Finding inspiration.

Tweet As I prepare to take the Test Of Proficiency, Taiwan's national stadardized test for Chinese language proficiency, I am trying to fit a bit more Chinese studying into my day. At times this can seem like such a daughting task. Work, school, family, and everything else seems to get in the way. However it is important to find time (even if it is a little bit of time every day) to keep up with language study. Sometimes we have rely on those around us for inspiration.

My own recent burst of inspiration has come from Kat over at One Year Chinese. If the blog name doesn't give you enough info, perhaps the About section will:

"Let’s see if I can be fluent in Chinese in a year! Define fluent? Speak with a native Chinese speaker for 10 minutes and convince him I’m a native speaker, too! (Or at least cover that whole 10 minutes without speaking English, without consulting any dictionary, and with no awkward silence lasting for more than 30 seconds!)."


It has been fun to track her progress through her blog and twitterfeed.  After reading about her project I have started to hit the books a bit more as well. While I do get a good dose of Chinese in my film class (中國電影課) and my job with the Chinese Language Tearchers Association (中文教師學會) it still feels good to work on something of my own choosing. My study method of choice has been Anki, a SRS flashcard program. I downloaded the TOP Practice Set with around 8,000 Characters. I have put in 21.25 hours so far . Here are my current results:

A big thanks to Kat and other bloggers who have allowed me to find some inspiration to keep going every day and spend a bit of time hitting the books. I am already seeing improvement. I hope it will get me ready for the TOP on Monday. I also finished using the application Shi Zi: A Primer of Chinese Characters last week but I'm holding off on a review until I can speak to the developer. Look for a proper review within the next few days.

App Review: Chinese Word Search Lite

Tweet First up for iLearn Mandarin is an app that I downloaded for my iPhone when it first came out in 2009: Chinese Word Search Lite by iWalkingfish.com.

This app takes Chinese character recognition and really tries to make it fun in the form of a good old fashion word search. The word searches are organized by themes with a lot of good selections. You can choose: random; basic 200; basic 500; conversation; food and drinks; brand names; the Three Kingdoms; Countries etc. I have tried most of the themes and recommend that you stick to basic 200, basic 500 and conversation if you are just starting out. The other themes introduce some rather specific vocabulary that you can always look up in a dictionary at a later date (especially if you are still trying to get down the basics).

What I like most about Chinese Word Search Lite is the ability to control the challenges based on your Chinese ability. This can be done in a variety of ways. First you can select how big the word search is. The larger the world search the more Chinese characters will appear. However, the best way to control the difficulty will come from the prompt settings. Users have the ability to turn Pinyin, Chinese, and English on and off. If you are looking for a real challenge, make the Word Search as large as it will go and then only turn on the English prompt.

 For those language learners who are just starting out, I would recommend keeping all the prompts on. It will allow you to visual the Chinese, Pinyin and English meanings at the same time, without having the other characters distort your comprehension. Once you think you have the image of the character down let the searching begin!

The strength of this app is ultimately how easy it is to use. A single word search only takes a few minutes each time, and with the variety of themes you can spend hours encountering new material. The downside to the Lite version is both the lack of Traditional Chinese characters and the inability to hear a native speaker pronounce the words as you find them. But, based on my research those two things are available in the standard version.

I know that this app will be a standard for me when I am looking to kill some time while studying Chinese. I would recommend it to all levels of Chinese learner. The app is very stable as well, so you don't have to worry about it crashing right as you find those characters. Happy word searching!

Using Chinese Word Search Lite

Tweet First real post and I don't even have it done. I guess that is what I get for starting things off the week of midterms. I have been using the app Chinese Word Search over the weekend and having a lot of fun. I have some screen shots and other info that I will be putting up soon. Until then I will just say this. If you are looking for a fun game that is free, be sure to check out Chinese Word Search Lite.


-- 發送自我的 iPhone

Launching iLearn Mandarin

Tweet Hey everyone.

Welcome to iLearn Mandarin! This blog will be a sort of application review for people, like me, who are interested in learning Mandarin Chinese outside of the classroom. I have about 30 applications on my iPhone right now that are geared toward Chinese learners. I would like to provide a space (other than the iTunes store) that gives other users a feel for the various educational apps online. Expect my first real post to go up sometime this weekend.

Updates to follow soon, but I wanted to get things moving. And what better way to motivate myself than by having a deadline. Look for the first official iLearn Mandarin review in the next few days.