I’m continuing to learn Chinese (Mandarin) in my spare time. (Although I’m not sure I really have any). This year I made a change in how I’m doing things. I decided to give the team at Hanbridge Mandarin a try. I’m doing online Skype/Webex based video classes 3 times per week for about an hour, one on one with a teacher. Teachers for Hanbridge mostly seem to be ShenZhen based.

2016-03-05

One of my biggest goals for this year was to try to pass the HSK 3 exam. I wanted to do it as a validation of my efforts to learn Chinese. HSK (Hanyu Shui Ping Kaoshi - 汉语水平考试) is the exam given to foreigners to assess their level of Chinese. (Hanyu is the Chinese language, Shuiping basically means a level of achievement, and Kaoshi is an exam). The organisation that runs it is called Hanban.

2015-07-13

Happy new year to all my Chinese readers! Particular thanks to those that have been helping me to learn Mandarin and patiently answering my elementary questions. 恭贺新禧. 新年快乐. 感谢你的帮助，去年

2013-02-10

I had a surprisingly large number of responses from my previous posting about learning Chinese. An update for those considering Rosetta Stone (www.rosettastone.com) for Chinese, Spanish or any other language that they offer: I had to renew my “Studio” subscription today and it’s now a much worse deal than it was. It’s now $75 for 6 months for Studio sessions. Online classes used to be 45 mins. Recently they reduced them to 20 mins.

2012-11-28

If you have Chinese friends, it’s time to say 新年快乐 to them! (Xīnnián kuàilè -> Pronounced like Shin Nien Kwai Ler) They are welcoming in the year of the dragon.

2012-01-23

Another book that I’ve just finished reading on the Kindle is Dreaming in Chinese by Deborah Fallows. I had purchased the hard cover edition a while back on the recommendation of colleague Ron Talmage but hadn’t got to reading it. I was glad to then see the Kindle edition of the book appear. I purchased and read it and loved it. Deborah spent three years recently living in Shanghai and has documented many of the struggles she had with coming to terms with learning Mandarin and with getting used to Chinese society.

2011-06-01

It’s that time of the year again with the start of the year of the rabbit. So for all the Chinese folk, happy new year! 新年快乐

2011-02-03

过年好 or perhaps 新年快乐 but Happy New Year anyway!

2009-01-26

It’s that time of the year again for all the blog readers of Chinese heritage. Shortly I’ll be off to dinner and probably briefly to the local temple with Mai’s parents. I hope all readers have a great Chinese new year! 祝你新年快乐。 (I hope I got that right or at least close)

2008-02-06