Foreign Languages

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

Teach Yourself: Get Talking Thai vs. Conversational Thai in 7 Days

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Teach Yourself: Get Talking Thai in 10 Days and Conversational Thai in 7 Days are both quick and simple language guides for learning the fundamentals to get the most out of a vacation. Both works feature David Smyth as an author, but Conversational Thai in 7 Days also features Somsong Buasai as an author. Both of these works aim to fill roughly the same role, namely, basic language guides for usage during actual travel to Thai.… 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

3 Good Shows to Learn Chinese

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Introduction

China has no shortage of TV shows, but not all of them are really useful for a language learner which isn’t almost entirely fluent. There are a couple shows I’ve found over the years which were extremely useful when I was less fluent, but which still remained useful as I got more fluent. This list includes 3 of the best I’ve found, and we’re going to steer clear of kid shows even though some would arguably be better from a language learner’s perspective.… Read the rest