The Mandarin Click by Click Language Team—Beijing

A Message From the Master Teacher and Editor—Liu Jia Jing (Selina)

    Ms. Liu holds a B.A. in Chinese Language and Culture from Beijing Language and Culture University. She has taught in Beijing at CET intensive language program and other special programs. She has co--authored a book on cross cultural education on youth culture.

    Ms. Liu is passionate about teaching Chinese and helping  foreign students in China better understand Chinese culture. She’s an independent thinker and always up for a good discussion. She hopes to pursue an advanced degree overseas and is presently try to find a graduate school that best suits her needs and would give her the opportunity to continue to teach Chinese while doing her course work.

Email:   jiajing.liu@gmail.com

    Wang Wei has a Masters in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language from Beijing Normal University.  During her undergraduate education at Beijing Language and Culture University, she also studied Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. 

    Since graduation, she has been teaching Chinese to American university students in Beijing.  She is proud to be a native of a vibrant city full people from all over the world and she is proud of her Beijing “-er” accent.  She says that she would love to teach Chinese all over the world. In this way, she could have firsthand experience with many cultures and she would have a chance to taste the world’s most delicious food. 

    Jiao Bao Lei (Luke) holds a degree in Mechanics and Automation from Beijing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture.  He has worked for a French company in Beijing, and worked in England, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. He taught English during the four years he was a university student.

  He loves teaching and talking with foreign students learning Chinese.  He hopes to have the free time to travel a lot in the future.  He hopes more and more Click by Click users can visit his beloved Beijing.

Email: j.skywalker@163.com

    Martin is a full-time recording and mixing engineer from Bath, England. He is currently living in Beijing. He's been recording music with his own gear for over ten years. This time Mandarin. Why not? When in China, do as… .

    Martin has strummed the guitar since 12, spanked the bass since 17 and bounced all over the drums since 21.

    He loves many types of music, from Hendrix and Led Zeppelin through to Prince, Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings and all kinds of mad jazz and electronica.

Website:  www.martinrawlins.net 

The Mandarin Click by Click Technical Team--Gaoxiong

     Bill has been in Taiwan for many years. He runs an IT company called HostTaiwan, focusing on providing IT solutions for companies including software and website development, website hosting, database solutions for small to medium sized businesses, and integrating IT into business workflow. His wife is Taiwanese and they have a couple of great kids! 

    Bill is an avid student of Chinese reading, writing, and culture. Visit him at HostTaiwan.com

About Lin Yu Zhan (Jack) and Wang Ying Fen (Fiona)

    Lin Yi Zhan holds a B.A. from Furen University and has taught Chinese in an International School in Ningbo and English in language schools in Gaoxiong. He presently serves as the office manager of a busy editing company, but is currently looking for something in education again. 

Email:  whitedofu@yahoo.com.tw

    Wang Ying Fen (Finoa) holds a degree Art and presently works an office manager in a hardware company. She enjoys getting along friends and traveling.

    Soccer holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Feng Jia University.  His interest in aviation.

    Shen Ta Wei (David) majored in Western Languages and Literature at National University of Kaohsiung. David loves Taiwanese Puppetry and photograhy. He plans to do advanced studies in Library Science.

Agustin Escobar: He is from Paraguay, he has been living in Taiwan for more than 5 years, He has a degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering from the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. He loves the music, and the Chinese culture, he also likes the Chinese food. He will continue his studies to obtain a Master degree.
He learned chinese during his undergraduate level.
He says "The Chinese culture is wonderful, every day you can learn and find something new"

    James Steed holds degrees in Art and Linguistics. He has taught in several Chinese universities, authored books, and consulted for publishing companies. He presently teaches at the University of Kaohsiung, edits medical research reports, and designs interiors. He speaks Chinese and is interested in Art and Jazz.

Other Links

Mandarin Click by Click Links

Mandarin Learning Aides

Mandarin Click by Click isn’t the final word on Chinese learning.  There are other sites that can also be useful.  Here are some.   You can use them to supplement your studies with Mandarin Click by Click.  Otherwise, you can use them to review and expand what you have learned on Mandarin Click by Click until you find a Level 2 or 3 program you like.

 

Chinese Tools http://www.chinese-tools.com  This website is a great all-around website for people interested in learning and playing with Mandarin. It has an everyday Chinese conversation program with dialogs to listen to and repeat followed by explanation and translation as well as many, many other tools for learning and playing with Mandarin:
(1)  various dictionaries, 
(2) a Chinese annotation tool, which makes learning to read Chinese easier by automatically marking up the words in a simplified Chinese text with their pronunciations in pinyin and dictionary definitions,
(3) a Chinese Input Editor, which involves you writing in words and sentences in hanyu pinyin. It will then transform them into simplified Chinese characters. Very nice, but requires you to know how to speak and read a little Chinese to be able to use it well. 
(4) It also has a PinYin Editor which allows you to write hanyu pinyin with the tones on top.  All you do is write the tone number after the words like this (Ni2 hao3) and you get this (Ní hǎo).
(5) Chinese converters, a tool for converting simplified Chinese characters (used on the mainland) to traditional ones (used in Taiwan and Hong Kong).  They also covert the other way as well.   
(6) A Chinese Calligraphy Converter.  Write normal Chinese and get it converted into artful Chinese calligraphy. You get to choose the style! (This function is found under “Chinese names.”)
(7) Chinese Names. In this section, you can have your name translated into Chinese, get Chinese tattoo designs, have your name written in any calligraphy style you like, have your name written on a Chinese painting, or designed to take to a Chinese chop (seal) carver.  Rather funky.
This site is a treasure chest of things: new, hobbies, study and teach in China, etc. 

Input King http://inputking.com/EN/  This site coverts hanyu pinying, zhuyingfuhao (pobomofo), and other pronunciation systems into either simplified or traditional characters.  Will require a little knowledge of Chinese characters, because you will have to choose between characters in cases where words that have the same sounds but different meanings and characters.

Mandarin Book http://www.mandarinbook.info/pronunciation/tones.php   Gives a good introduction to the sounds and tones of Mandarin Chinese with both the hanyu pinyin phonetic system used in most of the world and pobumofo (Chinese symbol) system used in Taiwan. Click and repeat. Free.

Patrick Moran's Drawing to Teach z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, r, j, q, x http://www.wfu.edu/~moran/z_GIF_images/Difficult_Sounds.gif  Not particularly useful for me, but many of you will be able to visualize the tip of your tongue in those positions as you pronounce these sounds.

The Tones of Mandarin  http://www.uiowa.edu/~linguist/faculty/beckman/lotw01/mantone.html   Simple on-page site with an audio example of all four tones.

Shufa West http://www.shufawest.us/language/tonedrill.html    Beautiful site for both learning Chinese but mostly for those into Chinese brush painting.  One activity which is quite fun is the “guess the tone” game.  Hear someone say a Chinese word and you guess what tone it is.  The first step is speaking Chinese tones well is to be able to hear them.  If you can’t hear them, it will be quite difficult for you to say them.  Have fun.  I like this one. Free.

Chinese Learner http://www.chineselearner.com/speaking/    A free phrase book approach to learning everyday Mandarin. Listen and repeat.  No explanation.  See a phrase in Chinese character, hanyu pinyin, and English. Click symbol and repeat it as many times as you like.  Free.

Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk    http://www.melnyks.com   A phrase book approach with lots of explanation.  Has you repeating important words again and again while Serge explains them to you.  For people who like lots of explanation.   Pay.

Chinese Pod  http://chinesepod.com/  Another slick site teaching Mandarin Chinese. Upbeat, entertaining explanations of words and phrases.  Again for people who like lots of explanation. Pay.

 

 

Cultural and Informational Websites Mandarin-speaking Asia

People’s Republic of China
Mainland

Ask Asia China  http://www.askasia.org/students/features/china/index.htm   A newspaper for younger students. With a culture focus.  Not so much government hype.  I kind of prefer it.
China Daily  http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/   A Chinese newspaper in English.
CCTV http://english.cctv.com/program/chinatoday/01/index.shtml   A newspaper with videos.
China News Today http://www.einnews.com/china/ Another newspaper in headline format.
China Today http://english.gov.cn/chinatoday.htm   Official Chinese Government News and Information Site
China Today  http://www.chinatoday.com/general/a.htm  Another informational site, a little more commercial.

 

People’s Republic of China
Hong Kong

Lonely Planet Hong Kong, China http://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/hong-kong   Lots about travel and as good an introduction to study opportunities as the other websites.

 

Republic of China
Taiwan

Study Chinese in Taiwan http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0505/study_chinese_in_taiwan.shtml  This article is by a man who studied Mandarin in Taiwan.  I don’t necessarily agree with all of his opinions, but Taiwan is a good option for people who want to learn Chinese more intensively, especially in Taipei.

 

Travel Information for Taiwan. http://www.realadventures.com/taiwan.htm  A commercial site, but does have a good information about cheap places to stay once you get there.

Amerispan Study Abroad  http://www.amerispan.com/country/Taiwan/articles/37/  Information about travel  and study in Taiwan.

Taiwan News   http://www.taiwansnews.net/index.php  Informational and news site for Taiwan.

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