This makes me so excited to get started! I wanted to celebrate doing a month of learning chinese with no days off by investing in some of these books in the breakthrough level and also got the audiobooks as well so i can practice my reading anddd listening skills as well. I think reading a chapter a day and creating decks out of the words you learn from each chapter is so freaking solid!
Thanks for recommending the Mandarin Companion readers. I just finished reading Emma, and am starting on The Prince and the Pauper next. If anyone is interested in having flashcards to use before reading, I created some Quizlet decks for these two readers that can be found in this folder: quizlet.com/JoelAaronSeely/folders/mandarin-companion-readers?x=1xqt&i=w6nyd. I will likely be adding to this as I go after more readers.
Emma was one of the first I read too, and I reread a long time later, after more than half a year in Chinese speaking countries, and it seemed like there was new stuff in there. Heads up, the Curly Haired company is harder than most of the level books, but it's very fun, one of their more popular books.
I am hanging on every word you say Robin. I am trying all of your good counsel. I am reading your book, but I haven't tried the graded readers. Your note-taking recommendations have given a real boost to my language studies! I like the 3-tiered system the best! I am also trying to learn notion. Best wishes to you Robin!
I feel like I accomplished something even reading a popular fiction book in English so of course it's that much better in a foreign language. When I was self learning German I basically measured my progress by the number of books I had read. I didn't actually count them though but I would gaze at them fondly on my bookshelf quite often. I actually will get a sore throat if I try to read everything out loud so I just read interesting bits out loud. Studying German and later Spanish, I totally found that reading helped my listening skills a lot just like you were talking about. With Japanese not so much though. I don't really know the reason why but I blamed the writing system. I think an alphabet stimulates our brain in a very similar way that listening does whereas with kanji it's a lot more of a visual memory thing going on. I think actually reading stuff out lout would probably help balance that out though. Do these graded readers include pinyin for all of the text?
You might want to check out outlier linguistics, they've got a great dictionary for use in plecco and a character course. Reading comes, but it's mostly a matter of prolonged focus and effort.
Do you have a problem where you can't tell where one word ends and another begins? Cause I know that's why they divide it with the different systems that Japanese has instead of spaces, but sometimes I can't tell which kanji are supposed to be paired with other kanji and/or hiragana 😅 How do you get around this?
@@SilentJaguar68 Hi! I do have that issue at times, but it happens a lot less than it used to. I tried to learn how to read by understanding the rules of On and Kun readings but it was too boring and difficult. Instead, I tried to acquire a lot of vocabulary through flashcards and graded readers. This helped me understand where each word starts and ends because I am recognizing the individual words themselves and not processing language through the filter of grammar. Hope this makes sense! Don't be too proud to start from very basic books with more pictures than words. We all had to start somewhere. Your understanding of the language will improve quite quickly if you're reading material that is at the right level for you.
Which do you use for Japanese? I'm using mini stories on LingQ.com but it's still very hard and worse yet also boring even though I've learned the Japanese syllabaries a couple times.
@@RonaldMcPaul The LingQ mini stories are a bit boring, true. I would suggest importing your own material to make it more interesting. Find articles on subjects you like. The graded readers I'm using for Japanese are these: omgjapan.com/products/japanese-graded-readers-complete-set They offer quite a bit of variety in terms of themes and the first level is very suitable for beginners.
@@SilentJaguar68 This drove me insane as a beginner at Japanese. Basically the more grammar and vocabulary you know the easier you can parse the text and you'll know intuitively where words start and finish. You can read e-texts using an add on either to add spaces like maybe on LingQ (there's other cheaper options too) or just a pop-up style dictionary for Chrome maybe which can automatically parse the text under a cursor to make a very good guess as to what the word is and where it starts and finishes. Due to the difficult writing system it took me 2-3 years to read Harry Potter in Japanese and I had to stick to manga and Anki sentence cards for the longest time. It was horrible. I hope you proceed better than I did.
It’s 1:45pm PST and I’m also drinking a cup of coffee lol. I just received Just Friends 我们是朋友吗？ I’m planning on buying more books from Mandarin Companion. I also regularly listen to their podcasts. Looking forward to you and Jared talk. He’s hilarious. 😀
I'm actually learning french and italian just by reading.... AWESOME VIDEO I'm recommending to the most people i could for sure... At least for those are learning new lngs
I’ve read through the entire Harry Potter series in Chinese, yet I still feel like a noob 🤣 If you read on a Kindle it will automatically add any word you look up to a the inbuilt flashcard system ( if you’re really tech savvy the cards are stored on a SQLite database that you can extract and put into whatever system you want)
I would love to see a fifth video in this series. it has been four years. Has Robin finished that huge stack of readers yet? How was that journey? Even if it was paused, let's explore it.
I'm learning mandarin chinese as well and I really enjoy reading chinese! Even if it's just a little text. As you said, you feel that accomplishment and it's wonderful! But I feel that my listening is not improving. How do you practice chinese listening? Could you do a video about it?? (I'm a real fan, I love your videos! Thank you for all the great content)
It's best to find text that has accompanying audio, first learn the text well, then read with the audio together, and then finally listen to the audio only on repeat. "Cold" listening is of much less help. You could use something like Lingq to find lots of suitable text/audio content
Robin, do you know if they have published a list of the 300 characters the reader is assumed to know? You inspired me to buy one of the series but it is 30+ years since I last studied Chinese, and my memory of basic vocabulary is, shall we say, a little patchy!
Could you please tell me how people get these audio book versions? If I purchased a kindle book, is it something I can download? I've purchased simplified Mandarin for all the books, I'd love to try the Traditional Character and audio book versions (but unfortunately it is outside my budget to buy three full price copies of their entire library).
@@RonaldMcPaul I googled mandarin companion audio book and found the link right away on the mandarin companion website. I don't read the books, I just listen to their podcast ”you can learn Chinese” and that's how I know that they have audio book version.
Graded readers really helped me to learn Chinese as well. They might have been the most important element in my success. Your experience with reading and just having trouble processing sentences mirrors my experience with a Vietnamese reader this summer. I try to read through each text multiple times until I can read it without looking up words. Do you ever read them in conjunction with a tutor? If so, how do you suggest going about it for maximum effectiveness?
I would like to try to read a Chinese book, but I have a question. There are some characters which I still don't know, how can I understand the meaning and reading of that character?
Outlier Linguistics has a course on how to learn characters based on the functional components. It'll he'll a lot in terms of knowing the meaning and being able to write them.
It's less about the person and more about the method. If you're doing them meaning, pronunciation and stroke order at once by repetition, you'll never get anywhere. But if you break it up and learn based on the functional components it goes a lot faster.
Buy Kindle books in French and read them. Kindle has a built in translator and dictionaries, so it's pretty easy to figure things out. The first few chapters are gonna suck, not gonna lie. But by the end you'll get pretty good.
@@muttlanguages3912 OMG, thanks for the suggestion. I have purchased and started reading. It is difficult but I am going to continue my journey. Thanks again,
I've been limiting myself to graded readers with audio. It seems to me that you are not using a graded reader with audio. How do you make sure you have the pronunciation correct?
Yes, even with the most efficient methods, it takes ages to be able to read anything. Reading Chinese isn't an intelligence thing, it's a matter of focus and determination.
Learn Chinese it's like u learn beautiful instrumentals, u just need to hit it at the right note. Also those who learned Chinese considered IQabove standard, not every one cld speak and understand Chinese. Btw, kudos my fren
This makes me so excited to get started! I wanted to celebrate doing a month of learning chinese with no days off by investing in some of these books in the breakthrough level and also got the audiobooks as well so i can practice my reading anddd listening skills as well. I think reading a chapter a day and creating decks out of the words you learn from each chapter is so freaking solid!
Thanks for recommending the Mandarin Companion readers. I just finished reading Emma, and am starting on The Prince and the Pauper next. If anyone is interested in having flashcards to use before reading, I created some Quizlet decks for these two readers that can be found in this folder: quizlet.com/JoelAaronSeely/folders/mandarin-companion-readers?x=1xqt&i=w6nyd. I will likely be adding to this as I go after more readers.
So far from your channel I have purchased every Mandarin Companion book and got a yearly subscription to Skritter. Great study tool advice!
Emma was one of the first I read too, and I reread a long time later, after more than half a year in Chinese speaking countries, and it seemed like there was new stuff in there.
Heads up, the Curly Haired company is harder than most of the level books, but it's very fun, one of their more popular books.
Is it? That was the first one I tried. Coincidentally, I'm rereading it right now.
I am hanging on every word you say Robin. I am trying all of your good counsel. I am reading your book, but I haven't tried the graded readers. Your note-taking recommendations have given a real boost to my language studies! I like the 3-tiered system the best! I am also trying to learn notion. Best wishes to you Robin!
I loved this video. Inspiring! Reading outloud - I'll remember to do that! Thank you Robin!
I feel like I accomplished something even reading a popular fiction book in English so of course it's that much better in a foreign language. When I was self learning German I basically measured my progress by the number of books I had read. I didn't actually count them though but I would gaze at them fondly on my bookshelf quite often. I actually will get a sore throat if I try to read everything out loud so I just read interesting bits out loud. Studying German and later Spanish, I totally found that reading helped my listening skills a lot just like you were talking about. With Japanese not so much though. I don't really know the reason why but I blamed the writing system. I think an alphabet stimulates our brain in a very similar way that listening does whereas with kanji it's a lot more of a visual memory thing going on. I think actually reading stuff out lout would probably help balance that out though. Do these graded readers include pinyin for all of the text?
Thanks for these tips! I've been learning Chinese for some time and I feel like I'm at a stand still. I'll be looking forward to more tips!
You might want to check out outlier linguistics, they've got a great dictionary for use in plecco and a character course. Reading comes, but it's mostly a matter of prolonged focus and effort.
I've started drinking coffee because of you, and I really liked it. Thank you 💚 😊.
I love graded readers! I'm using them for Japanese.
Do you have a problem where you can't tell where one word ends and another begins? Cause I know that's why they divide it with the different systems that Japanese has instead of spaces, but sometimes I can't tell which kanji are supposed to be paired with other kanji and/or hiragana 😅
How do you get around this?
@@SilentJaguar68 Hi! I do have that issue at times, but it happens a lot less than it used to.
I tried to learn how to read by understanding the rules of On and Kun readings but it was too boring and difficult.
Instead, I tried to acquire a lot of vocabulary through flashcards and graded readers. This helped me understand where each word starts and ends because I am recognizing the individual words themselves and not processing language through the filter of grammar. Hope this makes sense!
Don't be too proud to start from very basic books with more pictures than words. We all had to start somewhere. Your understanding of the language will improve quite quickly if you're reading material that is at the right level for you.
Which do you use for Japanese? I'm using mini stories on LingQ.com but it's still very hard and worse yet also boring even though I've learned the Japanese syllabaries a couple times.
@@RonaldMcPaul The LingQ mini stories are a bit boring, true. I would suggest importing your own material to make it more interesting. Find articles on subjects you like.
The graded readers I'm using for Japanese are these: omgjapan.com/products/japanese-graded-readers-complete-set
They offer quite a bit of variety in terms of themes and the first level is very suitable for beginners.
@@SilentJaguar68 This drove me insane as a beginner at Japanese. Basically the more grammar and vocabulary you know the easier you can parse the text and you'll know intuitively where words start and finish. You can read e-texts using an add on either to add spaces like maybe on LingQ (there's other cheaper options too) or just a pop-up style dictionary for Chrome maybe which can automatically parse the text under a cursor to make a very good guess as to what the word is and where it starts and finishes. Due to the difficult writing system it took me 2-3 years to read Harry Potter in Japanese and I had to stick to manga and Anki sentence cards for the longest time. It was horrible. I hope you proceed better than I did.
It’s 1:45pm PST and I’m also drinking a cup of coffee lol. I just received Just Friends 我们是朋友吗？ I’m planning on buying more books from Mandarin Companion. I also regularly listen to their podcasts. Looking forward to you and Jared talk. He’s hilarious. 😀
I'm actually learning french and italian just by reading.... AWESOME VIDEO I'm recommending to the most people i could for sure... At least for those are learning new lngs
I’ve read through the entire Harry Potter series in Chinese, yet I still feel like a noob 🤣
If you read on a Kindle it will automatically add any word you look up to a the inbuilt flashcard system ( if you’re really tech savvy the cards are stored on a SQLite database that you can extract and put into whatever system you want)
I read foreign books in Kindle all the time, but have never seen any flash card system. Is this on a computer only or something?
@@muttlanguages3912 it’s available on the paperwhite under the main menu. It’s called “vocabulary builder”
@@bobafruti cool.
I would love to see a fifth video in this series. it has been four years. Has Robin finished that huge stack of readers yet? How was that journey? Even if it was paused, let's explore it.
I'm learning mandarin chinese as well and I really enjoy reading chinese! Even if it's just a little text. As you said, you feel that accomplishment and it's wonderful! But I feel that my listening is not improving. How do you practice chinese listening? Could you do a video about it??
(I'm a real fan, I love your videos! Thank you for all the great content)
It's best to find text that has accompanying audio, first learn the text well, then read with the audio together, and then finally listen to the audio only on repeat. "Cold" listening is of much less help. You could use something like Lingq to find lots of suitable text/audio content
Robin, do you know if they have published a list of the 300 characters the reader is assumed to know? You inspired me to buy one of the series but it is 30+ years since I last studied Chinese, and my memory of basic vocabulary is, shall we say, a little patchy!
They don't assume you know all the characters, the harder words have glossary entries like many other books.
Mandarin companion books have an audio book version. Will you incorporate them in your reading? If so, how?
Could you please tell me how people get these audio book versions? If I purchased a kindle book, is it something I can download?
I've purchased simplified Mandarin for all the books, I'd love to try the Traditional Character and audio book versions (but unfortunately it is outside my budget to buy three full price copies of their entire library).
@@RonaldMcPaul I googled mandarin companion audio book and found the link right away on the mandarin companion website. I don't read the books, I just listen to their podcast ”you can learn Chinese” and that's how I know that they have audio book version.
Graded readers really helped me to learn Chinese as well. They might have been the most important element in my success. Your experience with reading and just having trouble processing sentences mirrors my experience with a Vietnamese reader this summer. I try to read through each text multiple times until I can read it without looking up words. Do you ever read them in conjunction with a tutor? If so, how do you suggest going about it for maximum effectiveness?
Which Spanish graded reader do you recommend for beginner Spanish ?
Robin, Which French graded readers do you recommend? I'm B1
I'm B1 in French and I had no trouble reading the Hunger Games and Twilight books. They're narration driven so no slang :)
I would like to try to read a Chinese book, but I have a question. There are some characters which I still don't know, how can I understand the meaning and reading of that character?
If it's an e-book, then you can use an online translator or a translator built into the app.
@@muttlanguages3912 if not? Is it possible that still doesn't exist an app to make photo of character you need to translate and get the significaton?
@@yuliap707 I think there are apps to do it. Maybe google? But it's definitely way easier to do with an e-book of some kind.
Outlier Linguistics has a course on how to learn characters based on the functional components. It'll he'll a lot in terms of knowing the meaning and being able to write them.
@@yuliap707 Plecco does that and has existed for years. It helped a bunch when I was over there.
How do you do anything at 5am
I'm learning Japanese and I'm reading my second novel.Reading in another language is so much fun.
Nice! You must be N3 or better!
Omg congrats!!!!
I know it differentiates from person to person but how long it took you to become this level (I mean being able to read that book) in Chinese for you?
It's less about the person and more about the method. If you're doing them meaning, pronunciation and stroke order at once by repetition, you'll never get anywhere. But if you break it up and learn based on the functional components it goes a lot faster.
Can I ask another question instead, Can I ask what camera you are using?
I am learning French. How do I get to a point to begin reading and comprehend what I am reading. I am using Babble for my very basic French.
Buy Kindle books in French and read them. Kindle has a built in translator and dictionaries, so it's pretty easy to figure things out. The first few chapters are gonna suck, not gonna lie. But by the end you'll get pretty good.
@@muttlanguages3912 OMG, thanks for the suggestion. I have purchased and started reading. It is difficult but I am going to continue my journey. Thanks again,
I've been limiting myself to graded readers with audio. It seems to me that you are not using a graded reader with audio. How do you make sure you have the pronunciation correct?
eres un grande Robin, un grande
Not a small task for Chinese 😊
Yes, even with the most efficient methods, it takes ages to be able to read anything. Reading Chinese isn't an intelligence thing, it's a matter of focus and determination.
Are you learning Mandarin and German both?
🖤🖤
Learn Chinese it's like u learn beautiful instrumentals, u just need to hit it at the right note. Also those who learned Chinese considered IQabove standard, not every one cld speak and understand Chinese. Btw, kudos my fren
Iam the third comment