AllSet Learning, the Shanghai-based language learning consultancy founded by long-time China blogger John Pasden, has just released what is surely a boon for any mandarin learners who aspire to achieve better Chinese grammar — the Chinese Grammar Wiki.
sinosplice Posts
Chinese Grammar Wiki: Learning Chinese grammar just got easier
Mandarin Monday: Sinosplice’s John Pasden offers up some Chinese advice
For this week’s Mandarin Monday, we’ve hit up the juggernaut of Chinese learning, John Pasden.
John surely doesn’t need much introduction for anyone studying Chinese. In China for more than a decade, John’s been mastering the language for most of that time, including securing a masters in applied linguistics in Shanghai. He pens the popular Sinosplice blog, oversees academic content and serves as host at ChinesePod and founded AllSet Learning, a Shanghai-based consulting company that offers highly customized learning solutions for frustrated learners of Mandarin.
Which Dictionary To Use?
John at Sinosplice has a review of a (gasp!) new update of Wenlin, the software dictionary that first introduced many a lost laowai to the wonderful world of Chinese characters. I was certainly one of them. I remember a few years back complaining to another foreigner in Kunming about my inability to learn characters well. She asked me if I had Wenlin, and when I said I did not, she produced a USB stick, handed it to me, and said, ‘this will change your life.’ I almost laughed at her exaggerated sense of purpose, but she turned out to be right.
Wenlin was what helped me understand that characters had their own internal logic and weren’t simply randomly-scratched ideograms bearing no relation to one another. I have since had the honor of giving Wenlin to more than one newbie laowai and felt the same paternalistic glow as a father handing his 16-year old son the keys to the family Mazda.
Laowai Interview: John Pasden of Sinosplice/ChinesePod
What would laowai life in China be like if it wasn’t for the plethora of fantastic blogs out there sharing knowledge, experience, humour and advice with us? Probably a whole lot more productive, but certainly a lot less entertaining and informed. It is with this in mind that we kick off a new series here [...]
