Tag Archives: pronunciation

Do I speak with the right accent?

I think we are often too hung up about accents. We all have an accent, and to find someone someone speaking a language entirely ‘by the book’ is so rare that it becomes an accent in itself. Continue reading

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Filed under English, Learning, Singapore

Language learning through media

Exposing yourself to different media is not a silver bullet, but can still greatly help to become more fluent in a foreign language. Here are a couple of suggestions. Continue reading

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Learning Chinese: what makes it different from other languages?

What is easier, and what more difficult, when you learn Chinese as compared to a European language? Continue reading

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Filed under Chinese, Learning

Logic behind new Chinese words

Some of the ways in which the Chinese adopt English words in their language: description, literal translation and vocal transcription. Continue reading

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Everyone has a funny accent

There is a thin line between accents on the one hand and incorrect usage of the language and dialects on the other. When learning a foreign language, how can you ensure that you learn it “correctly”? Continue reading

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Which language learning style is best?

In my previous post, I described two styles of learning a language: the scientist and the artist. Where the scientist tries to understand the rationale and structure of a language, an artist tries to get moving with the language as soon as possible. Which style is best if you want to get fluent in a language? Continue reading

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Pronunciation and Hanyu Pinyin

Hanyu pinyin can help you pronounce Mandarin words correctly. But it’s also the other way around: knowing the correct pronunciation of words helps to distill the hanyu pinyin version. I believe that getting both right is important fundament to learning Mandarin. Continue reading

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Should you learn writing Mandarin?

As computers are replacing the pen for word processing and even the Chinese themselves are forgetting how to write certain characters, should you invest your time in learning how to write Chinese characters? Continue reading

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Learning Mandarin: the first 2 months

Charlie is British and just started learning Chinese. He keeps a blog of his learning experiences at discoveringmandarin.blogspot.com. He was so kind to write a guest post for this blog, and share his motivations and experience of learning the language … Continue reading

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How to write Mandarin in Western script

When you first start learning Mandarin, you need a way to make notes and memorize. Since the Chinese language has thousands of characters, you would end up in a sort of chicken-and-egg situation. Luckily there is Hanyu Pinyin (Mandarin written in phonetics) which employs the same roman characters as are used for English and other European languages. Continue reading

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