How I 學習中文

I’m teaching a Chinese class to the kiddies in my daughter’s homeschooling co-op next quarter. But my fluency ain’t what it used to be. To bone up on my 中文 vocabulary I’ve been playing with the MDBG Chinese-English dictionary. It’s fascinating. Enter a word in English, if you wish, or in Pinyin, or even in characters, and get a list of every permutation of that word.

Click the icons to hear pronunciation, read etymological details, and even watch the character being drawn in a Flash demonstration.

Fēi cháng hǎo!

Read Full Post »

How I Fly Like a (Geeky) Eagle

Still doing way too much research, and way too little writing, on my new novel. Google Earth is proving invaluable (or distracting. I’m not sure which). Where before I might have driven (or flown) to the place I was researching, now I can pretty much Google Earth it and get at least a sense of what a particular street corner might look like, or whether an area of the town I’m describing is rural or suburban.

Oh, and whether my daughter was out playing in the neighborhood when she was supposed to be home with her older brother, practicing the piano.  She goes on record as the first child in history to get in trouble because of Google Earth Street View.

Read Full Post »

How I Get Inspired

Welcome back to Smart Thursdays. Today’s installment: The Best Thinking from the Best Thinkers.

TED is an annual summit on — well, any subject that fascinates. It originally featured speeches by fascinating people from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment, and Design. Now it’s much more. Click the TEDTalks link on the left column of the web page to watch broadcasts of the “talk of a lifetime” from interesting writers, academics, scientists and artists.

Warning: TEDTalks may cause brain pain. Listen slowly. It hurts to be brilliant.

Read Full Post »

How I Get Schooled

I’m too old for school. But I’m never too old to learn. See, I figure that so long as I keep my brain engaged, I’ll never become a doddering old fool.

That’s why, beginning today, Greenlance will sponsor Smart Thursdays, wherein we feature a great resource for adult education.

Today’s featured site: Stanford on iTunes University. This is the one that finally motivated me to install iTunes. It’s free audio and video broadcasts of Stanford University lectures covering a wide variety of subjects. It’s like auditing college classes without paying tuition. Such a deal.

Have other suggestions for Smart Thursdays? Share your ideas by clicking that Comments link, below.

Read Full Post »