Is it better to learn traditional or simplified characters first?

There are two major forms of Chinese characters used in the world today — traditional and simplified (or three if you count Japanese). Most Chinese learners very reasonably decide to learn only the character set…

What is Intensive Reading?

This piece is about ways in which Intensive Reading can be employed in the EFL classroom as well as in children’s native language classes. One way to understand Intensive Reading is by contrasting it with extensive reading. The goal of one exercise is to push oneself to build…

Learning an alphabet like hiragana or zhuyin in one day

With the right approach, you can do it easily in a single day.

When I first started taking Chinese classes at the Mandarin Training Center in Taipei, I already knew pinyin… or at least I thought I did. I had…

My Search for Taiwanese Study Materials

The very first difficulty I had after deciding to learn some Taiwanese a few months ago…

How to become a digital nomad

Digital nomads are people whose means of making a living comes from the internet and isn’t connected to living in any particular location. They are the “new rich” Tim Ferriss wrote about in his book, The 4-Hour Workweek. There’s a spectrum of digital nomad work that ranges…

How to learn a language for under $500

Let’s face it. Most people spend a lot of money on foreign languages either directly or through their public schools and the results aren’t usually that great unless you’re an outlier like a northern European. If you start learning very early, your country…