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linguistics

Thematic Chinese Vocabulary

Learning vocabulary in thematic groups is an effective way to learn. However, as is often the case, it is challenging to find good learning materials. For thematic vocabulary, we want sources which simultaneously do the following:

  1. contain a sufficient quantity of vocabulary in the desired fields (i.e., have both breadth and depth)
  2. organize words and phrases by theme (i.e., are thematic)
  3. give some example usages (i.e., provide context)

Specifically for Chinese, I've found two excellent resources thus far.

Korean Kuriosities

So I've spent the past few days in Seoul, and I can't help but pay attention to the written language, especially after an engaging conversation on the subject last night. Going in knowing little to nothing about Korean, a few things struck me in particular about the writing.

Easy Syntax Trees

Inception

While learning sentences in Chinese that introduce new grammatical concepts, I find it useful to draw lines between words to show their grammatical interrelationship (not to mention drawing brackets around the words, already a non-trivial task given the lack of spaces in Zhongwen). In the course of drawing these lines, I found myself breaking the words out of their ordinary position in the sentence so as to make the drawing of the syntax tree of interconnected words more natural.

Language Acquisition Times

Motivation: A Trip to Stockholm

Last year I had the opportunity to travel to Sweden for a week. Finding out a few weeks ahead of time, I started studying Swedish. By the time I flew there, I had studied less than 9 hours total. However, I found that I was able to understand a great deal, and even communicate with people in basic situations. I will give a few examples, with translations in German and English for comparison.

Questions of Chinese Grammar

For some time I have fretted over which Asian language to learn. Japanese appeals to me for its sweet sound, and because I take interest in Japanese artwork (particularly the video games and animated films) that they have produced. However, I have rarely met Japanese-speaking people. Chinese is much more utilitarian. Just the sheer number of Chinese speakers and China's recent economic success ensures that any student of Chinese will have ample opportunity to practice. For this reason, I have chosen to study Chinese.