Useful new blog: 'Learn Mandarin with Peter'''

Recently I’ve been reading a few posts from Learn Mandarin Chinese with Peter, an English language blog written by a Chinese guy.

The blog has only been running since December last year, but it’s already got some very useful content for Mandarin learners. The writer, Peter (Chinese name: 江欢), is currently studying English, and uses his blog to practice writing in his L2.

The blog is a great idea for him, and it does actually provide some valuable content for those of us learning Mandarin Chinese. What Peter writes is useful in itself - he covers common, useful Mandarin expressions and translates Mandarin song lyrics, for example.

Aside from the direct utility of Peter’s posts, you can also get a bit of insight into the language of a native speaker. The English used in the posts is by no means perfect - pretty much every sentence is wrong in some way. But these mistakes can sometimes be quite informative if you consider why a native speaker of Mandarin would arrange their English sentences in that way.

All in all, askpeterchinese.com looks set to become a worthwhile RSS subscription to have, even if it’s just for occasional browsing.