I've posted videos on YouTube. I hope you enjoy them.
Click on the My YouTube link in the margin.
Further on down this page, you'll
see that I'd like to find a Chinese person interested in
exchanging our mutual languages and culture. Scroll down
for more information.
You'll find my digital photographs of
Historic Aircraft at Air Displays, the 2004 Sidmouth
International Folk Festival featuring Steeleye Span, Kate Rusby and John
McCusker. There are also pictures taken while visiting
Denver Colorado and a tour of Scotland including Glasgow, Ben Nevis,
Inverness, Aviemore, Linlithgow and Edinburggh.
My photographs of historic aircraft
include Edwardian flying machines, a number of Supermarine Spitfires,
Hawker Hurricanes. Hunters and the sole flying Sea Vixen, triplanes &
biplanes. There is also a regular news
item featuring Avro Vulcan XH558, which it is hoped will be flying
for the first time in many years soon.
What, you may be asking,
are the Chinese characters above all about?
Well, I am learning Mandarin Chinese. That
is a greeting to any native Chinese speaker currently living in Plymouth who
would like to help me with my studies, perhaps in return for a bit of help with
their English studies. If so, please let me know via the contact link at
the bottom of the page.
In order to chase my dream of being able to at
least understand Chinese conversation, I am using the Pimsleur Mandarin lessons
and the free podcasts to be found at
Chinesepod.com. They have a great community there, and it includes not
just lessons, but news and "Saturday" shows, as well as a forum.
I still
class myself very much at Newbie level, but I noticed that they didn't have an off-site
reporting mechanism for the very few occasions when they go off-line. I
can't do anything about that, of course, but I have started an off-site support
group.
Use this widget to hear the
latest podcasts, then visit their website
Here, you'll find everything you
need to know, and how to get free Mandarin Chinese Podcast lessons - not just
one or two, but hundreds of individual podcasts, direct from Shanghai, China. But those are just the freebie tasters, of course.
Chinesepod.com also have a
lot of premium supplementary material for a modest monthly subscription.
As well as a lively forum and regular community shows and activities.
Pimsleur's Mandarin
Chinese Lesson Transcriptions
However, my primary learning tool is
still Pimsleur's Mandarin Chinese which comes in beginner, intermediate and
advanced levels. They are quite expensive, but definitely worth the
expenditure if you are serious about learning a language that can help you in
business and conversationally. And you might be able to get them from your
local library (you'll need the ISBN numbers).
Pimsleur's Mandarin Chinese
lesson transcriptions can be found here on this website. They don't come
with the audio lessons but I've found them very helpful. Click one of the three buttons,
below, to go to the various levels.