new language who dis?

I wanted to share a resource for reading practice that I stumbled across recently. It’s called the Chinese Reading World, and it was a project led by the University of Iowa.

The site was put together from 2005 to 2008, so it’s not super up to date. However, there is a ton of content! Everything is sorted into 3 levels: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. 

Each level has 30 units, and each unit has 10 lessons. The lessons begin with a vocab pre-test, then there is a reading with some comprehension questions. Lastly, there is a vocab post-test, which is the same as the initial test (at least for the lessons I’ve done so far). There’s audio for each lesson text, but unfortunately it can’t be streamed—you have to download it. There is also an achievement test at the end of each unit.

My experience has actually been that I already know all the words on the vocabulary tests, but the reading passages contain other words that I’m not familiar with.

So far, the readings I’ve encountered are not very long. This is nice since reading longer pieces can be frustrating at times. With shorter readings, you can just read 1 or 2 on some days and read more when you have more time/patience. I believe the readings are taken from Chinese newspapers.

Also, every unit has a theme. With 90 units total, there are bound to be themes that interest you. Example unit topics:

Directions and Asking Direction 方向和问路

Sports and Outdoor Activities 体育和户外运动

Chinese Music and Musicians 中国音乐和音乐家

Chinese Minorities and Local Customs 地方习俗和民族风情

Chinese Sports and Olympic Games 体育和奥林匹克

Contemporary Chinese Literature and Writers 中国当代文学和作家

The 3 levels also each come with 5 proficiency tests. They seem to be based on vocabulary knowledge, so expanding your vocab is clearly a huge focus of this site. The only thing I’m unclear is about is I’m not sure exactly when the proficiency tests are meant to be taken. After completing all units? Or are they spaced out so you are supposed to take test 1 after the first few units, test 2 after the next few, etc.?

It’s from a quote that I saw floating around on tumblr that decided to start living in my head full-time:

When the violin repeats what the piano has just played, it cannot make the same sounds and it can only approximate the same chords. It can however, make recognizably the same “music,” the same air. But it can do so only when it is faithful to the self-logic of the violin as it is to the self-logic of the piano.

Language too is an instrument, and each language has its own logic. I believe that the process of rendering from language to language is better conceived as a “transposition” than as a “translation,” for “translation” implies a series of word-for-word equivalents that do not exist across the language boundaries any more than piano sounds exist in the violin.

The notion of word-for-word equivalents also strikes me as false to the nature of poetry. Poetry is not made of words but of word-complexes, elaborate structures involving, among other things, denotations, connotations, rhythms, puns, juxtapositions, and echoes of the tradition in which the poet is writing. It is difficult in prose and impossible in poetry to juggle such a complex intact across the barrier of language. What must be saved, even at the expense of making four strings do for eighty-eight keys, is the total feeling of the complex, its gestalt.

Hi it’s werelivingarts and I’m back with some unique tips on learning foreign languages. I love learning Mandarin and Korean, and my foreign friends absolutely love it when I try to speak with them. ✨

Learning languages is tough but really fun. Remember that you need to set goals, such as by the end of today, I will finish studying the alphabet, not the simple “getting fluent” goal. It’s okay when things you first say are gibberish because you will certainly get better by learning your mistakes. 

Here are just some extra weird ways to help you learn:  ● Use region-specfic social media (Weibo for Chinese, Kakao Talk for Korean, Tuenti for Spanish, etc) ● Narrate in other languages as you commute (e.g. the mysterious man who wears brown cap-toe Oxfords just get his cats turn left and is now entering the supermarket) ● Read newspaper and magazine  ● Change your phone language    ● Get help from your native speaker friends  ● Take notes in other languages

May your August be filled with love and growth.

If you are thinking of quitting your language learning journey, this is a sign to keep going! There will be days when you’ll feel unmotivated, tired, and wonder if it’s even worth it. The day will pass!

Noooooooooooooooooo

Cut to junior year of college. I took Classical Greek as part of my degree, and I was feeling like I had a leg up over my classmates, whose Greek handwriting looked like kindergarten chicken scratch, while mine was smooth and quick. I turned in my first assignment feeling pretty damn proud of myself.

About three assignments later, my professor pulled me aside with the goofiest look on his face…

“I appreciate the effort, but…”

You remember that phase I think all little girls go through in middle school/junior high? Where we have swirly tails on our G’s or our Y’s get all swoopy, or we dot all our I’s with little hearts?

Yeah…

chinese:

korean:

russian:

greek:

Short Stories

HSKReading (HSK 1-6) 

offers short stories by level; some stories come in both text and audio form; pages come with a built-in Mandarin-Pinyin/English translator

Chinese Reading Practice (Beginner-Advanced)

offers short stories by level; each story is prefaced with notes on vocab and expressions to look out for; pages come with a built-in Mandarin-Pinyin/English translator

Chinese mini-stories on YouTube (HSK 3-4)

in each video, Xiao Min tells a short story which you can read along to, then goes through the vocabulary and sentences slowly to explain their meanings

Manhua (sites to read free Chinese webcomics on)

Manhuatai

Weibo

Movies & Shows

爱奇艺 （IQYI）

IQYI has a large selection of dramas, movies, variety shows, and even a section of shows for kids (perfect for beginner listening and, if you put Chinese subtitles, reading practice!)

YouTube

there is an abundance of YT channels that air cdramas, ex., 1 2 3 (most only offer English subtitles)

Viki

MyChineseReading (beginner-advanced)

Kaveh Akbar, ‘Do You Speak Persian?’

“I can’t speak my own language - Iesu, All those good words; And I outside them.”

R.S. Thomas, ‘Welsh’

“It’s an ancient story from yesterday evening called “Patterns of Love in Peoples of Diaspora,” called “Loss of the Homeplace and the Defilement of the Beloved,” called “I Want to Sing but I Don’t Know Any Songs”.”

Li-Young Lee, ‘Immigrant Blues’

“The fact that I am writing to you in English already falsifies what I wanted to tell you. My subject: how to explain to you that I don’t belong to English though I belong nowhere else.”