Archive for the ‘Learn Chinese’ Category

What is Your Chinesepod listening level?

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

I just found this Chinese Listening Test over at Chinesepod.com. You are being presented a few sentences. You may listen each sentence twice. Then You have to decide if You understood or not. My level is elementary(low). I didn't really expect this, but this test made me realize my problems. While my ...

Learn to hear and speak tones

Tuesday, January 1st, 2008

When You are starting out with Chinese, tones are quite a difficult task. You can listen to a native and feel like, that person doesn't use tones at all. But this is only half of the truth. Natives actually do use tones. They just don't overdo it like Your teacher ...

Modal verbs

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

A modal verb expresses the modality of another verb. An example would be: You must go now! In this case "must" indicates the modality. Without modal verbs You cannot express Yourself. Here is a list to get You started. 会 huì - can, fundamentally be able to do something 能 néng - ...

Grammar: 从 cóng - from … 到 dào - to, until

Saturday, December 1st, 2007

This Monday's Chinese class was full of insights and one thing I have to share with You is how to use the cóng ... dào ... construction. First we will have a look at the 2 main words. 从 cóng - from 到 dào - (1) to arrive, to reach (2) ...

Info on Jiaotong Daxue in Chengdu, some words and a picture.

Friday, November 30th, 2007

My Chinese class this Monday was pretty good, because we were only 2 students out of 5 there. Therefore we could learn a lot of things. Lots of dialogs and repeating. We didn't stick to the book and had time to discuss some grammar. I'm still looking for a decent ...

Very basic mandarin

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

Here is a list of 10 helpful, yet very basic Chinese expressions. 你好。Nǐ hǎo. - Hi, Hello (lit.: You good) 你好吗? Nǐ hǎo ma? - How are You? (lit. You good, or not?) 我很好。Wǒ hěn hǎo. - I'm fine. 谢谢。Xiè Xiè. - Thanks 多少钱? Duō shao qián? - How much is it (Asking for the ...

Chinese Pera Kun

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

Hello fellow Chinese learners. There is a nice Firefox plugin named ChinesePera-Kun that enhances Your learning speed by helping You translate characters. While browsing just move Your mouse over a character and You will see a nice translation. Very convenient. It seems to me, that they use the same dictionary ...

40 most common radicals

Saturday, November 10th, 2007

When I started learning Chinese my teacher gave me a list of the most 40 common Chinese radicals. Might be helpful for anyone. 人 rén - man, person 刀 dāo - knife 力 lì - power 又 yòu - right hand side 口kǒu - mouth 囗 wéi - enclosure Used as a radical only, not as ...

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