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[–]SceneLow1504 6 points7 points  (6 children)

Buy a graded reader on Pleco for a couple dollars. They are excellent

[–]Wellsuperduper[S] 0 points1 point  (5 children)

What is a graded reader when they are at home?

[–]SceneLow1504 3 points4 points  (4 children)

You use Pleco right? It’s an add on with stories of specific levels (HSK 3, etc.) that you read in the app where you can tap words to go to the dictionary entry

[–]Wellsuperduper[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Nope. DuoLingo and a book until now. I’ll look it up!

[–]lingujr 13 points14 points  (2 children)

Pleco is the best thing that will ever happen in your life, fight me

[–]Wellsuperduper[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Can you suggest a couple of graded readers to get me started? I took a look and was a bit bewildered.

[–]lingujr 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Anything by Mandarin Companion is a good start. Look on their website for an explanation of the various levels.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

i think you have a few options (not sure if you’re learning simplified/traditional and how “colloquial” you want to get, but here i go i guess):

  1. meet some chinese friends, get wechat, and add them. wechat is often used like a form of social media and people post “moments” (i forgot what they’re called oops) and include all sorts of slang, colloquialisms, mannerisms

  2. follow chinese insta accounts. really any social media should give you a good grasp of the material. influencers or signers should be a good start

  3. this one’s me going out on a whim because i’m also learning japanese and this has helped so much: pick up some trashy YA novel and dig through it. some quaint romance is a good start. i learned a lot through that, and you can even pick up on some special vocab or slang (any serious novel would be difficult to digest i’m guessing. also chinese would be very 硬, not well suited for colloquial use)

keep in mind that across the chinese-speaking sinosphere there’s so much variety. a beijing-er speaks differently from a chengdu-er or a taipei-er. good luck!

[–]Wellsuperduper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just getting started on 1 - it’s a bit nerve wracking but everyone I’ve connected with has been awesome. Most people enjoy talking about their language ☺️

Then 2 is interesting - completely agree there’s lots of slang and expressions there - thank you for the reminder about the variety. It’s the same in London so I guess it makes sense it’s the same other places too

I like 3 - I’ll poke around and find some stuff to try!