Chinese Forums featured on "Hacking Chinese" (Sept 2013)

[Ruben von Zwack]

I thought maybe it would be nice to post here that Chinese Forums is featured this week on Hacking Chinese:

http://www.hackingchinese.com/5-websites-to-help-answer-your-questions-about-chinese/

In the guidelines on how to make a sensible post, Olle sounds like Roddy

His other mentions, Stack Chinese, and Lang8, sound interesting, too.

[abcdefg]

Lang8 is useful for improving your writing. Been using it for years. Bet you would like it, @Ruben von Z.

[ChTTay]

ABCDEFG - Do you write an entry on something (anything?) then someone comes a long and suggests corrections? Like a diary or something from your textbooks?

I joined iTalki a while back but never got around to using it. I was never sure what to write. With any homework I had from University, the teacher would correct and grade it anyway.

[abcdefg]

ABCDEFG - Do you write an entry on something (anything?) then someone comes a long and suggests corrections?

Yes, more or less. I write a short piece about a place I've been or something I've seen, and then several native speakers make corrections. In return, I correct things they have written in English.

Topics can be easy: "Saw a good movie yesterday," or "Went to a new restaurant today," or "A funny thing happened on the bus."

After a while you learn whose corrections are most trustworthy, by which I mean that they help me fix important mistakes and they aren't just picky and trivial. All corrections are not equally good; some people just like to change your wording for no valid reason. That's where it helps to have several people looking at your stuff. You can see if there's a consensus.

You establish a system of friends that lets you be notified of new posts by certain people, and they are notified when you post new material.

They want it to be a reciprocal activity in which you get corrections of your Chinese and give corrections of English in return.

Generally speaking, the people who make corrections can't tell you why a word or phrase is wrong. They aren't really teachers. They can just say "this doesn't look right" or "this doesn't sound right" or "I think this would be better."

It isn't a total way to learn Chinese, but it's a useful addition to the other things a person might be doing.

[Kelby]

Having found this forum before Olle featured it makes me feel like such a hipster.

In all seriousness, there needs to be a way to make this forum easier to find. I had to dig for a long time through a bunch of dead forums before I could find this place.

[OneEye]

Really? I dunno, years ago, when I was looking for a place online to discuss Chinese, I googled "Chinese forum." It worked just fine.

What do you know? It still works. #1 result and everything. What were you searching for?

[muyongshi]

Same or me. I was googling for HSK advice the night before the exam and this was the first result. (Hmmm maybe we should have a what was your first post/google search/reason for joining thread. Could be fun.)

[Kelby]

Perhaps it's because I was searching for "best Chinese forum," or "top Chinese forum." Neither of which have this place at #1. Blame my poor attention span for clicking through more than 2 Google results ;) I also do most of my surfing on an iPhone through the firewall so that might reveal why my search went so poorly.

At least this place can be found eventually by inept Googlers like myself

[roddy]

"best Chinese forum," or "top Chinese forum."

To be fair, a) we don't target those phrases (actually we don't target ANY phrases) and b) we're still top 5* for both (thanks to the BEST of Chinese study tools topic). We have incoming long-tail search traffic in the thousands daily**, and if you're using Google to help you study Chinese or plan a trip to China I think there's a fair chance you'll find us. Recognising our brilliance is up to you.

I do next to nothing on SEO / link marketing, and any links you see will be organic - there are two out there, I think, on a you-scratch-my-back basis, but everything else is because the site owner thought it useful. So it's always nice to see, and appreciated.

*Your mileage may vary, according to how Google is serving up your results .

** While I was writing this post: coolest Chinese symbols, girls neightlife (!) Beijing, cedict cantonese, hairdresser wudaokou beijing, how to get the subtitle file off a dvd; teaching English in China forum, chinese coursebooks in american university, plus 18 others 'not provided', as Google has taken its keyword data ball and gone home