martin_r Posted June 25, 2011 at 10:28 AM Report Posted June 25, 2011 at 10:28 AM Can anyone recommend some on-line news websites that would be suitable for me? I think I need a break from stuff that's purposely written for language students. I'm looking for shortish topical articles, maybe written for a less educated Chinese readership - but dealing with real news (not celebrity gossip, please!). The idea is that real-life interest will motivate me to pick away at new vocabulary and make it easier to retain. Quote
rezaf Posted June 25, 2011 at 11:30 AM Report Posted June 25, 2011 at 11:30 AM try this one: 163 I usually read the 社會 part which is not very difficult but if your Chinese is at beginner level then maybe you should first start reading some celebrity news in 娛樂! ;) Quote
anonymoose Posted June 25, 2011 at 12:57 PM Report Posted June 25, 2011 at 12:57 PM Well, let's turn the table around and ask what you would recommend for an easy English news website? I think news tends to fall into two categories, which are either formal using formal language, or casual and satirical, using colloquial language. As a learner at elementary level, in my opinion, you would be better off reading formal news. At least that way, most of the unknown words could be found in a dictionary, and the meaning should be fairly transparent. The problem with less formal news is that many colloquialisms are likely to pop up, and it may be more difficult to figure out the meaning. Therefore, I suggest just finding something that interests you, and accept that initially it will be a challenge to struggle through whichever website you get it from. 1 Quote
rezaf Posted June 25, 2011 at 01:22 PM Report Posted June 25, 2011 at 01:22 PM After quite a few years of learning Chinese, formal news(like xinhua) is still not very easy for me. Personally I think it's more suitable for an intermediate level student and as a beginner he will need to check everything word by word to know what's going on which is not convenient. Quote
martin_r Posted June 25, 2011 at 09:57 PM Author Report Posted June 25, 2011 at 09:57 PM Great! This is just the kind of thing I had in mind. The first article I found was about somebody setting fire to his wife after an argument. Nasty, but vivid stuff, real, factual, not abstract. Tons of vocabulary, but a good chance some of it will stick. I just recently got WenLin, which should speed up the dictionary work and at some point I might get someone at Rhinospike to read it aloud for me. This might not be something I'll do every day, but it's a break from routine. Maybe it'll be a benchmark to return to and see if it gets easier. Thanks! Quote
trevelyan Posted June 26, 2011 at 10:58 AM Report Posted June 26, 2011 at 10:58 AM You should check out News in Chinese too. Feeds off Xinhua and filled with a lot of vocab you won't find in other dictionaries that should save on the dictionary lookup stuff. If you run into words the system doesn't recognize, just highlight the missing word and provide a suitable gloss to teach the system. Quote
wedge Posted June 27, 2011 at 10:16 AM Report Posted June 27, 2011 at 10:16 AM I find that news that is translated from English, like www.ftchinese.com or cn.wsj.com, is significantly easier to read than news that was originally written in Chinese. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.