It isn’t completely clear how quickly these invites, or nominations as they are called, reach the intended recipient as invites aren’t sent out instantly, so I’m assuming it is simply a way of adding people to the next round of invites sent out by Google. So, who do I invite?

Twitter isn’t short of people begging for an invite, but I’m going to ignore them (sorry folks). I want people on my contact list that are going to make this Wave experience interesting. I want people that are going to see past the demonstration user interface and are going to focus on the possibilities that the Wave architecture introduces. But this still doesn’t narrow it down enough. And so I’m going to focus the invites around one of my longer term interests, and that is learning Mandarin Chinese. How can the potential of Google Wave be used to enhance language learning on the web? Think beyond the obvious, and yes there are at least two translation bots already in existence.

Confused? Don’t worry, you aren’t alone. If you have no idea what Google Wave is and want to know what all this hype is about I suggest you take a look at the following few links.

• Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009 (Google)
  – It’s nerdy and long, but well worth a watch if you get time.
• Google Wave: A Complete Guide (Mashable)
• Google Wave Questions and Answers (Lifehacker)
• Google Wave 101 (Lifehacker)
  – Probably more use after you get an account.

So you want an 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?

If you already have a Wave account, feel free to add me as a contact (billgloveruk) and we can continue this discussion on a Wave.

60th anniversary celebrations aside, 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 any platform.

1. If you haven’t got it already, download and install VLC (http://www.videolan.org/vlc/)
2. From the File menu select Open Network
3. Enter the URL of the channel you want to watch (see below)
4. Press “Open” and wait while the video starts playing
5. Press Command+F to watch in full screen

You can find more information on CCTV on Wikipdea (thanks to qimet888). If anyone knows the address of the HD streams for each of these channels or the address of the Children’s channel, please share them in the comments and I’ll update the table.

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 these mistakes were silly and would have been caught if I had reviewed my Tweet before posting, however one mistake bugged me: I could find no explanation for using 然后 instead of 以后. And so, I did what I usually do (but don’t recommend) in these situations and skipped over it in the hope that I’d remember it again another day.

Skip ahead to Wednesday and my Chinese class. We were running through a quick review of recent vocabulary by forming a couple of sentences with each of the words in question. And, sure enough, up came 以后.

下课以后你打算做什么？ [xiàkè yǐhòu nǐ dǎsuàn zuò shénme?]

And then I realised that if I had been asked to make the same sentence without being given 以后 as a starting point I probably would have said:

下课然后你打算做什么？ [xiàkè ránhòu nǐ dǎsuàn zuò shénme?]

Thinking back to the correction made by @GraceLee0806, I asked what the difference was. When should I use 然后 and when 以后? My teacher thought for a minute and then said 都可以。然后，以后差不多。 They are similar. But as to which one to use, the advice was to use the one that “sounds better”. This is not so useful if you aren’t a native speaker, but having given the same answer to my wife on numerous occasions, I was prepared to let this one go and just accept it as a “because it just is” moment. The lesson continued.

But a few minutes later, my teacher stopped and went back to the subject of 然后 v.s. 以后: It had clearly been bugging her. She came up with the following suggestion:

She stressed that this was not a grammatical rule as such, more of a rule-of-thumb. But, I’m OK with that. Where there appears to be no logical explanation, I’ll settle for a rule-of-thumb over “it just is” any day. And so we set about testing her theory by coming up with examples which led me to come up with the following sentence.

婚礼以后我们都先吃婚菜然后跳舞。 [hūnlǐ yǐhòu wǒmen dōu xiān chī hūn cài ránhòu tiàowǔ.]

And so there we have it, the difference between 以后 and 然后 in one sentence. I am sure there are numerous exceptions to this rule, but this was a start and I was happy. It is exciting when things fall into place. It may be simple for some, but it was a light bulb moment for me.

Have you come across any exceptions to this rule, or do you have a different way of remembering when to use 以后 instead of 然后? I’d love to hear them in the comments.

Whilst the idea of building up a language network is a good one, many of the sites in question have been a little over eager to jump on the social networking bandwagon. In many cases, building up “friends” or connections seems to be the primary aim. On one of these sites alone I have nearly 100 outstanding friend requests. Of the few requests I have accepted the main aim of the initiating party seems to have been to build up a network of foreign friends and not language learning. I have had the odd request for help in completing English homework or writing short essays, but very few that seem genuine about language exchange. There are undoubtedly exceptions to the norm and I have had a number of specific questions answered on these sites, but in all cases the questions have been answered in a public forum rather than by a language partner.

So, why is it that these sites fail to deliver. My theory is that they encourage people to spread themselves thinly between a wide reaching network of possible language partners rather than to encourage people to spend time developing one or possibly two genuinely constructive relationships. The trouble is, that once such a relationship is formed there is never any need to visit the site in question as other alternative communications methods become preferable (Skype, etc.). Without keeping people on the site, there is no hope of driving up advertising revenue.

Upon reflection, and this does come as a real surprise to me, I have had far greater success with from an unexpected quarter; everyone’s favourite micro-blogging service, Twitter. I think the reason for this is partly in the difference between a “follower” and a “friend”. Let me try and explain.

I follow only those people who I find valuable. The advantage of this is that I can vary the level of Mandarin in my Twitter stream. The converse of this is that I am only followed by people who think I add value. Most of my Tweets are in English, but just occasionally I tweet in Chinese. It has been remarkable, but almost every time I tweet in Mandarin, someone has responded to correct my mistakes or answer my questions. Just occasionally there have been brief discussions purely in Chinese. I find this interesting, as all this takes place with no obligation to foster an ongoing friendship or build up a network. Another nice feature is that I am able to jump in and out of the flow as time allows. It is this lack of obligation or expectation that works so well.

I think micro-blogging services have a lot to offer the language learning community and there are a number of interesting things that may (to varying degrees) improve the usefulness of Twitter as a language learning tool. #MandarinMonday and the AudioBoos by @pinyin are two such examples.

But don’t expect magic, not even from Twitter. With all these tools, it is worth remembering that they are just that, tools. You only get out what you are prepared to put in. Do you practise a language online? If so, I’d love to hear how your experiences compare to mine.

[Photo Credit:] Markus Koljonen

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.

1. HowTo … start learning Mandarin
2. Vocabulary Building
3. The 10 famous Chinese teas

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. It’s the same whenever I find myself amongst a group of Chinese. It’s not that I don’t want to talk, it’s just that I simply don’t know what to say. I can picture it now, my mind racing through the vocabulary I know, trying to pick out anything new to say. After all, you can ask someone their name only so many times.

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 really do know (D. Rumsfeld would understand)? Part of me believes that we think too much. Perhaps I need to stop thinking and just start speaking.

Have you come across a similar mental block and, more importantly, do you have any advice for those of us trying to overcome it?

I think it was a success, with 16 people using the #MandarinMonday hashtag. There is an obvious question though and that is to do with accuracy or grammatical correctness. With so many non-native speakers practising together, isn’t there a chance that we will learn bad habits, and not have our mistakes corrected? Undoubtedly this is a possibility but for me there is great benefit in just getting out there and trying to use Mandarin, practice reading and typing Hanzi and just generally having a go. Mistakes can be corrected later.

That said, I must offer a big thankyou to @yanghuawawa (a.k.a @pinyin) for helping us out, correcting our mistakes and offering genuine encouragement.

So, if you are learning Mandarin, jump on Twitter and join us for the next #MandarinMonday. No matter what level you are, you are more than welcome to chime in with the odd 你好 or 谢谢. I for one am looking forward to it.

A big thank you to all those who took part:
@yanghuawawa, @haiyo, @8a22a, @puerhan, @mynameistan, @pinyin, @Joerup, @chopapi, @RavinDave, @hippoman, @excuter, @cdrum, @inzania, @mad_alchemist, @MissXu, and @pdenlinger

Follow the event on Twitter: #MandarinMonday

My chosen language is Mandarin Chinese. So here are the top ten reasons (in no particular order) for learning Mandarin.

1. Because a quarter of the world’s population lives in China
2. To enhance my future employment prospects
3. Because I am/will be doing business with Chinese people
4. Because I live in China
5. Because I plan to travel in China
6. Because I am Chinese
7. To learn about Chinese history and/or culture
8. To increase my understanding of China today
9. For a personal challenge
10. Because there is/was this girl…

For me, my motivation is a combination of reasons 8 and 10. My wife is fluent in English so I’d say we can communicate pretty well without me learning a second language. But, I’d like to learn Mandarin to be able to communicate with her family, and to understand the country she calls home. We only ever see one side of China through the blinkered media in the West and I’d like to see and hear more about China from the inside.

So what are your reasons for studying Chinese? I’d love to know what I’ve missed off the list.

为什么你学中文？(wèishénme nǐ xué Zhōngwén?)

[Photo Credit] djking

I’m trying to understand you better. I’d like to know more about how you use ChinesePod. Do you have a daily routine for it? How/when/where does it fit into your day? To what extent does it allow you to learn on your terms, to fit the learning into your lifestyle, to bring the learning to you?

On average, I seem to be spending around 4 hours a day somewhere in between home and the office. This equates to two working days every week travelling (changing this part of my daily routine is still a work in progress). If I could only spend a fraction of that time studying Chinese then I’m sure progress would be good.

The reality is that, so far, mobile learning has not worked for me. In the mornings I tend to sleep, or stare blankly out of the train window and in the evenings it is again sleep or colleagues that keep me from my studies. “Excuses!” you say? The reality is that studying whilst doing something else (even travelling) isn’t as effective as dedicated study time.

• First thing in the morning I listen to a ChinesePod (Elementary) lesson whilst eating breakfast. If there is time I will try and run through the dialogue (without English) on the site.
• When I arrive at work, I save all the lesson vocabulary to my ChinesePod vocab manager, a step in my routine that has stuck for no particular reason other than that I have always done this. I don’t use ChinesePod for vocab management.
• I then run through the expansion sentences and exercises. I try and work out the expansion sentences from Hanzi alone. If I get stuck I listen to the audio, and if I still can’t understand, I mouse over the individual characters.
• Once I have completed the exercises I mark the lesson as studied and get on with clearing out my inbox.

It’s not always as clean cut as this. Some days things don’t go to plan and so I have a couple of fall back options. The best time to listen to lessons is in the morning, preferably before I leave home, but definitely before I get on the train. It is best to leave a short period of time between listening to the lesson and working through the exercises. My method is by no means perfect, but since trying this routine I’ve been enjoying my study a lot more.

Other tasks that I am trying to form into habits are:

• Posting on Twitter in Chinese. There have been some great discussions between Chinese learners on Twitter.
• I copy all vocab (using Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) from the ChinesePod site into a master vocab list. I then import this into Anki for study. I also share this list with a number of people.
• Copy the expansion sentences into an Anki deck. This allows me to test myself against all the sentences and phrases that I should know – something that doesn’t appear to be possible on the ChinesePod site.
• Running through 15 minutes of vocab study on Anki.
• Try to work a couple of spoken phrases into daily life. In doing this I need to kick the habit of mixing Chinese and English in a single sentence.

My head is full of ideas for how to utilise the upcoming ChinesePod API to eliminate the ragged edges from my routine (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V I’m looking at you). I will post more on these thoughts soon. In the meantime though I am more than happy to answer any questions in the comments.

Photo Credit: alexandralee
ChinesePod: Learn Chinese with ChinesePod

In terms of sticking to the plan (1 lesson every two days), I’m still on track. The pace seems to be reasonable for now and whilst it would be nice to cover more lessons, I feel it wouldn’t be possible to cover them in as much depth.

The lessons selected for my practice plan have been interesting. They relate to New Year celebrations, family and travel. All of these are relevant to my upcoming trip to China which is nice. There were a couple of lessons in the practice plan which I had already covered so I have switched these for some alternatives.

One area of the my study which I need to improve is in trying to work Chinese words and phrases into my daily life. I just haven’t been able to find an excuse (yet) to proclaim my burning desire to set of firecrackers in our garden. This is still an area where I feel I need to improve.

I had an interesting discussion with Larry the other day in which I identified two of my goals when learning Chinese. The first was to be able to go through a normal day and speak only Chinese, not a word of English. That might be some way off at the moment, but the second goal is probably more achievable: I’d like to write the occasional blog post in Chinese. To be honest, there is no reason I can’t start this now (see excuse below). Obviously I’m going to be restricted to simple sentences to start with but this would give me a chance to practice what I have been learning.

The next challenge I face is how to keep up with the practice plan as we travel around China. I’m unlikely to be able to stick to my schedule as I have no idea where I will be on any particular day. I have downloaded all the lessons just in case, but my instinct is to take a break from the schedule and try and make the most of being in China to use as much Chinese as I possibly can. I’m thinking of it as a chance to practice all I have learned so far.

So my action plan going forward is to:

• Speak some Chinese in China
• Keep a record of the words/phrases I learn whilst away
• Write a blog post in Chinese each week (after I return)
• Persuade Alicia to use more Chinese at home

In the meantime though, it’s time to chuck a few clothes in a bag (leaving lots of space for more shopping) jump on the train to Heathrow and prepare for the cold weather in Beijing. See you all when I return.