我們學漢語 / 我们学汉语 (Chinese Study Group)

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
User avatar
mattmo
White Belt
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:27 pm
Languages: English (N), Cantonese Chinese (C1), Mandarin Chinese (B1)
x 47

Re: 我們學漢語 / 我们学汉语 (Chinese Study Group)

Postby mattmo » Fri Mar 17, 2023 9:57 pm

Cool! There are not many resources to learn Cantonese, but one of the better ones I've used is CantoneseClass101.com. I've used them to learn beginner, intermediate and advanced and overall it's a very good resource I found.

Out of interest what interests you in learning Cantonese?
0 x
My language learning blog: https://langapprentice.com/
Started language learning in 2020

User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: 我們學漢語 / 我们学汉语 (Chinese Study Group)

Postby księżycowy » Sat Mar 18, 2023 7:32 am

mattmo wrote:Cool! There are not many resources to learn Cantonese, but one of the better ones I've used is CantoneseClass101.com. I've used them to learn beginner, intermediate and advanced and overall it's a very good resource I found.

Thanks. I don't believe I used it for Cantonese, but I'm at least somewhat familiar with Class101 audio courses.

Is this all you used?

There certainly aren't a ton of resources out there for Cantonese. Especially in comparison to a language like French or Spanish. But there are a few excellent ones out there as far as textbooks. I'm always on the look out for new (to me) ones though.

Out of interest what interests you in learning Cantonese?
Well, I'm interested primarily in Chinese history and culture. And I'm interested in some of the varieties of Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Hakka, Shanghainese). But I've been interested in East Asia since I was a kid, and tried learning Chinese (usually Mandarin or Cantonese) through the years. I'm hoping to make a serious attempt again within the next few years.
0 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]

User avatar
mattmo
White Belt
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2023 2:27 pm
Languages: English (N), Cantonese Chinese (C1), Mandarin Chinese (B1)
x 47

Re: 我們學漢語 / 我们学汉语 (Chinese Study Group)

Postby mattmo » Sun Apr 09, 2023 1:16 pm

CantoneseClass101.com had all I need to get to the point where you can learn through exposure such as through writing, reading, listening and speaking in target language. The trick though is you need to be self-motivated with an online school such as this as otherwise your subscription can easily be wasted such as a gym membership. I have tried other resources such as LingQ, textbooks but I enjoy CantoneseClass101 much more.
1 x
My language learning blog: https://langapprentice.com/
Started language learning in 2020

Haileyyy
White Belt
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2023 3:40 am
Languages: Chinese (N), English (C1-C2), German (beginner), French (beginner)
x 18

Re: 我們學漢語 / 我们学汉语 (Chinese Study Group)

Postby Haileyyy » Thu Sep 07, 2023 5:19 am

Querneus wrote:Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with a native speaker about the syntax of 容易 rong2yi4, 好 hao3 and 難 nan2 when followed by a verb.

I'm a native Chinese speaker. Why don't you learn simplified Chinese? It'll be much much easier to read and write. Also, the majority of Chinese use simplified Chinese daily.
0 x

Haileyyy
White Belt
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2023 3:40 am
Languages: Chinese (N), English (C1-C2), German (beginner), French (beginner)
x 18

Re: 我們學漢語 / 我们学汉语 (Chinese Study Group)

Postby Haileyyy » Thu Sep 07, 2023 5:23 am

I'm a native Chinese speaker. Do you need any help in your Chinese journey? Feel free to ask me. BTW, I'm almost exclusively in simplified Chinese, so I won't be really helpful if you are learning Cantonese.
0 x

kealist
White Belt
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Jan 30, 2024 1:58 am
Languages: Mandarin, Uyghur
x 82

Re: 我們學漢語 / 我们学汉语 (Chinese Study Group)

Postby kealist » Sat Feb 03, 2024 1:51 am

I was kind of curious if anyone had much experience with something like a simplified (as in toned down language, not characters) Chinese-Chinese dictionary. If not what level have people typically been able to use a standard Chinese-Chinese dictionary (if anyone does)?
1 x

lichtrausch
Blue Belt
Posts: 511
Joined: Thu Jul 23, 2015 3:21 pm
Languages: English (N), German, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean
x 1380

Re: 我們學漢語 / 我们学汉语 (Chinese Study Group)

Postby lichtrausch » Sat Feb 03, 2024 6:34 am

kealist wrote:I was kind of curious if anyone had much experience with something like a simplified (as in toned down language, not characters) Chinese-Chinese dictionary. If not what level have people typically been able to use a standard Chinese-Chinese dictionary (if anyone does)?

When I'm not satisfied by a Mandarin>English definition, I google "*Mandarin word* 意思" to get a monolingual definition. Mandarin grammar is not particularly difficult so I have been able to puzzle out the definitions from an early stage. The issue is avoiding spending too much time reading dictionary definitions instead of more interesting and useful input. That's why I only resort to monolingual definitions when the Mandarin>English dictionary fails me.
1 x

User avatar
Axon
Blue Belt
Posts: 775
Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 12:29 am
Location: California
Languages: Native English, in order of comfort: Mandarin, German, Indonesian,
Spanish, French, Russian,
Cantonese, Vietnamese, Polish.
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5086
x 3288

Re: 我們學漢語 / 我们学汉语 (Chinese Study Group)

Postby Axon » Sat Feb 03, 2024 6:51 am

kealist wrote:I was kind of curious if anyone had much experience with something like a simplified (as in toned down language, not characters) Chinese-Chinese dictionary. If not what level have people typically been able to use a standard Chinese-Chinese dictionary (if anyone does)?


I study a lot of Chinese dialects, and the vast majority of the study is Chinese-Chinese. I have one paper dictionary about dialect forms in Kunming, while the rest are ebooks with about the same format. It's hard to say what level it requires. I would say when I first started reading the Kunming one, I was already able to follow everyday Chinese TV (thus excluding shows with historical language, legal dramas, etc) and I could read social media posts and simple "clickbait" articles without having to look up many words.

Sample entry:

面冬冬 (形) (~呢) 形容食物*面而可口:这个红薯烧呢面冬冬,太好吃了

Mian dong dong (Adjective) (Used with "ne" as an adjective) Describes food not only "mian" (* means that this word is also defined with a special meaning in the dialect dictionary, here meaning a soft, starchy-sweet quality) but also delicious: "This sweet potato is roasted mian dong dong, super tasty."

I have a book I got from China that is a pocket guide to easily-confused words with similar meanings as well as common word pairs that are exact or close opposites. This is also all in Chinese, and meant for middle schoolers. Unfortunately I've misplaced it, and the only one I can find similar to it is a more difficult and advanced one. That one is "新编同义反义词典" published by the 海峰出版社.

Sample entry:

坎坷 —— 平坦
[坎坷] 道路坑洼不平:道路坎坷不平 | 汽车行驶在坎坷的山道上
[平坦] 地面没有高低凹凸:地势平坦 | 平坦马路两侧排列著整齐的白杨树
”坎坷“ 和 ”平坦“ 都是形容词,坎坷对平坦的词义相对,如”旧北京街道,坎坷不平。如今条条柏油,宽广平坦。“ “坎坷” 还有比喻义 (见坎坷——顺利条)

"Kan ke" - "Ping tan"
[kan ke] (quick definition): describing an uneven road with potholes: "this road is kan ke and uneven" | "the car was driving on a kan ke mountain road"
[ping tan] (quick definition): describing the surface of the ground without protrusions or irregularities: "the terrain is ping tan" | "both sides of the ping tan avenue were lined with neat rows of white poplars"
"kan ke" and "ping tan" are both adjectives. They have opposite meanings, for example "In old Beijing the streets were kan ke and uneven. Today every road is paved, broad and ping tan." "Kan ke" also has a figurative meaning (see the entry for "kan ke - shun li").

The 外研社-HSK课堂系列 series of HSK vocabulary books are great supplements for learners interested in trying mostly monolingual learning. Only a very bare-bones definition is given into English. Each entry also contains phrases commonly used with the word and two example sentences. I remember finding these example sentences readable in a book with vocabulary at the HSK 5 level well before I even first moved to China, so that would have been after only three years of study.

Sample entry:

辐射 fú shè v/n radiate, radiation
[配] 有辐射,防辐射
[例] 这个工厂的工人收到了大量辐射. 这个面具可以防辐射.

[collocation] radioactive, anti-radiation
[example] The workers in this factory received a lot of radiation. This mask can protect against radiation.

Some of these translated examples (all my own) are awkward on purpose to give you the kind of context you'd get understanding the Chinese text.

The more you practice with any genre of text, the easier it is to read. In dictionaries, even advanced ones, the first roadblock is getting over the way the information is structured. For example, I had to look up what the asterisk meant in the dialect dictionary. Once you understand the structure of the definition and examples, you'll probably be able to get the general meaning of most entries and then look up the words you still don't know.
5 x

kealist
White Belt
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Jan 30, 2024 1:58 am
Languages: Mandarin, Uyghur
x 82

Re: 我們學漢語 / 我们学汉语 (Chinese Study Group)

Postby kealist » Tue Feb 06, 2024 12:55 pm

The more you practice with any genre of text, the easier it is to read. In dictionaries, even advanced ones, the first roadblock is getting over the way the information is structured. For example, I had to look up what the asterisk meant in the dialect dictionary. Once you understand the structure of the definition and examples, you'll probably be able to get the general meaning of most entries and then look up the words you still don't know.


Thank you for the thorough and thoughtful reply. I appreciate the info. I will look at the books you mentioned and see what I can work through. I'm definitely too low on the character count at this point to make it work I think, but I'll work towards that.
0 x


Return to “Study Groups”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests