你们好， 这里死了吗？如果是，我会做新的。 Hello all, are you all still here, and we could revive this community? Otherwise maybe I should make a new one of my own?

  • su25@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    7·
    1 year ago

    你好! i am new to lemmygrad in general but would love to contribute to this community

      • rufuyun@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        Hello, so glad to see the interest, you should check out the app Hello Chinese. It is often recommended over Duolingo, but I use Duolingo, and it’s alright too. But more importantly, I will try to post in here regularly, and I encourage you to also!

        • Aria 🏳️‍⚧️🇧🇩 [she]@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          I tried Hello Chinese once.

          At some point it asks you to pay up to continue (probably at around HSK 3 courses?), and only allows the first course to “try for free” unrestricted.

          While I can afford HelloChinese’s paid version, I do not have the payment methods (no Credit/Debit Card, Paypal; or even domestic payment methods like WePay, AliPay) to fork the money over to them.

          So, yeah. I’m stuck.

          • rufuyun@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
            4·
            1 year ago

            Duolingo might actually be a good fit then, I’m not sure … It has a placement test which is nice, and you can definitely get by with the free version. Also, you could always do just read books and use Anki flash cards?

    • rufuyun@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      我也新来的！Just signed up yesterday actually. Glad you’re interested, let’s do it

  • nephs@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    Let’s revive this community!

    I’ve been doing the duolingo course for a while but I don’t really have anywhere to use the language.

    I learned English mostly by reading, but translating Chinese words is so hard. The only way to figure out the meaning of a word is to copy paste it. I can’t type it somewhere else at the side to check the meaning.

    你好。这是什么我可以说。 At least for now. I hope that’s at leat a little intelligible. :D

    How to build vocabulary from reading Chinese? What kind of material should I be trying to read? Where can I find it?

    Thank you all in advance!

      • nephs@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        I will say I’m happy with duolingo, that’s not my issue. I think my main issue is if I want to go to a news website and check news. I can understand the structure, a bit. But none of the actual subject of the matter.

        I think the dictionary apps will probably help, though!

        Thanks for your suggestions!

        • indred0@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Have you tried the ZhongWen pop up dictionary plugin? It pulls content from MDBG so it’s pretty decent.

        • citsuah@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
          21·
          1 year ago

          News is extremely advanced language with so many specific, technical vocabulary. I don’t know why you expect that you’ll be able to understand it, and I’d suggest reading while looking up every word in the dictionary is not a great use of your time. I’ve been studying for years and I don’t even try to read native Chinese news. It’s definitely something I aspire to be able to do but everything at the right time.

          • nephs@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            It’s not something I expect to be able to do, but something I aspire to do. I think I’ve been studying for long enough to understand a bit of the grammatical structures, but I need more repertoire, content and vocabulary.

            I think China is doing very interesting movements in international politics, and it would be cool to read at least headlines from a Chinese source and perspective.

            • citsuah@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
              11·
              1 year ago

              Yeah China has pretty good English language outreach. I recommend CGTN, in particular their youtube channel has some excellent content. There’s a number of other official news outlets like Xinhua, ECNS too.

    • rufuyun@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      You might like the Inkah browser extension or the Pleco mobile app for translating. When I don’t know how to say a word and can’t copy/paste either, I open up Pleco on my phone and try to draw it in the handwritten input for search. There are some other threads with good resources, like this one (click here). One of them recommended this book, click here too

    • citsuah@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      31·
      1 year ago

      Hey I can tell you’re translating individual words because that’s an English sentence with English grammar translated to Chinese word by word. My recommendation would be another app rather than Duolingo. Try Hello Chinese or Super Chinese. Unfortunately you might have to accept that your language level isn’t advanced enough to make the sentences you want to make. You have to walk before you can run. Just take your time working through some more grammar and vocabulary. ChatGPT is actually a pretty good tutor as well tbh.