Sono Inglese di Gerrards Cross: a language learner's blog

Qing Dynasty 清朝


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trying to make sense of language learning

ニール、聂, Neil
Nottingham, Dubai, Tokyo
This blog is a journal of my language learning where I try to improve my language learning techniques and generally share thoughts about the whole process. The languages are Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. (Scroll to the bottom to find out why the blog's title is Italian.) I have built my own site called Yomu Yomu - Daily News which can be accessed at yomuyomu.io for Japanese langauge learners.
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blog archive

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      • I got stuck on the intermediate plateau for years,...
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  • ►  2012 (6)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  July (3)
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  • ►  2011 (25)
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  • ►  2010 (42)
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    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (5)
    • ►  August (7)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (5)
    • ►  May (10)

my blog list

  • the Beijinger Blog
    Rumble Heartbeat: Join the Fun and Give Back at This Community Blood Drive, May 23 - [image: Rumble Heartbeat: Join the Fun and Give Back at This Community Blood Drive, May 23] Giving blood can often be seen as an intimidating or scary proc...
    16 hours ago
  • 世論 What Japan Thinks
    Why Japan Has So Many Vending Machines: The Surprising Reason Explained - Japan is famous for many things like sushi, bullet trains, anime, and neon-lit cities but one of its most surprising everyday features is the sheer numbe...
    1 day ago
  • China Digital Times (CDT)
    CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for April 2026 - CDT presents a monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we publish a summary of content blo...
    1 day ago
  • Second Breakfast
    That Damned LMS Dependency - For the second time in less than a year, a major disruption to the learning management system Canvas has prompted cries (and headlines) that “we can’t do...
    4 days ago
  • Simon Willison's Weblog
    Quoting New York Times Editors’ Note - *This article was updated after The Times learned that a remark attributed to Pierre Poilievre, the Conservative leader, was in fact an A.I.-generated su...
    4 days ago
  • Life of a Japanese Polyglot in Singapore
    How Badly Do You Want to Improve Your English? - Last night, I finished reading the novel Mina’s Matchbox written by the Japanese author Yoko Ogawa. I briefly touched upon this novel in my previous jou...
    5 days ago
  • China Rhyming
    The Bulldozing of Kowloon’s St George’s Court – Yet Another Hong Kong Heritage Tragedy - A sad little tale of Hong Kong and heritage. It’s trite to say, but sadly Hong Kong property developers only really care about money. They have absolutely ...
    1 week ago
  • Steve Pavlina's Personal Development Blog
    Conscious Growth Club Year 10 Video Invitation - I recorded a new video invitation for Conscious Growth Club Year 10. Instead of walking through every feature or detail, I wanted to share more of the hear...
    1 week ago
  • Val Town Blog
    From Supabase to Clerk to Better Auth - The perils of logging in
    1 week ago
  • The Linguist - Learn English, Learn Languages Online
    Comprehensible Input Examples and Strategies That Actually Work - TL;DR: Comprehensible input means reading and listening to content you mostly understand in your target language. The strategy is simple: find content sl...
    1 week ago
  • Tokyo Times
    Scenes of older Tokyo in the rain - I don’t shoot a lot in the rain — my usual excuse being I need to manually focus, and trying to hold an umbrella between one’s shoulder and neck when takin...
    1 week ago
  • The Mozilla Blog
    Welcoming Abigail Besdin, Mozilla’s new Chief Operating Officer - We’re delighted that Abigail Besdin has joined Mozilla as our new Chief Operating Officer. This is an incredibly exciting time for Mozilla. Our focus is ...
    2 weeks ago
  • Donald Clark Plan B
    Assessment at a crossroads - don't catch, change behaviour - Assessment within institutions is at a crossroads, squeezed between human nature and AI. In an educational system that has to cope with the massification...
    3 weeks ago
  • Imagethief
    French Harder! - An air crash, the politics of language and the dangers of unresolved tension Let’s say you’re the CEO of a national air carrier. It’s a big job that comes ...
    5 weeks ago
  • Fluent in 3 months
    How I’m learning Mandarin in 2026: My Daily Routine in Taipei - Way back in 2012, I announced one of the most followed and discussed projects on this blog, of finally taking on Mandarin. It was an intensive 3 months, ...
    1 month ago
  • carlgene.com/blog
    Telephone Interpreting Resources — Low-English Alphabet for Chinese Speakers - I have been taking a lot of telephone interpreting jobs lately. One thing I have had difficulty with is spelling English names, addresses, etc. for Chinese...
    4 months ago
  • tang dynasty times
    - 春有百花秋有月， 夏有涼風冬有雪； 若無閒事掛心頭， 便是人間好時節。 In S...
    8 months ago
  • Adaptive Learning in ELT
    ELT and AI for Good - Cambridge publishes a series of short academic titles called ‘Elements’. There are dozens of them and, for a few weeks only after publication, they can be ...
    9 months ago
  • china/divide
    Harley Medic Partners with BloodTestsOnline.co.uk - Harley Medic is proud to announce a groundbreaking partnership with BloodTestsOnline.co.uk, the UK’s premier home blood testing platform. This collaborat...
    9 months ago
  • nihao你好=hello
    Chinese Characters: Learn Chinese Characters Visually - 好 hǎo | Learning2060 - The following image shows how this character has evolve from the oracle bones 甲骨文: Source： https://www.vividict.com/Public/index/page/details/details.ht...
    1 year ago
  • The China Beat
    Amorim trả giá khi MU để mất ‘báu vật’ từ thời Sir Alex - Trong bức tranh đầy u ám của Manchester United mùa giải 2024/25, HLV Ruben Amorim đang đối mặt với một loạt thách thức để cứu vãn đội bóng. Nhưng giữa nh...
    1 year ago
  • Langology
    Hướng Dẫn Các Bước Cài Đặt App 1.1.1.1 Truy Cập Nhanh Chóng - Cài đặt app 1.1.1.1 không những được sử dụng rộng rãi trên các thiết bị di động iOS và Android, mà chúng cũng được update và cài đặt thường xuyên trên máy ...
    1 year ago
  • Harujapan's Weblog » E.L.E writing assignment 3/4
    manipulate with a carrot and stick 飴と鞭 - I started planning to lose weight the day before yesterday. This time I’ve already started using the Asuken app to track my progress, and today, I’m planni...
    2 years ago
  • World's Strongest Librarian
    สล็อตคนยุคใหม่ สล็อต888 - สล็อตคนยุคใหม่ สล็อต888 เกมส์สล็อตออนไลน์ เล่นง่ายสะดวกสบาย จะเล่นเมื่อไหร่ก็เล่นได้เลย เกมส์สล็อตที่มีให้เลือกเล่นมากกว่า 1000 รายการ และยังเป็นเว็บเดีย...
    3 years ago
  • Shanghai Shiok!
    Beberapa Jenis Hewan Yang Hidup Di Dalam Tanah - Beberapa Jenis Hewan Yang Hidup Di Dalam Tanah Beberapa Jenis Hewan Yang Hidup Di Dalam Tanah – Hewan yang tinggalnya di dalam tanah adalah hewan cacing,...
    3 years ago
  • Chinese Blog
    Chinese Blog Greatest Hits: Volume 2 - There’s an old Chinese idiom that goes “Time flies like an arrow” (光阴似箭 guāngyīnsìjiàn). I can totally relate to that one at the moment. It doesn’t seem ...
    3 years ago
  • Laowai Chinese 老外中文
    I Know Your Name 我知道你的名字 - Long time no post! I’m delighted to announce that a song I wrote with the inimitable Galen Crew (Instagram | Weibo) came out yesterday! What an epic decisi...
    4 years ago
  • VISUAL THOUGHTS 视觉观点
    Free Cellphone Wallpapers - A selection of my images are now available as FREE cellphone wallpapers that you can download for personal use* on your phone. To download, simply visit ...
    4 years ago
  • Ghostwriter Dad
    Sterling & Stone Bestseller Fat Vampire TV Adaptation Sold to NBC/Universal - Sterling & Stone couldn’t be happier to announce that the TV adaptation of our Best-selling novel Fat Vampire by Johnny B Truant has been sold to NBC/Uni...
    4 years ago
  • Learn Chinese - ChinesePod
    Best Cell Phone Plans 71 - *Verizon Shared Data 5 GB:* Verizon’s Shared Data 5 GB plan starts at $65 and gives you 5 GB of high-speed data and unlimited data at slower speeds. You...
    4 years ago
  • China Media Project
    Selling China’s Anti-Poverty Model - China’s leadership is now actively promoting a grand narrative of its anti-poverty victory, which party-state media have called an “earthly miracle." The n...
    5 years ago
  • All Japanese All The Time Dot Com: How to learn Japanese. On your own, having fun and to fluency.
    How To Turn a YouTube Video into a Permanent Learning Tool [i.e. a Series of Awesome Multimedia SRS MCD/MXD Cards] - Pick a YouTube video on a topic that interests you intensely, that really grabs you (whether or not you fully or even partially understand it). What matter...
    5 years ago
  • The Useless Tree
    The Dao of Pandemic - A nice piece in the SCMP by Lijia Zhang ...
    6 years ago
  • Chengdu Living
    Life with Coronavirus in Chengdu: a Q&A - Learn what life is like in the Sichuan capital under coronavirus. Substantial quarantine measures change daily life, work, and social relationships in Ch...
    6 years ago
  • 莫斯科浮遊録
    С Новым 2020 Годом ! - ...
    6 years ago
  • chinaSMACK
    Young Woman Commits Suicide After Photoshoot Scam - October 26th, Xiao Wei (a 20 years old girl from Guiyang) left the world disappointed. Her family is devastated and knowing the reason just made things w...
    6 years ago
  • Silicon Hutong
    Upgrading Apple for 5G - Jonny Evans, the resident Appleholic at Computerworld, made a case today that Apple would be the primary driver for 5G in North America, despite the fact t...
    6 years ago
  • ChinaHush
    6 Reasons to Visit China - At first glance, China seems like home to bamboo forests, vibrant cities, and centuries of ancient history, but… The post 6 Reasons to Visit China first ...
    6 years ago
  • China blog | ChinaGeeks
    How to Get a China Travel Visa - From the bustling city of Shanghai to the sprawling Great Wall in Beijing, China is a country that should be added to your travel itinerary. But before y...
    6 years ago
  • Doubting to shuo
    Learning from my own book - The most popular piece I’ve written on this site over the past few was about Teaching English Online. I wrote it while I was hanging out with a bunch of di...
    8 years ago
  • Practice Chinese with the best teachers
    Learn Chinese through Game of Thrones Quotes - As we all know* “Games of Thrones”* (冰与火之歌: 权力游戏, Bīng yǔ huǒ zhī gē: Quánlì yóuxì) season 7 finale is this Sunday. It is really exciting for all of us (...
    8 years ago
  • Jottings from the Granite Studio
    See you over at Slow Boats and Caravan Trails - After 11 years of blogging at Jottings from the Granite Studio, I'm moving on to Slow Boats and Caravan Trails. Won't you join me? The post See you over ...
    8 years ago
  • Beyond Bounds Blog
    5 Reasons You Need Solitude - We worry when we go out alone, whether to have a meal or just to chill, what people will think about us. Is she lonely? He doesn’t have friends? Did she go...
    8 years ago
  • Chinese Hacks
    A common LINE scam in Taiwan - There’s a scam in Taiwan that goes something like this. You receive a LINE message from a desperate friend asking to borrow money for a couple of weeks. Us...
    9 years ago
  • About.com Japanese Language: Most Popular Articles
    Feature Articles (1) - Feature Articles - various articles about Japanese language and culture
    9 years ago
  • About.com Japanese Language: What's Hot Now
    Expressions used in Japanese Letters - How to... - The difference between written language and conversational language in Japanese is much greater than in English. Learn Japanese letter format.
    9 years ago
  • Lost Laowai China Blog
    China’s First World War — Part Two: The Battle of Tsingtao - For most expats in China, the name “Tsingtao†conjures up images of beer, but for fans of military history it’s a name associated with the most impo...
    9 years ago
  • Warp, Weft, and Way
    More jobs: Job opening at HKU - The University of Hong Kong is advertising an opening for an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy. The AOS/AOC are open. Applicants working ...
    9 years ago
  • LATEST
    Intermediate Chinese - Chinese People in San Francisco - In this intermediate lesson, I introduce briefly the history of Chinese people in San Francisco, the largest Chinatown in North America and a well-known...
    9 years ago
  • KeropokMan's - Singapore Daily Photo
    2 Pieces of the Berlin Wall in Singapore. - The Berlin wall was demolished on 13 June 1990 and was totally taken apart in 1992. Some time ago, there were 4 blocks of the Berlin Wall at the Bedok Rese...
    9 years ago
  • Sinoglot
    Major bug fix - Uploading There was a bug in the code that handles uploading audio. It basically prevented users from being able to actually contribute. I’m not sure how l...
    9 years ago
  • Shanghai Scrap
    Making Everest Safe Makes it Unsafe. - A couple of days ago I published a Bloomberg View column on ways to reduce deaths – and crowds – on Mount Everest. The two are closely related: too many pe...
    9 years ago
  • Japan Probe
    Five Line sticker creators who deserve more attention - One of the greatest things about the Line instant messaging application is its ever-growing library of stickers (or “stamps” in Japanese). Line allows user...
    10 years ago
  • Speaking of China
    Can Interracial and Intercultural Relationships Be a Transcendental Experience? - Beyond all expectations, love happened to me in China -- and it was only possible because I transcended my assumptions and biases about dating in China. ...
    10 years ago
  • an imperfect pen
    Stories and Legends: Yunnan's Torch Festivals - I don't recall exactly when I first heard stories about The Torch Festival in Yunnan, but I do remember going to the festival in Stone Forest County in...
    10 years ago
  • マンガで英会話
    No 182 Can I trust you? - こんにちわ！ 本当にご無沙汰しております。 さて今日は本当に久しぶりのレッスンをあげてみました。 皆さんは人間関係で一番大切なのはなんだろうと思われますか？ 愛、忍耐、妥協、理解、時間のシェア、などなど色々挙げられると思いますが、やはり一番は信頼関係なのであります。 信じられ...
    10 years ago
  • Indonesia
    Looking Around - via http://500px.com/photo/93565139
    10 years ago
  • Hao Hao Report - Submitted news - Learning Chinese
    Reuters Is The Latest News Organization To Get Blocked In China - Reuters has joined Bloomberg, New York Times and Wall Street Journal in being blocked in China. Reuters itself reported that its website was not reachab...
    11 years ago
  • Hao Hao Report - Submitted news - China Travel
    Reuters Is The Latest News Organization To Get Blocked In China - Reuters has joined Bloomberg, New York Times and Wall Street Journal in being blocked in China. Reuters itself reported that its website was not reachab...
    11 years ago
  • Hao Hao Report - Submitted news - China Pics
    Reuters Is The Latest News Organization To Get Blocked In China - Reuters has joined Bloomberg, New York Times and Wall Street Journal in being blocked in China. Reuters itself reported that its website was not reachab...
    11 years ago
  • Yearlyglot - Fluent Every Year
    Experiment 2015: The French Connection - I'm getting off to a late start, but I'm really excited for this year's project, because it is once again a new experiment! For 2015, I have decided I wan...
    11 years ago
  • 井底之蛙
    We’ve moved - Check us out that the new site
    11 years ago
  • Road To Polyglotism
    A Hundred Days Around Glossika Swedish - This post will serve more as a journal and eventual post that I will publicize with my results. My main purpose is to have a place in the world to keep tra...
    11 years ago
  • LingQCentral
    Help spread the word about LingQ! - We know many of our members love LingQ and love to spread the word about LingQ for which we are extremely grateful! Our refer a friend program rewards yo...
    11 years ago
  • About.com Japanese Language
    Word of the Day: Buji - Today's word is "buji (safety; security; peace; quietness)". It is written with a two kanji characters "bu" and "ji". *Buji Oosaka eki ni tsuita. 無事大阪駅に着...
    11 years ago
  • JapanSoc
    Pascal Burel has been missing for nearly a week around Kita-dake, Japan's second... - Pascal Burel has been missing for nearly a week around Kita-dake, Japan's second tallest mountain. Frenchman missing five days in Yamanashi mountains www....
    12 years ago
  • Street-Smart Language Learning™
    How to get MP3 audio recordings of your target language from Google Translate - *The following instructions are a manual process to add audio from Google Translate, but you can also accomplish the same automatically for multiple card...
    13 years ago
  • China Rises: Notes from the Middle Kingdom
    Postcards from the National People's Congress - [image: IMG_0767] [image: IMG_0769] [image: IMG_0778] [image: IMG_0770] [image: IMG_0776] [image: IMG_2027] [image: IMG_0777]
    13 years ago
  • 林凯文的博客
    南山政府关于我的文章 Nanshan District gvt. Article on me. - http://www.szns.gov.cn/publish/main/1/7/11/20130228101503595161417/index.html This is a translation of the article in the above link. Irish expat performs ...
    13 years ago
  • Tae Kim's Blog
    Finding time in a busy life - I must confess, I’m a pretty fickle person. I usually start work on something, ignore it for a long time, and come back to it when it’s fresh and exciting ...
    13 years ago
  • Tokyo Portraits
    Southern california sunshine - A shot at Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills. It is really strong sunshine.
    13 years ago
  • About.com Mandarin Language
    Exchanging Gifts In Mandarin - Be sure you know the rules for giving and receiving gifts when visiting China or Taiwan. Chinese customs are much different from those in the USA or Euro...
    13 years ago
  • Learn Chinese
    Chinese Conversation -Good news to an accountant- Learn Mandarin online - Good news to an accountant A: Good morning, Mary? It’s John Kramer calling. You remember you handled my tax forms for me? B: Of course, Mr. Kramer. How are...
    14 years ago
  • I'm Learning Japanese
    Tools for building consistency - It’s been about 2.75 years since I ran into AJATT and this phase of learning Japanese. Unfortunately I don’t have that much to show for it, and I am nowher...
    14 years ago
  • V10 Japan
    find me on YouTube! - Hello, everyone! Sorry for not posting for such a long time. I’ve decided to vlog instead. At first, I didn’t want to post my YouTube on here, as I wanted ...
    14 years ago
  • The Art of Audacity
    An Ode to Road Rash - Had an argument with the road… and the road won I’ll keep this brief because I’m trying to keep the blood off my keyboard… There’s an unwritten rule of the...
    14 years ago
  • Discovering Mandarin
    Learning Mandarin: Pronunciation Debacles: x & q vs. sh & ch - This one of many guest posts here at Discovering Mandarin. This post/lesson is from my friend Megan (@megoizzy on twitter). I have actually been sat here t...
    16 years ago
  • Aimee Barnes
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  • learn mandarin chinese with peter
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  • CN Reviews
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  • China Advertising and Marketing Insight | littleredbook.cn
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  • The World of Chinese
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  • Danwei 2.0
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  • 古瀬絵理OFFICIAL BLOG -古瀬絵理のNEWSえりごのみ
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  • The Everyday Language Learner
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  • Sono Inglese di Gerrards Cross
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  • Social Mandarin - Published news
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  • Jing Daily :
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  • CHINAYOUREN
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  • Chinese Reader
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  • A Ku Indeed!
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  • Learn Chinese Blog
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  • Stir Fried China
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  • Smart.fm Blog
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  • China Translated
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  • No-sword
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these online resources have been of great help in my studies so far:

  • All Japanese all the time
  • Anki
  • Lang-8
  • LingQ
  • Lingt
  • Mnemosyne
  • nciku Chinese dictionary
  • Reveiwing the Kanji
  • Rhino Spike
  • Smart FM
  • Tangorin Japanese dictionary
  • Tatoeba

these books have proven to be useful too:

  • Genki 1
  • Genki 2
  • Remembering the Kanji
  • 中級から学ぶ日本語
  • Conversational Chinese 301
  • どんな時どう使う日本語表現文型辞典

My Lang 8 journal

Chinese History

  • Qing Dynasty 清朝
  • Ming Dynasty 明朝
  • Tang Dynasty 唐朝
  • Sui Dynasty 隋朝

About this blog

Sono Inglese di Gerrards Cross is my account of my journey to learn a foreign language. Being able to speak a foreign language is something I've wanted to be able to do since I was quite young, but only decided to really pursue in my late 20s.

"Sono Inglese di Gerrards Cross" is a quote from a Monty Python sketch which I like because it reminds me of the way I used to be taught foreign languages in classrooms in the UK. (5 years of French at school, and 2 years of Spanish evening classes after graduating from Uni.)

Anyway, I can't speak French or Spanish, so now I'm taking different approaches to two completely different languages. Let me know if you have any comments on my ideas or blog writings, or any questions about what happened in the classroom that made me delay my journey for about 10 years!!

Early Autumn, Qian Xuan

Early Autumn, Qian Xuan
An example of Chinese Bird-and-flower painting (花鸟鱼虫 huā, niǎo, yú, chóng) from the 13th century. I like this painting because it has hidden meaning. Apparently the painter, Qian Xuan, was making a veiled attack against his government. The stagnant pond with insects buzzing over it represents the decay of Chinese society under the Mongols.
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