Language Learning

General

• How to best learn a language?

  • Best video on language learning. Period.

• Language Negotiation

  • How to better learn languages in real life situations

• Most popular last names per country

  

• Learn your target language now!
• Memrise - language learning with fun hints and tips

Linguistics

• Languages spoken in the world

  

• -

Language specific

Mandarin Chinese

• German Blog about Chinese
• Outlier Linguists Chinese Course

Tones

• Glossika Tone Training Files

  • Link to downloads of training files of 2-character and 3-character combos.
  • The files also include 10x repetitions of words to really learn it thorougly.
• Chinese - Nice video intro from Yoyo Chinese

Tone changing rules

• 看这片很好的视频
• Always: 3 + 3 -> 2 + 3
• Only for 不：4 + 4 -> 2 + 4

• Only for 数字《一》你算数字时时第一声，可是在任何其他情况下是第四声！而且也遵守上面的规律。4 + 4 -> 2 + 4 例子：

  • 一杯水 Yìbēi shuǐ （Google gets the 拼音 wrong!）
  • 一起 Yìqǐ
  • 一路 yílù; 一個 yíge (2nd - neutral, but originally a 4th) --- this one is super important!
  • 一條路 yì tiáo lù

• Summary from hackingchinese.com

  • Obligatory rules: The three above rules
  • Optional tone change rules:
  • 动物 4-4 becomes a slighter 4 and a 4
  • 一年级 yīniánjí (grade one) turns into yīniānjí.

• Another resource covering the tone change rules with examples

  Sometimes multiple third tones in a row will be broken up by pauses. In this case, the last word/character in each “group” will be pronounced as a third tone.

Pinyin - 拼音

Here are all the possible pinyin letters:

āáǎà

ēéěè

īíǐì

ōóǒò

ūúǔù

ǖǘǚǜ

中国电影与电视剧

10 Chinese TV Shows to Help You Learn Mandarin

• 最近在开

  • 何以笙箫默

Cantonese

• CantoDict sentences, hundreds of Cantonese sentences an audio:

Japanese

• Great tips on resources

English

Loosing your accent

Nice video with tips

Methods:

• Shadowing

  • See Outlier Linguists Chinese Course talking about this method.
• Reading book + Audiobook -> Connection of words + sounds

• Sentence mining

  • See Outlier Linguists Chinese Course talking about this method.

Tools

Language learning apps

• Duolingo - Great to learn the basics

  • What?: Learn by translating back and forth
  • PRO: Good for starting out with a totally new language
  • CON: Sentences often not really useful
  • CON: Learned words don’t really stick

• Fluentu - Learn with real videos - it’s fun and a good way to learn real expressions from daily life

  • Learn with real videos (ads, youtube videos, children language learning shows etc.)

• Memrise

  • Learn with mnemonics (Eselsbrücken)

• Rosetta Stone

  • Learn like kids do.

• Busuu

  • Recommended by Heiki

Learning pronunciation

• Forvo: The pronunciation dictionary

  Native speakers pronounce words for you (often with different dialects to choose from).

• Speechling

  • Repeat phrases, see your sound wave pattern and compare it to native speakers’ pronunciation.
  • Listen to native speakers and send up to 10 phrases a month for them to give you feedback (more phrases in paid version).

• how to pronounce

  Native pronunciations.

• Audacity

  • Audio software to analyze your pronunciation via sound wave patterns
  • Record your own audio and download native speakers’ audio

Speak with natives online

• Omegle

  • Talk to strangers online

1-on-1 lessons

• Preply

  • My referral link

• iTalki

  • If you want to learn there use this link to support me.

• Chatterbug

  • Where Tilman works

Not tried yet

• Tatoeba

  • Collection of sentences and translations - some with audio
  • Useful for sentence mining

• Glossika

  • Smart technology, adaptive learning algorithm and structured content.
• Babbel