chemistry and biology in chinese

[xit]

What's the best way to study chemistry and biology in Chinese? Are there any textbooks that I can download online? My first idea was just to have the material in my native language or English and then find the translations for the words and terms, but I figured it would waste too much time. I did manage to find some youtube videos, but I'd also like a textbook or anything written for guidance as well. Is there any way that I can download the high school textbooks or scripts or something? Also is there a method that would make learning these subjects easier? So far, I've noticed that it's relatively easy to understand the biology videos as there is usually a picture, so I don't feel like I have to translate the terms. But what about chemistry? Vocab is completely different from English, where do I even start? And once I've learned the lesson of the day, how do I go about revising? Just anki it, or is there a better method? Also, is it better to just start with the basics and then slowly go into detail, or to go a topic at a time, but with much more depth?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Michael H]

Why are you inflicting this pain upon yourself? Are you preparing for study in a Chinese university?

[Angelina]

I still have my textbook, not sure if it is available online.

[onebir]

I think some popular western textbooks might be available in translation; a search for the authors names on dangdang etc should bring them up. Perhaps you could get both versions & fall back to English where needed?

[xit]

Ah, that book does seem like a great introduction, something like that would be of great help~~ I couldn't find it online, tho maybe i just haven't looked hard enough. I've found some nice youtube videos, is it ok if i post the links? Perhaps someone else will find them useful~

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5_Yo8xr1II  I really really like this. I am surprised that I can actually follow and understand this lecture   Has my listening improved, or maybe it's just easy? Either way, I added a few important words to anki, have the entire chart drawn in a notebook, with the unknown words, pinyin and meaning added. Maybe I should save the audio and play it before sleep? I would really like to have a textbook too tho

 

Do you have any advice on how to study, take notes, etc? Unfortunately, I don't know any author or textbook name, at least not yet...If I find something useful, ill post it here. I've noticed that people post word lists on some topics, so maybe it's ok to do that here too...I'll post all the important vocab from the youtube video above. (please let me know if there are any mistakes)

 

物质 matter, substance

混合物 mixture

溶液 solution

化合物  chemical compound

元素 element

金属 metal

非金属 nonmetal

固体 solid

液体 liquid

气体 gas

 

氧 oxygen

氢 hydrogen

碳 carbon

二氧化碳 CO2 - I find this surprisingly logical, perhaps chemistry will be easy to learn? I hope he explains how these names are formed later on...

[Demonic_Duck]

Scientific topics typically aren't too difficult in Chinese. You tend to find that much of the vocabulary is put together very logically, much like scientific vocabulary in English. Unlike English, though, the building blocks are typically familiar ones from everyday life, rather than requiring you to learn a whole new language (namely Latin).

 

If you're studying mainly for interest, I'd recommend the Chinese-language version of Scientific American magazine. It's called 《环球科学》. Naturally it's not a replacement for a textbook, but it's an enjoyable read. If you're studying for more academic reasons, maybe you can read it on your study breaks. 

 

 

Holy crap, I never knew “液” was pronounced /yì/ in Taiwan mandarin. Kept thinking he was saying “异体”. O_o

[Yadang]

You can try following some online courses in Chinese. EdX and Coursera both have some. I haven't actually followed any (can't find any that interest me enough to invest the time), but I suspect that they'll have both video lectures, as well as other handouts in Chinese.

 

Sometimes the videos also have Chinese subtitles (and rarely English ones too). You could probably download the videos, download the subtitles, and use Subs2SRS (search the forums for more info about it) to make anki flashcards with Chinese audio, Chinese subtitles, and a screenshot. You could then use cloze deletion to cloze out any words you want to study. So you'd be getting some nice context and audio feedback with each word that you study.