Articles in the ‘Distinctively Chinese’ category Page 10
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Obligatory and optional tone change rules in Mandarin
As if learning basic tones wasn’t enough, tones in Mandarin also influence each other and change depending on context. Some of these tone change rules you have to learn, but others are better left alone and will be absorbed automatically over time.
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Expanding your Chinese with 一步一个脚印
一步一个脚印 is a blog about translating and interpreting Chinese, providing high quality posts about vocabulary and expressions in Chinese and English, as well as interpretation and translation exercises.
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Learning to read handwritten Chinese
Everybody struggles with writing Chinese characters by hand, even if handwriting can often be avoided in a modern, digital society. But what about reading other people’s handwriting?
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Accessing Chinese culture through cartoons
Accessing Chinese culture can be very hard if you go through the original stories or written versions. If you go through cartoons online, however, it not only becomes easier, it’s also more fun!
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The best Twitter feeds for learning Chinese in 2016
Learning Chinese through Twitter is great because it gives you bite-sized chunks. This post presents the best Twitter feeds for learning Chinese in 2016.
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How technology can help you learn Chinese
Technology has changed the way we learn Chinese, mostly to the better. This article is about some of the most important implications of this, focusing mainly on the positive effects of technology.
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Chinese characters that share the same components but are still different
Some Chinese characters consist of the same components in different places, creating completely different characters. This article discusses this phenomenon and its implications for language learners.
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Learn Chinese character meaning and pronunciation together
A large majority of all Chinese characters look the way they do because of how they are pronounced. You can use this to your benefit if you learn Chinese character meaning and pronunciation together.
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Learning tones in Mandarin is not optional
Learning tones in Mandarin is not optional. The longer you wait before paying attention to tones, the more you will have to relearn later. If you don’t know the tone, you don’t know the word. It takes time to learn to hear tones and treat them as integral parts of syllables, but the sooner you start, the better.
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The Hacking Chinese free tone training course
Learning to hear the difference between tones is difficult for many learners. Research shows that speaker variability and a systematic and predictable approach are key to overcoming the problem. With this article, I launch a tone training course, which is meant to provide you with just that. For free!
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