Mandarin

Essential Browser Plugins For Learning Chinese

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I wrote an article about using FOSS tools to learn Chinese, but sometimes all you have in front of you is a browser. Let’s just assume everyone is using a full-fledged browser and nothing like Edge or Internet Explorer. I am going to cover Chrome (and by extension Chromium and derivatives) as well as Firefox.

These specific plugins are extremely useful for portable copies of the programs for study only, or for scenarios where you have limited access.… Read the rest

FOSS Software to Learn Chinese (or Basically Any Language)

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Free, Open-Source Software (FOSS) is one of my passions in general, but there are some great pieces of FOSS software which can be used to learn Chinese (or pretty much any other languages). There are programs to help you with vocabulary and flashcards, as well as free dictionaries which are useful even as a professional translator. All of these programs contributed heavily to my ability to learn Chinese.… Read the rest

Paid Streaming Services for Learning Chinese

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I want to compare a couple of paid streaming services for how efficient they are for learning Chinese. I plan to compare some of the more common streaming services including: Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Sling. I will skip Hulu for my comparison as I have not had a subscription, though I will add a bit about what I’ve heard. Youtube will also be mentioned (because even though it isn’t necessarily paid for most use cases, it’s definitely a good resource for a lot of content), as well as the issues with using Youtube.… Read the rest

Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook – Yip Po-ching and Don Rimmington

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ReviewDisclaimer]

Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook by Yip Po-ching and Don Rimmington is one of the first serious grammar books I bought for learning Chinese. I have been rereading through it since a few people have asked me about suggested grammar books for learning Mandarin and I wanted to see if it was like I remembered. Overall, for an intermediate-beginner or higher, this book is a solid home run.… Read the rest

Frequency Analysis of the Daodejing 道德经

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I have been working to put together some resources which I will eventually clean up and share in conjunction with my Lua Tutorial Series in order to show what Lua can be used for, but also, to work with language analysis. Frequency analysis and similar techniques can be very useful for learning but obviously have limitations. This article will cover some of the results of an analysis on a specific editions of the Daodejing, as well as the methodology employed and the specific limitations with my approach.… Read the rest

How To Pick A Chinese Dictionary

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One thing a lot of people struggle with when learning Chinese is what dictionary to use. A dictionary seems like something which should be relatively simple, but it requires a lot of thought and effort to select in Chinese. The difference between a good dictionary and a bad dictionary can save you or cost you hours for no good reason. Digital dictionaries can resolve a lot of these issues, but there are still good reasons for physical dictionaries and also some concerns for digital dictionaries which I will cover later.… Read the rest