themoonisnotsleepy

[themoonisnotsleepy]

Interesting Cultural, Historical and Linguistic Connections: Loan Words

The use of similar words in countries that share the same state religion but having different meaning is a generally well-known fact.

Some of these words may be seen very commonly in Arabic/Malayic branch of the Austronesian language countries, namely:

Malay (Bahasa Melayu) : mani - sperm, semen

Arabic: مني (mani) - jewel, gem, beads (Also the same in sanskrit)

Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) : batin - inner self

Arabic: مني (baṭn) - stomach

These are some that caught my attention.

The spread of language and culture through trade thought to be due to 1028AD with the help of foreign presence through peaceful trade on coastal trading ports in modern-day Malaysia and Indonesia. Islam and Arabic language was further popularised when the first Sultan of Melaka converted to Islam after marrying into the religion. However, we cannot forget that before the introduction of Islam, a majority of the people in the Malay peninsulas were communicating in Sanskrit and was heavily influenced by India and Cambodia before their maritime golden era. Introduction of foreign culture may disrupt or assimilate with the home culture, and one of the way we can learn a country’s history is to learn the etymology of the language.

And then there’s my home country, Burma. Burmese, a language so weird that the wiki page for loan word is like this:

But don’t be fooled. The history of the Burmese language is a unique one. With a country that traded with many foreign influences from Persians to the French, and then getting colonised by the British in 1989, the Burmese language has many loan words and learned words. For exmaple:

Burmese: တိုဟူး (tuihpu) - Tofu

Hokkien: 豆腐 (tāu-hū) - Tofu

Burmese: အီကြာကွေး (i-kra-kwe:) - You Tiao

Hokkien: 油炸糕 (iû-chiā-kóe)

Burmese: လီတာ (lita) - Litre

French: litre

Burmese: ကတိ (ka.ti.) - promise, agreement

Pali: kathikā - agreement, talk, conversation

The ancient world was way more advanced and liberal, yet backwards and conservative at the same time than we thought. The world in the past was more complicated than the textbooks and the stories that were told to us, and the morals and ethics of time seem to be always changing. Times may move forwared, trends may change, but the impact of trade and society will always leave an imprint behind on the words used and its usage if we studied where the words we use in our day to day life came from. Maybe then, the outcasts and the lower class of the past who did not have a chance to leave their imprint in this world will not be forgotten, as words may have been their only chance to be remembered.

[themoonisnotsleepy]

Contrary to popular belief (?) about procrastination and distraction, what distracts me isn’t social media, it’s my inability to stop reading. It’s not doom-scrolling, it’s doom-page-turning (or yeah, scrolling, if I’m reading on a screen).

[themoonisnotsleepy]

Language differences have been impediments to consolidating smaller political units into larger political units, whether nations or empires. This problem has been dealt with in different ways at various times and places. In China, one of the advantages of the written Chinese language is that it is a non-phonetic language, its symbols conveying ideas rather than using individual written words as building blocks for ideas. Therefore peoples who cannot understand each other’s spoken languages or dialects can nevertheless communicate with each other in written Chinese. From a political standpoint, this can facilitate the consolidation of linguistically different peoples into a larger nation or empire.

Wealth, Poverty, and Politics by Thomas Sowell

[themoonisnotsleepy]

It requires intelligence to break the bind of customary sentential forms and to "say the same thing" in a fresh way. We can form sentences when we have learned to speak a language; we frame judgments when we have become able to think in a language.

Thinking transcends language in the sense that if we have come to judge distinctly in one language we will be able to do so in any other language once we control the vocabulary; it does not transcend language in the sense that it can continually occur with no involvement of language at all. There can be thought that in fact manifests itself in nonlinguistic behavior, but it can usually find some words to express itself.

Robert Sokolowski, "The Presence of Judgment"

[themoonisnotsleepy]

If we wanted to engage in nuance (lol, lmao) on the "are audiobooks reading" debate, we really do need to bring literacy, and especially blind literacy, into the conversation.

Because, yes, listening to a story and reading a story use mostly the same parts of the brain. Yes, listening to the audiobook counts as "having read" a book. Yes, oral storytelling has a long, glorious tradition and many cultures maintained their histories through oral history or oral + art history, having never developed a true written language, and their oral stories and histories are just as valid and rich as written literature.

We still can't call listening in the absence of reading "literacy."

The term literacy needs to stay restricted to the written word, to the ability to access and engage with written texts, because we need to be able to talk about illiteracy. We need to be able to identify when a society is failing to teach children to read, and if we start saying that listening to stories is literacy, we lose the ability to describe those systemic failures.

Blind folks have been knee-deep in this debate for a long time. Schools struggle to provide resources to teach students Braille and enforcing the teaching of Braille to low-vision and blind children is a constant uphill battle. A school tried to argue that one girl didn't need to learn Braille because she could read 96-point font. Go check what that is. The new prevalence of audiobooks and TTS is a huge threat to Braille literacy because it provides institutions with another excuse to not provide Braille education or Braille texts.

That matters. Braille-literate blind and low-vision people have a 90% employment rate. For those who don't know Braille, it's 30%. Braille literacy is linked to higher academic success in all fields.

Moving outside the world of Braille, literacy of any kind matters. Being able to read text has a massive impact on a person's ability to access information, education, and employment. Being able to talk about the inability to read text matters, because that's how we're able to hold systems accountable.

So, yes, audiobooks should count as reading. But, no, they should not count as literacy.

[themoonisnotsleepy]

No, I Didn’t Know

[Word Count: 1,652]

In elementary school, I started to become aware of the concept of a gap in experience. Children’s lives were so simple. It was either playing or studying. But social relationships could get complicated sometimes. There are sincere friends, friends you 'only' know, and 'friends' who envy you. And it goes both ways: sometimes it’s them toward you, sometimes it’s you toward them. 

Every child is an individual first, living a different life, going through different experiences. Life to me wasn’t bad, maybe it wasn’t the best either, at least if you look at it from an adult’s perspective. Honestly, I can’t exactly remember what kind of values or character lessons the grown-ups around me tried to teach. I think, over the years, I was just feeling my way through it, trying to understand what they wanted from me, as a child.

Of course, that feeling didn’t stop when I entered my teenage years. If I’m being real, the attempt to figure out the pattern of acceptable social interaction, and the whole idea of “refining” character, is still ongoing even now.

Back then, whenever a grown-up said, “Do it like this. Why did you do it like that? Why don’t you understand?” I truly wanted to blurt out, “No, I didn’t understand.” But grown-ups always seemed to think that something should just be easy to grasp, as if understanding was automatic by a certain age. I kept wondering, what if they faced me with the assumption that this was my first time hearing it? What if, in that moment, they had it in their mind that not everyone immediately knows how to do things?

As I grew up, these what ifs started to extend to other things, not just the grown-ups. Although in my experience, I still saw it mostly in them. Going to public school, making social interactions, you inevitably end up talking to people with completely different experiences.

I’m talking about where kid A went on holiday, what kid S is reading, how kid J got the latest toy model... basically, just the average kinds of childhood experiences.

At first, it was just curiosity, innocent comparisons. I’d listen and think, “Oh, I’ve never done that,” or “I don’t know that book,” and then quietly wonder if I was missing something important. It wasn't jealousy, not really. It was more like... this quiet realization that our lives were different, and that difference might actually mean something.

Over time, I began to notice the little gaps, how some kids always had the newest things, or spoke with a kind of confidence I didn’t quite have. They moved through the world like they belonged in it. I, on the other hand, was still trying to figure out how the world worked, what to say, how to behave. Was I good enough, smart enough, sensible enough, or trendy enough?

No one ever said I was wrong, but I started to feel like I was always a step behind. Like I was learning the rules just a bit too late, while everyone else had gotten the manual early on. But another part of me also acknowledged that they were learners in life too, just like me. It’s just that they seemed to have better pointers.

There was a moment that stuck with me, though I only came to realize its meaning much later, in college. It was at a public school, one with a good reputation. A teacher played a song, and we had to guess the lyrics. I thought the song sounded nice, but my English listening skills weren’t great at the time. A friend standing close to me gasped quietly and said it was from a well-known animated film. But I didn’t know. The other kids around us did. It turned out I wasn’t the only one, there were a few of us who didn’t recognize it.

I didn’t say anything at the time. Just stood there, pretending it was no big deal. But I remember how easily the others guessed the song and sang along. They knew the lyrics, they knew the movie. It was like I had missed out on something that everyone else had grown up with. It wasn’t a huge moment or anything. But it made me realize that even small things, like knowing a popular song, could make you feel left out. After that, I started noticing how often people talked about things I didn’t really know. Movies they watched as kids, jokes from cartoons, even snacks they used to eat. I guess it made me more aware of how different our experiences were. Not in a bad way, just... different. And sometimes, I’d quietly try to catch up, look things up later, or just listen more closely when people talked about their memories.

Later, when I went to college, I started to understand more about these gaps in experience. I started to understand the word "privilege." Everyone is born with a certain amount of it. Knowing a famous childhood song? That’s a kind of privilege. Watching animated films in the cinema as a kid? Privilege. Being able to buy a book? Also a privilege.

And then came the words: “You didn’t know about this?” It always sounded so casual, but the tone changed depending on who said it. Some people sounded genuinely surprised. Others said it with a slight, prideful tone. Almost like they were showing off. To say I wasn’t irritated would be a lie. But what could I say? I truly didn’t know. At the time, it annoyed me a lot. Only later did I try to be indifferent.

I stopped reacting too much. When someone brought up something I didn’t know, I’d just say I didn't know. Sometimes I’d look it up later, sometimes I didn’t bother. I didn’t feel the need to catch up all the time. But there were still moments when it stung a bit. Like when people laughed at some old reference and I was just sitting there, pretending to get it. Or when someone said something like, “You never did that as a kid?” I mean... no, I didn’t.

I wasn’t mad at anyone. It’s just something I noticed. The more I paid attention, the more I realized people grew up with different things. Some had more access to stuff, some didn’t. It was just how it was. And I think, because of that, I became more careful. I tried not to say things that made others feel small or left out. I knew what it felt like.

Looking back, I don’t think it was ever really about the song, the book, or the toy. It was about what those things quietly represented. These shared reference points that some people just naturally had, while others, like me, had to catch up on or simply go without.

I guess over time, I stopped trying to catch up. Not because I wasn’t curious anymore, but because I realized it was okay to not know everything. It didn’t make me any less. It just meant I had a different path. And maybe that difference taught me something too. Like how to be a bit more patient, a bit more careful with my words. Because I’ve been on the other side of that “You didn’t know?” moment, and I know how small it can make someone feel. So now, when I talk to people, I try to keep that in mind.

And if I’m being really honest, the kind of privilege I still find myself wishing for, even now, is the privilege of knowing things. The kind of knowledge people somehow just seem to grow up with. The lessons about how to act, how to be, how to treat others.

I wouldn’t go as far as calling myself a good person. I think more often about my flaws than about anything good I might have. And sometimes I wonder, if I were really a good person, then why did I end up where I am now? Why do I still remember things I said or did that hurt someone?

I wish I had known better. I wish I had learned earlier. I wish things came naturally, the way people expect them to, like by a certain age, you’re just supposed to know.

I wish I always knew the right thing, so no one had to ask me, “You didn’t know?” ever again. Even now, being part of the grown-ups, I’m still trying to figure out if I’m behaving the way society expects me to. And by society, I mean my family, and the image that people who know me have of me.

I worry a lot about how I present myself. I worry if I didn’t know something, if I didn’t act well enough, that I might be seen as the flawed one in the family, either by others or by my own family.

Sometimes I think maybe that’s why I try so hard to appear like I’ve got things figured out. Not because I want to impress people, but because I don’t want to be seen as lacking.

Just like when I was a child, looking at grown-ups who said to me, “Do it like this. Why did you do it like that? Why don’t you understand?” and to the people who asked, “You didn’t know?” I still want to calmly say, “No, I didn’t understand,” or “No, I didn’t know.”

Does being an adult mean that whenever we face something, anything, we’re supposed to already have it all figured out? What if we just assumed, sometimes, that it’s someone’s first time learning? That not everyone just knows?

Sometimes I think maybe I sound selfish. Like I’m just caught up in my own point of view. But it’s not that I don’t see others have their own struggles too. I just wish people remembered that we don’t all start with the same things.[]

[themoonisnotsleepy]

“Y” vs. “E” in Spanish

I just learned (quite literally) that the word "e" exists in Spanish like in Portuguese (meaning "and") and I was a little surprised because I thought Spanish only used "y". But although they are used for the same reasons (as connectives) they have different uses.

You see, you generally really use "y" to connect words. However, there is an exception! When the word that follows starts with an "i" sound, then we use "e", even if the word starts with a "h" (which is silent in Spanish). For example:

Padre e hijo

Español e inglés

Julieta dijo que su hermano es sucio e inmoral.

Él era donante de pulmón e hígado.

But why does this happen? Well, since the conjugation "y" is pronounced like “i”, if we used it with another word that also starts with an "i", then it would sound awkward or unclear, because the sounds would merge like “iinmoral” ou “iígado”. So we use "E".

But! There's an exception to the exception: if the word start with an “hia”, “hie” ou “hio”, we use the conjugation "y". Some examples:

La piedra está limpia y hialina.

Es un tiempo de fuego y hielo.

Atropina y hioscina son alcaloides.

Note: In “tú y yo,” we use “y” because “yo” starts with a “y” sound, not an “i” sound.

[themoonisnotsleepy]

Hirō Isono

[themoonisnotsleepy]

Beginning to learn Mandarin - Resources:

Hi, are you starting to learn Mandarin? Do you like learning primarily through context? Do you want to watch videos to learn?

Check out vidioma.com! vidioma.com has been updated, and now has a login option to track hours watched on 1 account on multiple devices. Reddit user lekowan made vidioma.com to make it easier to find Comprehensible Input Mandarin lessons, the site has CI Lessons from youtube embedded, and ranked by difficulty. The site is free and will remain free, and you can click the youtube videos to go directly to the youtube channels (and the views from the embedded videos go directly to the youtube creator). The site has hours tracking which could be helpful for tracking study time, links a ton of amazing youtube creators I follow, and the sort-by-difficulty feature is quite useful. The website is exploring ways to show progress that are motivating/useful to users. The Approach page is basically the same as Dreaming Spanish Method page (which I recommend reading instead, because it's more in depth - the summary is DS Method is ALG with less severe restrictions/directions. When people say the CI Method they mean 'Dreaming Spanish Method'... comprehensible input is such a broad term, it encompasses CI Lessons and much more. I won't get into the weeds here, but CI Lessons for beginners are lessons designed to be understandable through visuals, and then for intermediate learners they're designed to be understandable based on the words you know and visuals - so like Graded Readers but audio-visual. DS Method is based on learning from CI Lessons until you can extensively watch/read/listen to materials for native speakers and then continuing to learn with those). You can use vidioma and CI Lessons on youtube in any way you want though! They're great extensive listening practice, to use alongside other study resources!

Other resources I recommend:

Mandarin Input Media spreadsheet I made! Looking for lessons and learner podcasts? Check the first sheet. Looking for other media in Chinese understandable at various levels? Check the other sheets. For those unfamiliar with the Levels Dreaming Spanish Method uses, Level 2=HSK 2, Level 3=HSK3-4, Level 4=HSK4-5, Level 5=HSK5-6, Level 6=HSK6+, Level 7=HSK7-9. If you are also unfamiliar with HSK levels, then just start at Level 1 and know that the stuff in further levels is going to have more unique words and be generally more 'difficult.' If you are Upper Beginner/Lower Intermediate, around HSK4 and feel you can start to engage with media made in Mandarin, I recommend checking out Level 3 and 4 stuff.

Heavenly Path Comprehensible Reading Guide - start with this to learn how to read. Heavenly Path general site has lots of webnovel recommendations labelled by difficulty. If you are HSK4/Lower Intermediate/Level 3-4 (Dreaming Spanish method), then start with the Webnovels and Books for Newcomers recommendations.

r/ALGMandarin Resources page. (Includes the spreadsheet I made, and many of the youtubers linked here are also on vidioma.com)

r/ALGhub Beginner Aural Resources Chinese - Mandarin page. Note that if you ever want to try out Automatic Language Growth, these resources were linked because they're the best fit for ALG (which has stricter requirements).

Comprehensible Input Wiki - Chinese page. This is the main page I look for resources on, as youtubers who make CI Lessons tend to be added here. Please add resources you find, if you know how to edit a Wiki.

Recommended Path for Beginners:

I recommend starting with vidioma.com for starting to learn words/grammar and building listening skills, and Heavenly Path Comprehensive Reading Guide when you're ready to start learning to read.

Apps to get started: I suggest downloading Pleco app for a Dictionary (free), and using the Clip Reader tool to paste in Chinese text when you want to read a lot. You can eventually purchase Graded Readers inside Pleco, or other tools, as you continue studying. I suggest downloading Readibu app (free) when you start reading more. I suggest downloading Google Translate or another translation app you like, for when you want to quickly look something up and need to handwrite the hanzi or use OCR, because you do not know the pinyin yet.

Use whatever you like to learn 1000-3000 common words and basic grammar. (Want to copy what I did? For words: I studied 2000 words from this Spoonfed Chinese anki deck, I read Tuttle's Learning Chinese Characters (HSK 1-3) book to study hanzi, then a hanzi mnemonics anki deck until I felt I didn't need it. For grammar: I read the all of the Grammar Exercises linked on this HSK Course page, and referenced AllSet Learning Chinese Grammar Wiki when I wanted to read more about certain grammar points. For pronunciation: I used Pinyin Pronunciation Guide, YoYo Chinese's Pinyin Chart, and Tone Pair Chart. For hanzi: I read these 4 Hacking Chinese articles to learn about hanzi -  part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4. I read Tuttle's Learning Chinese Characters (HSK 1-3) book to study hanzi, then a hanzi mnemonics anki deck. For tones: I watched this video, and watched the other stuff linked in my tones tag on this blog.)

Next: Then use Mandarin Input Media spreadsheet when you need to find more learner resources, or start trying to watch shows/cartoons and read novels. After learning the basics (1000-3000 common words, basic grammar) you should be around HSK 4/Level3-4 and can start using learner resources recommended for that level (intermediate), and can start trying to watch/read easier media for native speakers (cartoons, daily life shows, stories for children, daily life manhua, easier webnovels).

[themoonisnotsleepy]

I have no proof for this but I think comedy is the best genre for language learning because you want to get the jokes. Whodunits are also good because you'll get invested trying to understand who the murderer is.

[themoonisnotsleepy]

25 years ago an unknown Chinese protester stood in front of a tank in defiance of the government. No one knows the identity of the man but he was given the nick name “Tank Man”. This is one of the most iconic photographs of the century.

[themoonisnotsleepy]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and the endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

Transparent Language: (Languages: THE MOST! Also the one that has the widest variety of African languages! Perhaps the most diverse in ESL and learning a foreign language not in English)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[themoonisnotsleepy]

the close association between gui 鬼 as in "ghost" and gui 归 as in "to return, to go back to where you belong;" such that ghosts are coming back to the living and the living are coming back to ghostliness. these two states are two sides of the same coin, of the same existence.

[themoonisnotsleepy]

Free or Cheap Mandarin Chinese Learning Resources Because You Can't Let John Cena One Up You Again

I will update this list as I learn of any more useful ones. If you want general language learning resources check out this other post. This list is Mandarin specific. Find lists for other specific languages here.

For the purposes of this list "free" means something that is either totally free or has a useful free tier. "Cheap" is a subscription under $10USD a month, a software license or lifetime membership purchase under $100USD, or a book under $30USD. If you want to suggest a resource for this list please suggest ones in that price range that are of decent quality and not AI generated.

WEBSITES

Dong Chinese - A website with lessons, a pinyin guide, a dictionary, and various videos and practice tests. With a free account you're only allowed to do one lesson every 12 hours. To do as many lessons as quickly as you want it costs $10 a month or $80 a year.

Domino Chinese - A paid website with video based lessons from absolute beginner to college level. They claim they can get you ready to get a job in China. They offer a free trial and after that it's $5 a month or pay what you can if you want to support their company.

Chinese Education Center - This is an organization that gives information to students interested in studying abroad in China. They have free text based lessons for beginners on vocab, grammar, and handwriting.

Pleco Dictionary App - This is a very popular dictionary app on both iOS and Android. It has a basic dictionary available for free but other features can be purchased individually or in bundles. A full bundle that has what most people would want is about $30 but there are more expensive options with more features.

MIT OpenCourseWare Chinese 1 2 3 4 5 6 - These are actual archived online courses from MIT available for free. You will likely need to download them onto your computer.

Learn Chinese Web Application From Cambridge University - This is a free downloadable file with Mandarin lessons in a PC application. There's a different program for beginner and intermediate.

Learn Chinese Everyday - A free word a day website. Every day the website posts a different word with pronunciation, stroke order, and example sentences. There's also an archive of free downloadable worksheets related to previous words featured on the website.

Chinese Boost - A free website and blog with beginner lessons and articles about tips and various resources to try.

Chinese Forums - An old fashioned forum website for people learning Chinese to share resources and ask questions. It's still active as of when I'm making this list.

Du Chinese - A free website and an app with lessons and reading and listening practice with dual transcripts in both Chinese characters and pinyin. They also have an English language blog with tips, lessons, and information on Chinese culture.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Chinese For Us - A channel that provides free video lessons for beginners. The channel is mostly in English.

Herbin Mandarin - A channel with a variety of lessons for beginners. The channel hasn't uploaded in a while but there's a fairly large archive of lessons to watch. The channel is mainly in English.

Mandarin Blueprint - This channel is by a couple of guys who also run a paid website. However on their YouTube channel there's a lot of free videos with tips about how to go about learning Chinese, pronunciation and writing tips, and things of that nature. The channel is mainly in English.

Blabla Chinese - A comprehensible input channel with content about a variety of topics for beginner to intermediate. The video descriptions are in English but the videos themselves are all in Mandarin.

Lazy Chinese - A channel aimed at intermediate learners with videos on general topics, grammar, and culture. They also have a podcast. The channel has English descriptions but the videos are all in Mandarin.

Easy Mandarin - A channel associated with the easy languages network that interviews people on the street in Taiwan about everyday topics. The channel has on screen subtitles in traditional characters, pinyin, and English.

StickynoteChinese - A relatively new channel but it already has a decent amount of videos. Jun makes videos about culture and personal vlogs in Mandarin. The channel is aimed at learners from beginner to upper intermediate.

Story Learning Chinese With Annie - A comprehensible input channel almost entirely in Mandarin. The host teaches through stories and also makes videos about useful vocabulary words and cultural topics. It appears to be aimed at beginner to intermediate learners.

LinguaFlow Chinese - Another relatively new channel but they seem to be making new videos regularly. The channel is aimed at beginner to intermediate learners and teaches and provides listening practice with video games. The channel is mostly in Mandarin.

Lala Chinese - A channel with tips on grammar and pronunciation with the occasional vlog for listening practice, aimed at upper beginner to upper intermediate learners. Some videos are all in Mandarin while others use a mix of English and Mandarin. Most videos have dual language subtitles onscreen.

Grace Mandarin Chinese - A channel with general information on the nitty gritty of grammar, pronunciation, common mistakes, slang, and useful phrases for different levels of learners. Most videos are in English but some videos are fully in Mandarin.

READING PRACTICE

HSK Reading - A free website with articles sorted into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Every article has comprehension questions. You can also mouse over individual characters and see the pinyin and possible translations. The website is in a mix of English and Mandarin.

chinesegradedreader.com - A free website with free short readings up to HSK level 3 or upper intermediate. Each article has an explaination at the beginning of key vocabulary words in English and you can mouse over individual characters to get translations.

Mandarin Companion - This company sells books that are translated and simplified versions of classic novels as well as a few originals for absolute beginners. They are available in both traditional and simplified Chinese. Their levels don't appear to be aligned with any HSK curriculum but even their most advanced books don't have more than 500 individual characters according to them so they're likely mostly for beginners to advanced beginners. New paperbacks seem to usually be $14 but cheaper used copies, digital copies, and audiobooks are also available. The website is in English.

Graded Chinese Readers - Not to be confused with chinese graded reader, this is a website with information on different graded readers by different authors and different companies. The website tells you what the book is about, what level it's for, whether or not it uses traditional or simplified characters, and gives you a link to where you can buy it on amazon. They seem to have links to books all the way from HSK 1 or beginner to HSK 6 or college level. A lot of the books seem to be under $10 but as they're all from different companies your mileage and availability may vary. The website is in English.

Mandarin Bean - A website with free articles about Chinese culture and different short stories. Articles are sorted by HSK level from 1 to 6. The website also lets you switch between traditional or simplified characters and turn the pinyin on or off. It also lets you mouse over characters to get a translation. They have a relatively expensive paid tier that gives you access to video lessons and HSK practice tests and lesson notes but all articles and basic features on the site are available on the free tier without an account. The website is in a mix of Mandarin and English.

Mandarin Daily News - This is a daily newspaper from Taiwan made for children so the articles are simpler, have illustrations and pictures, and use easier characters. As it's for native speaker kids in Taiwan, the site is completely in traditional Chinese.

New Tong Wen Tang for Chrome or Firefox - This is a free browser extension that can convert traditional characters to simplified characters or vice versa without a need to copy and paste things into a separate website.

PODCASTS

Melnyks Chinese - A podcast for more traditional audio Mandarin Chinese lessons for English speakers. The link I gave is to their website but they're also available on most podcatcher apps.

Chinese Track - Another podcast aimed at learning Mandarin but this one goes a bit higher into lower intermediate levels.

Dimsum Mandarin - An older podcast archive of 30 episodes of dialogues aimed at beginner to upper beginner learners.

Dashu Mandarin - A podcast run by three Chinese teachers aimed at intermediate learners that discusses culture topics and gives tips for Mandarin learners. There are also male teachers on the podcast which I'm told is relatively rare for Mandarin material aimed at learners and could help if you're struggling to understand more masculine speaking patterns.

Learning Chinese Through Stories - A storytelling podcast mostly aimed at intermediate learners but they do have some episodes aimed at beginner or advanced learners. They have various paid tiers for extra episodes and learning material on their patreon but there's still a large amount of episodes available for free.

Haike Mandarin - A conversational podcast in Taiwanese Mandarin for intermediate learners. Every episode discusses a different everyday topic. The episode descriptions and titles are entirely in traditional Chinese characters. The hosts provide free transcripts and other materials related to the episodes on their blog.

Learn Chinese With Ju - A vocabulary building podcast aimed at intermediate learners. The podcast episodes are short at around 4-6 minutes and the host speaks about a variety of topics in a mix of English and Mandarin.

xiaoyuzhou fm - An iOS app for native speakers to listen to podcasts. I’m told it has a number of interactive features. If you have an android device you’ll likely have to do some finagling with third party apps to get this one working. As this app is for native speakers, the app is entirely in simplified Chinese.

Apple Podcast directories for Taiwan and China - Podcast pages directed towards users in those countries/regions.

SELF STUDY TEXTBOOKS AND DICTIONARIES

Learning Chinese Characters - This series is sorted by HSK levels and each volume in the series is around $11. Used and digital copies can also be found for cheaper.

HSK Standard Course Textbooks - These are textbooks designed around official Chinese government affiliated HSK tests including all of the simplified characters, grammar, vocab, and cultural knowledge necessary to pass each test. There are six books in total and the books prices range wildly depending on the level and the seller, going for as cheap as $14 to as expensive as $60 though as these are pretty common textbooks, used copies and cheaper online shops can be found with a little digging. The one I have linked to here is the HSK 1 textbook. Some textbook sellers will also bundle them with a workbook, some will not.

Chinese Made Easy for Kids - Although this series is aimed at children, I'm told that it's also very useful for adult beginners. There's a large number of textbooks and workbooks at various levels. The site I linked to is aimed at people placing orders in Hong Kong but the individual pages also have links to various other websites you can buy them from in other countries. The books range from $20-$35 but I include them because some of them are cheaper and they seem really easy to find used copies of.

Reading and Writing Chinese - This book contains guides on all 2300 characters in the HSK texts as of 2013. Although it is slightly outdated, it's still useful for self study and is usually less than $20 new. Used copies are also easy to find.

Basic Chinese by Mcgraw Hill - This book also fuctions as a workbook so good quality used copies can be difficult to find. The book is usually $20 but it also often goes on sale on Amazon and they also sell a cheaper digital copy.

Chinese Grammar: A beginner's guide to basic structures - This book goes over beginner level grammar concepts and can usually be found for less than $20 in print or as low as $2 for a digital copy.

Collins Mandarin Chinese Visual Dictionary - A bilingual English/Mandarin visual dictionary that comes with a link to online audio files. A new copy goes for about $14 but used and digital versions are available.

Merriam-Webster's Chinese to English Dictionary - In general Merriam Websters usually has the cheapest decent quality multilingual dictionaries out there, including for Mandarin Chinese. New editions usually go for around $8 each while older editions are usually even cheaper.

(at the end of the list here I will say I had a difficult time finding tv series specifically made for learners of Mandarin Chinese so if you know of any that are made for teenage or adult learners or are kids shows that would be interesting to adults and are free to watch without a subscription please let me know and I will add them to the list. There's a lot of Mandarin language TV that's easy to find but what I'm specifically interested in for these lists are free to watch series made for learners and/or easy to understand kids shows originally made in the target language that are free and easy to access worldwide)

[themoonisnotsleepy]

I actually do feel like the "unemployed friend on a Tuesday" meme actually helps de-stigmatize unemployment because it frequently affirms that when you don't have a job you're more likely to be getting up to some weird shit rather than just lazing around. But I also feel like the unemployed friend is frequently up to some random shit because there's a whole pile of miscellaneous life tasks that full-time employment keeps people from. The unemployed friend is helping their cousin move, or babysitting, or checking in with a neighbor with mobility issues. The unemployed friend is a walking thesis on the inflexibility of our current labor landscape and just how much work exists outside of work.

[themoonisnotsleepy]

FIRST-EVER FOOTAGE OF INDONESIAN COELACANTH IN NORTH MALUKU REVEALS NEW INSIGHTS INTO RARE SPECIES

The coelacanth, often dubbed a "living fossil," is one of the most iconic and mysterious marine vertebrates. Long thought extinct until its rediscovery in 1938, only two species are known today—Latimeria chalumnae in the western Indian Ocean, and L. menadoensis in Indonesia. The latter, the Sulawesi coelacanth, lives in deep, difficult-to-access reef habitats and has rarely been observed alive. For the first time, divers using advanced technical diving equipment have filmed a live Indonesian coelacanth in situ, at a depth of over 150 metres in North Maluku, a region where the species had not previously been recorded.

Left profile of the coelacanth, with its unique pattern of white dots. Photo by Alexis Chappuis.

- Localities from whence the Sulawesi Coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis, has been reported in black stars. White star shows the North Maluku Province, where the first in situ sighting by technical divers was made.

This sighting is more than just a milestone in exploration—it provides critical data on the ecology and distribution of an animal that is evolutionarily unique and highly vulnerable. With few individuals ever seen in the wild, each observation adds valuable insight into how these ancient fish live and where they might still be found. It also underscores the urgency of protecting deep reef habitats that are increasingly at risk from human activities. Understanding and safeguarding the ecosystems that support the coelacanth is essential if we hope to ensure its survival into the future.

Main photo: Deep diver about a meter behind the coelacanth discovered at a depth of -144 m in North Maluku, Indonesia. Photo by Alexis Chappuis.

Reference (Open Access): Chappuis et al. 2025 First record of a living coelacanth from North Maluku, Indonesia. Sci Rep

[themoonisnotsleepy]

btw archive dot org is SUCH a treasury when it comes to out-of-print poetry anthologies… i am having the time of my life, truly ❣️