Coming back to Mandarin after a hiatus, I needed something to bridge the gap before jumping back into tutoring sessions. HSKcourse.com came at the right moment, and it feels less like an online course and more like having a tutor actually walk you through the material. After almost a month with it, here’s my honest take on whether it’s worth it for self-learners.
Category: Reviews
My Du Chinese Experience: Two Years and Counting!
I’ve been using Du Chinese for the past two years, and it’s been an incredible journey! I initially took advantage of the Black Friday sale and snagged a subscription at 50% off, which was an amazing deal. I’m seriously considering getting the lifetime subscription with one time payment. They usually offer this during the Mid-autumn…
Navigating mandarin with Preply – A year in review
Alright, so around July 2022, I decided to switch things up in my Mandarin learning routine and gave Preply a shot – the online tutoring gig. After flying solo in the world of Chinese characters for years, I figured it was time to bring in a real pro to help me out. Fast forward a…
Uncovering a Mandarin Learning Gem: MandarinBean
Embarking on a journey to learn Mandarin can be both thrilling and daunting, especially when faced with the myriad of resources available. Having relied on DuChinese for the past year, the recent price hikes left me in search of a more budget-friendly alternative that still delivered quality content. Enter MandarinBean—a hidden gem that has not…
Is it worth it? Everand,Scribd & Slide share – Unveiling the Ultimate audiobooks,ebooks, documents and presentation haven.
Since June, I’ve been on a digital journey with Everand, Scribd, and Slideshare. These platforms have become my go-to for everything from reading to sharing docs and jazzing up presentations. Let me share why this trio is my internet happy place. Everand is my not-so-secret weapon for diving into ebooks and audiobooks without burning a…
Preply or iTalki
I have used both the learning platforms for learning 2 different languages for some months now. Preply for Mandarin and iTalki for Hungarian. They are both online platforms for finding a personal tutor who can help you in your language learning journey. Both similar in a way that you can choose when you want to…
Up my Mandarin learning game
Today I took the first Mandarin lesson on preply. I have been learning for years but my speaking ability is not even up to par. Simply because I have no one whom I am brave enough to speak mandarin to. My first experience was good. The teacher seems kind and sympathetic to me. She helped…
Bustafellows
What is Otome you ask? It is an adventure or visual novel games that are mainly targeted towards the female gamers. Lots of story and steamy romance.
BR:Simple Hungarian – Fifty Topic For Beginners.
Categories: Books, ReviewsTag: HungarianAuthor: Alexander PavlenkoGenre: Language studiesFrom Goodreads: The title of the series is Simple Hungarian, for the stories are told in simple, everyday colloquial style.I have to admit that I got this book a while back and started reading it long ago only to put it aside for a long time. I began to read the book again since I started to brush up on my Hungarian. I just need something else to read other than the text books that I am using. If you are learning Hungarian like myself you would know that there aren’t many study resources out there for this language compared to other languages; say Japanese or Spanish. So when I saw this book I was glad. Well, despite what the title says, “Simple Hungarian”. There is nothing simple about Hungarian. 😀 But just like everything the more you expose yourself to it the easier it gets. I find that the book is good for learning new words and also helps you remember the basic concepts and words usage as they are repeated a lot. It kind of ease you into the language. The book is divided into 2 parts – Simple present and simple past. Each part comes with 50 short articles or topics. The topics are about common things that you would use in your daily life with topics like – family, friends, siblings, work, hobbies etc. The topics were actually repeated in both parts but as I mentioned earlier, one is presented in simple present and the other in simple past. And at the end of each topic there are questions based on it. Also the translations of both the articles and questions are provided as well. So you can use the questions to try to repeat what you’ve read by memory. This book is not something you can use as a textbook for sure but definitely something you should consider getting as a supplement for language learning. “Jó tanulást!” If you like my review, do share it :Google+TwitterPinterestFacebookTumblr
BR: Dear Hank Williams
Categories: Books, ReviewsAuthor: Kimberly Willis HoltGenre: FictionFrom Goodread: It’s 1948 in Rippling Creek, Louisiana, and Tate P. Ellerbee’s new teacher has just given her class an assignment–learning the art of letter-writing. Luckily, Tate has the perfect pen pal in mind: Hank Williams, a country music singer whose star has just begun to rise. Tate and her great-aunt and -uncle listen to him on the radio every Saturday night, and Tate just knows that she and Hank are kindred spirits. Told entirely…I finished this book about a week ago. I just didn’t have the time to write my thoughts on it. I am a fan of ‘letter writing’ or ‘journaling’ story telling. Not surprising that one of my all time favorite books “daddy long legs” by Jean Webster. You kind of get into the head of the characters and it can make them seem much more real. It took me a few hours to go through this book. I love reading stories from the perspective of a child. Innocent ,funny and refreshing. The story is based in the late 1940 post II world war period and the story was told through letters sent by an 11 year old girl named Tate P. Ellerbee to her idol, Hank Williams. I have to confess that every time she mentioned a song, I had to look it up and listen to them while reading the book. It was well written that I could imagine rather vividly how it was to live as a child in the 40s. How much more simple and complicated it was at the same time. Now when I wanted to listen to a song I could just google it or look it up on ‘spotify’ or ‘Tidal’ and chances are I would find them there. But for a child in the 40s who wanted to listen to songs of their favourite singers, they would have to make time to tune it to the radio at certain time of the day with the entire family. If you missed it, you miss it. You just have to wait for the next day or week for the program to come up again on the radio. I suppose something that we modern people would not have to go through – everything is instant gratification these days. Anyway, it all started when her teacher decided that they should all start writing to penpals. And Tate, after listening to Hank Williams for the first time on the radio, had a good idea of who her penpal should be – which is Hank Williams himself, and nothing her teacher told her could convince her otherwise. From then on she started to relate the daily going ons in her life religiously through letters – without getting a reply of course other than the occasional autographed photos. As I mentioned earlier, the letters were well written, peppered with childish humor, and curiosity. It is a story about love, family and grief. I conveyed in the end of how a…