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Ornamental railing, Yu Yuan traditional gardens, Shanghai

On this Page:

• Free/Low Cost Conversation Groups in NYC

• Classes in NYC

• Online Language Learning and Reference

• On-line Newspapers, Radio & TV + NYC Broadcasts

• Books

• Dictionaries

• Films

Free/Low Cost Conversation Groups in NYC

MeetUp Worldwide - for other Chinese Meetup groups all over the world.

Classes in NYC

Transfiguration Chinese School
29 Mott St.
New York, NY  10013
Phone: 1-212-962-5157
Fax: 1-212-962-5217
     The best deal we've found, a whole semester of weekly classes, 3 hours/class for $175/semester.

China Institute
125 East 65th Street
New York, NY 10021
Phone: 212-744-8181
Fax: 212-628-4159
http://www.chinainstitute.org/
classes@chinainstitute.org
     More expensive. Also has interesting cultural events and free lectures in Mandarin.

Online Language Learning and Reference
http://edu.ocac.gov.tw/home_en.htm I had trouble getting to anything I could use, but a friend successfully downloaded a free textbook on how to learn Mandarin in 500 Words.

Article about the Chinese language, it's grammar, and more.

http://www.chinawestexchange.com
       "There are free, interactive online Cantonese lessons, Mandarin lessons, and Chinese character lessons. There are also comments on Chinese culture, a discussion board for chatting about Chinese or for meeting pen pals, and links to other Chinese resources."

Terracotta dragon, Yu Yuan traditional gardens, Shanghai, China

www.sina.com is a major commercial portal to Chinese language websites.

www.mandarintools.com

www.csulb.edu/~txie/online.htm

The most common 3000 characters listed in order, also gives their meanings and some common uses: http://www.zein.se/patrick/3000char.html. Site also shows your % comprehension as know more characters: http://www.zein.se/patrick/3000en.html.

http://www.lechinois.com/car1000/car1000_100.html

A clever & helpful animation introducing Chinese characters: http://sonicnovel.com/kanjia.html,

http://www.yellowbridge.com/language/ includes an animation showing stroke order for many characters.

Easy stories to read: http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Edporter/sampler/sampler.html

How to Read and Type Chinese Characters on Your Computer and Chinese Character Input Methods
http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/Chinese-characters.html
Somewhat helpful but still doesn't show us how to input pinyin on the computer.

www.c-trip.com is a commercial site in English and Chinese that advertises low airfares to and in China.

www.andante.org has various learning tools such as flashcards for Palm handhelds. Also has links to other online Chinese resources.

http://chinalinks.osu.edu/
       "This website has annotated links to over six hundred China- and Chinese language and linguistics-related websites (and a few ftp and gopher sites). The links have been selected and annotated with the aim of directing students in Chinese to useful internet resource"
       Has many Chinese links, including programs, many free, to enter Chinese and pinyin into PCs and Macs.

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Chinese panda smiles to welcome you

Radio & TV - NYC Broadcasts and Online
Mandarin Chinese news is on Time Warner Cable NYC channels 63 and 73 each evening. Check local listings.

www.singtao.com - an online newspaper

Dictionaries
PlecoDict
www.pleco.com
       "Chinese dictionary and study tools for Palm and Pocket PC handhelds with powerful search capabilities, built-in Chinese handwriting recognition, five different dictionaries, lots of free add-ons including an easy to customize flashcard system, and more. We back up our products with outstanding technical support and frequent upgrades."
       I use their products and am very satisfied with them - much faster
and handier than paper dictionaries. (They're sooo LAST millenium. :)
-BB

www.zhongwen.com contains the complete text of Amazon's best selling, best reviewed Chinese-English dictionary: Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary, which uses the new (zipu) system of character trees. Provides other valuable links and resources, including an online Mandarin radio broadcast with pinyin subtitles.

Books
In my opinion, neither of these books is ideal. Still, they are quite helpful and superior to many others out there. --Bill Blackman

Neither Beginner's Chinese by Yong Ho the best overall book we've found for learning Chinese.

Reading & Writing Chinese by William McNaughton and Li Ying is the best, most systematic book we've found for learning how to read and write Chinese characters.

Films
Many great films have been made in Mandarin Chinese. There are well known classics such as Red Sorgrhum, Ju Dou, and Raise the Red Lantern. And here's a more obscure but very beautiful one, also available in DVD: Postmen in the Mountains, a moving story of relationships, beautifully photographed with an interesting look at mountain life in southern Hunan, China. Here's a link to one listing of the 100 greatest Chinese films. Ones made in Hong Kong are often in Cantonese, others are most likely in Mandarin.

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Copyrights: Entire website © 1997 - 2007 by Hearts and Minds Network, Inc., Links and reviews by Bill Blackman, thanks to others for their helpful suggestions © Copyrights: Shanghai railing and Shanghai dragon photo © 2004 by Bill Blackman; Chinese entryway and panda photo by COREL, foreign language web pages © 2000 - 2006 by Hearts and Minds Network, Inc. This web page - http://www.change.net/speak/links/cnlinks.htm - online 2004, latest revision October 19, 2006

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