Hacking Chinese

Author: Olle Linge
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781530334889
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
Learning Chinese can be frustrating and difficult, partly because it's very different from European languages. Following a teacher, textbook or language course is not enough. They show you the characters, words and grammar you need to become proficient in Chinese, but they don't teach you how to learn them! Regardless of what program you're in (if any), you need to take responsibility for your own learning. If you don't, you will miss many important things that aren't included in the course you're taking. If you study on your own, you need to be even more aware of what you need to do, what you're doing at the moment and the difference between them. Here are some of the questions I have asked and have since been asked many times by students: How do I learn characters efficiently? How do I get the most out of my course or teacher? Which are the best learning tools and resources? How can I become fluent in Mandarin? How can I improve my pronunciation? How do I learn successfully on my own? How can I motivate myself to study more? How can I fit learning Chinese into a busy schedule? The answers I've found to these questions and many others form the core of this book. It took eight years of learning, researching, teaching and writing to figure these things out. Not everybody has the time to do that! I can't go back in time and help myself learn in a better way, but I can help you! This book is meant for normal students and independent language learners alike. While it covers all major areas of learning, you won't learn Chinese just by reading this book. It's like when someone on TV teaches you how to cook: you won't get to eat the delicious dish just by watching the program; you have to do the cooking yourself. That's true for this book as well. When you apply what you learn, it will boost your learning, making every hour you spend count for more, but you still have to do the learning yourself. This is what a few readers have said about the book: "The book had me nodding at a heap of things I'd learnt the hard way, wishing I knew them when I started, as well as highlighting areas that I'm currently missing in my study." - Geoff van der Meer, VP engineering "This publication is like a bible for anyone serious about Chinese proficiency. It's easy for anyone to read and written with scientific precision." - Zachary Danz, foreign teacher, children's theatre artist About me I started learning Chinese when I was 23 (that's more than eight years ago now) and have since studied in many different situations, including serious immersion programs abroad, high-intensity programs in Sweden, online courses, as well as on the side while working or studying other things. I have also successfully used my Chinese in a graduate program for teaching Chinese as a second language, taught entirely in Chinese mostly for native speakers (the Graduate Institute for Teaching Chinese as a Second Language at National Taiwan Normal University). All these parts have contributed to my website, Hacking Chinese, where I write regularly about how to learn Mandarin.

Character Text for Beginning Chinese

Author: John DeFrancis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780300020595
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 519

Book Description
In this parallel character version of Beginning Chinese, dialogues, pronunciation drills, sentence-building exercises, substitution drills and memorization exercises correspond to the same lessons Beginning Chinese offers in English and in pinyin romanization of Mandarin.

口语速成

Author: 张朋朋
Publisher:
ISBN: 9787800525773
Category : Chinese language
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Book Description
使用本书,外国学生会觉得汉语口语很容易学,他们将会很快地掌握与中国人进行口头交际的能力。

The Way of the Linguist

Author: Steve Kaufmann
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1420873296
Category : Linguistics
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Book Description
The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey. It is now a cliché that the world is a smaller place. We think nothing of jumping on a plane to travel to another country or continent. The most exotic locations are now destinations for mass tourism. Small business people are dealing across frontiers and language barriers like never before. The Internet brings different languages and cultures to our finger-tips. English, the hybrid language of an island at the western extremity of Europe seems to have an unrivalled position as an international medium of communication. But historically periods of cultural and economic domination have never lasted forever. Do we not lose something by relying on the wide spread use of English rather than discovering other languages and cultures? As citizens of this shrunken world, would we not be better off if we were able to speak a few languages other than our own? The answer is obviously yes. Certainly Steve Kaufmann thinks so, and in his busy life as a diplomat and businessman he managed to learn to speak nine languages fluently and observe first hand some of the dominant cultures of Europe and Asia. Why do not more people do the same? In his book The Way of The Linguist, A language learning odyssey, Steve offers some answers. Steve feels anyone can learn a language if they want to. He points out some of the obstacles that hold people back. Drawing on his adventures in Europe and Asia, as a student and businessman, he describes the rewards that come from knowing languages. He relates his evolution as a language learner, abroad and back in his native Canada and explains the kind of attitude that will enable others to achieve second language fluency. Many people have taken on the challenge of language learning but have been frustrated by their lack of success. This book offers detailed advice on the kind of study practices that will achieve language breakthroughs. Steve has developed a language learning system available online at: www.thelinguist.com.

Remembering Simplified Hanzi 1

Author: James W. Heisig
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824875931
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Book Description
At long last the approach that has helped thousands of learners memorize Japanese kanji has been adapted to help students with Chinese characters. Book 1 of Remembering Simplified Hanzi covers the writing and meaning of the 1,000 most commonly used characters in the simplified Chinese writing system, plus another 500 that are best learned at an early stage. (Book 2 adds another 1,500 characters for a total of 3,000.) Of critical importance to the approach found in these pages is the systematic arranging of characters in an order best suited to memorization. In the Chinese writing system, strokes and simple components are nested within relatively simple characters, which can, in turn, serve as parts of more complicated characters and so on. Taking advantage of this allows a logical ordering, making it possible for students to approach most new characters with prior knowledge that can greatly facilitate the learning process. Guidance and detailed instructions are provided along the way. Students are taught to employ "imaginative memory" to associate each character’s component parts, or "primitive elements," with one another and with a key word that has been carefully selected to represent an important meaning of the character. This is accomplished through the creation of a "story" that engagingly ties the primitive elements and key word together. In this way, the collections of dots, strokes, and components that make up the characters are associated in memorable fashion, dramatically shortening the time required for learning and helping to prevent characters from slipping out of memory.

Colloquial Chinese

Author: Qian Kan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317305493
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners has been carefully developed by an experienced teacher to provide a step-by-step course to Chinese as it is written and spoken today. Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Chinese in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required. Colloquial Chinese is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice. A full answer key, a grammar summary, bilingual glossaries and English translations of dialogues can be found at the back as well as useful vocabulary lists throughout. Key features include: A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations Helpful cultural points explaining the customs and features of life in China An overview of the sounds of Chinese Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Chinese is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Chinese. Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

The Routledge Course in Modern Mandarin Chinese

Author: Claudia Ross
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135870993
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Book Description
The Routledge Course in Modern Mandarin Chinese is a two-year undergraduate course for students with no prior background in Chinese study which takes students from complete beginner to post-intermediate level. Designed to build a strong foundation in both the spoken and written language it develops all the basic skills such as pronunciation, character writing, word use and structures, while placing strong emphasis on the development of communicative skills. Each level of the course consists of a textbook and workbook, available separately in simplified or traditional character editions. Both workbooks include a free CD with all the dialogues from the textbooks and the necessary audio for the listening for information exercises. A companion website will provide expanded listening files and a broad range of resources for students and teachers. The benefits of this course include: -focus on the long-term retention of vocabulary, characters and structures by reiterating structures and vocabulary throughout the book series -carefully selected and staged introduction of characters with staged removal of pinyin to ensure recognition and use of characters -clear and jargon-free explanations of use and structures, that are easy for students and teachers to understand -extensive workbook exercises for homework, independent study, and classroom use focusing on all language skills and modalities including a vast inventory of carefully structured exercises focusing on listening comprehension, reading for information, and writing for communication - an extensive inventory of classroom activities that guide students to develop communication-based speaking and listening skills. -a list of communication goals and key structures for each lesson allowing the student to assess progress -cultural notes explaining the context of the dialogues - language FAQs explaining aspects of Chinese language as they relate to the content and vocabulary in the lesson -storyline following a group of students studying in China from Europe, North America and East Asia, making the book attractive to a variety of students and facilitating the introduction of Chinese culture. -full-color text design for the textbook and carefully matched designs for the traditional and simplified books, allowing for easy cross-reference The course is also fully supported by an interactive companion website. The website contains a wealth of additional resources for both teachers and students. Teachers will find lesson plans in both English and Mandarin, providing a weekly schedule and overall syllabus for fall and spring, as well as activities for each lesson and answer keys. Students will be able to access downloadable character practice worksheets along with interactive pronunciation, vocabulary and character practice exercises. All the audio material necessary for the course is also available online and conveniently linked on screen to the relevant exercises for ease-of-use. For further details please visit http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415472517/ For bundle discounts please visit http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415596824/

Chinese Lessons

Author: John Pomfret
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0805076158
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

Book Description
"As a twenty-two-year-old exchange student at Nanjing University in 1981, John Pomfret was one of the first American students to be admitted to China after the Communist Revolution of 1949. Living in a cramped dorm room, Pomfret was exposed to a country few outsiders had ever experienced, one fresh from the twin tragedies of Mao's rule - the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution." "Twenty years after first leaving China, Pomfret returned to the university for a class reunion. Once again, he immersed himself in the lives of his classmates, especially the one woman and four men whose stories make up Chinese Lessons, an intimate and revealing portrait of the Chinese people." "Beginning with Pomfret's first day in China, Chinese Lessons takes us back to the often torturous paths that brought together the Nanjing University History Class of 1982. We learn that Old Wu's father was killed during the Cultural Revolution for the crime of being an intellectual; Book Idiot Zhou labored in the fields for years rather than agree to a Party-arranged marriage; Little Guan was forced to publicly denounce and humiliate her father." "As we follow Pomfret's classmates from childhood to university and on to adulthood, we see the effect that the country's transition from near-feudal communism to First World capitalism has had on his classmates. This riveting portrait of the Chinese people will not only change your understanding of China but also challenge your perception of the way fate can shape the course of nations as surely as it has the extraordinary lives of these five classmates."--BOOK JACKET.

Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook

Author: Cornelius C. Kubler
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
ISBN: 1462921256
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 375

Book Description
Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook is a new beginner Mandarin Chinese course which enables you to quickly learn the basics of the language. The 24 lessons in this book are meant to be used in 3 hours per week of class instruction over one academic year. Students will need another 2-3 hours of outside practice and review for every hour of class time, using the materials in the accompanying Elementary Mandarin Chinese Workbook. These books can also be used by self-study learners due to the extensive explanations and free supplementary materials available -- including online audio and video recordings and flash cards. The entire course can be completed in 25 to 35 weeks and teaches you the basic skills of speaking, reading and writing Mandarin Chinese at a conversational level. Each lesson starts with a dialogue and includes a list of new and supplementary Chinese vocabulary along with questions and grammar notes about the dialogue, a reading section and extensive exercises (that are in the Workbook). Elementary Mandarin Chinese Textbook offers the following significant advantages over other similar textbooks: Common, everyday Chinese dialogues are used--complete with vocabulary lists and questions and storylines based on actual everyday experiences in China Chinese grammar is explained in simple, non-technical terms with useful notes and tips given Reading exercises are provided for all new words and phrases in each lesson Free online audio recordings by native speakers from different regions of China help you not only acquire correct pronunciation, but also to understand Chinese speakers who have different accents Illustrations and supplementary video clips add authenticity to the materials in the book A Chinese-English dictionary, downloadable flash cards and supplementary exercises are all provided Both Chinese characters and Pinyin Romanized forms are given throughout the book (except for the reading exercises), so this book can be used by students who wish to focus on learning the spoken language, as well as those who are learning to read and write the Chinese characters simultaneously. This textbook should be used in conjunction with Elementary Mandarin Chinese Workbook and the included audio files, which can be downloaded free directly from the Tuttle website.

Fluent Forever

Author: Gabriel Wyner
Publisher: Harmony
ISBN: 038534810X
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • For anyone who wants to learn a foreign language, this is the method that will finally make the words stick. “A brilliant and thoroughly modern guide to learning new languages.”—Gary Marcus, cognitive psychologist and author of the New York Times bestseller Guitar Zero At thirty years old, Gabriel Wyner speaks six languages fluently. He didn’t learn them in school—who does? Rather, he learned them in the past few years, working on his own and practicing on the subway, using simple techniques and free online resources—and here he wants to show others what he’s discovered. Starting with pronunciation, you’ll learn how to rewire your ears and turn foreign sounds into familiar sounds. You’ll retrain your tongue to produce those sounds accurately, using tricks from opera singers and actors. Next, you’ll begin to tackle words, and connect sounds and spellings to imagery rather than translations, which will enable you to think in a foreign language. And with the help of sophisticated spaced-repetition techniques, you’ll be able to memorize hundreds of words a month in minutes every day. This is brain hacking at its most exciting, taking what we know about neuroscience and linguistics and using it to create the most efficient and enjoyable way to learn a foreign language in the spare minutes of your day.