Fun fact: the majority of languages use a variation of either Cha or Te to say tea, and the one you use is entirely based on which part of China your country (or the country of origin for your language) traded with.
any tips on serious language learning? I actually started mandarin on Duolingo the other day and always end up enjoying my daily practice until it gets disrupted but ofc that’s just a way to dip your toes in at least in my experience. I learned of hellotalk recently which seems potentially very nice
Personally, I bought Immersive Chinese and I'm going through and turning the vocabulary and sentences into an Anki deck, categorized by each lesson. You can choose whether or not to display pinyin, and you can upload audio for each word and sentence
I've started using the Chinese AI app, recommended on XHS. It gives you feedback on pronunciation and you can have actual conversations with it. Really impressed so far. Costs £6.49 a month.
I remember my first day. Their lesson structure feels *so* stupid at first.
That’s because it is. It’s not at all what you want/need if you do eventually try to get serious about it coming from English, but it’s free and it legitimately is a halfway decent system for establishing the basics
I’m sorry, I should have asked- why on earth did i immediately just assume by the words you started out with you were using the free be of Duolingo like I was? You’re literally an academic. You probably know someone personally with HSK teaching certification 😅
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Nothing to do with min speakers or anything like that, it’s just permanently tainted by the Dutch association
I'm also currently trying to find a different app. Preferably one that doesn't try to sell me products every 15 minutes
That’s because it is. It’s not at all what you want/need if you do eventually try to get serious about it coming from English, but it’s free and it legitimately is a halfway decent system for establishing the basics