese often ‘adopt’ Western names? It is a question that has always puzzled me. Many of the Chinese that I have met have a Western name, not all but many. Occasionally they have a name that surprises me such as “Minnie”, “Apple” or “Edna”…How did they come to choose such a name? I have searched on several forums on the Internet and have found no satisfactory answer. I found lots of speculation but no real answers. Does anyone have a good answer or explanation?

Just for fun if you want the transliteration of your name in Chinese here is a tool for you. Find this at Chinese-Tools.com. One more tool on the same site is a Chinese Calligraphy Editor where you new found hanzi name can be rendered into calligraphy font. 

Here is what the first tool came up with for my name:

 

Jonathan 乔纳森 (Qiáo nà sēn)

Here is the second tool came up with: 

 

 Now I really hope that these tools have given me an accurate transliteration of my name. I can only hope that my name has not been translated into the Chinese equivalent of “Rupert”, “Percival” or “Two dogs”. 

Just to check there is another blog that I often read.  A site called "Hanzi Matter" a site dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters in western culture. "Hanzi Matter" has tattoos, signs, clothing and more with incorrect Chinese hanzi and Japanese Kanji.  So just to be safe I am going to have my new name in hanzi Jonathan 乔纳森  checked out before I have it tattooed across my body.