E flashcard is a great tool for learning a language.  Currently almost every major Chinese education site has a version. The ones that have been recommended to me are iFlash, Anki and Quizlet (the only one that isn’t free, but I heard it’s totally worth it). Other than Chinese, they also have many other languages and subjects you can choose from.

http://www.loopware.com/iflash/

http://ankisrs.net/

http://quizlet.com/

To download flashcards are easy, you simply:

1. Go to the website.

2. Download the free software.

3. Download the language you want into the deck.

Voila!

Another reason why technology is great for language students.

My student Ed just told me about the app this morning. It really seemed like a dream come true!

As I was preparing to teach a business Mandarin class, I stumbled upon this great site:

http://www.liveabc.com/site/businesstalk/busi.asp

It covers all the basic business topics from Quality Control, Production, Advertising to International Trade-Shipping. On the upper right corner of the site there are three black buttons which allow you to switch between displaying Chinese and English together or individually. The 4 left vertical buttons on the left side (the last one doesn’t work) are for Conversational Chinese,  Business Chinese, and categorized Daily Vocabularies.

The site is intended for Chinese speakers to learn English, not the other way around, so you do need to have basic Chinese knowledge to get the most out of it.

Dreaming in Chinese is a wonderful book recommended by a student of mine Robert Miller. I introduced it to my other students and so far everyone loved it. It is witty, fun, and offers great insights for people who are interested in understanding the Chinese culture.

The author Deborah Fallows is a Harvard graduate and has a PhD in Linguistics. She has lived in Shanghai and Beijing and traveled throughout China for three years with her husband, writer James Fallows. Her method of getting under the skin of the country was to immerse herself in its language. In “Dreaming in Chinese,” she uses key phrases and concepts to unlock aspects of the society that interested or surprised her, casting light along the way on many idiosyncrasies of the Chinese view of the world.

““Dreaming in Chinese” is chatty and colloquial, with helpful photographs and drawings, as well as a pronunciation guide. The eager student will learn a fair bit about the history of the language and how its array of characters and tones were systematized, all the while gathering insights into the country’s customs and culture. Rather than draw sweeping conclusions, Fallows sticks to her own experiences and observations, which makes her book all the more valuable. China hands will have many moments of recognition. For others, “Dreaming in Chinese” will be a fascinating introduction to a foreign culture.”- The New York Times Book Review

I have been trying to figure out how to add tone marks over pinyin. I came across this great Mandarin education blog for children. It happens to have the solution for my question.

http://blog.sweetplumfairy.com/

How you can add the tone marks over Pinyin:

http://blog.sweetplumfairy.com/http:/blog.sweetplumfairy.com/posts/443

http://www.yale.edu/chinesemac/pages/romanization.html

So much to see. Enjoy!

http://www.flash61.com/flash/3/

p.s. My personal favorite is the pinyin section http://www.flash61.com/flash/4/

I can never stress enough how important it is to REALLY SPEND TIME on learning your Pinyin! Seriously! There are so many people who have studied Chinese for years and still get the most basic words wrong. This will not happen if you have a good foundation of Pinyin as a beginner. 


Don’t use the way you read English to apply to Pinyin, it’ll only give you trouble.

I highly recommend this aid for all beginners.

http://www.standardmandarin.com/

http://chineseliteracy.net/summer/cssystem_062908.swf

If you are learning Chinese, or trying to improve you Chinese, you have to know about this great website Yellow Bridge.

I learned from a student of mine who is going to a Chinese bilingual school. He needs language tools like this one to help him finish his homework faster.

I use it all the time myself for their Chinese-English/English-Chinese dictionary.

It also has tons of other Chinese learning resources.