A Short List of Resources for Studying Chinese

[Shelley]

When the course starts you will get all the links and info you need.

 

edX are very good, I did a few courses with them, have a look at my blog here http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/blog/108-my-chinese-learning-blog/?st=10

 

You can see what studying with edX is like.

 

Hope it goes well for you.

[chinesemadrush]

Thanks alot Shelley. Would check out your blog!

[艾墨本]

I've done a section of the Business course. It's pretty good and I enjoyed the classes I took. My failure was as soon as I feel a little behind I couldn't catch back up. 

[imron]

Removed off-topic post.

[Flickserve]

Can consider

 

https://www.zhonga.org/

 

 

It's an online dictionary. You can look up a word and find example sentences (like juuku) and also spoken sentences with that word with a videoclip.

[Shelley]

@Flickserve

 

That's quite good, I really like the handwriting input, it works very well.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[furiop]

A new entry for flashcards is Quizlet ... 

[艾墨本]

@furiop, while I like Quizlet and it has its uses, it's lack of SRS makes it too ineffective for long term studying.

 

That said, I still require all my students to use it because it is so simple and even has a variety of interesting study methods. 

[furiop]

In effect SRS is only present in plus (20$/year) option. 

(Edit) It is a directory-based feature, and works only in web version.

[艾墨本]

It seems there have been quite a few new applications released over the past couple of months. I just want to put out a call for recommendations. Do you see any resources that should be swapped out for something else? Remember, my goal is not to have a comprehensive list, but to keep this shorter with just the subjectively best options.

[Flickserve]

Playing around with this dictionary

 

http://translation-dictionary.net/

 

I typed in 默契

 

zhonga came up with some really long sentences and no video clips

 

juuku and translation-dictionary were good for sentences.

 

 

[DanielG]

 

On 19.1.2017 at 10:19 AM, 艾墨本 said:

It seems there have been quite a few new applications released over the past couple of months. I just want to put out a call for recommendations.

 

Although I am not studying for the HSK, I have found an app called Learn Chinese-HelloHSK Level 3 (there is also an Hello HSK4 app etc) which I find to be a great resource.  It offers listening, reading and writing exercises in preparation for the HSK tests.  I find the listening exercises particularly useful and well done.  The lesson divided into a few parts. Before you start a quiz, if you want you can look and listen to some of the vocabulary and phrases used in the unit.  When the quiz starts, you first hear short texts and must find the appropriate picture.  Then there are some exercises in which you hear a short text and must answer a spoken true or false question.   Then there are some dialogs of two sentences and you much choose between three written answers, and lastly there are slightly longer dialogues of four sentences and again you have to choose between three written answers.  I like these exercises because they encourage you to focus on understanding what is said.  The reading section mostly involves finding sentences that go together, and the writing sections either involve putting words in proper order or writing a missing character.  The difficulty level of the app seems well chosen.

 

The HSK apps offer a few lessons for free but you do not necessarily have to pay money to unlock the rest of the lessons.  The makers (hschinese) have a system of awarding you coins once a day for using any of their apps (they also have a slew of other chinese learning apps), and you can use these coins to unlock the rest of the lessons.  It took a few weeks, but in my opinion, it was worth it. 

[Kevin Li]

On 19.1.2017 at 10:19 AM, 艾墨本 said:

It seems there have been quite a few new applications released over the past couple of months. I just want to put out a call for recommendations. Do you see any resources that should be swapped out for something else? Remember, my goal is not to have a comprehensive list, but to keep this shorter with just the subjectively best options.

 

Great list! 

I have a couple of resources that might add some value to it:

 

For vocabulary/writing - Zizzle: It's a new kind of mobile app for learning Chinese, especially characters. The app uses mnemonic techniques that will be familiar to those who have used Heisig, ie. visualisation, storytelling and linkwords. They also have often used words and phrases in the app, a spaced repetition system and audio support.

 

For listening - PopupChinese seems to be a pretty good alternative to ChinesePod.

 

For reading - The Marco Polo project: They present a diverse selection of new writing from China – non-fiction and social commentary from leading intellectuals and independent bloggers - formatted for non-Mandarin natives, with bilingual titles, tags, and author biographies. 

 

And generally, subscribing to MandarinWeekly is also pretty cool. They basically source the internet for new Mandarin related content and put it together in one newsletter. 

[fabiothebest]

12 minutes ago, Kevin Li said:

MandarinWeekly

I knew all apart from MandarinWeekly . It's really good. Just subscribed and looked at their archive.

On 23/1/2017 at 11:41 AM, DanielG said:

Learn Chinese-HelloHSK

I wanted to try this app too but it doesn't work for me. It shows some empty spaces where there should be text instead, no labels on buttons either, then after some seconds it crashes. Tested on iOS.

[roddy]

Kevin, if you want to introduce your own product, start a new topic and be transparent about it. Don't drag other providers into shill posts.

[Shelley]

I had a look at Zizzle sometime ago, it wasn't for me, I don't get on with Heisig and that style of mnemonics. To me it is just like putting another layer in the way, just go straight to the target language and leave out all the frilly bits.

 

The Marco Polo project looks useful, might give it a look when I have time.

 

 

 

 

[艾墨本]

Thanks for the heads-up Roddy. I'll wait until I get a user-experience review to consider it for the list. I'm with Shelly in that the added images aren't helpful for me either since it's just another layer to remember. I prefer characters in context. I wonder if the people that like pictures will get along well with it, though.

 

I like how the HSK app sounds. I'll have to check it out.

 

I'll add Marco Polo Project to the list of reading resources. Great source for advanced material that is still interesting. 

 

Mandarin Weekly is also useful. On the fence with this one, though. I've subscribed as well since I like it but I think other sources cover reading material better, especially TCB. On the other hand, their list of "online feeds" is an awesome addition: http://mandarinweekly.com/list-of-chinese-learning-feeds/

 

Edit - can't get Marco Polo Project added to the main post due to frequent crashing (after roughly one minute in the editor, but only while editing that post. No problems while editing this post). I want to add: Marco Polo Project - Authentic reading material from China for Chinese learners

[roddy]

@艾墨本 (Ha, it does work for Chinese sometimes) - I made that edit for you. Not sure what was happening, there's nothing showing in the error logs. If you have more problems drop me a line and let me know exactly what's happening. The editor can conflict with browser extensions and things like that. Obviously we need you to be able to edit the first post, so I'll see what I can do. 

[Luxi]

Besides being a very good reading resource, the Marco Polo Project is a resource for translation practice, from Chinese to English, Spanish and French. The translations on the site have been done by volunteers, and there are many untranslated articles to choose from and I imagine there's no great time pressure though I've never tried it. It seems ideal for people interested in translation.

[Kevin Li]

21 hours ago, roddy said:

Kevin, if you want to introduce your own product, start a new topic and be transparent about it. Don't drag other providers into shill posts.

 

Hi Roddy,

 

thanks for pointing this out and sorry for that. I am basically just recommending products that I really believe in and that weren't yet on the shortlist. Such as  The Marco Polo project and MandarinWeekly. Obviously I also really believe in Zizzle ;-). 

 

But that being sad, where should I start a new topic? 

 

20 hours ago, 艾墨本 said:

Thanks for the heads-up Roddy. I'll wait until I get a user-experience review to consider it for the list. I'm with Shelly in that the added images aren't helpful for me either since it's just another layer to remember. I prefer characters in context. I wonder if the people that like pictures will get along well with it, though.

 

 

Are you interested in testing it yourself or what kind of user review are you looking for? Anyways if that question doesn't belong into this forum feel free to delete it.

 

Thank you all

Kevin