Category Archives: Learn Mandarin Chinese

The Vowels Video is done! Book Agent, pronunciation help, site updates, la la la.

Video News: The last English Pronunciation and International Phonetic Alphabet video is done!  Check it out here (or directly on YouTube).  Future videos plans in the short term include: French/German/Italian Pronunciation.  Medium term: Russian Pronunciation.  Longer term: Who knows! Pronunciation Help: Once … Continue reading

Posted in Blog, Book Updates, General Language Learning, Learn Mandarin Chinese, Learn Spanish, Pronunciation Tutorials, Site Updates, Videos | 3 Comments

The Assimil Method - some thoughts

Recently, a reader asked me whether I had heard of the Assimil method, and whether I’d recommend it or not. I had never really looked into them, and now that I’ve done a bit of research, I can comment a … Continue reading

Posted in Blog, Book Reviews, General Language Learning, Learn Arabic, Learn French, Learn German, Learn Italian, Learn Japanese, Learn Mandarin Chinese, Learn Russian, Learn Spanish | 4 Comments

On dealing with non-phonetic languages like Chinese (And how to deal with homophones in any language)

I keep addressing this question in various forum/comment discussions, but I should discuss it here, because it addresses a lot of issues in a lot of languages.  The question is: How do I deal with a language that uses a … Continue reading

Posted in General Language Learning, Learn Japanese, Learn Mandarin Chinese | 7 Comments