http://www.due-east.org Musings on Things Asian Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:42:41 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Lu, 妳好！妳還看我的Blog嗎？我等inLove出新專輯。我給我的幾個朋友聼你們的專輯。 他們都很喜歡。你們會什麽時候出新專輯？ 請留言吧！ 謝謝！ 孫智謙 (Chris) http://www.due-east.org/2007/09/21/lu-%e5%a6%b3%e6%80%8e%e9%ba%bd%e6%a8%a3%ef%bc%9f/     To learn a language effectively, nothing beats total immersion. The problem is that many learners of Chinese don't live in an area where total immersion is practical or even possible, so a lot of learners help themselves along by watching Chinese TV shows. The problem is that in ... http://www.due-east.org/2010/02/09/increase-your-exposure-to-chinese-with-ppstream/   [caption id="attachment_232" align="aligncenter" width="123" ][/caption]   It seems like the longer you study a language, the harder it becomes to improve in your ability to speak it. You get into a rut where you're comfortable talking about certain subjects, and that's what you talk about, so you hit a plateau. ... http://www.due-east.org/2010/02/08/fill-in-your-conversational-chinese-gaps-a-bit/     It's always interesting to find out how creative people get started creating their works of art, what drives them in their craft, and how their personal creative process works. I came across this article and interview about Wang Li Hong/Leehom Wang on Berklee University's web site this morning, and ... http://www.due-east.org/2009/10/28/wang-li-hong-so-much-talent-it-makes-you-sick/   The awesomeness that is Hong Kong: Reason enough to learn Cantonese.   A friend of mine just sent me a link to a New York Times article about how Cantonese is slowly dying out in New York's Chinatown. I couldn't help but get a little sad reading it. Sure, it's ... http://www.due-east.org/2009/10/21/top-10-reasons-to-learn-cantonese/   Electric Shock: not as effective as once thought...by people who don't bother to check things out scientifically   Way back in 2007, I blogged about a government-sanctioned program at a hospital in China trying to cure people of Internet addiction using electric shock therapy. Well, apparently the government has had a ... http://www.due-east.org/2009/07/15/file-under-duh-electric-shock-doesnt-cure-anybody-of-internet-addiction/   The news is depressing lately. Well, it's actually pretty much always depressing. But I just got some great news to offset some of the doom and gloom! After almost 4 years, InLove is finally releasing a new album in July! The singer, Lu, kindly stopped by ... http://www.due-east.org/2009/05/19/best-news-in-a-long-time/ [youtube pJldpVluZxQ nolink]   When I first heard the opening piano of this song, I thought, "Wow, this is gonna be good!" But then Wilber Pan started to sing, and I quickly realized that this was going to be a case of a great song ruined by a bad vocal ... http://www.due-east.org/2009/05/06/a-turnfor-the-worse/     I just came across a great post on TheChinaExpat.com highlighting some common mistakes learners of Chinese make, and I thought I'd post about it here. The eight mistakes highlighted by the post are: 1.) Not mastering the tones, 2.) Not learning characters, 3.) Killing yourself learning characters, 4.) ... http://www.due-east.org/2008/12/26/8-mistakes-to-avoid-when-learning-chinese/   South Korean actress Ok So-Ri   Here's something I didn't know. South Korea is the only nation outside of Islamic states that has an actual law making adultery a criminal offense. It's been challenged multiple times but has always been upheld based on the premise that "adultery is damaging to ... http://www.due-east.org/2008/12/17/adultery-is-sort-of-a-crime-in-south-korea/