Tips and tricks to help you learn Chinese
Think you’re ready to take the HSK? Here’s a great way to check: the official Chinese online mock HSK tests! And they’re free!
One thing though: they’re all in Chinese. Just like the real HSK test will be. Don’t worry though! This step by step walkthrough will get you started with this great HSK test practice in no time.
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To prove how good you are in English, you can take the TOEIC or the TOEFL. These standardized exams are used across the world to assess the English level of non-native English speakers. Want to assess your level in Chinese? You’re in luck, the Chinese Hanban (National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language) created the HSK Chinese exams for that exact purpose a few years ago. Read on to learn more about the exam and why you should be taking it!
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Our last article talked about tones, and how important they are in Chinese language. Especially if you’re planning on being understood in China! Now, on to another important point: How to get your tones right when speaking Chinese.
First off, for those of us that come from non-tonal languages, trying to think about making a sound and modulating the tone of your voice to go up and down is a process that we are utterly unused to. It doesn’t come naturally. But, fret not. You can learn tones. And here’s how.
read moreIf cats can fly, you can learn Chinese. Cats make everything possible. 🙂 Can’t see the video above? Check it out here.
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Microsoft has just announced a new voice recognition technology that not only translates what you’re saying into another language, rearranges the words into the other language’s correct order but also plays back the results using your own voice (see demo after the jump), making it that much more realistic. Is this going to enable us to speak Chinese without having to actually learn Chinese?
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Think tones don’t matter when speaking Chinese? Wait til you get to China and try to say something. Odds are you’ll draw blank stares and shrugs because no one can understand what you’re saying. Or worse, you might suddenly get insulted, for a seemingly unknown reason! The culprit? Your Chinese tones!
Those five little accents are key to being understood in China and maintaining peaceful interactions with people. This is a lesson I learned the hard way when I first moved to China…
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Turning information into lasting knowledge is a science. Really remembering something is a science. And like any science, it requires great tools. One of the most effective memorization methods and tools? Spaced repetition. So much in fact that spaced repetition will absolutely be part of the Ninchanese learning experience. Here’s why we love it.
“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”
Samuel Johnson, an 18th century English essayist, pinpointed this important fact early on: a key to long term memory retention is being reminded.
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Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one corner, and it is for you to find the other three.
Confucius, quoted by Jesse Schell in his Game Design bible, The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses.
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Chinese is a great language to learn. It’s fun; it’s fascinating; it’s a challenge. It can also easily be forgotten. Because that’s how our memory works. It forget things. The way to prevent this? You practice. Better yet, you make it your daily routine to practice Chinese. The idea: To hit refresh on your knowledge, on all that new Chinese vocab, regularly so you don’t forget it. Here are a few tips to help you optimize practicing and efficiently learn.
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Being educated at school does not make it all. As they say, the master teaches you the way but you have to word on your own to reach your goals.
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