THE GEEK CORNER

>DIY CHINESE TEACHINg

There are a seemingly limitless number of resources for improving your Chinese now available on streaming video sites， so distinguishing your offering is crucial. Mike， the eponymous host of “Chinese with Mike，”obviously understands this and has gone to obscene lengths to make his weekly video lessons entertaining， particularly by playing up the fact that they are hosted in his Chicago garage. Each week Mike dons a different garish outfit and presents a 10-minute show on a narrow aspect of Chinese， sprinkling the lesson with asides and jokes. If you’re looking for bite-sized lessons presented by an American who doesn’t take himself too seriously but covers basic elements of Chinese in a pretty good level of detail， stop in and take a look at what Mike’s up to: www.chinesewithmike.com. – daVId green (武劍)

>YAbLA TAKES THE ‘bLAH bLAH’ OuT OF CHINESE TV

If real TV is more your speed， hit up Yabla， “the Chinese Video Immersion experience，” which provides video clips of interviews， music， movies and news from Chinese television. Videos are tailored for different levels of language learners， and designed to engage the listener through a variety of interactive features. with captions that use simplified characters， Pinyin and English， as well as playback control， dictionary entries and review games for each video， Yabla pushes beyond passive listening. Best of all， a “Slow”button brings the audio to half-speed， giving you the chance to catch words more clearly. Yabla’s multi-model approach and wide variety of programming mean you no longer have to battle the dizzying array of sappy high school romances and mind-bending period dramas that saturate Chinese TV.– angela Sun (孫惠子)

>THE FACEbOOK OF LANguAgE LEARNINg

If you can’t drag yourself away from social networking sites， you might as well get something useful out of them. Enter livemocha.com， the biggest language learning social networking site on the web. Boasting 400，000 daily users， the site gives language learners a chance to trade language favors， essentially hooking up virtual language partners from around the globe. Instead of mindlessly clicking through the photos of friends of friends， you can post recordings of yourself speaking Chinese to get pronunciation pointers from native speakers. Users get points for correcting content in their native language， which they can then spend on receiving feedback for their own written or recorded work. There are also loads of opportunities to converse live with native speakers. On top of the peer-to-peer learning， the site offers free beginner and intermediate courses in almost 40 languages， including Mandarin. These give you 30-50 hours of coursework and flashcards to get you started， though advanced courses are behind a pay wall.– matt Sheehan (馬特)

danger (險 xi2n)

pigs’ feet (豬蹄 zh$t!)

Uproar in the Heaven (大鬧天宮D3n3o Ti`ng4ng)

DIY travel (自助游 z#zhy5u)

backpacking (背包旅行 b8ib`o l)x!ng)

parachuting (跳傘 ti3os2n)

Slender west Lake (瘦西湖 Sh7ux~ H%)

robbing graves (盜墓 d3om)

marathon (馬拉松 m2l`s4ng)