Do you think your life is too filled up to have time to learn a language? If so, maybe you'll change your mind a little bit after you read what I've got to say. I lead a ridiculously busy life. I do not have a spare hour in my day, there is always reading to... Continue Reading →
Last semester around March, I got an e-mail about possible scholarships that the Confucius Institute gives out to students to go to China. The scholarship that caught my attention was the one semester one with everything but plane tickets paid. I asked about the requirements to apply for this scholarship and they said anyone could... Continue Reading →
I took the HSKK on a Sunday, March 13 at 3 pm. It turns out I was the only one taking the Intermediate Level, go figure, so the guy who runs the China-Colombia Alliance calls me up and asks when I want to take the exam. Super legit, I know. And, so I went knocked... Continue Reading →
It seems that most people come to the blog for the HSK mnemonic sheets, so I'm taking them up again. I'm going to extend the mnemonic sheets past the HSK 1 to include the Grasshopper Level (200 characters) from Mandarin Poster. That means that whether you are studying the HSK 1 list or the 200... Continue Reading →
If you're like me, your smartphone/tablet is your #1 tool to learn Chinese (or foreign language). This also means that you're constantly on the prowl for new apps to boost your learning 🙂 I wanted to share a fairly awesome tool for all you language learners called "Hello Talk". I saw it on Moses McMormick YouTube channel (laoshu... Continue Reading →
Now that you have all that knowledge of nouns, we can actually do some noun-phrase translation. First, a couple of hints and examples. Noun+Noun (N+N) 春+N: N in the spring(time); N affected by spring; spring N 月+N: moon N; lunar N; N of the moon; the moon's N; moonlit N; N in the moonlight; N... Continue Reading →
So, first of all, sorry I couldn't post last week. I teach English and beginning of the year is a crazy time with the company. I have been pretty consistent with my studies these past two weeks though. The whole "Chinese Cloud" thing really helped because even if it's for five minutes I'm doing some... Continue Reading →
It's been quite a year. Some hightlights: finished my philosophy degree, started a masters in international relations, started a new job with an English teaching company, and moved into a more permanent apartment. All was more or less in that order. What I also did was take and pass (yay!) the HSK 4, it was... Continue Reading →
Talking with my Chinese internet pals I've been realizing that there are various ways to say "I understand". It comes up a lot because they often have to explain words or phrases that I don't get at first and then after they explain they'll ask 明白了吗 [míng bai le ma?] ([do you] understand [now]?), or... Continue Reading →
