ChineseClass101.com Blog

You were swimming, weren’t you!?

Don’t worry, just checking.

Summer’s here and we’re in the mood to celebrate this warm joyous season – and what better way to start summer off right than have a Summer Celebration Sale!

Why celebrate summer you ask? Excellent question. Because not only is the sun shining and the ice-cream plentiful, but we also have a lot of NEW things to release. We’re kicking off July with 6 brand NEW languages, NEW Premium Flashcards, NEW lessons AND a NEW discount of 22% OFF for Premium Subscribers.

Click here to get the discount and get all of our new features!

This Fourth of July, we welcome Swedish, Dutch, Hungarian, Hindi, Hebrew and Indonesian to the Pod101 family! Also, our Premium Flashcards are faster, better, and stronger with spaced-repetition and progress tracking that will make you learn vocabulary faster and stronger too. Finally, we’re continuing with the 2nd half of our 2011 season with brand new lessons from your favorite energetic hosts.

But why 22% OFF on all Premium Subscriptions? Why not 17.3%? We’ve debated this extensively and while 17.3 is a fantastic number, we’re using 22% to mark our new total of 22 languages at Interactive Language Learning.

The only catch is that this sale doesn’t last all summer – sale ends July 15th!

Join the Summer Celebration Sale: New Languages, New Premium Flashcards, New Lessons, New 22% Discount, and A New Sunburn (not provided by us). Subscribe for 22% Less and get it all here!

Hej! Hallo! Sziasztok! That’s “Hello” in Dutch, Swedish, and Hungarian. Did we get it right?

We’re really excited about our 3 new European additions to the Innovative Language Learning family and today we’re announcing yet another three languages. We’ve held our breath for so long to keep these a secret that we’re just about ready to faint!

Ready?

Starting July 4, Hindi, Hebrew, and Indonesian will be getting the complete Innovative Language Learning treatment with their own 101.com websites! Now, even though these languages are spoken by a collective 725 million people worldwide, they aren’t given enough attention online – or anywhere for that matter. Until now! If you’ve never had a good reason to learn these languages before, we’re about to give you some!

Why learn with Innovative Language Learning?
These brand new Hindi, Indonesian, and Hebrew lessons will use our fun and effective lesson format. And of course, you’ll also get our free and premium learning tools such as online flashcards, line-by-line audio, video lessons, and mobile apps, which you can use to learn wherever you are in the world (except Antarctica.)

The first 101 listeners to sign up for the Founding Fathers Club will get a lifetime 50% off discount and to celebrate the addition of these new languages, we’ll also be having a Summer Celebration Sale where listeners can save BIG on current site subscriptions including to JapanesePod101!

So, why should you learn Hindi, Indonesian, or Hebrew?
Hindi is one of 22 languages spoken in India, and being the second most populated country with over 1 billion people, it’s just too big for us to skip. India is notorious for its traffic but showing some patience will pay big dividends when you try the food! If you’re in the mood for something a little more tropical, Indonesian is one of the world’s most spoken languages. After all, Indonesia is the fourth most populated country right after the United States, and a popular travel destination. Who could resist Indonesia’s tropical climate, beautiful islands, white sandy beaches…hold on, we’re getting carried away…

Lastly, did you know that Hebrew is one of the most requested languages from our Innovative Language Learning listeners? Well, we just couldn’t wait any longer! Travelling to Israel? Can’t understand your grandmother? (I can’t either) Or perhaps you’d like to take a dip in the Dead Sea? HebrewPod101.com will provide you with the resources to make sure you don’t open your eyes underwater – it’s extremely salty!

Stay tuned for more details to come on how to get in on all the discounts!

In case you thought we were kidding about world language domination, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. After months of hard work, we’re proud to announce the launch of AustralianPod101.com for all of you Down Under lovers!

Just kidding. Though, we are giving this idea serious consideration.

Coming this July to a laptop screen right in front of you, we will be introducing 6 new exciting languages to the Innovative Language Learning family. Dutch, Hungarian, and Swedish are just the first additions to our language family on track to be released July 5th. We’d love to tell you about the other 3 but it’s a big secret – you’ll have to wait another 2 weeks!

Now, the Dutch, Hungarian and Swedish languages aren’t the most sought after languages and as a result, there aren’t many places to learn them. But that’s exactly why we’ve chosen to teach them and make them available to you anywhere you are.

Why learn with Innovative Language Learning? These new language sites will follow our signature fun and effective lesson format using our free and premium learning tools such as online flashcards, line-by-line audio, video lessons, and mobile apps. Not to mention the fact that you can learn the language from anywhere in the world! For the 6 new languages, the first 101 listeners to sign up for the Founding Fathers Club will get a lifetime 50% off discount, and to celebrate the addition of these new languages, we’ll also be having a Summer Celebration Sale where listeners can save on the site they’re already subscribed to.

So, why should you learn Dutch, Swedish or Hungarian? With over 23 million Dutch speakers, 16 million Hungarian speakers, and 10 Million Swedish, you’ll learn all about their rich cultures and traditions. Or if you’re hungry like us, do it for their food! In fact, by knowing English, you already have a head start on Dutch which is said to be a mixture of English and German. Feel free to crash the next World Cup and yell alongside your fellow Dutchmen.

In addition to being the national language of Sweden (duh!), Swedish is spoken in parts of Finland and is mutually intelligible with Norwegian. Knowing Swedish grants you access to the Nordic part of Europe (except Iceland – but we’ll get them too!) But if Vikings aren’t your thing, why not try Hungarian? It’s the most prevalent non-Indo-European language in Europe and would be quite handy if you’re interested in their history or cuisine, or choose to explore Hungary’s passionate spa culture.

Stay tuned for the announcement of the final 3 languages and more details to come on how to get in on the discounts!

Premium Members, your Premium Account just got a whole lot more powerful! My Flashcards now allows you to study the Chinese words you want by importing lists from audio and video lessons, your My WordBank and the Chinese Core Word Lists 2000. Here’s a quick rundown of the new features:

My Flashcards Dashboard: My Flashcards have a brand new interface. Import words from any audio and video lesson, My WordBank and the Core Word Lists. Create, edit and delete as many decks as you want!

Create a New Deck: How you want to study is completely up to you! You control what displays on the front and back of cards. Create new decks out of the existing words in My Flashcards. Simple pick the words, name your deck and you’re ready to study.

Front of Card Display: The new My Flashcards load fast and are easy to use. Test yourself with native audio recordings. When you’re ready for the answer, simply click on the card to flip it over.

Back of Card Display: Learning sometimes isn’t as simple as just Right or Wrong. Our smart spaced repetition system will evaluate your progress from the three answer choices so you test more of what you need. Get extra review with sample sentences and audio.

My Stats: We track your progress in My Stats. Don’t just learn new words – master them! This chart will keep you motivated to master all the words in your deck!

My Flashcards is still in beta mode, which means, we’re still working out some kinks. If you’re a Premium Member, head over to My Flashcards under My Tools to try them out. These flashcards are part of your Premium Subscription. Something not working? Send us a message at contactus@chineseclass101.com .

Not a Premium Member? You can test out the flashcards and other Premium Tools during our Flashcard Launch Sale! Get 1-Month of Premium Access to ChineseClass101.com for only $5 – that’s even cheaper than our regular priced Basic 1-Month Plan! Use coupon code FLASHCARDS at checkout to get Premium for $5.00. Hurry! This offer ends on June 30th, 2011!

Have you used your Word Bank lately? Inspired by your emails, requests and suggestions, we upgraded the My Word Bank feature to make it even easier for you to study vocabulary on ChineseClass101.com! My Word Bank is a Premium feature that allows you to add vocabulary words from our lessons and word dictionary to a personalized central list for you to study from. Create online flashcards and hear native audio pronunciation with every entry.

With the new My Word Bank features, you can organize, sort, export, and completely manage all of your vocabulary. Here is a complete rundown of the new features:

1. Group Words Into Lists – You wanted lists? You got it! Now you can organize your words with lists and labels. Create, edit and delete your own labels and assign words into categories. You can also filter your Word Bank and Flashcards by the labels you create.

2. Export Your Word Bank – Another common request we received from users was the desire to export their Word Bank data. With the new export function, you can export your Word Bank data to PDF, CSV, or XML file formats. Print out your lists to study on the go or organize offline.

3. See Related Lessons – Need to review a word’s usage? Quickly find related audio and video lessons for words stored in your Word Bank with the Related Lessons expansion column.

4. You’re In Control – Sort your Word Bank data by Target Language, English, Class, or Label, in either ascending or descending order. Choose how many records you would like to have displayed in your Word Bank.

5. Tighter Integration – To create a tighter integration with My Word Bank, we added a new “Go To My Word Bank” button to the Lesson Vocabulary lists and Word Dictionary.

6. See It Better – For improved readability, we bumped up the font size used in the Word Bank.

7. Study Faster – We made the new Word Bank face not only smooth and sleek, but also fast loading and user-friendly.

8. Class – We added a new field called “Class” to the Word Bank. Where available, the part of speech will be displayed in this column.

9. Core Word Lists Integration – Need some help creating lists? Add words from our Core Chinese Word List to your own Word Bank!

If you’re a Premium member, you can start using these new features today in your Word Bank (under the Reference Materials drop down menu). If you’re not a Premium member, click here to upgrade to Premium!

Our annual Reverse Christmas countdown begins today with the biggest savings of the year! Save 50% off any Basic or Premium subscription until midnight EST tonight with our Secret Santa Holiday Countdown Tomorrow, the daily deal drops below 50% OFF, so upgrade to Basic or Premium right now. Just click the link below:

Half off ChineseClass101 until midnight EST? Sign me up right now!

Everyday until Christmas, we’re offering a daily deal on our Basic and Premium subscriptions. Act early and save more. It’s as easy as that! We can’t tell you what tomorrow’s deal will be, but we can tell you that it won’t be as good as today’s.

New seasons of ChineseClass101.com begin on January 3rd, so there’s no better time than now to upgrade to Basic or Premium. You don’t want to miss out on all the fun in 2011!

Have a fun and safe Holiday!

Peter & Team ChineseClass101

Hey everyone today we are going to show some common mistakes that Chinese learners make so that you guys know what to look out for!

Common Error #1:
Incorrect word order when forming questions:
English speakers tend to use English word order when forming questions with question words. In English, the question word comes at the beginning of the sentence. In Chinese the question word comes at the end of the sentence.

Common Error #2:
Making verbs past tense:
getting the particles 了 and 过 mixed up. Put in a simple way, 了 is used for a completed action. 过 is used to indicate previous experience.

Common Error #3:
Negating verbs:
Getting the 不 and the 没 mixed up. Put in a simple way, the 不 is used to negate action verbs in present, future, or when speaking about habitual actions. 没 is used when the action either did not happen, or isn’t complete yet.

Common Error #4:
In an attempt to be polite, using too many words:
A lot of Chinese learners, in an attempt to translate what is polite in their own language end up adding too many words to their sentences, confusing the people that are listening. One tip we have is to Listen to how a Chinese person who is learning English tends to speak and try to follow that pattern in Chinese.

Common Error #5:
Being so afraid about having a standard accent or the correct tones:
Some beginners are too afraid to speak because they are afraid of making mistakes, but the best way to fix this is by practicing! Chinese is a hard language so don’t be afraid to make mistakes! You will improve!

We would love to hear your stories and any other mistakes that you guys think are common for students of Chinese! Feel free to leave us a comment and share!

Today we are going to give you our top 5 recomended tools to help you with mastering Chinese.
1.ABC Dictionary by John DeFrancis

This is a great pinyin dictionary with great definitions and easy lookup system

2. Adsotrans

This is a really good online super-dictionary, found at www.adsotrans.com. Just paste in any Chinese text and let Adso analyze it. Mouse over the results to see what the words mean in English, and how to pronounce them. There are numerous other features that come with this dictionary as well. Check it out!

3. Chinese Pera-kun

A firefox plug-in that lets you get translation for Chinese text by putting your mouse over the word.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3349

4. Flashcards

Try our flashcards on the site, chineseclass101.com. Simply add words from any of our lessons to your word bank, then go to the flashcards tab and they will be automatically populated for you.

5. Google’s Character Writing Software

Use pinyin to input Chinese characters. Google’s intuitive software will predict what words you want to use, and will allow you to string along sentences.
https://www.google.com/ime/pinyin/

6. Pinyin Chart

Come to www.chineseclass101.com and use our pinyin chart with audio for each of the sounds of Chinese to familiarize yourself with the pronunciation of pinyin as well as to perfect you own pronunciation.

Ok, I know we said top 5, but we thought all 6 of these products were so good we would include them all! If you guys have anymore ideas please leave a comment and let us know!

Hey everyone, today we are going to be discussing the social structure of China.

Beijing

Beijing is also a city of contrasts.  The political, educational and cultural center of China, the history of Beijing can be traced back over 3,000 years.  With such historical relics as the Forbidden City, the Ming Tombs, and the Great Wall in close proximity, Beijing is a place one can get in touch with the China of old.  However, with the recent economic progress and the frenzy of new construction and infrastructure for the 2008 Olympics, Beijing is now a changed city.

Family Life

Introduction: Families in China are generally still quite traditional, and the family is a focal point of life. Most holidays center around family gatherings and meals, and filial piety is an important and still is a very valid part of Chinese society.  In many cases, adult Chinese children will live with their parents (if their parents live in the same city), with the parents aiding them with household duties such as cooking and parenting.  Thus, though China is modernizing very quickly, traditional family values are still very strong.

Work Culture and Economy

Introduction: China’s economy is ranked number 3 in the world and is strong in manufacturing, being called by some ‘the world’s workshop’.   Almost every major multi-national company not only has an office in China; they deem China as vital to their global corporate strategies.  Though foreign companies account for a lot of business in China, the State-owned companies continued to dominate the list of the biggest companies in China, taking the top ten spots. Some well known multinational companies in China are Boeing, Volkswagon, Microsoft and Nokia.

This is just some of examples of what Chinese society is really like today! Be sure to explore more about this society to understand it more!

Last week we discussed the basics of Chinese cuisine, well this week we are back to talk about our favorite subject some more, food! This week we will be discussing dishes we strongly recomend, and some other dishes that we recomend for the brave!

Top Chinese Foods to Try

• 小 籠包 (xiǎolóngbāo) – Probably the most famous Shanghai dish: these small steamed dumplings are steamed in a basket and stuffed with meat and a tasty broth inside. The connoisseur bites a little hole into them first, sips the broth, then dips them in dark vinegar (醋 cu) to season the meat inside.

• 油条 (yóutiáo) lit. oil stick – Long, deep-fried donut. A very popular breakfast in China. Typically consumed in the morning with soy milk (dou jiang 豆浆), the youtiao is a long, deep-fried stick of dough.

• 羊肉串 (yángròu chuàn) Barbecued meat skewers (Typically from street vendors) – Generally made from lamb, these Xinjiang-style meat kebabs are delicious.

• 拉面 (lāmiàn) Lanzhou-style lamian – Fresh hand-pulled noodles; look for a tiny restaurants with staff in Muslim dress. These fresh noodles have a flavor very atypical of most noodle dishes you will find in China.

• 点 心 (diǎnxīn) Cantonese / Guangzhou / Hong Kong-style Dim Sum – The small snacks usually eaten for lunch/breakfast in these southern regions of China and in Hong Kong are a highlight.

Top 5 Chinese Foods for the Brave

• Stinky Tofu – Locals will forever be asking you if you’ve tried this fermented tofu specialty, so you might as well cave and do the deed. Think ‘french cheese’ rather than ‘smelly socks’ and you just might enjoy it.

• Century Eggs – They’re not really a century old, though they do look it. Black, gelatinous, strong salty flavor… these delicacies are preserved in salt and ash for 100 days.

• Drunken shrimp – Shrimp marinated live, and served live. Watch out for the splashing wine. You eat them after they drown.

• Seahorse – Though it feels somehow wrong on many levels to eat cute animals that feature in Disney cartoons, at least you’ll have something to write home about.

• Bird’s Nest Soup – Don’t let the saliva base of this broth turn you off from this healthful aphrodisiac.