Pinyin Practice

The Pronunciation and Romanization recordings here were the same I had used in college and the same we used when I taught at the University of Iowa a few years ago. They aren’t fancy, but they seem to work. And together with all the audio modules from Standard Chinese, this makes for quite a nice web resource. I can’t help but wish they had it in a flash format complete with chapter markings in the audio time-code, and maybe the text displayed in searchable form, but that would take plenty of development. Simple is good too.

I have an 80 mile commute every day and often find myself listening to NPR. Coverage on China has increased as the Olympics approach, but also as China continues to grow economically and politically. One of my favorite NPR shows will be broadcasting from Chengdu the week of May 19th-23rd. A blog is already relating the travel tales from the show hosts/producers as they make their way to China. Actually, I’m not sure who’s writing the blog. Looking forward to the stories though. Find your local NPR station for show times.

Studypond is an interesting website. They have a good tag line: Making Mandarin Manageable. A reporter on NPR the other day mentioned that television sure likes its alliterations, and I suspect the web does as well (this site is no exception). I like the idea of language partners and tutors. Doesn’t look like there are too many tutors on the site just yet. Perhaps in time.

Must give a shout-out to Eric O. from Primezero for all his efforts in helping me set up the Pinyin Practice Chop on the left (just below the poll). It’s available for WordPress and for iGoogle and any webpage or blog really. Just grab what you need from his download page. Or you might just opt for the chop generator and save the image from there. So many possibilities.

The Opposites of Chinese characters

Originally uploaded by Joseph S. Huang

For those still working on characters. The directions for the activity say “write the opposite character… 8 points”. This clever kid wrote them upside down. Partial credit?