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Literally hours ago I learned that I have to cancel a very similar trip I had booked... I didn't need to see this post right now haha. Anyways enjoy the trip!

@Confucious I took the written HSK3 exam in 2022 and we were given a separate answer sheet where we had to fill in our answers. So yes, we had to rewrite all the characters in the proper order.

Anyone have recommendations for Qinghai (or Gansu)? Wife and I planning a somewhat ambitious driving trip very soon from Beijing through 山西，陕西，甘肃, 青海，宁夏. We have most of May, we both can drive. Basically aiming for round trip to Dunhuang and back. Kind of something like the map attached (but the qinghai part is just a line because I have no idea). Shanxi, Shaanxi we are going to stop at a few less popular places, no Xian as I've been there many times. Then from Yan'an approach Gansu or Qinghai. Gansu seems pretty self explanatitory(at least the western part, but I'm not quite sure about Qinghai. Such a large province. I'm trying to decide if I want to go Qinghai first and then up to Dunhuang or get to Dunhuang and then head down to Qinghai. Also unsure if I should attempt driving all the way down to Yushu or just stick to the North part of the province. Anyone have any first hand experience in Qinghai, what to see where to go, routes? I'm researching online, but I thought I'd ask here too. I will probably put pictures from the trip on my blog as we go.

Larry, I have now spent 3 days in Lijiang and I shake my head at all the Reddit threads that say it is like a fake Disneyland. Lijiang Old Town is certainly very touristy, but even there you may suddenly find yourself alone in a beautiful side street Further, there is more to Lijiang, e. g. Baisha Old Town, Shuhe Old Town, Jade Water Village, Black Dragon pool, Lashihai Wetland park, wonderful Naxi farmer's markets, etc. If you rent a scooter, you can go off the beaten path to amazing places. Today I saw "wild roaming" horses, cows, goats, etc..

Larry, How much time do you have for this China trip, from touchdown in country to take-off? This makes a big difference in time-allocation decisions.

I agree with @Lus advice. You definitely don't want to pass through 北京 without seeing the sights. I'd get a hotel room somewhere in the Hutong area, experience a bit of Beijing and then go study in Yunnan. I can recommend a few accommodations and a good Great Wall trip, you can pm me if you want, also would be happy to meet up for a beer in the hutongs if I'm in town.

Depends on what you want. It's totally doable to just get a hotel and see Beijing on your own (either on your way to Yunnan or on the way back, when your Chinese will be a little bit better). Finding a teacher by yourself for a short period is not something I'd recommend. It would take time to organise that, you'd have to hope you find a teacher that suits you right away, if the teacher suddenly is not available, or less good, or whatever, you'd have to find a new one, etc. If you want to study in Beijing, best just book a language school there. Either LTL or one of the many other schools. If I were you I think I'd visit Beijing on the way, and do the actual studying in Yunnan.

I have had another addition to my considerations too. Since to get to Kunming the flights I checked all go to Beijing first, I realized I should take advantage of this and see Beijing before starting at Kunming. I don't know whether it would be better to just get a hotel and see Beijing on my own, maybe find a teacher, or study at LTL School in Beijing. I've always wanted to try them too. They are pretty expensive however compared to Keats, and thats just the classes only!

Thanks so much for your response! I was hoping you would see this and respond since I had read that you lived there many years and have lots of experience there!

In Rosetta Stone, that occurs because the company uses a standard set of sentences for all languages, rather than sentences particularly tailored to each language. Thus the absurdity of having no chopsticks or jiaozi in a Chinese course and instead, tennis and roast beef. Could it be the same for Glossika?

I did a ton of hiking at the time, so most of the route was pretty manageable. That said, I do remember being pretty winded by the end of the "28 bends". It's something like 2,000 ft of elevation gain in a very short stretch, plus you're climbing from 6,000ft - 8,000ft which adds to the cardio-vascular difficulty. In terms of safety, I had heard the same. Specifically, I had heard not to hike it in the rain as there was a risk that you could slip off the trail in places. While the trail is pretty exposed, it was also pretty wide and flat (not slanted into the cliff, which would have made me worried). In the end, I DID hike it in the rain and I felt 100% safe the whole time. The one part that was a bit sketchy; the entrance is in the middle of nowhere. I had to have my hotel negotiate a ride out and back for me in a taxi. I paid upfront and just trusted that the driver would come back to get me two days later. Thankfully, he did and I was able to get back. I probably could have asked one of the guest houses along the way to call me a taxi as an alternative, but my Chinese skills were not too great at the time, so it would have been a bit of a challenge. All-in-all it is one of the greatest travel memories I have of anywhere in the world. It truly felt like an adventure. I would highly recommend it.

@Tomsima Congratulations on completing it! Valid points, indeed. However, I still stand by my judgment. This was only one example out of many others that I didn't bother with screenshots. A premium price tag mandates premium quality, especially when made by an actual linguist who genuinely cares about languages and not some random corporation worried about their bottom line. The second annoyance I forgot to add because new members on this forum don't have editing privileges for their posts (another strange choice) is the overuse of foreign names. Ostensibly, if you're living in a Mandarin-speaking environment, the probability of using "Vanessa" or "Tamara" or "Malika" or "Jamaal" in daily speech is very low. No idea why actual Chinese names were ignored, which would make logical sense. To that end, Glossika would have to record the most common names in each language/culture and that would be time-consuming. Again, if you're a dedicated linguist I think you'd care about such things instead of adopting a cookie-cutter approach wholesale. I'm only critical because because I want Glossika to outshine the competition and put out quality work. I hold someone like Mike to a higher standard. Ironically, he points out the same issues, and rightfully so, with his competition. I just don't waste my breath constructively criticizing the lazy, garbage content put out by rival companies that are solely driven by profit and gamification for customer retention. I hope Mike earnestly takes in such feedback and polishes up this diamond in the rough.

I have completed the whole of the Mandarin package (granted, it is overpriced...), there are a few of these kinds of sentences, but ultimately I think its a necessity for being able to do sentence recall for what would otherwise be ambiguous. There seem to be two situations where this kind of oddity arises: 1. There is a very similar sentence somewhere else in the database, perhaps 他们在读书 which is then paired with 'They're reading books'. To avoid ambiguity, the sentence then paired here uses a more direct translation 'looking at', to jog your memory. I do this all the time with my anki cards in order to remember subtle differences, eg. 从头到脚 'from head to toe'， 从头到尾 'from beginning to tail end' (rather than both being the more often used 'from top to bottom'. 2. The sentence was originally part of a dialogue that was then split into individual sentences for the database. In the dialogue the bad translation is not labelled as 'bad' because the context made it clear to the reviewer. In this case you can flag it and the maintainers will review and change (I think I probably flagged around 20-30 sentences altogether) I'm not trying to justify mistakes in what is ultimately an expensive service, but in some cases Mike may have in fact seen and intentionally kept some awkward translations for the sake of avoiding ambiguity.

Glossika's basic English mistakes are starting to make me question my own mother tongue. This obviously means, "They are reading books." "Looking at books?" Who says that? I'm dumbfounded. Mike's Mandarin is impressive and he's a native English speaker so how does this glaring mistake go overlooked. It was in the old PDFs and I signed up for their online platform to see if they cleaned up these issues... nope, no quality control checks. The online platform is: 1. woefully overpriced, 2. probably has more typos past the initial 3000 sentences, 3. offers little user control (only allows you pause the audio in full practice mode, not listening when doing reps). I already assumed it made more sense to sentence mine from textbooks and native resources, or have native speakers audio record sentences to make audio Anki flashcards. True, it takes time but complete control of the creation/editing/review process is guaranteed. Glossika is wonderful is concept, but sorely lacks in delivery.

Link is in the original post, 倉頡之友 has since released an updated 2022 version 《倉頡平台2022》which works on both Windows 10 and 11. I have used 倉頡平台 for many years now for typing Cangjie 5, can recommend.

I'm still not sure which I did. I did it in a university in England. I made a short video of my last couple of weeks before them. https://youtu.be/gtp5JoiNiXk?feature=shared

That is right at the top of my bucket list. How did you find it? I'm fairly fit and an experienced hiker. Any issues? I did hear a few whispers about safety along the way - unfounded? Did you have any issues? Same. If you do, I'd love to hear about it.

Okay, it is thirty years since I attempted to use Ann’s collection of tomes to help learn Chinese. I also found the Jesuit Dr Leon Weiger’s "Chinese Characters" (Paragon Book Reprint & Dover; 1915, revised 1927, also edition 1968), to be most useful. I found Snn’s method to be plodding, cerebral, and contrary to natural language learning methods. The question I eventually asked myself was: “How did T.K. Ann learn his mother tongue (as he is from Hong Kong presumably Cantonese or perhaps Shanghainese or another dialect)? And the obvious answer is: not with the method he is advocating. I reverted to natural methods involving conversation and listening coupled with reading of Taiwanese material with Zhuyin Fuhao (BoPoMo) beside the characters, and having a Chinese-Chinese dictionary handy, for more of an immersion experience. Don’t get me wrong; both Ann’s and Weiger’s works are great references, to enrich the language learning experience. But I suggest the learner is better off doing as T.K. Ann does, not as he says.

On my computer the English subtitles do not show up even when pressing the CC button and choosing English as the Captions is there an explanation for that?

I happen to be in Lijiang at the moment as a tourist. My first time. I have also considered taking classes at Keats and have been pondering the same questions regarding location. abcdefg is really the expert on Kunming and I have not yet bern there. Certainly in terms of teachers and cost, it makes sebse to study there. However, I find Lijiang an intriguing option as I think there may be more things you can do on weekends. Sure, you can take a train/plane from Kunming to any larger city in Yunnan, but in terms of day trips, hiking etc, Lijiang seems very appealing to me. Yesterday, I also discovered the probably best western supermarket I have seen in China to date (Lijiang International Shopping Plaza Mall, Lijiang International Shopping Plaza Mall). Coming from Shanghai, it is much, much better than Walmart or CitySuper in Ipam shopping mall. What I would not like about the alternatives to Kunming at Keats is that you stay/live with the teacher (correct me if I am wrong) (!?)

Can anybody please tell me where can I download Cangjie 5 for Windows 10? I looked around but I can't seem to find it. On Android it's a simple option in Gboard.

Hello, I'm eager to learn Chinese and am looking for a language exchange partner who shares a similar interest in language learning. In exchange, I can offer help with English or any other language you may be interested in. What I'm Offering: Fluent English conversation and assistance with grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Cultural insights and discussions to make the learning experience more enriching. What I'm Looking For: Native or fluent Chinese speaker passionate about sharing their language and culture. Patient and committed partner willing to practice regularly and help each other improve. If you're interested in this language exchange opportunity and would like to embark on this learning journey together, please feel free to reach out to me. Let's help each other become more proficient in our respective languages while making new friends along the way! Looking forward to hearing from you soon! Best regards, Nazim Saeed

It’s been hectic with travelling so anti and my turtle book have been my friends. I am now on chapter 12 in Tuttle. Revision of husk 1 is complete, Husk 2 and 3 still in progress HSK vocab only at about 50 words in…. Im attending and helping in a wedding this week, so it will likely be more of the same.

Well yeah, that's why I want to read these, to see what these different morals are. Not to sit and condemn them. Many westerners, particularly in literary circles, have a narrow view of what plot should be. Translation isba chore, but I'll never read them in the original, and Pearl S. Buck is good by me. The Good Earth helped me understand so much. I continued with both sequels, and while they weren't as good like everyone said, I still learned a lot about families. It made a great impression on me when Wang Lung's father was sitting on the cardboard box in the sidewalk and thought to himself, I have a son, my son has a son, and afterwards did not trouble himself too much about the affairs of the world. I was like, wow! That's it! That is the win state for Chinese people. It's what they're all working towards. They'd like to get there in more style, but whatever. Dad had what was important in life. Monkey sounds great too, and the 3 kingdoms with English names is an inspired choice. I thought I was a weirdo for that one. Good to know someone was way ahead of me. Thanks for all the help everyone. That's why this forum is so damn awesome, the depth of knowledge of the members.

Much better, in my opinion, to study in Kunming and take a side trip or two at some point to Dali and Lijiang. The logistics of that are apple-pie easy. You will have the benefit of a better selection of teachers in Kunming, and for a first-timer the city itself also has a lot to offer. I lived there most of 12 years and loved it. (Have been to Dali and Lijiang many times.) Here are some things to see and do in Kunming: https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/55348-a-minor-kunming-park-昙花寺公园/ https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/53449-green-lake-park-翠湖公园/ https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/55474-chasing-the-sun-kunmings-daguan-park-大观公园/ More here about one of my favorite spots in Kunming: https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/61588-why-kunming/. You can find other reports in the "Life, work, and study" forum.