Pinyin Practice

If you haven’t seen Danwei TV yet, do yourself a quick favor. Here is an example of their most recent on YouTube:

Want to make your own flashcards to share and practice online? Try out cueflash. It’s easy to use. And it’s free (you just need to register — but no contact info is necessary).

From the l33t c0丁 skillz of Theron Stanford comes Pinyin Tutor!! All the sounds of pinyin with explanations and activities. A treasure-trove of practice and beginners’ information. Sure the interface isn’t much to look at, but the functionality is incredible. One feature that I find particularly attractive is the ability for the learner to listen to their own entry, right or wrong. Then make changes if the entry doesn’t match the native speaker.

I’ve had much fun playing with this recent dictionary deployment from Primezero’s spin-off company Corgilabs and programmed by Eric O. It’s an impressive tool built from the ground up as I understand it. Recent additions include numbers, dates, times, percents and more. A great resource for the web and those who need a quick translation. Try searching for some specialty medical or computer terms. The database is being built categorically so many entries will surprise you.