Reviews

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There Are More American Chinatowns Than Most People Realize

5 Mandarin, Books

In American Chinatown, author Bonnie Tsui examines the five most famous American Chinatowns—in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Honolulu, and Las Vegas. Discussions of demographic trends are complemented by personal stories of people who live…

The Web That Has No Weaver: Good Bedtime Reading

3-5 Mandarin, Books, Sports/Fitness

The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine by Ted Kaptchuk will not teach you Chinese, but it has Chinese words in it! I read it as part of my foray into Chinese culture. I am…

Visual Education Vocabulary Cards Have Chinese Characters Plus Pinyin

1-5 Mandarin, Flashcards, Vocabulary

You can buy these Chinese vocabulary cards directly from the publisher, Visual Education, or from other distributors such as Amazon.com. Each card has both Chinese characters and pinyin on one side, and English on the other. When I…

A Beverage History: On the Drink That Changed the World

4 Mandarin, Books

While studying Chinese, I decided to read this tea history, as a window into Chinese culture. Five thousand years of culture is a little overwhelming, and I thought picking a small corner might be more manageable. Thus, a tea book,…

ChinaFile, for the Latest News on China

Mandarin, News, Websites

This publication is in English, but it has a lot to say about China! Cultural context always helps with language learning. According to its Facebook page, ChinaFile is “an online magazine of original and carefully curated reporting in words, pictures…

FlashcardExchange.com: Find Flashcards for Your Target Language

4 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Apps, Flashcards, Vocabulary, Websites, Kids

FlashcardExchange.com claims to be the “world’s largest flashcard library.” It was founded in 2001 by a guy named Culley Harrelson, who was studying for an exam using a giant stack of paper flashcards. Apparently he didn’t find…

Me, About to Take My Spanish Test from Alta Language Services

4-5 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tests

I do not profess to be an expert in testing services. After a Google search, I chose Alta Language Services for my own testing needs because it is efficient and inexpensive. Alta Language Services, according to its website, is “a…

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