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2021 Holiday Gift Guide for Language Lovers: 30+ Language Learning Gift Ideas for the Holidays

Wondering what to get the language learner in your life? Or maybe, you yourself love learning languages and are trying to figure out what to tell someone else to get you!

You’ll find something for everyone on this list. I hope it inspires you with your gift-giving (or wish list building) this year!

Holiday Gift Guide for Language Learners

Language learning is typically divided into four different skill sets, so here are gifts organized by the skills you need to develop. But first…

Black Friday Deals for Language Learners 2021

Before we get into gift ideas organized by skill set, I wanted to share just a few items that are on sale during Black Friday this year. So let’s start there!

Up 75% Off Olly Richard’s Black Friday Deals

Olly Richards of I Will Teach You a Language and Storylearning is offering discounts on many of his products including five of his Uncovered courses for German, Japanese, French, Italian or Spanish.

Get it here.

$100 Off “The Language Habit Toolkit” from Kerstin Cable

Kerstin has created an amazing resource called the Language Habit Toolkit – one of my go-tos. It is a structured guide for learning any language by yourself. It’s all about setting yourself up for success and building positive habits around your language learning. It’s workbooks are incredibly helpful and a lot of thought went into the creation of this course!

Read my review here.

This course is normally $300 but you can get it for $200 using code BLKCM2021.

Get it here. (Use code BLKCM2021 to get $100 off)

$100 Off “Podcasting 101” from Kerstin Cable

Want to find your voice and share it with the world?

Podcasting 101 is a fun and effective online course that will guide you through each stage of planning, producing and publishing your very own podcast.

Kerstin is an incredible podcaster as host of the Fluent Language Podcast, if anyone knows how to teach podcasting in the language space — it’s Kerstin!

This course is normally $250 but you can get it for $150 using code BLKCM2021.

Get it here. (Use code BLKCM2021 to get $100 off)

50% Off Language Learning Accelerator from Eurolinguiste

With four jobs, two kids, a blog, and fourteen languages under my belt, I’ve had a lot of experience developing time management and energy management skills. I created this course to share them with you. If you ever feel too busy to learn a language, or too tired, Language Learning Accelerator has all the tools you need to work through it and finally find the time to learn your language.

Get it here.

50% Off Language Conqueror from Eurolinguiste

Ready to embark on an epic year of language learning? Join me on 12 monthly Quests to take your language learning to new heights in Language Conqueror.

Normally $499, you can get Language Conqueror for $250. You’ll take part in Quests that help you with goal setting, time management, language learning habits, and so much more.

Get it here.

90% Off Fluent in 3 Months Black Friday Package

As you know, I’m the Head Coach of the Fluent in 3 Months Challenge. But I don’t just coach the challenge, I also take part regularly. Why? Because I know it works.

My thoughts: I’ve now taken part in back-to-back challenges for around four years. I’ve gotten to a conversational level in Korean, Japanese, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, and most recently Persian with the challenge. The community and weekly tasks help me stay focused and on track with my studies and the accountability is what keeps me coming back.

The Challenge is a language learning challenge where you aim to have a 15-minute conversation at the end of 90 days. You do so with a structured course, a supportive community, and knowledgeable coaches.

Plus, you get access to their 2022 Live Webinar subscription.

Price: $199 (usually $2,039)

Get it here.

Writing Gifts for Language LearnersNotebook

Many language learners still take notes by hand, even if it’s to quickly complete coursebook exercises or to jot down something useful they’ve come across along the way. Having a notebook handy — especially one they enjoy writing in (or looking at) is important and this makes for a great gift.

Pens

This one goes hand-in-hand with notebooks. You not only need something to write in, but something to write with! You can get them fancy pens like these from Stabilo, or go a more traditional route with ballpoint pens.

Sticky notes

I use sticky notes for all sorts of things — quick notes, adding notes to something I’m reading, to remind myself of things I find interesting, and to label things in another language around the house. These are an endlessly useful gift!

Highlighters

Does the language learner in your life highlight their notes or even the books they’re reading? Then this set of highlighters would be a great, colorful gift you can give them!

Premium online course

There are loads of fantastic online courses available on the market today. Here are just a few of my favorites.

FluentU (here’s my FluentU review)Uncovered Courses: French, German, Japanese, Italian, SpanishLanguage Hacking Book: French, German, Spanish, ItalianKeyboard stickers

These are really useful if you need to type in another language often. No more hunt-and-peck on the keyboard typing with these helpful stickers. They’re available for most languages, but here’s Farsi, Arabic, Korean, Russian, and Japanese.

Script Hacking books

I recently worked through Judith Meyer’s Script Hacking Persian book and I’m hooked (read my Script Hacking review). The great thing is they’re available for loads of languages including Russian, Korean, Japanese, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek and more.

Calligraphy paper

When I was learning to read and write in Chinese, calligraphy paper was a useful thing to have around.

Listening Gifts for Language LearnersHeadphones

Headphones (or earphones below) are a must-have for language learners. They help you focus on what you’re listening to, cutting out background noise, but also make whatever you’re listening to more private.

Earphones

For those who prefer earbuds to headphones.

Netflix gift card

There are loads of foreign language shows and movies available on Netflix for language learners to binge watch. Plus, even shows not originally in a language have overdubs or subtitles available in a variety of language. It’s an incredible resource for learners!

Pimsleur

Pimsleur is one of my favorite audio resources and something that I have used for every language I’ve learned. It’s a series of listen-and-repeat lessons that slowly introduce useful words and phrases in a wide range of languages. Read my Pimselur review.

An all region DVD/Blu-Ray player

Did you know that if you buy a movie from another region, you likely won’t be able to play it on your blu ray or dvd player? That’s because movies are locked by region. But there’s any easy fix that will help you build your international movie library. And that’s to buy an all region player!

Spotify subscription

If you have a music lover in your life (who also happens to learn languages), a Spotify Premium account is a wonderful gift. Spotify has a nice selection of music from around the world accessible for language learners.

Audible subscription

For the reader who prefers to listen to their books over read them. Audible is a great resource for language learners because of their selection of both language learning materials and foreign language books.

Youtube Premium Subscription

Constant ad interruptions when trying to study a new language are no fun. Gifting the language learner in your life a Premium Youtube subscription lets them skip the ads and get more language learning time in.

Speaking Gifts for Language Learnersitalki lessons

italki is an online platform with a wide range of tutors of hundreds of languages. Plus, they’re ready to help you learn at affordable prices!

Speechling subscription

Speechling is a fun app and tool you can use to practice speaking a language. You record yourself reading various expressions or phrases in the language you’re learning and you get feedback from native speakers.

Microphone

Help learners improve the quality of their language lessons and exchanges with a microphone. That way, their partners and tutors will be able to hear them clearly and avoid misunderstandings!

Fluent in 3 Months Challenge

The Fluent in 3 Months Challenge promises participants that they’ll have a 15-minute conversation in a new language after just 90 days. It might sound too good to be true, but I’ve done several and it has worked every time!

GoPro

Help the language learner in your life document their learning adventures with a GoPro camera. It’s a great tool for their video calls, for their self-recording and for the adventures (when we’re able to go back on them).

Courage to Speak

A few years ago, I put together this course with Fluent in 3 Months to help shy and introverted language learners gain the confidence to speak in a new language.

Reading Gifts for Language LearnersLingQ subscription

I love LingQ. It’s an incredible app that offers tons of tools to help learners start reading in a new language. It has a bit of a learning curve, but once you get into it, it’s an irreplaceable tool.

Amazon gift card

Let the language lover in your life choose the tools and resources they want most by getting them an Amazon gift card.

Book holder

I recently bought this exact book holder and it has changed my life. It makes it so much easier to take notes and learn with coursebooks because I’m not trying to hold a book open with one hand and take notes with the other.

Digital pen text scanner

Combine the best of the digital and physical resource realm with this digital pen scanner. Scan useful texts to your computer or device to keep your language learning organized.

Kindle

Give the language learner you care about the gift of digital storage. A Kindle tablet gives them a place to store all of their digital learning tools and take them along wherever they may go.

A great book about language or learning

There are loads of fantastic language books available. Here are just a few:

Through the Language GlassBabel No MoreThe Story of French or The Story of SpanishFluent in 3 MonthsFluent ForeverHow to Speak Any Language FluentlyUltralearningBookmark

Don’t let your language learning friends use scraps of paper or other random things as bookmarks — hook them up with a beautiful, meaningful bookmark that will make them think of you whenever they sit down to study!

Short Stories

Olly Richards has several fantastic books published for language learners, notably his series of Short Stories. They’re available for many languages — both common and uncommon.

Language Learning Gifts for Productivity, Habit-Building, and StructurePlanner

Help your language learning pals get organized with a 2021 planner.

Habit app subscription

Habit is a useful app for language learnings looking to establish a language learning habit. It’s free to use, but you can “pay what you want” to hook up your friends with a Premium subscription.

Todoist

Todoist is my favorite project management tool and it’s how I keep all of my projects — both personal and work related — organized.

The Total Language Learning Package

Want something that covers a little bit of everything and will really help the language learner in your life take things to the next level?

Language Conqueror (don’t forget you can get 50% off!)

I recently created Language Conqueror, a course created for language learners who are looking for direction, motivation, and more excitement while learning a new language using tried and tested methods.

Each month, we release a new Quest to help you take your language to new heights through passion-driven learning.

Each Quest includes:

A video lesson introducing the QuestDaily prompts to give you something to work on each dayA workbook with all the exercises and instructions you need to complete the QuestA video demonstrating the Quest in action from one of our hosts (or special guests)Trade secrets from me: these are tricks you can use to succeed at your QuestA Side-Quest: an action you can take to help you gain the confidence you need to complete your QuestAccess to the Quest community so you can collaborate with other learners, share what you’re working on, and get supportYour Quest: the final assignment you complete to put everything you learned over the month into practice

Join Language Conqueror Master Quest and get 50% off!

And that wraps it up!

What are you getting the language learners in your life? Let me know in the comments!

The post 2021 Holiday Gift Guide for Language Lovers: 30+ Language Learning Gift Ideas for the Holidays appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

Snack-Sized Language Episode 8: Mind Your Habits

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about building habits for language learning and how to keep yourself coming back to your language.

Listen on Apple | Spotify | YouTube | Google

Want to keep learning with us? Join Language Conqueror.

In This Lesson, You Learned:

Shannon’s method for habit building: Find what motivates you to keep coming back to your learning and make it a part of your routine. If you miss a day, don’t worry about it! There’s no reason to feel guilty about a break. Just make a goal to get back to it the next day.

Featured Trade Secret:

Trying building your habit around a set time of day or a set action. For me (Caitlin), I like to study vocab in the morning while I drink my cup of coffee. That’s my ritual, and it’s become a habit because my brain knows when I wake up and get my coffee, it’s time to learn new words in my target language. So where you make this work in your own daily life?

Mentioned in this Episode:

Language Conqueror James Clear’s “Atomic Habits”

We hope you enjoyed this episode of the podcast! Let us know what you think by leaving us a review. We appreciate your reviews because they let us know what you enjoy most about the podcast so we can keep doing more of it and it helps other learners like yourself find the podcast.

You can share your thoughts on the podcast at eurolinguiste.com/review

Snag our FREE guide to passion-driven language learning

25 language learning ideas + our top 5 habit-building strategies to help you have fun reaching fluency.

Get the Free Guide

The post Snack-Sized Language Episode 8: Mind Your Habits appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

A List of Spanish-Speaking Countries and How Many People Speak the Language

This post originally appeared on the Drops blog.

Interested in learning Spanish? Drops can help you learn Mexican Spanish or Castilian Spanish. But did you know that in addition to these two dialects, there are about eleven variants of Spanish dialects? Mexico alone has ten major dialects as does Spain.

The primary differences between Spanish dialects lie in certain ways phonemes are pronounced and how second-person pronouns (ustedes, vos, vosotros, etc.) are handled. But each of these dialects share a parent language, no matter how much they’ve diverged from one another.

But before we dive into dialects and the history of Spanish, here’s some information for you if you’re here for a quick answer:

How many people speak Spanish?

There are about 586 million Spanish speakers around the world. About 489 million are native speakers and another 75 million are second-language speakers.

How many countries have Spanish as their official language?

Spanish is an official language in 20 countries including Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, Venezuela, Cuba, Spain, and Ecuador. It’s also an official language in the US territory, Puerto Rico.

What percentage of the US speaks Spanish?

There are almost 60 million Spanish speakers in the US. That’s around 19% of Americans who speak Spanish.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this article:

A History of the Spanish LanguageHow Many People Speak Spanish in the World?List of Countries Where Spanish is the Official LanguageWhy learn Spanish

Want to get started learning Spanish right away? Try Drops out and learn your first words in Spanish.

A History of the Spanish Language

The Spanish language, like French and Italian, is a descendent of Latin. It originated on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe and it’s one of the most spoken languages in the world after English, Chinese, and Hindi.

What we know as modern Spanish began to emerge around the 9th century. In Europe, it was influenced by Portuguese, French, Catalan, Italian, and Arabic. And as it moved to the Americas, it was influenced by Native American and other indigenous languages.

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How Many People Speak Spanish in the World?

There are 20 countries where Spanish is an official language and there are 586 million speakers of the Spanish language around the world. It’s one of the most taught languages along with English and French.

Here are a few more stats about countries where Spanish is spoken and the number of people who speak Spanish:

How Many People Speak Spanish In The World?

There are 586 million people who speak Spanish around the world. About 489 million people are native Spanish speakers. And because Spanish is the third most studied foreign language, another 75 million speak Spanish as a second language. 

How Many People Speak Spanish In Latin America?

Spanish is the official language in every South American country except Brazil (Portuguese), Guyana (English, though many speak Guyanese Creole), Suriname (Dutch), and French Guiana (French, though many speak a Creole patois).

This means that Spanish has a large number of speakers in Latin American. There are 121 million Spanish speakers in Mexico alone. Another 46 million in Columbia and 41 million in Argentina.

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How Many People Speak Spanish In The U.S.?

Around 19% of the US population speaks Spanish–that’s approximately 60 million people. More and more people are learning Spanish in the US each year, and it’s predicted that it will be the country with the highest number of Spanish speakers within the next few decades.

How Many People Speak Spanish In Europe?

Even though Europe is the birthplace of Spanish, it has fewer Spanish speakers than the US coming in at 46 million Spanish speakers.

How Many People Speak Spanish In The Rest Of The World?

The Americas and Europe are the two places where the majority of Spanish speakers receive, but there are other pockets across the globe where Spanish is spoken. In the Philippines, for example, Spanish was the official language until the 16th century. It maintained a place as a co-official language until 1987 when it became an optional language. Today, there are still around 3 million Filipinos who speak Spanish.

List of Countries Where Spanish is the Official Language

Spanish is the official language in 20 countries. Here’s the list of countries where Spanish is an official language:

Mexico (population: 130.8 million)Columbia (population: 49 million)Spain (population: 46 million)Argentina (population: 44.7 million)Peru (population: 32.6 million)Venezuela (population: 32.4 million)Chile (population: 18.2 million)Guatemala (population: 17.2 million)Ecuador (population: 16.8 million)Bolivia (population: 11.2 million)Cuba (population: 11.5 million)Dominican Republic (population: 10.8 million)Honduras (population: 9.4 million)Paraguay (population: 6.9 million)El Salvador (population: 6.4 million)Nicaragua (population: 6.3 million)Costa Rica (population: 5 million)Panama (population: 4.1 million)Uruguay (population: 3.5 million)Equatorial Guinea (population: 1.3 million)

It’s also an official language in the US territory of Puerto Rico and a significant language in the US, Andorra, Belize, and Gibraltar.

Why Learn Spanish?

Spanish is the fourth most spoken language in the world. And by learning the language, you create the possibility of connecting with more than 480 million people around the world whether it’s through personal or professional connections. 

Ready to start learning Spanish? Drops offers you a simple, fun way to learn thousands of words in Spanish with:

Quick, engaging interactions150+ word lists curated by expertsAudio recorded by native speakersMemorable illustrations and no translationsYou only need 5 minutes a day

Get started with Drops.

What Percentage of the World Speaks Spanish?

Wondering what percentage of the world speaks Spanish? It’s just under 5% at 4.85% according to the CIA. 

Want to become one of that percentage?

Learn Spanish with Drops.

The post A List of Spanish-Speaking Countries and How Many People Speak the Language appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

Snack-Sized Language Episode 7: How to Say Hello in Korean

In this episode of the podcast, we focus on learning how to greet someone in Korean and you’ll learn the phrases for “hello,” “hi,” and how to answer the phone in Korean. Wondering how to how to say hello in Korean? You’ll learn how with these Korean phrases in this week’s snack-sized lesson.

Listen on Apple | Spotify | YouTube | Google

Want to keep learning with us? Join Language Conqueror.

In This Lesson, You Learned:

“Hello” in Korean – annyeong haseyo / 안녕하세요

“Hi” in Korean – annyeong / 안녕

“Hello” on the phone – yeoboseyo / 여보세요

Featured Trade Secret:

If you’re just starting to learn Korean, get used to hearing how the language sounds. Find a Korean drama you like, or start listening to KPop or Korean podcasts. The more you can expose yourself to the language, the easier it will be to pick up the cadence of the language!

Mentioned in this Episode:

Language Conqueror

We hope you enjoyed this episode of the podcast! Let us know what you think by leaving us a review. We appreciate your reviews because they let us know what you enjoy most about the podcast so we can keep doing more of it and it helps other learners like yourself find the podcast.

You can share your thoughts on the podcast at eurolinguiste.com/review

Snag our FREE guide to passion-driven language learning

25 language learning ideas + our top 5 habit-building strategies to help you have fun reaching fluency.

Get the Free Guide

The post Snack-Sized Language Episode 7: How to Say Hello in Korean appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | November 2021

October is at an end and we’re creeping closer to the end of the year. Let’s get into this upcoming month’s goals.

It’s time for a new analysis of my language goals as a part of Clear the List, but also a new Quest as a part of Language Conqueror!

And this month… it’s all about time management, which you know is a big passion of mine!

I share different techniques for using time management and energy management in your language learning and so much more. So if you’re looking to finally find the time to make language learning part of your day, this month is perfect for you.

What is Language Conqueror? It’s a course I work on with a monthly Quest focused on passion-driven learning. You can learn more, get a feel for my teaching style, and download our free PDF here: Get the Free PDF

And if that’s not enough, you can also get a feel for my teaching style with Snack-Sized Language!

Snack-Sized Language is a free podcast where we teach you snack-sized language lessons. So far we have episodes teaching general language learning tips, Japanese, French, Mandarin and Korean. Plus, we recently added Russian, Spanish, and German. Not to mention, more languages are coming soon!

You can subscribe to the podcast on your preferred podcast platform.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Listen on Google Podcasts

And if you enjoy Snack-Sized language, we would absolutely love it if you left us a review!

And now, on to #clearthelist …

Wondering what #clearthelist is? Let me clear it up for you (see what I did there?). #CleartheList is a linkup where we share our monthly goals, and by we, I mean myself, and you!

We’d absolutely love for you to be a part of our community. You can join us by adding a link to your own goal post in the comments below.

So let’s get started, sharing our goals and motivating one another to #clearthelist!

Please feel free to tag your posts or photos with either #clearthelist on your favorite social media channels!

Last Month’s Highlights on InstagramLast Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // This month didn’t happen so much, but he hasn’t forgotten what he knows.

Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // I am now in the 450-500+ day range on my streaks in both Drops and Memrise.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // Same as last month — I have been working on this, but it is still impossible to catch up. At the end of last month, I had 2,000 videos queued up, and between what I’ve watched and what I’ve added, that’s still about where I’m at this month.

Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // Gladly, I am still making steady progress with this. In a week, I read, on average, about 2,000 words in Russian.

Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // Same as above though my reading pace is much slower in Hungarian.

Start getting into course book study again. // I started in on my Portuguese course book, so I’ll count this as yes, but I did also want to dive back into the course books for some of my other languages, too.

Maintain my Duolingo streak. // Yes! I’m at 50+ days and I’m now using it for Spanish, Portuguese AND French.

This Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // As usual, I’d like to continue to incorporate this more and more until we’re an OPOL household. It’s always a work in progress!

Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // This has been a great way to rebuild my language routine, so it’s staying on the list indefinitely! I share my stats over on Instagram in my stories nearly every day, so if you’re ever curious where I’m at, you can check out my stories. I was learning Persian, Hungarian, Croatian, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese and have gone on to add Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // As always, there’s a lot I need to get through. I hope to continue working at this in order to make consistent progress. I’d love to break the 2,000 video mark this month and get it down below that number.

Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // Same as usual.

Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // Same as usual.

Continue getting into course book study again. // In addition to working on my Portuguese coursebook, I’d at the very least also like to get into my Japanese coursebook.

Maintain my Duolingo streak. // I’ve been enjoying the new version of the app (new-to-me).

Resources I Used This Month

A quick recap of the materials I am using.

What I Am Using to Learn Chinese:

LingQ – my favorite tooliTalki Lessons – I have weekly Chinese lessonsMemrise  Drops

What I’m Using to Brush Up/Improve My French:

LingQListening to French radio/podcasts/musicDuolingo

What I am Using to Learn Russian:

Colloquial RussianLingQiTalki LessonsDropsPimsleurMemrise

What I am Using to Learn Persian:

LingQPreply LessonsDropsPimsleurTeach Yourself Complete PersianMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Japanese:

Genki IDrops – they just added hundreds of new culture-specific words for Japanese!iTalki LessonsPimsleurMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Croatian:

Colloquial CroatianiTalki LessonsLingQ – they added Croatian, woot woot!DropsMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Hungarian:

Colloquial HungarianiTalki LessonsDropsLingQ – they added Hungarian, too!Memrise

What I’m Using to Learn Korean:

Memrise

What I’m Using to Learn Spanish:

DuolingoMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Portuguese:

DuolingoMemriseComplete Portuguese

Not Currently doing any study for: German, Hindi, Norwegian, Hebrew, Italian

What I’m Using for Little Linguist

Lots of booksDay-to-day interactionitalki LessonsDuolingo ABCDropletsMovies in ChineseGus on the Go Chinese

Resources That Aren’t Language Specific

Fluent in 3 Months ChallengeTodoist (to keep all my language lessons and to-do’s organized)Notion – my new favorite app for taking notes (I just set up a template for the way I use Notion to take notes if you’re interested in duplicating it for yourself)The Biggest Lesson I Am Taking Away from This Month

Learning new languages helps you with your old languages.

In picking up Portuguese, I’ve noticed that it’s helped me pick my Spanish back up, too. The two languages are similar and it’s acted as a trigger to remind me of a lot of things I know in Spanish. It’s been great, especially because I’m also trying to pick my Spanish up again.

Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month!

The post Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | November 2021 appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

A Simplified Guide to Chinese Measure Words

This article has a free PDF resource available for you to download at the end of this article. Scroll down if you’d like to skip ahead and get your copy of 50+ Chinese Measure Words.

As I make an effort to improve my speaking ability in Mandarin and really get to the next level, there are a few things that I really want to hone in on and iron out.

There’s one thing in particular that I need to fine tune and it’s something that many Mandarin Chinese learners come to dread…

… Chinese measure words.

Chinese Measure Words Don’t Have to Be Difficult

One of the arguably more difficult aspects of the Chinese language are measure words. You can’t talk about anything involving numbers without them, and in Chinese, one quantifies things more often than in English.

For example, if you’re going to go talk to a friend, you’re going to go talk to yi1 ge4 peng2 you3, or one [classifier] friend, not just a friend. If you’re going to go buy some pants, you’re going to go get ji3 tiao2 ku4 zi5, or some [classifier] pants.

But measure words aren’t as foreign as we may think when we first encounter them in Mandarin Chinese.

In English, for example, we’d buy a loaf of bread, tend to a flock of sheep, wear a pair of shoes, or in French, we’ll write on a bout de papier, drink a verre de l’eau, or wear a paire de lunettes. (although, technically, this comparison can be argued, let’s not get into that and just say “close enough” for now).

What Are Measure Words in Terms of Language

Measure words (liàng cí 量词), also known as classifiers, are used to quantify nouns – or even verbs – and to identify objects.

There are technically two types of classifiers. There are:

Count-classifiers: which do not mean anything on their own Mass-classifiers: which note a specific measurement such as kilo, cupful, or mile.

As far as how they function grammatically, however, the two are almost identical.

How Do I Know When I Need to Use A Measure Word?

Nouns usually require a measure word when a numeral or demonstrative word, such as this or that, precede them. And in Mandarin, this happens far more often than it happens in English. For example, you wouldn’t just say “this book”, you would say “this [measure word] book” or zhe4 ben3 shu1.

But as a general rule, it’s pretty safe to say that a measure word is needed any time you would use a number in english, use “a” or “an” , or a demonstrative word.

A measure word is not necessarily needed when describing possessions, such as in “my book” or “wo3 de shu1”.

Ready for your free list of Chinese Measure Words?

Sign up for my free language learning library and get it for free along with tons of other language learning resources.

Ten Commonly Used Chinese Measure Words

The following are the ten Chinese measure words I, in my own personal experience, have heard used the most often. This is through the context of day-to-day conversations, so if your goal is conversational Chinese, these are the 10 you’ll also likely hear quite often.

If you’d like a more in-depth list of Chinese measure words, we’ve included a free PDF of more than 50 Chinese measure words for you to download at the end of this article.

 Simplified Character Traditional Character Pinyin Used For个個 gègeneral measure word, for people (informal)本本bĕnbooks, magazines份份fènshares, portions, copies, newspapers家家jiācompanies, buildings, households⼝口kŏufamily members块塊kuài money辆輛liàngvehicles with wheels except for trains⾸⾸shǒusongs, poems, music碗碗wǎnbowl位位wèipeople (formal)Fun Ways to Use Measure Words

A lot of measure words can be repeated to indicate “all” or “every” so instead of saying “mei3 ge4 ren2”, one could say “ge4 ge5 ren2” to indicate that you mean every person.

Placing the measure word after the noun can also indicate an indefinite amount so rather than having to say “ji3 ben3 shu1” or “some books”, we can say “shu1 ben3” which means “the many books” or “the indefinite number of books” or just “the books”.

The Bad News About Measure Words

Unfortunately, there is only one way to learn measure words and that’s (spoiler alert) to memorize them. In my personal opinion, this is best done contextually.

I don’t suggest trying to memorize through traditional methods like flashcards or grammar exercises. Doing this will take quite some time, you likely won’t encounter all of the possible uses of them, and in result, it’s not very effective.

Instead, I feel that a better method is to listen for them during conversation exchanges or while you watch movies and listen to songs in Mandarin. Now that you have a better idea of where they might show up, it will be easier for you to pick them out.

My personal method, however, is to just use ge4 in conversations and then make a mental note when my exchange partner corrects me.

Ge4 // “Good Enough” If You’re Just Trying to Get By

If you don’t know the proper measure word, you can always just fall back on ge4. Chances are, most Chinese speakers will understand you, and as a bonus, they may even offer up the correct measure word so that you can file it away for future reference.

And don’t worry about standing out too much if you need to do this. Native speakers and children often use ge4 in the place of the correct measure word when they don’t know or remember the correct classifier. Even when they do know the correct measure word, native speakers occasionally replace the right measure word with ge4 just because they’re speaking quickly or informally.

Ge4 is a general classifier and its use has been rising, even amongst native speakers, since the 1940s. It’s often used as a classifier for people, abstract objects, and words that don’t have their own classifier.

And of course, there are always variations

Even though the list above can give you a pretty good idea of some of the most common measure words in Mandarin Chinese, there are always exceptions and variations in their use. A good example is the measure word for cars. Some people use 部 (bu4), others use 台 (tai2), and still others use 辆 (輛, liang4).

Verbs also get there own measure words at times. These include 次 (ci4), 遍 (bian4), 回 (hui2), and 下 (xia4), which all roughly translate to “times”. So, I went one time is (wo3 qu4 guo4 yi2 ci4).

Ready for your free list of Chinese Measure Words?

Sign up for my free language learning library and get it for free along with tons of other language learning resources.

Looking for More Information?

We highly recommend watching this video on measure words from Learn Chinese Now:

Further ReadingOn how well English partitives/measure words can be compared to Chinese classifiers/measure wordsTwo Articles on Classifiers on Wikipedia 1 and 2.

Ready for your free list of Chinese Measure Words?

Sign up for my free language learning library and get it for free along with tons of other language learning resources.

The post A Simplified Guide to Chinese Measure Words appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | October 2021

It’s officially September — my birthday month! And to celebrate my birthday… I’m learning a new language! I’ll share more in an upcoming post, but in the meantime let’s get into this month’s goals.

It’s time for a new analysis of my language goals as a part of Clear the List, but also a new Quest as a part of Language Conqueror!

And this month… it’s all about social media.

I share different techniques for using social media in your language learning and so much more. So if you’re looking to modify something you’re likely already spending time on into a productive language learning part of your day, this month is perfect for you.

What is Language Conqueror? It’s a course I work on with a monthly Quest focused on passion-driven learning. You can learn more, get a feel for my teaching style, and download our free PDF here: Get the Free PDF

And if that’s not enough, you can also get a feel for my teaching style with Snack-Sized Language!

Snack-Sized Language is a free podcast where we teach you snack-sized language lessons. So far we have episodes teaching general language learning tips, Japanese, French, Mandarin and Korean. Plus, we recently added Russian, Spanish, and German. Not to mention, more languages are coming soon!

You can subscribe to the podcast on your preferred podcast platform.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Listen on Google Podcasts

And if you enjoy Snack-Sized language, we would absolutely love it if you left us a review!

And now, on to #clearthelist …

Wondering what #clearthelist is? Let me clear it up for you (see what I did there?). #CleartheList is a linkup where we share our monthly goals, and by we, I mean myself, and you!

We’d absolutely love for you to be a part of our community. You can join us by adding a link to your own goal post in the comments below.

So let’s get started, sharing our goals and motivating one another to #clearthelist!

Please feel free to tag your posts or photos with either #clearthelist on your favorite social media channels!

Last Month’s Highlights on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shannon Kennedy (@eurolinguiste)

Last Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // We’ve been working on this, and he’s very proud of the fact that he knows some Chinese. I try to get him to use Gus on the Go a little bit each day on his own. He’s been asking a lot more questions and we often talk about words in the different languages he speaks whenever we’re in the car together.

Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // I have continued maintaining this. I have 400+ days for all my active languages.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // I have been working on this, but it is still impossible to catch up. At the end of last month, I had 2,000 videos queued up, and between what I’ve watched and what I’ve added, that’s still about where I’m at this month.

Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // I’ve am still making steady progress with this. In a week, I read, on average, about 2,000 words in Russian.

Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // Same as above though my reading pace is much slower in Hungarian.

Read everyday in Mandarin and Croatian. // I did this about half the month, but then dropped it towards the second half of the month.

Catch up on creating my flashcards. // I succeeded in doing this and have been able to continue keeping up with them.

Watch one episode of Terrace House each week. // I only missed doing this once.

Maintain my weekly lessons in each language. // It hasn’t been weekly, but I have been having regular lessons.

Start getting into course book study again. // I didn’t really get to this, but I hope to in the next month.

Maintain my Duolingo streak. // I’ve been maintaining my streak and am using it to learn both Portuguese and Spanish.

This Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // As usual, I’d like to continue to incorporate this more and more until we’re an OPOL household. It’s always a work in progress!

Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // This has been a great way to rebuild my language routine, so it’s staying on the list indefinitely! I share my stats over on Instagram in my stories nearly every day, so if you’re ever curious where I’m at, you can check out my stories. I was learning Persian, Hungarian, Croatian, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese and have gone on to add Korean, Spanish, and Japanese.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // As always, there’s a lot I need to get through. I hope to continue working at this in order to make consistent progress.

Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // My tutor and I are working on this weekly.

Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // My tutor and I are working on this weekly.

Start getting into course book study again. // This has been the one thing I’ve struggled to incorporate.

Maintain my Duolingo streak. // It gives me extra practice with Spanish and Portuguese.

Resources I Used This Month

A quick recap of the materials I am using.

What I Am Using to Learn Chinese:

LingQ – my favorite tooliTalki Lessons – I have weekly Chinese lessonsMemrise  Drops

What I’m Using to Brush Up/Improve My French:

LingQListening to French radio/podcasts/music

What I am Using to Learn Russian:

Colloquial RussianLingQiTalki LessonsDropsPimsleurMemrise

What I am Using to Learn Persian:

LingQPreply LessonsDropsPimsleurTeach Yourself Complete PersianMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Japanese:

Genki IDrops – they just added hundreds of new culture-specific words for Japanese!iTalki LessonsPimsleurMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Croatian:

Colloquial CroatianiTalki LessonsLingQ – they added Croatian, woot woot!DropsMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Hungarian:

Colloquial HungarianiTalki LessonsDropsLingQ – they added Hungarian, too!Memrise

What I’m Using to Learn Korean:

Memrise

What I’m Using to Learn Spanish:

DuolingoMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Portuguese:

DuolingoMemrise

Not Currently doing any study for: German, Hindi, Norwegian, Hebrew, Italian

What I’m Using for Little Linguist

Lots of booksDay-to-day interactionitalki LessonsDuolingo ABCDropletsMovies in ChineseGus on the Go Chinese

Resources That Aren’t Language Specific

Fluent in 3 Months ChallengeTodoist (to keep all my language lessons and to-do’s organized)Notion – my new favorite app for taking notes (I just set up a template for the way I use Notion to take notes if you’re interested in duplicating it for yourself)The Biggest Lesson I Am Taking Away from This Month

This month, I recently announced my new language — Portuguese. It will be my 17th language (16th if you consider the fact I didn’t keep learning Norwegian after my three months learning with Drops). I’m excited to dive in and I’m curious to see how starting over with a new language impacts my existing languages.

Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month!

The post Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | October 2021 appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

Snack-Sized Language Episode 6: How to Say Hello in Chinese

In this episode of the podcast, we focus on learning how to greet someone in Chinese and you’ll learn the phrases for “hello,” “how are you,” “good morning,” and “good evening”. Wondering how to how to say hello in Chinese? You’ll learn how with these Chinese phrases in this week’s snack-sized lesson.

Listen on Apple | Spotify | YouTube | Google

Want to keep learning with us? Join Language Conqueror.

In This Lesson, You Learned:

“Hello” in Chinese – 你好 nǐ hǎo

“How are you” in Chinese – 你好吗？ nǐ hǎo ma

“Good morning” in Chinese – 早上好 zǎo shang hǎo

“Good evening” in Chinese – 晚上好 wǎn shàng hǎo

Featured Trade Secret:

Chinese is written in characters. It’s a completely different writing system than what you’re likely used to and it can seem overwhelming at first. Thankfully, Chinese has a standard romanization system that you can used called pinyin. It’s fairly easy to learn and is a great way to start getting comfortable with the language without diving into characters right away.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Language Conqueror

We hope you enjoyed this episode of the podcast! Let us know what you think by leaving us a review. We appreciate your reviews because they let us know what you enjoy most about the podcast so we can keep doing more of it and it helps other learners like yourself find the podcast.

You can share your thoughts on the podcast at eurolinguiste.com/review

Snag our FREE guide to passion-driven language learning

25 language learning ideas + our top 5 habit-building strategies to help you have fun reaching fluency.

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The post Snack-Sized Language Episode 6: How to Say Hello in Chinese appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

New Language Project: Learn Portuguese

Interested in learning Portuguese?

Join me as I embark on my latest language project — learning Brazilian Portuguese!

Portuguese will be the 16th language I either am in the process of maintaining, learning, or using on a somewhat regular basis. Interested in finding out more about some of my past language projects? Find out what I did to learn Japanese, Persian, Korean, and more.

What’s the motivation for starting to learn Portuguese? Let’s get my motivation behind learning this language.

My New Language Project: Learn Portuguese

As you may know, I’m a professional musician. I work for an incredible company, Roland, as a part of an international team. Through my work, I collaborate on projects based in the Americas, and of the languages we work in — French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese — Portuguese is the only language I haven’t learned.

And so, it’s my new mission to take it on.

My Goal Learning Portuguese

Given that Portuguese is similar to several languages I already speak — French, Spanish, and Italian — it’s going to need quite a bit of love and attention so that I can avoid as much language interference as possible.

I’m going to focus on vocabulary acquisition early on, test out how effective language learning with just apps can be, and delay taking lessons in the language. This is different than what I’ve done the last several years and a similar return to what I might have done when I first embarked on my independent language learning journey.

The reason I’m doing this is to experiment with just how far I can get on my own, without diving straight into the speaking approach I’ve grown so used to. So be sure to follow along if you’re interested in seeing my results!

How I’m Going to Learn PortugueseMy Portuguese Language Learning Tools

Duolingo

Drops

To start building my vocabulary and foundation in the Persian language, I’ll study new words each day with Drops.

LingQ

Fluent in 3 Months Challenge

I’m joining a challenge a bit late (just over a week), but I plan on taking part in an Fi3M challenge for the extra accountability and community while learning a language.

Pimsleur

One of my favorite resources when starting to learn a new language is Pimsleur because it’s been a great way to get in both listening and speaking practice.

Memrise

My Language Learning Routine

My routine for learning Persian will look like this at the start of this project:

Every day:

5-15 minutes of vocabulary study with Drops and Memrise15-30 minutes of video lessons with Duolingo and LingQ30 minute Pimsleur lesson

Every week:

Additional research and study as neededMy Initial Plans for My First Week of Learning Portuguese

In the first week of learning Portuguese, I’d like to accomplish the following:

Learn around 100 words beyond the few I already know such as oi and obrigadaMeet my daily study commitments on Drops, Memrise, Duolingo, and LingQMy Updates

I’ll update you on my progress about once every two weeks either by blog post or by video. To keep everything in one place, you can always visit my language projects page.

Have any questions about this project? Let me know in the comments below! I’ll aim to answer them in my next update!

I also plan to make regular videos on Instagram and Youtube – so be sure to follow me there.

In the meantime, do you have any advice for me as a new Portuguese learner? Have any resource recommendations you couldn’t live without while learning the language? Let me know in the comments below! I look forward to hearing from you.

The post New Language Project: Learn Portuguese appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | September 2021

It’s officially September — my birthday month! And to celebrate my birthday… I’m learning a new language! I’ll share more in an upcoming post, but in the meantime let’s get into this month’s goals.

It’s time for a new analysis of my language goals as a part of Clear the List, but also a new Quest as a part of Language Conqueror!

And this month… it’s all about journaling.

I share different journaling techniques, how to use them and apply them to language learning, and so much more. So if you’re looking to start a journaling habit or improve your writing skills in another language, this month is perfect for you.

What is Language Conqueror? It’s a course I work on with a monthly Quest focused on passion-driven learning. You can learn more, get a feel for my teaching style, and download our free PDF here: Get the Free PDF

And if that’s not enough, you can also get a feel for my teaching style with Snack-Sized Language!

Snack-Sized Language is a free podcast where we teach you snack-sized language lessons. So far we have episodes teaching general language learning tips, Japanese, French, Mandarin and Korean. Plus, we recently added Russian, Spanish, and German. Not to mention, more languages are coming soon!

You can subscribe to the podcast on your preferred podcast platform.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Listen on Google Podcasts

And if you enjoy Snack-Sized language, we would absolutely love it if you left us a review!

And now, on to #clearthelist …

Wondering what #clearthelist is? Let me clear it up for you (see what I did there?). #CleartheList is a linkup where we share our monthly goals, and by we, I mean myself, and you!

We’d absolutely love for you to a part of our community. You can join us by adding a link to your own goal post in the comments below.

So let’s get started, sharing our goals and motivating one another to #clearthelist!

Please feel free to tag your posts or photos with either #clearthelist on your favorite social media channels!

Last Month’s Highlights on Instagram

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shannon Kennedy (@eurolinguiste)

Last Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // We’ve been working on this, and I try to get him to use Gus on the Go a little bit each day on his own. He’s been asking a lot more questions and we often talk about words in the different languages he speaks whenever we’re in the car together. He’s now started learning Korean as a part of his taekwondo and he’s quite proud of the fact he speaks “French, English, Chinese and a little bit Korean”.

Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // I have been maintaining this. I have 400+ days for all my active languages.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // I have been working on this, but it seems impossible to catch up at times. At the end of last month, I had close to 1,900 videos on the list but I now am up to around 2,000 which is the most I’ve ever had queued up.

Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // I’ve been doing a little bit of reading each day and am making steady progress with this. In a week, I read, on average, about 2,000 words in Russian.

Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // Same as above though my reading pace is much slower in Hungarian.

Read everyday in Mandarin and Croatian. // I did this about half the month, but then dropped it towards the second half of the month.

Catch up on creating my flashcards. // I succeeded in doing this and have been able to continue keeping up with them.

Watch one episode of Terrace House each week. // I only missed doing this once.

Maintain my weekly lessons in each language. // I have been able to do this! Back on track.

Start getting into course book study again. // I only did this one of the four weeks, but that was more than I was doing in the past.

This Month’s Goals

Continue filling the gaps in my Mandarin vocabulary I’ve noticed since Little Linguist’s arrival. // As usual, I’d like to continue to incorporate this more and more until we’re an OPOL household. It’s a work in progress!

Maintain my vocabulary learning streak. // This has been a great way to rebuild my language routine, so it’s staying on the list indefinitely! I share my stats over on Instagram in my stories nearly every day, so if you’re ever curious where I’m at, you can check out my stories. Though I’d like to add Korean back into the mix because I once more, finally, have the occasion to use the language.

Keep working through my YouTube Queue.  // Once again, there’s even more I need to get through this month than there was the last. I hope to continue working at this in order to make consistent progress.

Keep reading Game of Thrones in Russian. // My tutor and I are working on this weekly.

Keep reading Eye of the World in Hungarian. // My tutor and I are working on this weekly.

Start getting into course book study again. // This isn’t something I’ve been doing lately and I’m at the point with several of my languages where it’s needed.

Start getting into course book study again. // More than just one week this month.

Maintain my Duolingo streak. // I decided to give Duolingo a solid try this month as I’m picking my Spanish back up and starting to learn a new language. There have been a lot of updates made to it since I last tried it, so I want to give it a new effort.

Resources I Used This Month

A quick recap of the materials I am using.

What I Am Using to Learn Chinese:

LingQ – my favorite tooliTalki Lessons – I have weekly Chinese lessonsMemrise  Drops

What I’m Using to Brush Up/Improve My French:

LingQListening to French radio/podcasts/music

What I am Using to Learn Russian:

Colloquial RussianLingQiTalki LessonsDropsPimsleurMemrise

What I am Using to Learn Persian:

LingQPreply LessonsDropsPimsleurTeach Yourself Complete PersianMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Japanese:

Genki IDrops – they just added hundreds of new culture-specific words for Japanese!iTalki LessonsPimsleurMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Croatian:

Colloquial CroatianiTalki LessonsLingQ – they added Croatian, woot woot!DropsMemrise

What I’m Using to Learn Hungarian:

Colloquial HungarianiTalki LessonsDropsLingQ – they added Hungarian, too!Memrise

What I’m Using to Learn Korean:

Memrise

What I’m Using to Learn Spanish:

DuolingoMemrise

Not Currently doing any study for: German, Hindi, Norwegian, Hebrew, Italian

What I’m Using for Little Linguist

Lots of booksDay-to-day interactionitalki LessonsDuolingo ABCDropletsMovies in ChineseGus on the Go Chinese

Resources That Aren’t Language Specific

Fluent in 3 Months ChallengeTodoist (to keep all my language lessons and to-do’s organized)Notion – my new favorite app for taking notes (I just set up a template for the way I use Notion to take notes if you’re interested in duplicating it for yourself)The Biggest Lesson I Am Taking Away from This Month

This month I’m taking on a new language for work and while I didn’t think I wanted to add any more languages, I’m actually excited about getting to add this one. And I can’t wait to share more about it with you in an upcoming post!

Don’t forget that I would love to hear all about your goals for this month!

The post Clear the List | Monthly Language Learning Strategies Update | September 2021 appeared first on Eurolinguiste.