The learning tag has no wiki summary.
19
votes
7answers
663 views
Is there a lot of value in learning to write Chinese characters?
I have noticed that a lot of my friends that study Chinese at university spend a lot of their time learning to write Chinese. I would estimate more than 50% of their chinese study time is spent on ...
12
votes
7answers
3k views
Is it easier to learn Chinese after learning Japanese or vice versa?
For those who speak both Chinese and Japanese, would first learning Chinese make it easier to learn Japanese?
Knowing that Japanese Kanji are derived from Chinese characters, how hard is it to do the ...
11
votes
6answers
275 views
Are children's books a good starting place for beginners?
I was wondering if Chinese children's books might be a good starting place for adult Chinese language newbies (regardless of whether it be Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, whatever), in particular westerners ...
7
votes
11answers
512 views
Techniques for learning and retaining characters
For many of us, memorizing characters is a difficult thing. In Chinese, just because you can speak the word doesn't mean you can read it. Just because you can read it doesn't mean you can write it. At ...
7
votes
6answers
654 views
What is the best way to teach a child Mandarin?
My son is almost 8 weeks old. I don't speak Mandarin (yet, currently in progress) and am looking for ways to start him on learning Mandarin early, maybe at about 1 year of age. What is the best way ...
4
votes
2answers
160 views
Useful resources for learning Taiwanese?
My girlfriend is from Fujian and speaks 闽南语, so I am trying to learn so I can communicate with her family better.
The struggle is finding any useful resources (even in Chinese), so I'm wondering if ...
4
votes
3answers
120 views
Early childhood Chinese language immersion accent exposure
Is it important for young children (4 or 5 years old) in a Chinese language immersion program to be exposed to more than one type of Mandarin accent? If the child only hears one accent (and one that ...
3
votes
4answers
274 views
Learning Traditional first with the goal of learning both
I found this in the Mandarin wikibook:
"It is considered easier for people who learn Traditional to read both sets than people who learn Simplified only, but Simplified characters are less ...
3
votes
1answer
119 views
Where can I find Codecademy for Written Chinese?
Recently, my wife has been learning to program JavaScript using Codecademy. I like how it walks people through exercises step by step, and builds up concepts, etc. All the marking is automated, and ...
2
votes
3answers
145 views
Resources for learning Shanghainese
I'm surprised a question like this hasn't been asked yet. It seems Shanghainese is a dying language and it's rarely spoken. I'd like to know about resources and ways to learn the language by myself.
...
2
votes
2answers
149 views
What are the most difficult things to learn for a westerner? [closed]
What aspects of the Chinese language are the most difficult to learn for a westerner? In particular I'm interested in thoughts on:
What do you find are the main difficulties?
Are there any aspects ...
2
votes
3answers
432 views
How to learn how to pronounce and remember names of Chinese students?
This question was originally asked on Academia.Stackexchange.com. I would normally not cross-post, however, I think this question might be an exception, where both sites may provide complementary ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
Why are sites like youku and baidu so slow overseas?
When I was in China, these video sites were great for getting chinese material to watch. Ever since I came back though, these sites are too slow to watch anything.
Why are these so slow and is there ...
2
votes
2answers
118 views
Resources for learning Cantonese
I'd like to learn Cantonese, does anyone know some good resources (books, websites) that provide a thorough introduction into the language? I know that the pronunciation is a lot harder than in ...
2
votes
1answer
211 views
Where can I find more cartoon videos like BBC's Muzzy for a young child to learn Mandarin? [closed]
I'm not talking about instructional videos and bi-lingual videos. Just Mandarin cartoon videos which a young child, with the ability to naturally absorb a new language, can use to learn Mandarin.
2
votes
0answers
58 views
What level of Chinese can be reached in one year ? (one evening class a week) [closed]
I have almost completed my first Chinese course (15 classes of 3 hours). I estimate we have learned about 100 words. I plan to take the HSK-1 test at the end of March.
If I continue at my current ...
1
vote
2answers
82 views
Learn the characters at the same time as the language?
Should I learn Mandarin basics first through pinyin and worry about the characters later, or should I learn them together? Pros and cons?
1
vote
2answers
103 views
How do I know when I am “fluent”?
What in a common test for fluency in Chinese?
Is it when I can;
talk to a shopkeeper
converse meaningfully about a film
do business purely in Chinese
pass HSK6
When my friends ask I don't know ...
1
vote
2answers
171 views
What effective methods exists for visual learners to get Chinese grammar?
I want to learn Chinese grammar (e.g. sentence structure), however, I am a highly visual person and feel a visual learning process would help me the most.
I have already taken a beginner Chinese ...
1
vote
0answers
139 views
How do I learn basic Mandarin for free without a teacher? [closed]
I'm playing a Chinese MMORPG (http://ff.163.com) and I have some people to help me understand it, but I would love to actually learn the language. As it's a game, I don't need to be able to pronounce ...
0
votes
7answers
185 views
Learning/remembering Chinese
I lived in China for a few months and picked up quite a bit of Mandarin. Now that I've moved back to the US, I have forgotten the Chinese I knew and spoke while there. Other than actually living where ...
0
votes
1answer
148 views
Pronouncing pinyin “c” in Shanxi dialect
I had thought I knew how to pronounce pinyin "c," like the English "ts" in "cats." But on a trip to Shanxi it seemed like most of my friends were pronouncing it like pinyin "ch." Village names ending ...
0
votes
0answers
86 views
Chinese learning - Mandarin? Simplified? other? [closed]
I'd like to learn an Asian language. I was initially interested in Japanese but after some research I switched to Chinese because of its wider audience and economic growth projections.
However, I am ...
