Today I want to talk about the new Chinese language courses “Hacking Chinese – A practical Guide to Learn Mandarin” and Unlocking Chinese – The ultimate course for beginners created by Olle Linge, author of the well-known blog, “Hacking Chinese.”

Who is Olle Linge and what is his philosophy on learning?

Olle Linge is a Swedish young man who, after studying for almost a decade, obtained a masters degree for teaching Chinese as a second language in Taipei. Besides teaching Chinese privately and managing “Hacking Chinese”, which is in my opinion one of the two or three best websites around, Olle has also created two courses that promises to teach you how to learn Chinese.

Olle sums up his philosophy on learning through an ancient proverb:

“授人以魚，不如授人以漁.”

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” [Read more…]

Singapore is one of the most developed and well-functioning states in the world. It’s not strange that numerous foreigners wish to relocate here to study or pursue career goals.

Many foreigners who move to Singapore never look back and decide to stay here for years, not rarely over a lifetime. What makes this small nation stand out is its multicultural environment, cultural heritage, and ease of doing business. Quality of life is high and the food amazing.

Having said that, Singapore has some notable pros and cons if you plan to study Chinese there. In this article, we review what the main benefits and drawbacks are. I will also list universities and private schools that offer programs and courses in Chinese and how much it costs.

[Read more…]

I have been living in China for more than five years and every time I go home, people ask me:

“Isn’t it really hard to learn Chinese letters?”

To which I respond: “Not as hard as you think.”

The next question is usually:

“Do you know the whole alphabet?”

To which I don’t know what to say, so I just answer “No, not yet.”

This article is dedicated to the people that ask me these things, as well as for those who are interested in Chinese writing and don’t know where to start.

When you finish reading this article, you will have a basic idea of Chinese writing and will have learned some of these incorrectly named Chinese letters effortlessly, in such a way that you are not going to forget them easily.

If you stumbled upon this article accidentally because you want to get a tattoo with Chinese letters, wait a second, as you might still learn something and avoid getting a tattoo of something that your future Chinese girlfriend/boyfriend is going to laugh at every time they see it. [Read more…]

P.S. Click here to test your HSK level with our free quiz!

Premise

Before taking the time to read this guide, know that you can only really appreciate it if you’ve already reached level 5 of the HSK exam or if you’ve already attained a good level.

Consider too that you’ll have to know more than 2500/3000 words before being able to specifically work on the HSK 6. Happy studies!

Structure of the test

[Read more…]

Chinese writing has a fascination all its own: from the ornamental aspect, which all can appreciate even without being an expert, to the symbolic value which is exotic to us, to the long tradition that the characters bring from over two millennia of history full of meaning and even magic.

There are those who don’t consider it so much as a form of writing the words of a spoken language as much as a system for “writing the world”.

In this article I will speak to you about the rules through which this “world” is created on paper: starting from an alphabetic writing you’ll be used to, up to simple signs that indicate sounds whose combinations create the written text, while the question becomes a little more complicated for Chinese.

[Read more…]

Learning Chinese has become an increasingly common objective not just for future Sinologists and experts but also for neophytes in the world of business where it has become continuously more important.

There are in fact an infinite amount of resources for how to best learn this language and facilitate learning for the user in this difficult undertaking.

These days, the quickest and most intuitive are certainly the numerous mobile apps for learning a language, and when it comes to Chinese, there’s one you probably already know.

I’m talking about Pleco, the English/Chinese dictionary for iOS systems and Android for which I’ll now present a brief review.

[Read more…]