Actually, if you already have most of the grammar down, and want to increase your vocab, one thing you can try is reading Chinese novels. There’s plenty online that you can read for free. Or even download apps on your mobile which allow you to download Chinese books into your mobile. Although beware that some of them might use a lot of slangs, or have a number of typos… You have to know how to pick I guess, since it can be like fanfic, and there’s a lot of authors whose literary talents are more limited. A good place to start would be reading those which have been adapted to shows. Like Love Me If You Dare, Shan Shan Comes to Eat, Ode to Joy… And the other titles written by these authors.
3 Likes
No I don’t write anything down… I just remember the scene and because Viki subbers are amazing before I forget it’s subbed. Sometimes I’m off, sometimes I’m right and sometimes I just got the big lines correct but not de details.
1 Like
Do you have a website link to download easy books for free? So far I’ve been using the Chinese Breeze books like 错错错，我一定要找到她, and the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press leveled books for learning English with classics like Withering Heights. Those are great because they have English on one page and Chinese on the other. The only problem with those ones is I could only find and buy them as paper books. So any website links you have for simplified Chinese would be great!
And does anyone know any website links for learning idioms and phrases for Chinese? I’m stuck on some I don’t understand.
Easy books… that’s hard. Cause I don’t really know your reading level and I never tried looking for web resources for learning Chinese. There’s websites for novels, some of which use quite simple Chinese? But… it depends on which you choose? If you want English and Chinese translations, I know that there’s some people who translate popular Chinese novels into English so you could probably split your computer screen into half, with have the original novel on one screen and the English on another. You can try 微微一笑很倾城 (Just One Smile Is Very Alluring)
(Chinese): http://www.gumanxs.com/weiweiyixiaohenqingcheng/
(English): https://wwyxhqc.wordpress.com/just-one-smile-is-very-alluring/
For idioms and phrases, just Baidu it. It usually has everything 
(Chinese, that is). Or… you can ask me 
Oh yes! I just remembered, another thing you can try that will help you with both is that a lot of Chinese idioms originate from stories, so just google “Chinese idiom stories” and you should get a variety of sites which will explain both the meaning of the idiom, with short stories to practice your reading on.
3 Likes
I suggest comicbooks. I learned Korean from them.
1 Like
Hi, can I ask if you know a website to buy Korean comic books? Now I sometimes read them on Nate and I’d like to really buy one.
Split screens, that’s a good idea. I copy pasted my texts in parallel columns in word doc and it was a pain to scroll down.
Any idea for chinese ones?
Even comic strips on websites would work.
There’s probably more sites, but here are two.
http://comic.sfacg.com/
http://manhua.dmzj.com/
1 Like
One of my motivation to watch chinese drama is to improve my chinese skills but I’m really hopeless with intonation lol I only understand short sentences with chinese sub. Nevertheless it’s still interesting to watch the drama as I will also learn something new other than language 
3 Likes
For languages like chinese, mainly monosyllabic and tonal, understanding short sentences is considered improvement.
I know some websites to read comics and manga in traditional characters if that’s your forte (unfortunately it isn’t mine), but I haven’t found any for simplified characters. Here’s at least one that I use often: http://www.jmydm.com
1 Like
I can’t read traditional characters yet. I’m trying to use sites with simplified ones.
Did you find anything for reading simple books?
I speak several languages and I never thought of intonation, I wonder why. Last night I got curious and watched a really good youtube video about this… A pretty lady teacher was explaining it visually and audio. I thought I just need to hear the pronounciation of a word to memorize… but when the intonation commands are under each pinyan (?) word when learning then it helps how to pronouce it, interesting and perhaps difficult until you get it. I read somewhere once you start learning chinese you shouldn’t stop, if you do, you end up starting all over again… I don’t know but it’s interesting… Ni hao 
True.
It tends to fade faster than other languages, because there is nothing to relate it to until you make some progress.
2 Likes
Sadly I haven’t found much for easy simplified chinese books or readings for free online. I know books you can purchase though.
What’s your opinion on the new Learn Mode tool?
Is anyone still discussing learning Chinese through watching Taiwanese and Chinese dramas? I started binge-watching dramas about a year and a half ago, then decided to justify the time I was spending by studying Chinese. I really enjoy it! English is my native language, so there is nothing about Chinese that is familiar to me. I use Pimsleur audiobooks, the Mandarin series, as I walk my dog and various other youtube Chinese teachers. I went to Taiwan twice this year because my son moved there, and I was able to function as a tourist in Chinese.
How’s Chinese language learning doing for other Viki watchers? Were you inspired to learn Chinese or Korean because of your interest in Asian dramas?
Thanks!
3 Likes