As much as you might enjoy reviewing your SRS flashcards, watching foreign movies, reading your foreign language books, or whatever you do to learn Chinese and/or Japanese (or any language for that matter), you can’t learn it all on your own. You need some friends to help you. In theory you could learn everything on your own, I think, but you’re just making life harder for yourself that way. R...

Most people have been hearing about China’s rise over the past few years with all the hundreds of books written on China and the Beijing Olympics bonanza. However, with all the uncertainty in the world economy today, many people are skeptical of China’s continued development. But as the United States digs itself deeper into debt insolvency, China is still managing to push forward. Chin...

I came across this really interesting video today about language in Chinese rap music. It shows how different rappers around China are using Mandarin (the common language), Cantonese, and other local dialects in their songs to appeal to different audiences. The differences between two Chinese dialects can be like the difference between English and German. This is making rappers choose whether they...

If you’re serious about learning to speak your new language then get ready to throw out all your old English music and replace it with that of your language of study. All free, all the time! Who would have thought it would be so easy? You don’t even have to spend a penny! I’ve never spent my money on iTunes or other similar services for music, and I honestly don’t feel bad ...

These days, Asia is like the ant and the United States and Europe are like the grasshopper. If you don’t save for a rainy day, you’ll be sorry. I know China has a savings rate of about 35% compared to America’s…maybe 2%. Anyway, here’s a video interview of Jim Rogers from a Dutch TV station about Asia and it’s bright future. I always listen to Jim Rogers for my ...