Mandarin is the official language of China. It is spoken by many people. The English word for the language comes from a portuguese word for a type of minister. 官话
This page is intended to list resources for people learning Mandarin in Seattle, Washington, USA, and link to general resources, and host or link to study materials and curriculum for Seattle Chinese learners.
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Because Chinese has a writing based on meaning with little phonetic help, it may be necessary to use extra tools and study extra. Also, China has censored internet access, so they have developed their own tools and social media, so this page may list more things than other languages need to, because reading and writing are so difficult, and the programs we are used to using are often not available.
Groups
Seattle has a number of groups for people who are learning Chinese.
- Seattle Mandarin Chinese Beginners (meetup site) Seattle Polyglots cross posts with this group. Organizers have put together vocabulary lists. attend and ask to be added to wechat group.
- https://www.meetup.com/SeattleMandarinMeetup/ A group that lists informal get-togethers, CISC https://cisc-seattle.org/ has an ESL class for Chinese speaking seniors.. Volunteers help prepare for citizenship exams. There is a wechat group for this group too. AirOp can add you to the chat group.
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/629963764067213/ A possibly more convenient way for people to communicate if they don't use the meetup app.
- https://www.spl.org/event-calendar?trumbaEmbed=search%3Dchinese%26-index The Seattle Library has Storytimes in Mandarin and partners with the Confucius institute of Washington to provide weekly classes for beginners.
- http://confucius.washington.edu/ 孔子学院 is funded by the chinese government.
Education Institutes
There are a number of language schools that teach mandarin in the area.
Colleges and Universities
- https://asian.washington.edu/fields/chinese
- https://asian.washington.edu/chinese-program-description
- https://spu.edu/academics/college-of-arts-sciences/languages-cultures-linguistics/undergraduate-programs/mandarin-chinese
- https://www.shoreline.edu/course-descriptions/china.aspx +
Private Schools
Tutors
Technology
Messengers
- WeChat is the main instant messenger in China. Most others are blocked. Contents are assuredly available to the Chinese Government. It has a very convenient translation tool for messages, and it can send voice clips. When using this app to help practice be sure to speak slowly and clearly, and in short clips.
- QQ This is another popular messenger application in China
Videos and YouTube:
Tutor Apps:
- Hello Chinese [1]http://www.hellochinese.cc/ +
- Chinese Skill http://www.chinese-skill.com/
- Memrise https://www.memrise.com/ (good for remembering radicals) (also website)
Dictionaries:
- Has an excellent screen reader and ability to purchase multiple dictionaries.
- Can
- It is very cumbersome switching between English and Chinese
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.embermitre.hanping.app.lite&hl=en_US
Movies
- The AMC Pacific Place 11 theater often shows first-run Chinese movies. https://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/seattle-tacoma/amc-pacific-place-11
- https://www.facebook.com/SeattleAAFF/
- https://nwfilmforum.org/
Maps
amap (when used with pleco, it is possible for a foreigner with 1 quarter of chinese to figure out the bus system)
baidu
Browser Extensions:
This makes it so we can put a cursor over a word, and see the definition and pronunciation from within the web browser.
http://zhongwen-chrome.blogspot.com/
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/zhongwen-chinese-english/kkmlkkjojmombglmlpbpapmhcaljjkde
Perapera Chinese Popup Dictionaryby JorisKok
Screen Readers
Pleco
Translator Apps 翻译 fanyi
Bing -- works in China
Google -- can download offline tool, some blocked in China
Baidu
Websites
- Yellowbridge.com Has excellent etymology resources and ties in with college curriculum.
Television and Shows:
Growing Up with Chinese (search YouTube, CCTV)
Firefly
http://cctv.cn CCTV (use a screen reader)
Broadcast channel 46.1 AATV http://www.aattv.com/
Radio
https://chineseradioseattle.com/
Facebook Groups:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1149591165162853/?ref=group_browse_new
https://www.facebook.com/groups/276152432398476/?ref=group_browse_new
Additional Overview Trivia and Notes
Other ways to say Mandarin Chinese: 国语 guoyu (country language) zhong1wen2(Chinese Language), 汉语 han4yu3(Han ethnicity language), 普通话 pu tong hua (common language)
Tones, Characters, Grammar,
The characters can be traditional (Hong Kong, Taiwan and expats often use them) or Simplified.. The simplified characters have less strokes.
Romanization
There are a number of ways to romanize the words. PinYin, ZhuYin, WadeGiles
The most common text book in colleges near Seattle is the Integrated Chinese series. The initial (AirOp) does not like this book series, and preferse the HSK series of books.