Mincius.com » Reviews

5 Ways To Learn Foreign Languages For Free

admin — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 03:43:18 +0000

This site is dedicated to making these language courses freely available in an electronic format. it is an independent, non-profit effort to foster the learning of worldwide languages.

Courses here are made available through the private efforts of individuals who are donating their time and resources to provide quality materials for language learning.

2. http://education.jimmyr.com/Learn_Languages_on_iTunes_23_2008.php

You can download various of learning language materials from this site to your iTunes.

3. http://www.livemocha.com/

One of the newest and potentially the best language learning tool on the internet.

4. http://www.mangolanguages.com/

Mango is designed to equip you with conversational abilities from the very start. Whether you’re learning how to order a pizza or ask when the game starts, Mango immerses you in real, everyday conversations in 12 different language courses.

5. Wikibooks

To learn the language you want to learn, just do a search via goolge or yahoo or any search engine you like for wikibooks + language you want to learn.

If you don’t get what i said above, here is a video tutorial.

Re: International or English school in Yantai

admin — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 21:26:40 +0000

Our first request is about international or English school in Yantai. I did some dig. It turns out that we have 2 options. The one i would recommend you is Yew Wah International Education School of Yantai.

Yew Wah International Education School of Yantai (official website) is a franchise international school. it offers basicially all education you need, from elementary school to high school. 60% of the students are Korean, 20% of the students are English speakers and 20% of the students are Chinese. They offer Bilingual teaching environment, about 50% Chinese,50% English. The tuition fee is 35 thousands RMB (5150 USD) per year for the elementary school. (including textbook and school uniform fees) For more details, please check their website.

2nd option is Jian Wen University. (i don’t know why they called themselves university) I called Education Bureau of Yantai the other day, all i heard about Jian Wen University is negative. Anyway, if you are looking for a second opinion, try their website (English is not supported). If not, please stick to Yew Wah International Education School of Yantai. They are good.

A compiled list of the most popular Chinese websites

admin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 12:20:48 +0000

Web search

News

Finance

Online video

Music

Technology/Gadget

Games

Free online games

Online shopping

Sports

Software download

skycn

huajun

mydrivers (drivers mainly)

B2B

Job search

Social network

Blog

Private download

A list of 5-star hotels in Yantai

admin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:41:35 +0000

These are the top ranked hotels in Yantai — Golden Gulf Hotel, Orient Haitian Hotel, Ramada Plaza and a 4 star hotel Marina Hotel.

Golden Gulf Hotel 金海湾大酒店
34 Haian Lu
海岸路34号
phone: +86 535 6636999

online reservation: http://www.goldengulfhotel.com/english/index.asp

comment: Great food, western, Japanese especially. It’s a good choice to stay at when you are interested in sightseeing the city on the water.

Orient Haitian Hotel 东方海天酒店
12 Haiyun Lu, Laishan District
莱山区海韵路12号
phone: 86-535-6888199

online reservation: http://www.ohh.cn/en/index.asp

comment: The newly built 5 star hotel. Nice view and luxuy rooms. The rooms are pricy but they worth that much imo.

Ramada Plaza
No. 10 Aucma Road, Laishan District, Yantai, Shandong 264003
华美达广场大酒店
山东省烟台市莱山区澳柯玛大街10号
phone: 86-535-2988999

online reservation: http://www.ramadaplaza-yantai.com/en/

comment: The famous franchise hotel. What can you expect more from it? The only cons here is its off town.

Marina Hotel 滨海国际酒店
128 Binhai Bei Lu
滨海北路128号
Phone: 86-535-2129999

online reservation: N/A

comment: It has the best view of Yantai. You can see the whole town up there. I highly recommend you and your friends to try the 360 restaurant. All the beatutiful pictures were taken on there.

Let’s talk about Chinese cuisine

admin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 01:46:25 +0000

There are eight regional cuisines, (八大菜系): Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan, and Zhejiang. Among them, Cantonese, Sichuan, Shandong, and Jiangsu cuisine are often considered as the standard of Chinese cuisine and due to their influence are claimed as the Four Great Traditions (四大菜系)

Cantonese (Yue) cuisine: Of all the regional varieties of Chinese cuisine, Cantonese is the best known outside China. Most Chines restaurants in western countries serve Cantonese cuisine. Cantonese cuisine comes from Guangdong Province in southern China. The speciality of Cantonese cuisine is sweet food.

Shandong (Lu) cuisine: Shandong cuisine is most commonly known as Lu cuisine. It comes from Shandong Province in eastern China. There are 2 major styles: Jiaodong Style ( seafood with light tastes) and Jinan Style (salty tastes).

Sichuan (Chuan) cuisine: It’s well-known as Szechuan cuisine in the west. The speciality of Sichuan cuisine is spicy food. Sichuan peppercorn is commonly used in every dishes. If you feel like that your Chinese food wasn’t “hot” enough, then Sichuan cuisine would be your best choice in most scenarios.

Jiangsu (Su) cuisine: The major style of Jiangsu cuisine is Huaiyang cuisine. It’s well-known for its seasonal ingredients, color and shape matching and soft tastes.

What’s a reliable source for Chinese news reading?

admin — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:43:10 +0000

To be honest with you, there is no reliable source for Chinese news reading because most of the Chinese made English sites update at a very slow speed. The news won’t be “news” if it doesn’t new, right? Anyway, here are 2 main Chinese online media: sohu.com (English version) and sina.com (English version)

sina.com: It’s simple the best Chinese portal for English readers. Great design, practical features too.

sohu.com: To be more precise, it’s designed for Chinese who want to learn English. But yeah, they have “up-to-date” news.

A list of Yantai high education institutions

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:14:56 +0000

Since there are a large number of foreign students and teachers in Yantai, I’d like to give those people who wants to teach or to be taught in Yantai a general idea of Yantai high education institutions.

First of all, if you want to study other than Chinese major in those Chinese college/university, you need to pass a test called HSK (hanyu shuiping kaoshi). You can always study Chinese in language institutions in China before you take HSK test though. Here i wont talk about HSK but if you want to know more about HSK, click this link.

Yantai University (offical website)

It’s the biggest university in Yantai which has over 25,000 students. To apply to study/teach in Yantai University click here.

Shandong Institution of Business and Technology (offical website)

It originally named China Coal Economic College. They changed name in 2003 since they didnt have coal related departments any more. Their offical english is listed as suspicious by google ( i don’t know why) So i just post their contact info here.

Postal Code: 264005 Address:191 BinHai Road Yantai, China
Telphone: +86-535-6904023 Email: yzmail@ccec.edu.cn

Ludong University ( offical website )

Former Yantai Normal University. They don’t have english website yet and they don’t have “how to apply” button on their Chinese website either. I will let you know if i find more information.

Your First Tourism Stop —- Penglai Pagoda

admin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:00:44 +0000

Penglai Pagoda ( peng lai ge) is one of the most well-known tourism place in China. It’s just 40 minutes drive away from downtown, Yantai. Since its not far, you can always pay a visit at weekend.

Penglai Pagoda is noted as one of the four famous towers of China. although it is occasionally not listed due to its lack of famous literary.It is known as the landing place of the Eight Immortals and famous for its occasional mirages. The dividing line between the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea is also marked and clearly visible from the area.

The ticket for Penglai Pagoda is 70 yuan. If you want to know more, please check the offical website.

The Eight Immortals

The dividing line between the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea

A Brief Description of Yantai

admin — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:00:42 +0000

Yantai is a prefecture-level city (di ji shi) in northeastern Shandong province. It has 13,739.9 km² in area and 6.5 in population. Yantai administers 12 county-level divisions (xian ji shi), including 4 districts, 7 county-level cities, 1 county and one development zone. Zhifu District is downtown, Yantai.

“The contemporary name of Yantai came from the watchtowers constructed on Mount Qi in 1398, during the reign of the Hongwu Emperor, founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty (yan—smoke; tai—tower). The towers served to raise alarms against invasions of Japanese pirates.”

If you would like to know more about Yantai. Please check Yantai Wikipedia page or Government website of Yantai for more details.

First Post

admin — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:12:50 +0000

mincius.com is a life blog specific designed for the expatriates in Yantai. Our goal is to make a community for those expatriates who live in Yantai, provide as much help as we can and hopefully make you a Yantaier!

Right now we have started blog and forum which is enough for the essential using. If you have any questions feel free to ask on our forum, i will get back to you asap. i wish you enjoy the time in Yantai!