Chinese languages resources list
Are you keen to improve or teach yourself a Chinese language but unsure where to start? This list is for you.
Chinese heritage type collection at Wai-te-ata Press, 2021. Photo by Daniel Crichton-Rouse. Te Papa
We’ve also included some articles and resources about language-related issues and conversations happening within the local and global ethnic Chinese diaspora for those of you who are simply keen to learn more.
We hope to add resources to this list over time. Our main criteria are that the resources included are a) reliable in quality and b) freely accessible. They range from the new and popular to the old but reliable and comprehensive.
Feel free to make a suggestion at asianlanguages@tepapa.govt.nz with the subject title ‘Chinese languages resource list’.
Cantonese
Language resource hubs and courses
Cantonese Alliance, particularly the Language Resources section which includes apps, dictionaries and various romanisation and Chinese character converters. This website is managed by Sik Lee Dennig, who is best-known for her research, teaching and promotion of Cantonese at Stanford University.
Foreign Services Institute course (Yale romanisation), hosted by LiveLingua. A rather old-fashioned course, but one of the few freely accessible full courses in Cantonese available on the web which can take a learner through from beginner to advanced level.
Conversations on Cantonese from around the world
Kerry Ann Lee, ‘Heavy metal afterlives: A sideways appreciation of the NZ Chinese Growers Monthly typeface’, The Spinoff, 6 May 2021
Jenny Liao, ‘Forgetting My First Language’, The New Yorker, 3 September 2021
Eric He, ‘“Not just a language”: The Fight to Save Cantonese at Stanford’, Patch, 13 August 2021
Hakka
Thanks to Henry Liu for the suggestions below. Please note that many of these resources are not in English, but may be useful if you are already familiar with Mandarin.
hi\Ermitage language project, Association for the Conservation of Hong Kong Indigenous Languages
Hokkien
Language resource hubs
Speak Hokkien Campaign (from Malaysia, focus is on Penang Hokkien)
Chia̍h pá ·bē! Getting Started and Resource Guide (Taiwanese Hokkien)
Catherine Chou, Resources for Learning Taiwanese as an English speaker
Dictionaries
Carstairs Douglas, Chinese-English Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy; Barclay, Supplement to Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy. This is very old (published 1873) but remains an important dictionary.
Reverend J. Macgowan, English and Chinese Dictionary of the Amoy Dialect. Another extremely old (published 1883) but valuable resource.
Mandarin
Mandarin has, by far, the largest volume of language resources which are freely available and easily located on the web. Instead of linking to these, here is an interesting article on the internal variation that exists within varieties of Mandarin – far beyond what is often taught in textbooks.
Szeto Pui Yiu, ‘Mandarin dialects: Unity in diversity’, Unravel Magazine, 5 October 2019
Teochew
Learn Teochew with Ah Boon, a website originally designed to assist the author with his self-study goals, which has since evolved into an information resource for others. Aimed primarily at heritage language speakers
Josiah Goddard, A Chinese and English Vocabulary in the Tie-Chu dialect (Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press 1883)
Applications
WhatTCSays3: a Teochew language dictionary and phrasebook Android App for English and French speakers