Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles in the ‘Immersion and integration’ category Page 10

  1. Why you should read Chinese on your phone

    Reading Chinese in this digital age is a lot easier than it used to, but it’s actually even easier than many students think. The benefits of reading on your phone are important, including instant access to vocabulary, smaller chunks of text, portability and a sense of getting somewhere when you read. If you haven’t read a Chinese text on your phone yet, you really should give it a try.

    Read →

  2. Chinese listening practice with 锵锵三人行

    锵锵三人行 is one of the few Chinese TV programs I actually like. It’s also one of the best ones for language learners too, mostly because of it’s heavy focus on talking, availability of transcripts and variety of both guests and topics. This should be a key component of any immersion effort, but you probably need to be upper intermediate or above to benefit.

    Read →

  3. Learning Chinese through audiobooks

    Listening to audiobooks in a very good way to improve your listening ability beyond the basics. This article contains advice about how to choose a suitable novel, where to find it and how to listen to it.

    Read →

  4. Bite-sized learning isn’t enough to learn Chinese

    Bite-sized learning is great, but it’s not enough if you want to build real competence in Chinese listening and reading. To expose yourself to enough text and audio, you need long-form content that you can keep using even when you’re energy levels aren’t at 100%.

    Read →

  5. Why you should learn Chinese in Chinese

    It’s helpful to use your native language to learn Chinese, but one of the first things you should do is to convert anything you use often in the learning process into Chinese. This includes common classroom expressions or other phrases used when learning. Advanced students will find challenges in Chinese-only learning materials and dictionaries.

    Read →

  6. Review: Mandarin Companion graded readers (Level 1)

    Graded readers are an important step on your journey to becoming literate in Chinese. In this article, I review five books in the Mandarin Companion series, level 1, which uses only 300 unique characters. These books are useful for both beginners (extra reading) and intermediate learners (extensive reading).

    Read →

  7. The best Twitter feeds for learning Chinese in 2015

    The 9 best Twitter feeds for learning Chinese

    Who should you follow on Twitter if you want to learn Chinese? There’s an increasing number of people who tweet excellent language content within the 140 character limit, often with pictures. This article contains a list of the 9 best ones, including a short intro and examples of what they tweet.

    Read →

  8. Will a Chinese-only rule improve your learning?

    Is a Chinese-only rule good for learning? Most people agree that immersion is a good thing, but that’s not the same as saying that using no English is good

    Read →

  9. Using Chinese textbooks to improve reading ability

    Using textbooks to improve your Chinese reading ability

    Textbooks are underrated as a source of reading material for beginners and intermediate students. By using more than one textbook series, you reap the benefits of using textbooks, while avoiding the main drawback, the lack of diversity. This article discusses how and why textbooks are important for most learners of Chinese.

    Read →

  10. The new paperless revolution in Chinese reading

    In this (guest) article, David Moser writes about the importance of going digital in your Chinese reading practice. With the right tools and the right approach, learning to read Chinese becomes much easier. While it still requires time and dedication, it’s no longer as hard as it used to be. Don’t miss out on the paperless revolution in Chinese reading!

    Read →