Learn It Correctly!

Here is a request from a friend who will go to France as an exchange student and her native language is Latvian, a language that does not sound similar to French. She wants to know about my language learning methods. I hope that it helps.

Chinese Mandarin E-book

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is good news for Chinese Mandarin learners! A Taiwanese friend showed me an interactive flip-able e-book containing videos and audios that were authored by her teacher. In the beginning pages, you can read the teacher's experience. Then, it is followed by several situational phrases, such as visiting doctors and asking directions as well as vocabulary. The contents are suitable for beginners or, better said, for those who are already familiar with basic Chinese characters and pinyin 拼音. Traditional Chinese characters are used here because it is used in Taiwan. However, do not make it stop you if you are Simplified Chinese character learners because both versions still share an amount of the same characters. You may want to take it as a challenge!

Flags and Languages

Whenever you go to a website, whether it is a website of a company, an institution, or even an online store, you may notice a list of flags that represent several languages. For instance, you may see American or British flags for English and Chinese or Taiwanese flags for Chinese Mandarin. Do you know that there are countries in this world sharing the same or similar flags? The examples are as follows:  

Luxembourg and the Netherlands share similar flags but do not have the same official language. Indonesia and Monaco are located in different continents but share the same color of the flag.

Waking Up Speaking Welsh

(Photo credit: The Huffington Post)

I just read an article about a disease that I have never thought about its existence. Can you imagine waking up one day speaking a foreign language that you have never learnt before? This phenomenon happened to an Englishman, Alun Morgan. 

Cantonese is Endangered?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I found an interesting article about Cantonese language a few days ago. Although it was published in 2010, I think it worth notice, especially from me, who have a natural tie to Cantonese. Growing up as a quarter of Cantonese, I have the chance to learn the language at an early age. However, my Cantonese does not go farther than basic phrases, such as "Where is the toilet?", "How to go there?", or "What is your name?"