汉字五千年 Five Thousand Years of Chinese Characters

This is a series of documentary on one of the most ancient written language in human civilization: the Chinese character, han zi. Personally, I fell in love with it from the first episode. It contained lots of information on history of China, its culture, the transformation of the society, its future as well as comparison to other civilizations and cultures in other part of the Earth. Unfortunately it is totally in Mandarin with Chinese subtitles. It would be more suitable for people with better command of Mandarin. Nonetheless, it is a must see for all Chinese learners. I give my both thumbs up.

第一集：人类奇葩

本集是全片的开篇，通过汉字与世界上其它文字的命运对比，凸现出汉字在人类文明史中独 树一帜的地位。

作为世界上生命力最长的文字，汉字保存了人类历史上最为丰富的文明纪录。这些纪录中不 仅包括了汉语民族的，同时也包括周边民族的。匈奴、突厥、蒙古、党项等民族，朝鲜、日 本、印度等国家的许多文明成果都是因为汉字才得以留存。

汉字不仅为世界上超过三分之一的人提供了交流的工具，而且汉字作为中华文明的主要载体 ，为基督教文明、伊斯兰文明，提供了对比、认知、借鉴、甚至是自我修正的对象。汉字所 承载的一些基本理念，例如民胞物与、仁、理等等，为人类文明的未来发展提供了一种选择 的可能。

"It's a Small World" Advise from Amit Gilboa

After the interview with Xiao An An from "it's a Small World", we have Amit here to give us some in-sight of how he had learned Mandarin. Here is a mail from him.

Hi Cheuk,

Sorry it took me a while to respond.

Here are a couple of tips from my experience:

1) Immersion is truly the best way. If I had a choice between learning 1 hour a week for a year or learning for 50 hours in one week - definitely I would choose the latter. I think that when you focus on the language instead of constantly switching gears from one language to another, that's when you really improve.

2) As much as possible, practice. Don't wait for opportunities to talk with native speakers. Talk to yourself in Chinese. When sitting on the bus, try to translate advertisements from English into Chinese. When counting things to yourself, try in Chinese instead of English. The more you use it, the more fluently it will flow.

3) For more advanced students, try watching Chinese shows. Even if using subtitles, try to catch words in Chinese. Best to use shows where people speak slowly (the news is not a good option as they usually speak very fast) and clearly (generally women speak more clearly) and also avoid historical dramas because they use the equivalent of shakesperean language.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Amit

DJH Mandarin Summer Camp Day 7