中文学习网站 Website for Learning Chinese?

[Guest smile]

Hello guys

I am a Chinese teacher and my job is teaching English for the IELTS test. Since my workmates are foreigners(they do not know Chinese),I teach them Chinese quite often. And that is the reason I came here.

I've read lots of your articles here, and I know that many of you have made excellent progress in learning Chinese. This impressed me deeply and, I am thinking of creating a website of learning Chinese as a second language, just for people from non-Chinese speaking countries.

Since I'm not very skillful in making webpages etc, you could imangine it would not be an easy task for me to establish such a professional website. And that's the reason for my unsure about this idea. So I just post it frankly here.

Your suggestions are welcome!

[roddy]

Probably the first thing to do would be to look at some other sites - try a Learning Chinese Search to find some ideas.

If you really don't know anything about making webpages, you'll need to learn that too. A very very basic one to start with is Weballey.net but you'll also need other sites like Webmonkey.com and W3 Schools. These are the sites I used when I was making my first site. To be honest, if I was starting again I'd probably use something like Moveable Type or PHPNuke

If you really want to do it, and have the time to invest, you could do it. My advice would be to start playing with webdesign - look at the sites above and see what you can do - but also spend time on sites like this one helping Chinese learners - that will help you see what content you need on the site.

Roddy

[Guest smile]

roddy, thanks a lot for your warm suggestion.

First, about content. I fully agree with you that the first thing for me to do is to look at some other sites to find my own idea. I have did it and have some ideas by now, for example, to make some electric Chinese learning media online; to put some more practical sentences and phrases on the site instead of a thick book which will take the reader quite a long time to read espcially for those who is coming to China in a couple of weeks; and, I want all the metials on my weibite to be free for everyone so that as many as possible people will have a chance to get to know Chinese culture well.

Second, about web design. I will try the ways you suggest to me. and I have looked at your first site the first time you tell us in the forum. It is really nice. I wish I could be that good one day.

Third, let me tell you something more about my motivation of posting my question here. Since I am a native Chinese speaker and also a teacher, I could understand that sometimes a teacher could hardly know what his or her students really need,especially when the teacher and the students are not from the same language speaking country. The teacher's idea may be fine, but it may not suit Chinese learners. The same case is for me now. I wanna help you to learn Chinese, but I'm a native Chinese, I don't know at all about your confusions about mysterious Chinese characters and Chinese pronouncition and so on. I do not know clearly about what Chinese learners really need. I want my weisite to be a real study place and a communication platform for Chinese learners. The more people tell me what they want, the more clearly I will know what kind of site you real Chinese learners want; what meterials are the most difficult for you to get; what do you want to know about Chinese culture and Chinese language, etc.

Looking forward to your suggestions!

[Guest KONI]

Well I could be of some help for you.

First I am an experienced web-programmer for some major internet sites with lots of interactive content and good designs.

Second I want/try to learn mandarin.

Why do I mention those things: Over the past weeks I have made some researches on the Internet to find all kind of informations, lessons, vocabulary to learn mandarin and such a site could be REALLY helpfull if you are considering in putting a LOT of effort in the content itself. I can help you with your site in two ways: I could explain exactly what a beginner needs (as far as I am concerned, I can explain exactly what I need and would need to progress) and I could make the site/design/content for or with you.

Now you are asking yourself why am I doing this ?

That's really simple: While helping you to put up this site, I am more or less confronted to the content itself and therefor learning some mandarin while doing the site. The site creation itself doesn't take much time if one can do it. I have a contact person (you) that I can ask if I have questions about mandarin AND I really hope that you will help me to learn mandarin while I am doing the site for you.

If this is more or less a fair deal for you, why don't we just talk some more over email: laurent.haan@bluewin.ch

Hope we have a good time together and making a good site.