Since my new method of studying is doing transcriptions and using them to improve my listening I figured I might as well share them with you and also use this opportunity to review the podcast. A bit about 狗熊有话说I have listened to a couple of the episodes of this podcast, also known as Bear Talk (or... Continue Reading →
For those who've been learning a foreign language past the beginner stage, you might have heard of plateauing. It's that dreaded time when you seem to not be getting anywhere, stuck at one level. The most common stage of plateauing happens at the intermediate level and it's frustrating because you feel like at that point... Continue Reading →
Take-off After reading a lot of Olly's blog and listening to his podcasts, where he makes compelling arguments in favor of getting a tutor, I finally committed to paying for one-on-one classes through italki in February of this year. Since then, I have been diligently taking an average of 1-3 weekly lessons for 8 months. And... Continue Reading →
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 →
