Want a Google Wave invite? All you have to do is leave some thoughts in the comments on how Google Wave can be used to improve language learning on (or off) the web. There are bonus points for ideas that focus on learning Mandarin Chinese specifically. I’m genuinely intrigued to hear what people think. Is this another web fad that will pass within months, or is there great untapped potential buried in the Wave concept?
Without access to the full range CCTV channels I was missing out on a valuable source of real Chinese language to help me learn in my quest to learn the language. I’m sure I am not alone and so I’ve put together a quick guide to watching CCTV online on a Mac. These instructions should work on any operating system though.
Last Monday I tweeted the following sentence as part of my contribution to #MandarinMonday:
There are a number of mistakes in this sentence which were quickly corrected by @GraceLee0806 and others. At this point, I really should say a big thank you to all the native speakers and Mandarin teachers who help out on Twitter.
Many of [...]
Today, students of all languages are spoilt for choice when it comes to web sites devoted to forming a language learning community. Despite all having a slightly different feel, they all build on the idea that the best (or at least most exciting) way to learn a language is by finding yourself a network of [...]
A relatively small collection of Mandarin-related links this week, but a good one nonetheless.
As usual, if you’ve come across something you think should feature in this weekly list, get in touch and I’ll include it in next weeks updated.
At the start of every class my teacher says to us, “Spend a couple of minutes talking amongst yourselves in Chinese.” My mind goes blank and suddenly I have nothing to say. But why is this? Is it that, in the early stages of learning a new language, we are required to scale back our thought processes and try and speak like a child again? Or is it just that we don’t know just how much we do know?
This week saw the birth of #MandarinMonday on Twitter. There are no rules to #MandarinMonday as the idea behind it was to encourage people learning Chinese to use their Mandarin. Just turn up, tweet in Mandarin and use the #MandarinMonday hashtag.
There are many different reasons for learning a new language. These are the top 10 reasons for learning Mandarin Chinese.
