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what are you guys doing to improve your chinese?

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  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    110

    what are you guys doing to improve your chinese?

    I've been in HK for about 2 months now and i"m trying to find ways to improve my Chinese reading (I speak fluently). I"m mainly looking for more convinient ways that will allow me to study any time using my phone (while on the subway, bus, coffee shop etc).

    I have cantonese flash cards for my iphone that i'm using to increase my vocab, I have a dictionary app for my phone, but now, i'm looking for ways to put it all together. I'm have been looking for iphone apps of childrens stories in chinese , but have been having trouble finding any.

    Just want to see what every one else is doing so I can further improve my chinese.

    dossier likes this.

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Feb 2013
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    3,251

    Apart from happy new year and a few curse words, I know no Cantonese what so ever.
    I would like to learn whilst I am in my unemployed status at the moment and if I managed to learn Turkish fluently, I might have a slim chance at maybe learning Cantonese.

    dossier likes this.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    645

    I use Sougou IME which has handwriting recognition and Hanping dictionary on Android. Then can look up any characters I see that I don't recognise while out and about. I also read Apple Daily using the dictionary where needed to build vocabulary. Skritter.com has a good iphone app for practising handwriting and increasing vocab through spaced recognition, but it uses pinyin / Mandarin rather than Cantonese and it requires a monthly subscription so not cheap.


  4. #4

    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    6,745

    All this tech support might be detrimental as it makes learning too smooth and nothing much will stick.
    Take a good old dictionary and memorize all radicals there are in Chinese.
    Then read newspaper articles, at the beginning about topics that you are already familiar with from foreign news.
    Watch TV with subtitles, 7pm news, 8pm news to repeat.

    Last edited by Morrison; 19-02-2013 at 05:50 PM.
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  5. #5

    Join Date
    May 2003
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    2,207

    I use Pleco a lot. Got the flashcard tool, the handwriting tool, extended dictionaries and the sound add on (all pay for add ons, but highly recommended - for Android as well as IOS). The basic pleco dictionary is very good and free, all the add ons make it a great learning tool.
    At pleco.com's flashcards section there are sets of flashcards for all radicals as well as for HSK 1 to 6.
    I also made flashcards for all my textbooks including sample sentences.

    dossier likes this.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Hong Kong side
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    Personally I found that my Chinese character retention is way better when the character is written so I just choose a new character each day off the news or work related and just write it to my phone post it note and practice writing a few times 'later I go back to the post it and if I can recognise and write the character discard the note . If the character is in context of work or something similar its memorization is easier . I personally never liked the flash cards as too much like trying to memorize a dictionary . I guess everyone's memory works differently though

    Sent from my ST27i using GeoClicks Mobile

    rosschow likes this.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Feb 2012
    Posts
    15

    Home tutoring


  8. #8

    Join Date
    May 2003
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    2,207

    I like the pleco flashcard system particulary because of the different test modes - Reading, writing, dictation, etc.


  9. #9

    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Hong Kong side
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    Downloaded pleco to try: nice app particularly the example sentences given with the definitions :seeing the word in context helps retention . Already did my new word for today

    Sent from my ST27i using GeoClicks Mobile

    elle likes this.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    May 2003
    Posts
    2,207
    Quote Originally Posted by hongkong7:
    Already did my new word for today

    Sent from my ST27i using GeoClicks Mobile
    Now I am curious: what is today's word of the day?

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