Articles in the ‘Advanced’ category Page 17
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The forking path: A human approach to learning Chinese
Top-down, project management style learning often fails for a number of reasons, but there are alternative, softer approaches to learning Chinese. In this article, I introduce one such approach that focuses on small, everyday choices rather than distant goals.
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How to get past the intermediate Chinese learning plateau
When you start learning Chinese, your ability to communicate increases with every word you learn, but as your level improves, this feeling goes away and you it might feel like you’re no longer making progress. Welcome to the intermediate plateau!
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How important is reading speed on tests like HSK and TOCFL?
Reading speed is an issue on proficiency tests like HSK and TOCFL. But how much of a problem is it? How fast do you need to read? This article discusses the role of reading speed on proficiency exams.
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Training your Chinese teacher, part 3: Listening ability
Listening ability is generally overlooked in language teaching. At first glance, it might seem that having a teacher is not as useful for improving listening as it is for improving speaking, but is that really the case? This article covers both what you should and what you shouldn’t do with your teacher if improving listening ability is your goal!
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The nine principles of learning (and the mistakes from failing to follow them)
In 2014, Scott Young spent 100 days learning Chinese, after which he was able to speak freely on a wide range of topics, as well as pass HSK 4. Since then, he’s continued exploring effective learning and has now published a book called Ultralearning. He hasn’t abandoned Chinese, though, and in this article, he discusses nine important principles for effective learning and how they relate to studying Chinese.
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101 questions and answers about how to learn Chinese
This is the biggest collections of questions and answer about how to learn Chinese anywhere. The questions are sorted into categories, and each question is answered briefly before links to further information is provided. If you have a question about how to learn Chinese, you’re very likely to find the answer here! If your question hasn’t been answered, please consider leaving a comment!
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The most common Chinese words, characters and components for language learners and teachers
A good principle for choosing what to learn is to focus on the most useful things first, but how do you know what’s most useful? Frequency lists can be helpful, but are often misused.
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How good is voice recognition for learning Chinese pronunciation?
Speech recognition technology has developed rapidly and can now be relied on to correctly identify standardised and clear pronunciation in Mandarin. But can it be used to check your Mandarin pronunciation? Not necessarily. This article looks at how well speech recognition software deals with non-native and low-quality audio, focusing on the question if speech recognition is too lenient for pronunciation practice.
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Using speech recognition to improve Chinese pronunciation, part 1
Speech recognition technology has developed rapidly and can now be relied on to correctly identify standardised and clear pronunciation in Mandarin. But can it be used to check your Mandarin pronunciation? Not necessarily. There are two problems that need to be investigated to answer that question. This article looks at the first: If speech recognition is unable to identify what you say, does that mean that your pronunciation is bad, or could it be the speech recognition that isn’t good enough?
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Training your Chinese teacher, part 2: Speaking ability
Finding a good Chinese teacher is not easy, but there are many things you can do to get more out of the time you spend with your teacher. In the second article in this series, I discuss focusing on speaking ability with a teacher, including what to look for in a good teacher, common problems and how to tackle them, along with some suggestions for more advanced learners.
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