Reviews
Hundreds of resources to help you teach yourself
Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade & Festival
Mandarin, Fairs/Festivals/Parades, Kids
With wind chill, I think the day of the 2013 Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade & Festival in Manhattan’s Chinatown was about 16 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s cold. And no one seemed to care. It is hard to get clear and…
Chinese Language Meetup Groups
Mandarin, Classes/Conversation, Social
To find a Chinese Meetup group in your area, type in your zip code on the far right of this page. If the results are overwhelming (Chinese includes a lot of dialects, after all!), then try starting at the page…
Total Health the Chinese Way
Mandarin, Books, Sports/Fitness
Since I am interested in health and fitness, reading about Traditional Chinese Medicine was one of the things I did to try to get a better sense of Chinese culture. This book did not in any way enhance my language…
China Institute
Mandarin, Museums/Cultural, Organizations, Classes/Conversation, Kids
China Institute was founded in 1926 by a group of American and Chinese educators, John Dewey among them. It resides in an Upper East Side brownstone from which it offers an array of lectures, symposia, films, exhibits, educational programs, corporate programs,…
Columbus Park, Chinatown
Mandarin, Parks, Sports/Fitness, Kids
You might think Columbus Park is an odd name for a Chinatown park, but as one of New York’s oldest neighborhoods, this area has had many incarnations, and the park itself has had various names, among them Mulberry Bend…
USA Shaolin Temple
Mandarin, Sports/Fitness
The USA Shaolin Temple, according to its website, “teaches Chan Philosophy through the core Shaolin disciplines of martial arts or action meditation: Gongfu (Kung Fu), Taiji Quan (Tai Chi) and Qigong (Chi Kung). Students of all backgrounds, religions, ages, and…
The ING New York City Marathon
Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Sports/Fitness
Yeah, I know, the marathon is supposedly about running 26.2 miles. I am a runner, so I can appreciate that. Still, for me, New York City’s annual marathon spectacular is more about culture and language. Because of the global obsession…
Global Language Project
Arabic, Mandarin, Spanish, Classes/Conversation, Kids
This project was founded by Angela Jackson, a business executive whose experiences living and working abroad highlighted for her the advantages multilingualism conferred on children overseas, in terms of both educational and professional opportunities. Bringing together language instructors, researchers, school…
ConversationExchange.com
Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Websites, Classes/Conversation
Even if you live in a remote area, you can use sites such as ConversationExchange.com to find a Skype partner overseas and start speaking, say, Finnish or Xhosa. The web is a fabulous thing. Through this language-exchange community, you…