[lastupdated] While these days, there are many great smartphone apps and websites with online Chinese dictionaries, paper Chinese dictionaries are still around and still very useful. In fact, sometimes, paper dictionaries can be better than digital dictionaries because you can be more focused using them, and you don’t have the distractions of your computer or …
Author Archives: sinocelt
Mandarinportal Now Has Social Media Accounts
[lastupdated] I am excited to announce that mandarinportal.com now has social media accounts. Its Facebook page is located at facebook.com/mandarinportal The Twitter page is located at twitter.com/mandarinportal In addition, there is a Diaspora account located at https://joindiaspora.com/u/mandarinportal
Ideas For Continuing To Study Chinese
[lastupdated] Learning a language can be hard, especially Mandarin Chinese. You have to continually review or be exposed to the language otherwise you might forget a lot. Even if you are not in China, you can still study Chinese, practice your Chinese with native speakers, and continue to progress in your Chinese language ability or …
Ways In Which Chinese Is Easier Than English
[lastupdated] In some ways, Chinese is more systematic and logical than English. Both languages of course have exceptions in grammar etc, but in some cases, Chinese is actually easier than English. This post will discuss some of the ways in which Chinese can be easier and more logical than English.
A Bilingual Chinese-English T-Shirt
A few days ago, I went shopping. I saw an interesting bilingual t-shirt, so I took pictures of it. An example of a shirt that says very different things in different languages. The English says Tokyo. The Chinese says 紐約洛杉磯 meaning New York Los Angeles. I think this was clearly made for a “coolness” factor …
Using Spotify To Improve Your Chinese Listening Ability
[lastupdated] Using Spotify can help improve your Chinese listening ability. Spotify is a fantastic and free online music streaming site. Spotify has many songs from Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan, and you can create your own Chinese language radio stations with Spotify. You can even search individual artists, and listen to a few of their songs …
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Using Wikipedia And Baidu’s Encyclopedia To Improve Your Chinese Reading Ability
[lastupdated] There are some incredibly good sources on the web to help you master your Chinese reading ability for free. This article is about the two best Chinese encyclopedias on the web. Furthermore, this article will talk about how using Wikipedia and Baidu’s Encyclopedia can improve your Chinese reading ability.
Counterfeit Foreign Food In Mainland China
I have encountered many fake foreign foods in Mainland China. You have to have a keen eye because differences between real items and counterfeits can be very subtle, but piracy and the market for counterfeit items in Mainland China flourishes. Have you ever seen a fake Red Bull can, or fake Western snack food? This …
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5 Great Ways To Improve Your Chinese Writing Ability
[lastupdated] Chinese writing is a difficult skill to get good at just like any other skill. If you intend to become truly fluent in Chinese and be able to convey complicated ideas, you will need to know how to write in Chinese. Speaking alone will only get you so far. Chinese writing, like writing in …
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Using Caveman Chinese
[lastupdated] Have you ever had a conversation in your own native language with a non-native speaker whose ability in your language was atrocious, but you could still understand the basic meaning of what the person was trying to say it? The point of language is to communicate, and you can get by with limited Chinese …