Introducing a new learning chinese website--BBC Learn Chinese with free lessons

Well untill now I don't feel a lot of people interested in learning chinese.  So I will bring up more interesting stuff in terms of culture background or just write something is totally different.  Write more my personal life so you will know chinese culture better. 


Anyway, today I am going to introduce a new website, Learn Chinese with free lessons from BBC , well BBC learning series is all good quality, and I think that's the best learning a second language programme.  They have 10 short videos intorduced to learn a little bit vocabulary, grammar. They also have stuff for kids to learn, stuff for culture background, stuff for writing and etc.  So I am trying to do is to give you variety of websites for you to choose and see what others explain and teach you.  It gives more tools to try which one suits you best. 


I will say learning chinese series  is now stop.  My next article I will try to write something more different and more interesting. 


Kai

Introducing Taiwan (I) Knowing Taiwan from Podcast!!

Today, I would like to introduce two interesting podcast related to Taiwanese culture.  I would like to give u a little bit cultural background for the people living in Taiwan now. 


The first Podcast is called "What's up in Taiwan", and it's produced by Kuang-Chong Yu. Right now he is living Taiwan.  He is actually a very famous music producer in Taiwan. He came up with this idea is back to 2007, he said that " One day I watched a foreigner being interveiwed by a television news reporter while exiting customs in CKS Airport; she said she couldn’t find any tourism information about Taiwan in all of the traveling agencies in her country. That’s when I came up with the idea of doing this podcast, I like to introduce this interesting island, especially from a foreigner's perspective".


So there are totally 21 Episodes, and in each episodes, they interview travellers in Taiwan from different backgrounds, might be a students who wants to learn how to speak in Chinese, or a business man has business in Taiwan, they all share their lifes and struggles in that episodes. Even though they already stop interviewing new people,  it's great tool for you to get to know an insight view of Taiwan.  All episode you can find on itune or from their website.   


The second Podcast is hosted by a linguistic student in Taiwan,  He is doing his Phd study right now.  In his profile picture, he looks like an American to me or from Australia, anyway, he is not Asian that's for sure.  I believe his mother language is in English, just happen to him that he is really interested in learning a new language.  He is mainly in Chinese Mandarin. 

His podcast called " Forever a student" (I guess he has been a student for a long long time) and right now he is in Taiwan and he has this blog " Forever a student".  Even though in his podcast, he only has 8 episodes, and mainly is introducing learning a simple language or a difficult language, (Well, in his opinion, he thinks Mandarin is a difficult language but you can of course listen to his explanation).


In his blog, there are more stuff you can see, he shares his learning journey of learning in Mandarin, and it's fab to see this from a linguistic student website, I think that will really helps you guys learning in Mandarin. 

Introducing China(II)_Are you interested in having business in China?

Today I want to introduce a podcase is for people who want to have businesses in China. It's called AisaBizBlog from Rich Kuslan, you can download in itune or you can visit his website. In his blog, he talks discusses " vital business, legal and cultural issues that affect your business in Asia, with a speical focus in China".  There are 41 episodes disscuessed that pretty much can give you "some idea" about having business over there. 


Rich Kuslan is an American, he is a white guy from New York and he is a laywer, I think he has an office somewhere in NY.  According to his blog, he seems have lots of experiences in China and Taiwan. He also speaks in Japanese too.  I guess he is quite familiar with Asian country.  Unforunately, his blog has not been updated for quite a while, and I also joined his tweeter but he seems not using it for a long time.  However, I think his podcast is still worth to listen and so does his blog.  Please do visit and use is podcast as a source if you are interested in China.

Learning Chinese for Beginners_Lesson 7_How are you ? and what is your name?

In this lesson, I would like to give you guys more vocabulary this time, the vedio I am using is from World Learner Chinese, they have 4 podcast in itune and 3 vedio on youtube now but most of the learning materials are quite old like about 3 years ago.  I like thier sites especially about the forum but their last post is 3 years ago so that means basically no body is using that site anymore. 


First Vedio : It's a little bit long, but most of the time spend on explaining the vocabulary. 

Second Vedio: how you said that what is your name in Chinese?

Question:

1. How to say Good Morning in Chinese?

2. How to say Good afternoon in Chinese?

3. How to say Good night in Chinese?

4. How to say " what's your name in Chinese" and how to answer it?

5. How to say " Nice to meet you in Chinese"

6.  Is there another way to say Good Morning in chinese?

Anwers all these 6 questions in the comment I can offer you 15 min free skype Chinese lesson.  I can check your pronunce and practice the conversation or basically you can ask any questions related to learning Chinese, please take chances and hurry up answer all the questions. 

Learning Chinese for beginners_Introducing one website_Emory College Language Center

Just let you know that there are some websites that I won't introduce to you.

1. The wesbite I PERSONALLY won't use to learn in Chinese if I were a self  learner. 

2.  There are tons of chinese learning websites, I ONLY introude you the sites that are accurate, clear and full of learning materials.  I dont like waste of everybody's time. 

3.  I only introudce you Free sites.  If it's not free, I probablly won't include in my learning material.  My theory is that there are plenty of good and free learning material online, why not use it first and wait untill YOU are 100% sure, you love Chinese this language, then invest yourself for improving this language.  Part of the reason I say that is because that's the way I learn a language.  I always join a free course or use a free material if I can, then untill I learn a period of time, I 100% sure I like that language then I go purchase more materials. 


4. THEY MUST BE INTERESTING. I THINK THAT'S THE KEY.



Here I want to introduce 3 apps from Emory College of learning in Chinese.  All 3 apps are from iTune U.  I want everybody to do some revisions from those 3 apps. 

1.  go iTune U and type Emory College Language Center Mandarin Chinese-Pinyin.  There are 5 episodes. 

2. Emory College Language Center Mandarin Chinese-Numbers. Emory college is very fouced on Chinese characters learning. They don't teach separately, pinyin and chinese characters.  So in this learning numbers app, you can see what the chinese characters are.  It's short, and I just want you to have a sense of chinese characters.  For example, how to write one in chinese character.


3. Emory College Lanuguage Center-Mandarin Chinese-Radicals.  There are total 41 episodes.  It's very short, and this app is OPTIONAL, it's for those who are interested in learning writing chinese characters.  For example, if you want to learn how to write "woman" in chinese character.  Or you want to learn " rain" in chinese character.  I mean you will be amazed how different compared to characters in English.  However, I dont want you to be overwhelmed.  Just take easy, step by step.  Actually, it's very beautiful.  I love our chinese characters. 

Learning Chinese for begginer_Lesson 6 Numbers

I assume that everyone can tell what learning strategies that I am using is that in each lesson I will bring a different tool from different sites or companies or materials for you guys.  I will find all those currently produce learning chinese language companies, and you guys decide which one is best for you.  So far I havent got any money from any websites that I introduced.  I dont know in the future I will want to earn money from this blog I am wrting or not, but so far is not. 


Today, I want to introudce a website that I found it from iTune U.  If you have ipad or iphone, please download their course, its free. Its called Beginners' Chinese-Audio from The Open University.  In each audio, it's not long, between 1min-3min.  In each lesson, they all have transcript. I think that is really important for a self chinese learner. I am also welcome EVERYONE asking me questions regarding any of the webites that I already introduced, you have questions when you read their transcript or you dont understand how their explaination, please don't be hesitate to ask me. 


The Open University has lots of free courses, its worth to have a look, and in their language courses, there are other languages to learn instead of just chinese learning.  The Open University is from UK, and its mainly for distance learning and adult education.  Please do use this free resource online.

Unforunately, they don't put their audio on thier website so I can't show you the sample of learning Numbers in Chinese, so I will use youtube instead, Leaning Numbers from one to ten.

1. I want each of you to memorize it and speak very fluently (means talking in a fast speed without making any mistakes).

2. I also want you guys to memorize the pinyin from one to ten.

 

Learning Chinese for Begginer_Lesson 5_GreetingsII

So far I still open the first 5 people for a free skype chinese lesson, each lesson for 15 min, if you are a self learner and want to find a native Chinese speaker to correct your pronounciation. So please take the chance.


In today's lesson, I want to teach everyone how to introduce themselves, please listen to this  MP3 below:

Greetings II

(This Podcast is from Chineselearnonline Lesson 2 Greetings, please open their page for more learning material and also you can download their free podcast from iphone, it's free)

Every lesson, they have Vocabulary, Complete, Notes, Hints and Tips for you to learn. 

Vocabulary :

i.e. nǐ hǎo
hǎo
nǐ hǎo ma?
wǒ hěn hǎo
nǐ
wǒ
tā
tā hǎo ma?
tā hěn hǎo


Complete :

This is a very good material for you guys to learn.  Every lesson they have 3 kinds of transcript, 1 pinyin transcript, 2 simplified Chinese transcript, 3 Traditional transcript. 

I want everybody to listen to this Podcast without transcript, and then the second time listen to this Podcast with the pinyin transcript, if you want to challenge yourself you can choose either traditional chinese or simplified chinese to read while listening.  This is a very good practice and I want everybody do that for homework. 


Notes :

"Greetings:

Nǐ hǎo

The literal translation is "you good". Many adjectives in Chinese also function as verbs. So here, "good" also functions as "to be good".

Hǎo

Nǐ hǎo ma?

This is asked more seriously than in English, where we casually ask "how are you?" It is usually asked of people you haven’t seen for a long time.

Wǒ hěn hǎo

The hěn has a lighter meaning than "very" in English, so here, hěn hǎo could mean "pretty good." ©2009 www.chineselearnonline.com Lesson 2 Vocabulary & Notes Page 4/4

Pronoun summary:

Nǐ Wǒ Tā

Note: while the pronunciation of tā for he and she is the same, when written there are separate characters for he (他) and she(她).

Tāhǎ ma?

Tāhě hǎ

Xièxie

Xièxie nǐ

Note: When the same character is repeated as in the above example, the second one frequently adopts a neutral tone

Zàijiàn

The literal meaning is "again meet" or see you again (later)

Culture Note: When greeting someone in China, it is common to bow your head. For formal occasions, they will also shake hands as in the West. When businessmen meet it is obligatory to exchange business cards. "


( I copy and paste for this section from their learning material, it's free to download it for everyone, so please do so cus that help a lot for your learning)


Hints and Tips

"Make a list of all the reasons you have for wanting to learn Chinese. Perhaps you could

structure this list into what good things will happen to you if you were able to speak

Chinese. Imagine yourself in that situation - having reached your goals. What would it

feel like? Now make a list of what would happen if you didn’t reach those goals. What

would it be like to be in the same situation but not knowing how to speak Chinese? From

time to time when you get frustrated in your learning attempts (a point we all get to at

some stage), come back to this list for motivation." from Chineselearnonline

Learning Chinese for Begginer Lesson 4--Greeting.

From last three lessons, We focus on our pronuciation, let's do some revision first. 

Question No. 1 what is pinyin?

Question No. 2 Can you all pronunce all the alphabet correctly?

Question No. 3 Do you know how many tones that Chinese language has?

You can find all the answers from the previous three lessons, I open the oportunities for everyone, the first 5 people leave the message and answer those three questions correctly, I will offer them 15 min free lesson online one by one.  So hurry up find your answers in previous lessons and get free lesson from me. 



Let's watch this video first

This video is easy, it covers a little bit tone from previous lessons, and there are som vocabulary and some sentences for you to learn.  what are the new vocabulary for this video?

Let's watch what other video show you how to say hello in Chinese

This video is a little bit long but be patience, so right now you know how to say hello in Chinese now? 

Learning Chinese for Beginner Lesson 3-Tone

We spend a lot of time to focus on pronunciation, in today's lesson we are going to learn Chinese Tone.  But before we start, I would like to disscuss some of the questions that a lot of people ask me when learning in Mandarin.

Question No.1 : Learning Chinese is hard to learn?

If you think it is difficult, then it is difficult.  Well, every language has its own difficult part to learn.  Some languages have very complicated grammar or pronunciation, like German.  Generally speaking, when learning speaking in Mandarin, pinyin and grammar is easy for everyone, and for writing in Chinese characters, that might need longer time for it.  However, that won't be nessaray to stop you for learning in Mandarin.  pinyin and grammar is the main part of learning, learn how to speak is the main part, and dont forget language is all about talking. 


So Let's continue today's lesson focuing on Tone.

Check this vedio as well, then you will be more understand of Tone.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: when you practicing, please record yourself to make sure you pronunce correctly. If you have questions, please don't be hesitate to ask for questions.

If you are interested in online chinese tutor learning schedule lesson,  pleas email to kai0224liu@gmail.com

Make sure you understand the first three lessons that I provide here, cus next part we are going to learn some vocabulary and grammar.

Learning Chinese For Beginner--Lesson 2 : Pinyin !!!!

Okay...Has anybody done their homework ? Do you remember the 29 alphabet? Can you pronunce right? Before you jump into this session, you need to remember those alphabet. CUS THAT'S THE FUNDATION OF SPEAKING in MANDARIN.  Learning a new language, needs time and patience.  MEMORY, MEMORY. MEMORY. REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW. 


I remembered one of the scientific study shows that on average, people who wants to memorize a new vocabulary needs to look at  that word for AT LEAST SIX TIMES.  So just use your own spare time to study in Chinese everyday, such as while going to the bathroom, taking on a bus, or drviving.  I want the people who visit this website, commit themselves to actually invest time learning in Chinese.  I update this blog everyday.  If you encounter questions for my material, you are welcome to leave a message.


So today's Goal is just only ONE, and it is a VERY IMPORTANT ONE, THAT IS PINYIN !!! Remeber yesterday what I said about pinyin, the definition about pinyin is "Chinese Phonetic System for pronuncing Chinese Character". Pinyin is not English, we just use this system to help you know how to pronunce Chinese Characters.  Yesterday, we covered a little bit about today's lesson.  we will organised those chinese alphabet for you today. 


1. Pinyin (Initial Consonants : b,p,m,p,d,t,n,l,g,k,h,j,q,x,z,y,w)

2 Pinyin (Initial Consonants : c, zh, ch, sh, r)

3. Pinyin (Vowels : Simple Vowels a, o, e, i, u) 

4. Pinyin (Compound Vowels) 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note:

1. This person on youtube is not Me, I just use this vedio as a demonstration. 

2. You can compare today's vedio with Lesson one vedio, watch those vedio together will help you understand a lot. 

3. Homework : put all those Consonants and vowls into cards, revised when you have time and see can you pronunce correctly. 

4. If you need online turtoring, please regiser in Buddyschool, my username is Kai0224liu, or just simply leave a message for questions or lessons. 

Learning Chinese For Beginner--Lesson 1 : Pronunciation,Tone and Alphabet

Okay..There are so many chinese learning websites, and contain so many information, how do you choose a right website wont confused you and can keep you motivated?  My blog is for the self learner who really interested in learning Chinese.  Learning Chinese on your own I think that's possible, but you need to find the right way.  I feel the most important thing is your PRONUNCIATION.

Pronunciation is key for learning any language.  You need to be able to communicate with others when you learn a new language. When you learn in speaking Chinese, you need to be able to SOUNDS like talking in Chinese.  For my students, the first and the very important thing is to correct the pronunciation.  So the goal of this lesson:


1. general background of pinyin and tone,
2. pronunce chinese Alphabet. 


1.  General Background of Pinyin and Tone :  the definition of pinyin is Chinese Phonetic System for pronuncing Chinese Character.  Remember! Chinese Character has ONE syllable.  Tone; There are 4 types of tone, Different tone with the same syllable, has different meaning.  WATCH THIS VEDIO BELOW AND FOCUS ON PRONUNCIATION. NOTE: This person is not me, I am just using this video to demonstrate. 

2. The second vedio is for your alphabet pronunciation.  Chinese has 29 alphabet, you need to memorize all these 29 alphabet how to pronunce when you see them. then next step you will know how to use Chinese Pinyin. 

Assignment: you can do your own  alphabet cards, totally has 29 cards, always bring it with you and revise and you canalso  record how you sound when you repeat after those vedio.  That will always help your pronunciation. 


If you need online tutoring for your Chinese, I am in buddyschool teaching now, username is kai0224liu