China Grammar Wiki. What A Great Idea!
I think (and hope) this is the first time we have used an exclamation point in a blog post title and I assure you that this will not become common. I just am so impressed by the idea and the ingenuity and the hard work and the sheer helpfullness of the AllSet Chinese Grammar Wiki. I first learned of the Wiki from Ryan over at Lost Laowai, who in his post, "Chinese Grammar Wiki: Learning Chinese grammar just got easier," had this to say about it:
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 mandarin learners who aspire to achieve better Chinese grammar — the Chinese Grammar Wiki....
As an on-again, off-again Chinese learner, I’m pretty excited for the resource. Few people I’ve met have spent as much time as John thinking about language learning, particularly as to how it relates to Chinese. His blog and various resources at Sinosplice have been extremely helpful over the years, and I have to imagine that with his ambition and love for the language behind the wiki, it’s sure to be fantastic.
I second that emotion. What do you think?
UPDATE: A reader sent me an email regarding a "wiki-ish" site he likes called Wordbuddy:
It is wiki-ish because it is a dictionary that anybody can add to (slang, etc). Other sites can do this, but this one is interesting because people can also add 'memory tricks' for learning words which everybody can share. For example:
书 (shū): The librarian will 'shoot' you if the <book> is not returned on time.
东西 (dōng xi): In old times, a "donkey" was one of a person's most basic <things>.
讨 (tao3): The purpose of a <discussion>(讠) is to slowly inch(寸) toward an agreement.
独 (du2): A dog(犭) with flees(虫) will be shunned by humans and other dogs. He'll become a <lonely> "dude".
These are just off the cuff examples that users have entered. The site also integrates flashcards, radicals, translation, study lists, forums, etc, and makes a very good training tool for learning vocabulary.
Having spent part of last night helping my youngest daughter memorize Latin American capitals, I can vouch for the value of using memory tricks. Does anyone have a good way to remember that the capital of Uraguay is Montevideo, the capital of Paraguay is Asuncion, and the capital of Ecuador is Quito?
Comments (9)
Read through and enter the discussion by using the form at the endMark - January 22, 2012 5:06 PM
Yea, it is a great idea but the problem with this is it assumes one is learning to read(/write) Chinese characters, even at the beginner level, at the same time as one first begins to learn the language. In other words, there is no PinYin to help one learn the pronunciation and there is no translation (that I can find) of the Chinese characters being used in the Wiki. The Wiki assumes a person knows what the Characters mean. Personally, I agree with this learning approach but often it just isn't practical. For the beginner or immediate, there are far better tools out there IMO.
bob - January 22, 2012 7:20 PM
Should that be exclamation point?
John Pasden - January 22, 2012 7:38 PM
Thanks, Dan. We're honored to be the recipient of your exclamation point!
What you see is just the beginning. It's going to get better and better from here.
Ryan - January 22, 2012 7:58 PM
@Mark: I agree that it might be a bit more convenient if the translations/pinyin were inline, but as the Allset blog post that announced the wiki said, both can be achieved pretty well via browser plugins (which the wiki links to on its front page).
MHB - January 23, 2012 10:00 AM
Yes, I do. Stare for hours on end at various maps. I had a strange childhood. Wouldn't recommend it.
Phil - January 23, 2012 10:56 PM
Don't know how old your daughter is, but if she's big enough to read grown up books, then The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux will burn Quito into her mind. Not much use for the other capitals, as I recall, but never pass up an opportunity to get kids reading good books!
John Rich - January 24, 2012 12:18 AM
This is really beneficial for us Chinese learners and I appreciate the initiative.
rino - January 25, 2012 8:39 AM
This has a ways to go, but it is pretty cool already. I can't wait to see what it's like six months from now, after everyone has had a chance to contribute to it.
zhouhaochen - January 25, 2012 8:13 PM
this has been done a number of times and there are quite a few resources like this out there.
If you like the approach, I would like to add, another resource that offers the same for Chinese Characters (originally Japanese Kanji)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembering_the_Hanzi
it teaches chinese characters without the pinyin, by offering "clues" to memorize them.