Stinky Tofu and Language Learning
Earlier in the summer, I had the chance to meet a family that was in the process of moving to China. Among other things they wanted to know about resources to help their young children learn Chinese.
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What Does “Ju” Mean?
When I was living in China, newcomers, especially those who had been around for a few weeks or months and had started to pick up some new words and phrases, would often ask me, “what does ju (or some other word) mean?”
Matteo Ricci
Learning Chinese is a big task, but learning how to use the language to accomplish simple, everyday tasks is not. You may never, like Matteo Ricci, translate Chinese classics or write books in Chinese yourself. But even Ricci had to start with the basics, learning the sounds, the tones, and the simple vocabulary to accomplish the stuff of everyday life.
Mother Swears at the Horse
Tones matter!
Pinyin—Writing the Sound
Pinyin is a system of writing the sounds of Chinese using English letters—an indispensable tool for learning to speak Chinese.
How Do You Say “Chinese?”
If you are going to learn Chinese, you first have to know what it is, or it least what it's called.
Survival Chinese Lessons
This book contains 15 short lessons designed to give you just enough language learning to help you function in very basic situations. This is a must for travelers or those who are going to live in China and are looking for a way to get some of the basics.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Chinese?
Since I've been in China for 28 years, and speak Chinese reasonably well, I am often asked two questions (by foreigners), neither of which have easy answers.
To Conquer Characters, Rethink Radicals
When I began learning Chinese at age twenty-one, I was encouraged to discover that every character has a "radical", a component which communicates meaning. Characters containing the "three dots", for example, denote something to do with water. River and lake , wash and rinse , and sweat and tears all contain the water radical on the left.
Theological Chinese for Non-native Speakers
Chinese language learning opportunities have mushroomed in recent decades. For those seeking to work specifically with the church in China, however it is still not easy to find a program that covers both the requisite theological vocabulary and is accessible to non-native speakers.
Five Words Google Can’t Translate
It is exhilarating to move to a new country and communicate with people so different from ourselves. Whether through Chinese you have learned or English you have taught, the sense of accomplishment can be deep and genuine.
To Aquire the Chinese Language
For those of you hard at work learning the Chinese language, an encouraging word: