Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore this language and I love every waking moment I can dedicate to it. However – former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd one of my greatest Australian heroes – sums up – so perfectly – how I (often) feel about learning Chinese. Recently a video was leaked onto YouTube that [...]
A short while ago a tweet by @JonAndyMills caught my eye: Tip for learning foreign languages: stop wasting time endlessly searching for tips and pick up one of the many resources you’ve already got. A very wise tip indeed. I think we can all relate to this (especially if you’re on Twitter). I’ve been subscribed [...]
Before you choose a Chinese name it’s probably a good idea to understand how you might use it in China – and when and how it would be useful to have a Chinese name. As far as I am concerned, these are some of the reasons you should consider getting a Chinese name: You’ll often [...]
Just because I’ve been quiet doesn’t mean I have lost interest. And just because my title indicates such extreme opposites does not mean this post is going to discredit any previous opinions I had about Heisig – but I had to make you wonder, didn’t I? How else would I get you to read this [...]
‘Tīng bù dǒng’ or 听不懂 – the most comforting phrase I know in Mandarin Chinese – yet the one I despise the most. The phrase I always revert to when my listening skills have failed me – failed me completely with the most basic of sentences. This “safe” phrase – is one that has the [...]
Like every other Mandarin learner I dream of becoming a “fluent” Mandarin Chinese speaker, but this goal can seem pretty unattainable and daunting if not broken down into smaller achievable milestones. You can also dream as much as you want about it but if you have no plan of action and no regularity in your [...]
If you stumbled upon this page and you had no prior context you’d probably be wondering just what the heck this post is about. And if you’ve visited this blog before you’d be excused if you were still baffled by the title – but be baffled no more – I’VE JUST REACHED MY 500th HANZI [...]
Ok so this is where it’s at – I’ve studied 399 simplified Chinese characters using the Heisig & Richardson book – “Remembering Simplified Hanzi: Book 1, How Not to Forget the Meaning and Writing of Chinese Characters”.. (I had reached 225 characters by the end of late September – see this post if you’re interested [...]
The comments in the last post ‘Accidental conversations in Mandarin’ inspired the post for this week ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ when having/starting conversations in Mandarin – a question posed to me by Greg from Mandarin Segments. In my last post I also mentioned that I met a Chinese lady on the bus who [...]
In China I didn’t hesitate too much when it came to starting conversations in Mandarin – as long as I sort of had the vocab for the scenario I would have given it a go. There are several reasons for this: firstly in China it’s the expected thing to try and speak the language if [...]
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