Laowai Chinese 老外中文It appears that every 7 years or so (that often?!), I update my blog’s appearance. This new layout, while feeling a bit… umm… “thick” to me, actually works much better for mobile devices so all my readers with smart phones (aka me and my mom) can enjoy all the non-stop action of this blog while […]
Yesterday a friend showed me Waygo, an app that uses your camera to read hanzi off menus in restaurants, etc. (By the way, that feature is called an OCR = Optical Character Recognizer.) What impressed was that it’s free! Here’s the catch: you get “10 daily translations” with an optional paid upgrade to “unlimited translations for […]
As I mentioned before, on July 17 Yangyang and I did a live broadcast answering viewers’ questions about learning Chinese. We had a GREAT time (and I hope the viewers did too). Just so you know how the technology works: viewers type in their questions, and then other viewers can vote for the questions they like […]
Yesternight, I was on the bus and saw this fairly typical sign: I’ve taken this same bus lots of times, but never really paid attention to this sign. I found I could read every character except the one I’ve circled in blue. I also couldn’t use my usual trick of guessing from the context (because this […]
I’m currently back in the USA for a short trip and Yangyang from Yoyo Chinese has invited me to do a live Google Hangout with her tomorrow. I’ve never done this before, but from what I understand she and I will sit in front of the camera and anyone who “tunes in” (how THAT works, I […]
A: “Dude! Have you ever wondered if what I see as ‘red’ is the same color that you see as ‘red’?” B: “No dude! It’s scientific. ‘Red’ is just a label for a certain wavelength on the spectrum.” A: “I know, Dude. But how do we know what our brains ‘see’ when our eyes perceive […]
I had a great time teaching the Beginning Chinese class to the foreign teachers here at Peizheng College last term. I learned a lot and I’m very much looking forward to teaching it again next term. I’ve decided to share the following information from my first term teaching Chinese in hopes that other Chinese teachers […]
WARNING: This article is an explanation of the footnote in my conceptual breakdown of foreign language teaching. It’s really written more for language teachers and testers than learners. Language instruction is typically divided into four skills: 4 Skills for Most Foreign Languages Aural Visual Reception Listening Reading Production Speaking Writing But for learning Chinese, the […]
A Conceptual Breakdown of Foreign Language Teaching (See also my explanation and definition of some key terms, especially “concepts” vs. “skills”) (See also an explanation of the footnote about handwriting vs. typing) I have the privilege of teaching three different subjects at Peizheng College: English, music, and Chinese (coming soon is a report on how my first […]
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