Download Chinese Movie Subtitles!

Movies are some of the best tools to learn a foreign language. The language used in movies is more or less applicable to daily life, and the speed at which the actors speak is natural. The problem though is that the intermediate or even the advanced learner might not be able to pick up some of the words in the movie. The obvious solution is to look at the subtitles while watching the movie, and to look up words you don't know.

It's easier said than done...

You have look up the word in the dictionary. Now if you are learning Chinese (or Japanese), you probably have to do the extra step of looking up the Chinese character(s) themselves. It sounds easy enough but let's say you find an unknown word in every sentence or two... a typical movie will easily contain a thousand sentences or more. That means flipping through pages of a dictionary (or maybe typing or writing into an electronic dictionary) more than a thousand times! Not exactly time-efficient!

If only you could download subtitles, then you can use popup/mouseover dictionaries and save time not having to flip pages or scribble into a dictionary...

Well it turns out you can download subtitles for Chinese movies! I'm not so surprised though. Sure Facebook and Youtube may be blocked, but you can download a heck of a lot more! Unfortunately I haven't something like that for Japanese.

So if you are an intermediate or advanced learner try learning from movies.  
If you don't like mainland Chinese or Taiwanese movies, then that might be a problem...

Here's the link: http://www.subom.com/

LingQ - Word Counter

Long time no blog! I was a little bit stressed out last month looking for a job in China and I sort of lost motivation to update this blog but since that issue seems to have been sorted out (fingers crossed), I think I'm ready to start blogging again... until I get hit by another lazy spell.

Well today I thought I would write about LingQ. LingQ is a website where you can learn Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and a few other languages. You can also learn Korean, but the resources are quite under developed as Korean is a recent addition (by under developed I mean there isn't much variety in the lessons you can study). Since I think Steve Kaufmann will do a better job at explaining LingQ than I can, I will only write about the one feature of the site the I specifically like.


The word counter. LingQ has a function where you can count how many words you know in particular language. I believe that the number of words that you can understand (not necessary use actively) is an important measure of your proficiency in the language. Of course understanding the meaning of a word is only half a step, learning how to use it is the other half. Nonetheless it's nice to keep track of what and how many words you know. You can also use this feature to limit how many new words you learn or study in a day. You can see your word counter in your profile page, and you can use it as a badge in your blog!







Check out the website yourself so you can understand how it works. You can sign up for free and you'll be able to access the site with some of the key features disabled. You can also pay $10 a month for a basic subscription, which I think is  pretty cheap if you are keen on learning languages.

Names of Various Herbs and Spices in Chinese

I'm going to China in a few months, and I would like to prepare for future trips to the supermarket by learning the names of some herbs and spices in Mandarin. I didn't include in this list the names of spices I already now. I doubt I would be using all the herbs and spices in the list during my stay there, but I might was well learn them.


Anise 大茴香子 dàhuíxiāngzǐ
Basil 罗勒 luólè
Bay Leaves 月桂叶 yuèguìyè
Cardamom 砂仁 shārén
Cinnamon 肉桂 ròuguì
Clove 丁香 dīngxiāng
Dill 莳萝 shíluó
Fennel 小茴香子 xiǎohuíxiāngzǐ
Fenugreek 葫芦巴 húlúbā
Galangal 高良姜 gāoliángjiāng
Kaffir Lime Leaves 青柠叶 qīngníngyè
Lemongrass 香茅 xiāngmáo
Marjoram 墨角兰 mòjuélán
Mustard Seed 芥末子 jièmozǐ
Nutmeg 肉豆蔻 ròudòukòu
Oregano 牛至 niúzhì
Parsley 香芹 xiāngqín
Perilla 紫苏 zǐsū
Rosemary 迷迭香 mídiéxiāng
Saffron 藏红花 zànghónghuā
Sage 鼠尾草 shǔwěicǎo，山艾 shānài，洋苏草 yángsūcǎo
Tarragon 龙蒿 lónghāo
Thyme 百里香 bǎilǐxiāng (麝香草) shèxiāngcǎo
Turmeric 姜黄 jiānghuáng
Wasabi 山葵 shānkuí