Simple and Easy Introduction to Mandarin

Here is a very simple and easy to follow video teaching beginning Mandarin Chinese. You can go to their website at Fluenz.com to learn more and to learn different languages. Enjoy.

Hokudai/Cast: Your Trilingual Podcast

Listening Practice The Yard Sale

Here is a video in English with English subtitles that you can use to improve your listening skills. Watch carefully and then answer some questions. It is in fairly normal English so please give it a try.




Hokudai/Cast 233: Perimeter. Now online via iTunes and Hokudai/Cast

TOEIC Listening Practice Test

Here is another practice TOEIC listening test. How did you do?

Hokudai/Cast: A Trilingual Podcast

Simple TOEIC Practice

 Listen and watch. This is the first part of the listening for the TOEIC test. How do you think you'll do?

Chinese Word Order

A quick - In English - video about Chinese word order. Learn the difference between Chinese and English word order.  The teacher explains how to put together a Chinese sentence.

Subject - When - Where - How - Action

English word order: Tomorrow I will study Chinese with Lily in the library.

Chinese word order: I tomorrow in the library with Lily study Chinese.

Easy Japanese about Hobbies

Listen. And read the English subtitles. But listen often. Easy Japanese talking about her hobby. Less than two minutes. Enjoy. And Listen, eh?

Chinese Music Video with Subtitles (in Chinese)

The Flowers Band singing Change Into A Butterfly for Fly. The band broke up in 2009 having performed since 1998. Follow the hanji as you sing. And enjoy.

LoveLoveLove Two Ways.

Hokudai/Cast 221 has a song by CaiYiLin called LoveLoveLove and here, for your educational enlightenment, is a pinying version of the same song if you want to practice speaking. Enjoy.



And here is a Hanji version if you want to practice reading and listening.

BCLU - Beijing University of Culture and Language

About 100 Hokuriku University (北陸大学) students are going to Beijing University of Culture and Language (BCLU - 北京语言大学) to study Chinese, English, and herbal medicine. They'll leave this month and stay about one month. Here is a quick video of the BCLU campus. BCLU is famous for teaching foreigners Chinese and Chinese other languages. The students should have a good time.

Learning a Foreign Language and Chinese Vocabulary

How to learn Any foreign language. This one is just related to Japanese and it is in English. Helpful hints:

• make mistakes - try to respond, don't remain silent
• copy a native speaker - don't learn from anime
• describe a word you don't know - don't just remain silent
• keep practicing - learning a language isn't a one-shot deal

And now some simple Chinese with English, hanji, pinying and lots of practice.

Cool Slang for Japanese-language Learners

Words and slang you might find useful if you're not careful.

Hokudai/Cast: Your Fun Trilingual Podcast

English & Chinese: A couple of sports

By using your English you can learn a few sports words in Chinese.
Or, perhaps, using your Chinese, you can learn some English.
Enjoy.

Bargaining in Mandarin

More from Peggy Teaches Chinese. Bargaining in Chinese. Watch, listen, and learn.

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Hokudai/Cast: Your fun-service trilingual podcast for Japanese, English, and Chinese.

Easy Chinese for Today

Here are two videos to help you start your Chinese learning experience.
The first gives very careful pronunciation.
The second puts it all together. Enjoy.

Hokudai/Cast: Your Trilingual Podcast.

Learn Chinese

I found Peggy teaching Chinese in a very understandable and enjoyable lesson. You need to speak some English but it's not necessary - you can understand from her actions and video inserts. So, learn a little Chinese, eh?

Hokudai/Cast: Your FunCast for learning Japanese, English, and Chinese.

What is Extra?

Extra what does it mean? It means 'outside of' or 'without' or 'except.' Where can we see words that use extra? How about:

Extra-terrestrial

Terre means earth or earthly. The opposite is celestial which means 'in the stars' or 'in the heavens'. Extra-terrestrial, then, means outside of the earth. Like the movie: ET. (ET which stands for, of course, Extra-Terrestrial. Here's the music from the movie - ET: The Extra-Terrestrial:



Another word with extra is:

Extraordinary

It's not ordinary, it's outside of ordinary. It's extraordinary. It's very special.

And finally we have :

Extra-curricular

Extra-curricular is a good word. Curricular means a 'course or career.' It is often connected with schools. What you study and when you study it is the curriculum. So extra-curricular means outside of school. Okay? Good. Go play.

Two Views of Xian, China

Two views of Xian, China. The first is in the oldest quarter and still not hanging on to modernization:


The second is from the more modern bits of the ancient capital of China:

Speedy Typing?

An old fashioned Chinese typewriter. Doesn't look fast but it served a purpose.

Which is easier: a Chinese typewriter, a cell phone, or a computer keyboard?

Asking Out In Chinese

Want to know how to invite someone out on a date in Chinese?
Watch the video and enjoy. Good luck.

All the Kanji You Need.

In this short 10-minute video are all the kanji the Japanese government believes you need to read a newspaper and other documents in Japanese. These are called the joyo kanji (常用漢字). These are the kanji all graduates of high school are supposed to know. In addition to these 1,945 kanji, last year an additional 196 kanji were added so actually there are 2,136 kanji (five were deleted.)

Then, in the second video, are the 1006 kanji all elementary school kids should know. These are arranged by their on-yomi rank. These are called the Educational (Kyoiku) Kanji (教育漢字)

The 1,945 常用 漢字

The 1006 教育漢字