Learn Chinese Blog | Learn to speak Chinese » video http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog helpful Chinese language learning tips and resources Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:50:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 a great Chinese video player http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/great-chinese-video-player/ http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/great-chinese-video-player/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2011 10:21:27 +0000 Darren http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/?p=1138

As I mentioned in previous post,  today I’d like to share more about the Chinese video player-Splayer, it’s neat, safe and really high performance.  It has many great features, however, the one feature I like most is that it automatically match and download subtitles from shooter.cn, so you don’t need to find the subtitle yourself.  If it sounds like something you may like it, please check it out.

here is the video player site in English: http://splayer.org/index.en.html

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]]> http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/great-chinese-video-player/feed/ 0 Where to download Chinese subtitles for movies http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/download-chinese-subtitles-for-movies/ http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/download-chinese-subtitles-for-movies/#comments Tue, 28 Dec 2010 09:44:01 +0000 Darren http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/?p=1109

Recently, when I was surfing around on some Chinese learning websites, I noticed that some people were looking for a place where they can download  Chinese subtitles for movies. And Since watching movies is one of great ways to learn Chinese,  I’d like to share some resources today, hope it would be something helpful for those who want to learn Chinese by watching movies or for those just want it for entertainment.

The website I’d like to introduce is called 射手网-shooter.cn, it’s personal-owned website and has tons of subtitles from way back, probably any movie you can think of. You can download Chinese subtitles for Chinese or English movies, or English subtitles for Chinese or English movies.  How can you make it work to show up the subtitles then?

Here are the steps:

1. type in the name of the movie in search bar and search;

2. then download the subtitles to your computer;

3. to change the file name of subtitles and make sure all the subtitles in different language have the same file name with the movie file name; (please make sure you don’t change the file format)

4. lastly, if your video player recognize  the subtitle file, you should be able to have subtitle showed up and also you can switch between different subtitle languages as well.

One more tip: when you search for subtitles, mostly like there would be many versions available from different subtitle producers, but the only important thing you need to know is what languages available in each version of subtitle? There is a language section of each subtitle description, so you can find out what languages  are available, the most common languages available are simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese and English. here are two examples:

subtitle languages: English, traditional Chinese, Dutch and French.

Subtitle languages: English, simplified and traditional Chinese.

Hope this post would be helpful to you and let me know in comment if you run into any problem.

In next post, I will share more about the video player developed by shooter.cn called Splayer.

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]]> http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/download-chinese-subtitles-for-movies/feed/ 2 The Digital Story of The Nativity http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/digital-story-nativity/ http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/digital-story-nativity/#comments Sat, 25 Dec 2010 09:31:46 +0000 Darren http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/?p=1102

I’d like to share this creative, funny and cute story of the Nativity to say Merry Christmas-圣诞快乐！

How social media, web and mobile tell the story of the Nativity.
Christmas story told through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Wikipedia, Google Maps, GMail, Foursquare, Amazon…

Times change, the feeling remains the same

If unfortunately you are in mainland China, here is the video on Tudou

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]]> http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/digital-story-nativity/feed/ 0 Learning Chinese Through Listening – Stream Chinese TV Dramas Online http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/learning-chinese-listening-streaming-tv/ http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/learning-chinese-listening-streaming-tv/#comments Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:23:12 +0000 Duncan http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/?p=982

Chinese TV Drama Online StreamingThe three mantras that seem to be drilled into any student trying to learn the Chinese language is: “多看, 多说, 多听” (duo4kan4, duo4shuo4, duo4ting1), meaning: “read a lot, speak a lot, and listen a lot”, of Chinese that is.

Moving to China to live or study is one way to practice these three directives, however, probably not an option everyone can take. One other way to help with your Chinese learning is to pick up a Chinese TV drama to follow, and I’ve heard many-a-story of friends learning to speak Chinese, or a dialect of Chinese by watching a Chinese TV series.

Fortunately, there are many options and methods of finding Chinese TV shows to follow online, and which also allow you to stream the shows online for free as well.

MySoju.com and YellowCinema.com are two popular websites that are solely dedicated to streaming Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) TV dramas online, and let you browse through shows by popularity.

Check out each of these website’s Mainland TV Drama sections:

Popular Mainland Dramas on MySoju

Mainland Dramas on YellowCinema


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]]> http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/learning-chinese-listening-streaming-tv/feed/ 3 功夫梦 – The Karate Kid Streaming Online http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/karate-kid-streaming-online/ http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/karate-kid-streaming-online/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:34:43 +0000 Duncan http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/?p=937

For those who have yet to watch the latest 2010 remake of the 1984 “The Karate Kid”, you can stream it for free through QiYi.com (奇艺 qi2yi4); though I feel that the movie title should be changed to “The Kung Fu Kid”, since the Chinese title of the movie is 功夫梦  (gong1fu meng4 – aka: dreaming of Kung Fu), and the martial art in the movie is no longer the Japanese Karate, but the Chinese Kung Fu- but that’s just me =)


I hadn’t heard of QiYi before, so I did a bit of research, and I found out that the difference between qiyi.com and other mainland online streaming video services, such as tudou.com and youku.com, is that QiYi aims to gather all of its video content through legal means through several copyright intermediary sources. This also allows QiYi to obtain higher quality and resolution videos, which is pretty nice if you’re wanting to project a movie on a screen to watch with friends.

Here’s the direct link to The Karate Kid on QiYi.com
(http://www.qiyi.com/dianying/20100725/n26619.html)

By the way, if you are those who would like to learn Chinese by watching movies, I’d recommend a product launched recently, it’s great option for those who wanted to learn Chinese in a casual and fun way.

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]]> http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/karate-kid-streaming-online/feed/ 1 A high-quality Chinese video website http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/chinese-video-websites/ http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/chinese-video-websites/#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:22:19 +0000 1on1 Mandarin http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/?p=768
Today,  we are introducing to you a high-quality Chinese video site: 奇艺(qí yì). It’s like Hulu.com in China. Their video quality is quite good, and stands out from other video sites in China. What’s more, they have many legal copies and full length movies, TV dramas and documentary films you can watch online for free. Please check it out at Qiyi video – www.qiyi.com.

We have a post about other Chinese video websites here, covering Youku.com, 56.com and Ku6.com. Among those four video sites, we would recommend Youku.com and Qiyi.com (they’re just like the Chinese version of Youtube and Hulu).

Mostly importantly, you can get access to tons of video resources to help you practice your Chinese listening and speaking.  Hope this post is helpful and let us know if you find anything interesting.

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]]> http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/chinese-video-websites/feed/ 1 Traditional Chinese New Year Foods http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/traditional-chinese-year-foods/ http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/traditional-chinese-year-foods/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 03:51:05 +0000 Jimmy Olsen http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/?p=569

Traditional Chinese New Year Foods

Besides a time for vacation, sales, and a much less populated/much more comfortable Beijing, Chinese New Year 春节 is also a time for FOOD! If you have (good) local friends, look forward to feasts with their families that may include
Chicken, duck, fish – traditionally eaten at celebrations because in the old days, meat was very expensive and only eat on special occasions. Northerners like to stew the meat, while southerners like to
In the Chinese lunar calendar, during the first day of the new year, called 初一,(beginning-one, i.e. the first day of the first month of the lunar year) (around February 14 this year) dumplings are eaten. By contrast, during February , 初二, noodles are eaten (at least in Beijing). The good news is on 初五 dumplings are eaten again. Personally, I have a tradition where I eat dumplings on the days that end with “y”. I think it’s a good tradition. 正月十五 on the 15th day of the first month of the year, Chinese eat元宵yuanxiao round glutinous rice dumplings. The sweet variety is more common and have hawberries, black sesame, red bean, peanut, dried fruit, sugar as filling. Some also eat salty yuanxiao, filled with meat.
If remembering what to eat on what days is too confusing, just eat whatever your local friend’s family gives you on that day. Alternatively, you can click here http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/calendar-chinese.html to get a basic understanding of the Chinese lunar calendar. Click here http://www.mandarintools.com/calendar.html for a Western calendar to Chinese calendar converter.
年年高升 年糕 Northerners eat steamed or fried (golden brown, like gold, so you can get rich or die trying. Many people like it better fried because it gets chewier) glutinous rice cakes shaped like fish. 超市发 Some are made with corn flour with dates.
Something to drool over, something to look forward to

Besides a time for vacations, big sales and a much less populated/much more comfortable Beijing, Chinese New Year 春节 (chūn jié) is also a time for FOOD! Chinese New Year food is referred to as 过年饭菜 (guònián fàncài). If you have (good) local friends, look forward to feasts with their families that may include:

Fish & Chicken

 

Chicken, duck, and fish – traditionally eaten at celebrations because in the old days, meat was very expensive and only eat on special occasions. Expect a lot of delicious stewed meat if you’re in the north.

Life-stages of a dumpling

The first day of the new lunar year is called 初一 (chūyī, lit. beginning-one, i.e. the first day of the first month of the lunar year. This year, it’s  February 14) and it is traditionally a day for eating dumplings 餃子 (jiǎo zi).

On 初二 (chū èr), noodles are eaten (at least in Beijing). The good news is on 初五 (chū wǔ), 餃子 (jiǎo zi) are eaten again. Personally, I have a tradition where I eat 餃子 (jiǎo zi) on the days in the week that end with “y”. It is, without a doubt, a fantastic tradition. 餃子 (jiǎo zi) are filled with combinations of different types of ground meat, vegetables, tofu, egg, and even bean thread noodles. You can dip them in vinegar, soy sauce, or both, and each family prepares the dipping sauce differently. 餃子 (jiǎo zi) can be boiled, steamed, or fried.

yuan xiao

正月十五 (zhēng yuè shíwǔ) on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar year, Chinese eat glutinous rice dumplings 元宵 (yuánxiāo). They are made with rice flour and are usually white and round. Sweet 元宵 (yuánxiāo) is more common and have hawberry, black sesame, red bean, peanut, dried fruit, or sugar as filling. Some also eat salty 元宵 (yuánxiāo) which are filled with meat. If remembering what to eat on what days is too confusing, just make friends with a local and eat whatever your local friend’s family gives you on that day. Alternatively, you can click here to get a basic understanding of the Chinese lunar calendar. Or check out mandarintools.com for a Western-to-Chinese calendar converter.

祝你们春节快乐，年年高升!
(zhùnǐmen chūnjié kuàilè, niánnián gāo shēng)
We wish you a happy Spring Festival, and may each and every year get better and better!

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]]> http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/traditional-chinese-year-foods/feed/ 1 Qi Xi Jie-Chinese Valentine’s Day http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/qi-xi-jie/ http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/qi-xi-jie/#comments Tue, 25 Aug 2009 09:29:14 +0000 1on1 Mandarin http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/?p=299 qi-xi-jie Qixi Festival-七夕节( qī xī jié) literally “The Night of Sevens“), also known as Magpie Festival, falls on the seventh   day of the seventh lunar month on the Chinese calendar.  In 2009, it’s on August 26th.

A love story for this day is about the 7th daughter of Emperor of Heaven and an orphaned cowherd. The Emperor separated them. The 7th daughter was forced to move to the star Vega and the cowherd moved to the star Altair. They are allowed to meet only once a year on the day of 7th day of 7th lunar month.

Watch this video below,  it provides one common version of this Chinese traditional love story.

References and other resourses:

1. To read Qi Xi Jie story in Chinese-from Baidu

2. The story of Chinese Valentine’s day

3. Qixi Festival-from Wikipedia

If you are in China or have some friends, most likely, you would hear people talking about this festival.

Watch this video and read some referenced artiles,  you would know more about this festival than average Chinese do.

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]]> http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/qi-xi-jie/feed/ 1 Top 3 Chinese video websites http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/chinese-video/ http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/chinese-video/#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:38:20 +0000 1on1 Mandarin http://www.1on1mandarin.com/blog/?p=238 Today, we’d like to introduce you the top 3 Chinese video websites.  They are free and helpful resources to learn Chinese and practice your Chinese listening skills.

Youku video 56 video Ku6 video

These are the three video sites in China I visit most frequently.  I personally like Youku.com the most because of its speed and the least amount of embedded ads. If you visit these websites often,  you are probably up to date with the latest news in China as well.  These websites would not only be helpful for practicing your Chinese listening skills, but also for providing you with another means through which you can better understand China.

What’s coming next?

*We will post some popular videos regularly to our blog page, as well as try to provide video scripts where helpful.

*If you don’t want to miss any upcoming posts,  please subscribe to rss feed or get well formatted email updates.

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