Category: Articles
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In Paper versus Electric Dictionaries, Electric Wins
It was quite a while ago now I ran a little poll asking if people preferred using Paper Dictionaries, Electronic Dictionaries, or both. Well, turns out the results were pretty much unanimously in favor of Electronic Dictionaries! With their convenience, portability, and instantly accessible information, electronic dictionaries are probably the best option for language learners these days.…
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[Guest Post] Learning Mandarin Chinese: 5 special tips
Below is a guest post from the folks at Learn Mandarin Now. It focuses on 5 special tips for Chinese learners, including a link to an Infographic that I was able to contribute to, which you can see here. This guest post is unique in that it combines interviews and tips from other language learners…
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Performing a little surgery
So recently I had the opportunity to perform a bit of surgery on an iPhone. A relative had accidentally dropped their iPhone 4, smashing the screen into a web of glass that even Spiderman would be proud of: Getting it fixed by Apple meant buy a new phone. Other repair guys were giving us estimates…
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Addressing an Envelope in Taiwan – Horizontal
Now that we’ve looked at how to address envelopes in the more traditional vertical style, let’s take a look how to address horizontal envelopes! Horizontal As for the horizontal envelopes, the post office yet again gives us some great instructions: 收件人地址、姓名書於中央偏右，寄件人地址、姓名書於左上角或信封背面。郵遞區號書於地址上方第1行，郵票貼於右上角。 Breaking this down, we get the address and name of the recipient (收件人地址、姓名) in…
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Addressing an Envelope in Taiwan – Vertical
Since we’ve got our addresses down, on to envelopes! In Taiwan, there are two ways to write the address on the envelope: the more traditional, vertical, way or the more Western-style horizontal way (all depends on the type of envelope you have and how ambitious you are). In this post, I’ll be taking a look…
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You Can Read Academic Japanese
Oftentimes reading academic articles in a foreign language can be a rather intimidating task, but this may come as a surprise: reading academic articles in Japanese is actually pretty easy. Well, okay it does have two little prerequisites: a decent familiarity with Chinese characters and a basic understanding of Japanese grammar. This is nothing a…
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Korean (Hangul) Primer
Following on the tail of the previous entry (Classical Chinese [Hanmun] Primer), I wanted to share more from my adventures at the Joint Library of Humanities and Social Sciences (人文社會科學聯合圖書館) at Academia Sinica. These two images are from the Korean-language primer used in the colonial schools under the Japanese. What’s interesting here is the usage of…
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Classical Chinese (Hanmun) Primer
I recently took a day and traveled out to the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, heading to the Joint Library of Humanities and Social Sciences (人文社會科學聯合圖書館) in search for some primary sources related to my research area. While I was there, I happened across some Classical Chinese Primers (漢文讀本, 한문독본) that were compiled and edited by…
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Whistle While You Work
I’m someone that needs to listen to music while working, especially when writing. I can’t work in dead silence, which is probably why I never study in libraries. Music helps keep me motivated and also gives me the energy to keep going. I prefer instrumental tracks, like classical music (and dare I say) video game…
En Route To Fluency 