Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles in the ‘Advanced’ category Page 5

  1. Student Q&A, April 2024: Learning chengyu, listening to yourself and using role-playing games to learn Chinese

    Is recording and listening to your own Chinese useful for improving your speaking ability? How can you use chengyu to expand your repertoire? And how can role-playing games be utilised to improve your spoken Chinese?

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  2. Is speaking more important than listening when learning Chinese?

    What languages do you speak? Do you speak Chinese? We often use speaking to represent language ability in general, but does that mean that speaking is more important than listening?

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  3. The best podcasts for learning Chinese in 2024

    Podcasts let you create your own Chinese immersion experience, with level-appropriate stories and authentic conversations. Learn flexibly on the go with the best podcasts for beginners, intermediate and advanced students!

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  4. Real communication: What it is, why you want it and how to get it

    A language is a structured system used for communication, so the idea to focus on communication when learning Chinese sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly new and rarer than you think!

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  5. How to learn Chinese in the long term with intrinsic motivation

    While strong motivation doesn’t necessarily accelerate your learning or improve your memory, without it you won’t spend enough time learning Chinese. So how can you stay motivated for months, years and even decades?

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  6. Student Q&A, March 2024: Reading aloud, finding word boundaries, and working actively with reading materials

    How can you improve your ability to read aloud in Chinese? How can you learn to see where a word starts and ends in a text? And how can you make sure you get the most out of your reading practice?

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  7. Outlier Chinese Character Masterclass review: Understand more, learn faster, remember longer

    Mastering Chinese characters, whether you find them enchantingly beautiful or overwhelmingly complex, is essential for literacy in Chinese. Outlier Linguistics will help you understand how the Chinese writing system works, making it easier to learn!

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  8. Listen more and learn more by building a personal Chinese audio library

    The more you listen, the more you learn, but listening more is not as easy as it sounds. By building a personal Chinese audio library, you ensure that you always have something suitable to listen to, no matter what situation you’re in.

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  9. 8 great ways to scaffold your Chinese listening and reading

    Listening and reading in Chinese can be a challenge, especially when your level is not high enough. To understand more and thereby also learn more, use scaffolding!

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  10. Student Q&A, January 2024: Chinese music, too much Mandarin in the classroom, and listening in noisy environments

    Is listening to music a good way to learn Chinese? How can you learn to understand Mandarin spoken in noisy environments? And what if your teacher speaks only Chinese, but you don’t understand what she says?

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