Articles in the ‘Learning outside class’ category Page 4
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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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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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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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12 ways chatting online will improve your Chinese
Chatting is an excellent way of learning a language. Some people think chatting online is a waste of time, but in this article I list and explain a dozen reasons why this is wrong. In fact, chatting offer many advantages that are very hard to find elsewhere.
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How to best use flashcards to learn Chinese
Flashcards; some people love them, some people hate them. The goal of Hacking Chinese is to go beyond the black and white, and figure out how things work so we can use them to our advantage.
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Why flashcards are terrible for learning Chinese
Flashcards are often viewed as a silver bullet, promising swift mastery of characters, words and more, but relying on flashcards too much has serious drawbacks, and if you’re not careful, they can hinder more than they help.
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Student Q&A, December 2023: How many words to learn, if it’s good to learn radicals, and whether to learn simplified or traditional characters
How many words is reasonable to learn in a day? Will focusing on radicals make learning characters easier? And should you learn simplified or traditional characters, or maybe both?
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Why flashcards are great for learning Chinese
The humble flashcard: A key component in a successful strategy, or a distraction from what truly matters? Few things have sparked as much debate as the use of flashcards for learning a foreign language.
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The 10 best free Chinese reading resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners
Reading is the best way to expand vocabulary and learn new things in Chinese. What are the best free resources out there for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners? This article collects and introduces the ten best free reading resources in each category!
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Student Q&A, November 2023: Reading Pinyin or characters, comprehensible vs. compelling content and reading tools
How do you transition from reading Pinyin to reading characters? Are compelling texts better than comprehensible texts? And which tools should you use when reading Chinese?
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