#mandarinblr

[ruhua-langblr]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[bngrc]

Expression of the Day:

来都来了 lái dōu láile - one has already arrived so one may as well stick around; one has made it this far so one may as well stay the course

[maevmandarin]

Reading comprehension of the day:

我是个"小馋猫" 【1】 小时候我有三个心愿：一是读遍天下好书，满足自己好奇的愿望；二是买下所有漂亮的布娃娃，满足自己好玩儿的心愿；三是尝尽世上美食，满足自己好吃的天性。妈妈说我小时候就贪吃，说我学说话时，第一个说出的词是“妈妈”，第二个词就是“吃”，不知这是不是真的。还有一个笑话，在我八九岁时，有一天，家里来了许多客人一起吃饭。听说我看过《红楼梦》，大家就故意考我，问我对这本书印象最深的是哪一章。我马上就说：“是刘姥姥进大观园那一章。”大家都频频点头，又问：“那么，你能说说那一章的内容吗？我说：“我最喜欢刘姥姥吃的茄子和点心。” 接著，就流利地背起来：“鱼香茄子、 绿豆糕……”大家都笑着说：“你真是一只小馋猫。”

Vocab:

馋猫 chánmāo - 馋，贪吃。馋猫，比喻贪吃的人 /humorous

布娃娃 bùwáwa - rag doll

贪吃 tānchī - 特别喜欢吃好吃的东西

刘姥姥进大观园 Liúlǎolaojìn Dàguānyuán - (of a simple person) to be overwhelmed by new experiences and luxurious surroundings

频频 pínpín - repeatedly

茄子 qiézi - eggplant

鱼香 yúxiāng - a seasoning of Chinese cuisine that typically contains garlic, scallions, ginger, sugar, salt, chili peppers etc (although "yuxiang" literally means "fish fragrance", it contains no seafood.)

绿豆糕 lǜdòugāo - mung bean pastry (or cake)

[wes-breaks-your-kneecaps]

A sentence I got on Clozemaster a while ago

[dormouseinatrenchcoat]

Repeating characters until they are engraved in my brain

[biglittleluobo]

🌿🌕✨

外国的月亮比较圆 - “the moon is rounder in other countries”

A funny phrase I learned today, the equivalent of “the grass is always greener on the other side”!

Do you feel that way sometimes too? 🌝

[marilearnsmandarin]

[logogreffe]

Best Mandarin Comprehensible Input channel on Youtube

Comprehensible Chinese

Learn Chinese with slow clear comprehensible Chinese. "WE ACQUIRE LANGUAGE WHEN WE UNDERSTAND THE INPUT"(as Stephen Krashen said) and as a l

This woman has some kind of magical power (aka she's an incredible teacher) ! Even when I don't look at the subtitles and don't know half the words she's using, I can still get a sense of what she's talking about and even understand words in context !! She's doing an incredible job so go check her channel out !