The future of the Hacking Chinese Podcast After 326 co weekly episodes, I need to make a few changes to the Hacking Chinese Podcast. I really enjoy making it, but recording and editing require more uninterrupted, focused time than I can reasonably spare at the moment. While I figure out what to do next, I’ll take a break from recording new episodes […] The post The future of the Hacking Chinese Podcast appeared first on Hacking Chinese. https://www.hackingchinese.com/the-future-of-the-hacking-chinese-podcast/ #chinesepodcast #hackingchinese #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Japanese vocabulary list: Robotics-related terms I have loved robots ever since I was a child, and I think that started when a family friend bought me some quirky robot that moved around coins called ZeniMaru, which happened to be a Japanese robot. Japanese traditional culture is great and all, but the technology aspects of Japan is one of the things that drew me to it, and robots are a major part of that. Classic anime like Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell feature high-technology robots that still seem cool today. So I thought it would be good to make a vocab list for robotics related stuff, which you can find below. As with my other lists, many of the nouns can be made into verbs using “suru”, for example 制御する [seigyo suru] = “to control”. Enjoy! By the way, recently I created a site called Dreaming of Robots, which has details on over 700 robots, including humanoids, robot dogs, robot arms, drones, and cleaning robots. It also has a quiz to help find a suitable robot, beginner guides on Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and ROS 2, a servo motor guide, and DIY build plans. General terms and types of robots ロボット [robotto]: robot ロボット工学 [robotto kougaku]: robotics (as a field of engineering) 機械 [kikai]: machine 人型ロボット [hitogata robotto]: humanoid robot (also ヒューマノイド [hyuumanoido]) 二足歩行ロボット [nisoku hokou robotto]: bipedal (two-legged) robot 四足歩行ロボット [yonsoku hokou robotto]: quadruped (four-legged) robot 犬型ロボット [inugata robotto]: robot dog (literally “dog-shaped robot”) 産業用ロボット [sangyouyou robotto]: industrial robot ロボットアーム [robotto aamu]: robot arm ロボットハンド [robotto hando]: robot hand ロボット掃除機 [robotto soujiki]: robot vacuum cleaner ドローン [doroon]: drone 外骨格 [gaikokkaku]: exoskeleton 自律型 [jiritsugata]: autonomous (robot, etc.) 遠隔操作 [enkaku sousa]: remote control, teleoperation Motors and hardware モーター [mootaa]: motor サーボモーター [saabo mootaa]: servo motor (often shortened to サーボ [saabo]) ブラシレスモーター [burashiresu mootaa]: brushless motor アクチュエーター [akuchueetaa]: actuator 関節 [kansetsu]: joint (of a robot or a person) 自由度 [jiyuudo]: degrees of freedom (literally “degree of freedom”) 歯車 [haguruma]: gear 減速機 [gensokuki]: gear reducer, gearbox トルク [toruku]: torque 回転 [kaiten]: rotation バッテリー [batterii]: battery 電圧 [den’atsu]: voltage 電流 [denryuu]: electric current 発熱 [hatsunetsu]: heat generation (from a motor, etc.) 基板 [kiban]: circuit board 配線 [haisen]: wiring 部品 [buhin]: part, component 組み立て [kumitate]: assembly Sensors センサー [sensaa]: sensor 深度カメラ [shindo kamera]: depth camera ライダー [raidaa]: LiDAR (usually written in English letters) 超音波センサー [chouonpa sensaa]: ultrasonic sensor 距離センサー [kyori sensaa]: distance sensor 加速度センサー [kasokudo sensaa]: accelerometer ジャイロセンサー [jairo sensaa]: gyroscope sensor エンコーダー [enkoodaa]: encoder (measures how far a motor has turned) 画像認識 [gazou ninshiki]: image recognition 障害物 [shougaibutsu]: obstacle 検知する [kenchi suru]: to detect (an obstacle, etc.) Movement and control 動く [ugoku]: to move (intransitive) 動かす [ugokasu]: to move something (transitive) 動作 [dousa]: movement, operation (of a machine) 歩行 [hokou]: walking 走行 [soukou]: traveling, driving (of a wheeled robot or car) 歩容 [hoyou]: gait (the pattern of leg movement) 跳躍 [chouyaku]: jump, leap (ジャンプ [janpu] is also common) 姿勢 [shisei]: posture, pose 転倒 [tentou]: falling over 制御 [seigyo]: control (of a motor, etc.) Software and testing プログラミング [puroguramingu]: programming ファームウェア [faamuwea]: firmware シミュレーション [shimyureeshon]: simulation 強化学習 [kyouka gakushuu]: reinforcement learning 試作機 [shisakuki]: prototype (machine) 実験 [jikken]: experiment テスト [tesuto]: test 検証 [kenshou]: verification, validation 不具合 [fuguai]: bug, malfunction 故障 [koshou]: breakdown (of a machine) 調整 [chousei]: adjustment, tuning 改良 [kairyou]: improvement (of a design, etc.) 耐久性 [taikyuusei]: durability 安全性 [anzensei]: safety 重量 [juuryou]: weight For practice, here is an example sentence that uses several of the words above: この四足歩行ロボットは、センサーで障害物を検知しながら、自律的に歩くことができます。 (“This quadruped robot can walk autonomously while detecting obstacle(s) with sensor(s).”) If you are interested in robots, please check out Dreaming of Robots! https://selftaughtjapanese.com/2026/10/27/japanese-vocabulary-list-robotics-related-terms/ #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Why knowing your reasons for learning Chinese matters “Why are you learning Chinese?” This question can signal anything from friendly curiosity to a challenge, as in “Why would you do something like that?” You don’t need to justify learning Chinese to anyone. Work, family, travel, games, heritage, curiosity or personal challenge can all be perfectly good reasons. You probably have more than one […] The post Why knowing your reasons for learning Chinese matters appeared first on Hacking Chinese. https://www.hackingchinese.com/why-are-you-learning-chinese/ #learningchinese #work #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

What are your reasons for learning Mandarin? Here are mine! Why are you learning Chinese, and is your answer the same today as when you started? Let’s explore what motivates us to learn Chinese and how those motivations change over time. I’ve created a short survey to explore why Hacking Chinese readers started learning Mandarin and why they continue today. I’m interested in the answers, […] The post What are your reasons for learning Mandarin? Here are mine! appeared first on Hacking Chinese. https://www.hackingchinese.com/what-are-your-reasons-for-learning-mandarin-here-are-mine/ #learningmandarin #chinese #hackingchinese #let #rss #feeds #linksharing #qwibbit

Japan 2026 trip: Fun in Western Japan (Compilation Video) A few weeks ago I posted a series of articles detailing my travels in Japan this year, and I bought a DJI OSMO Pocket 3 and took it with with me almost everywhere we went. I recorded over three hours of video on this trip and, as promised I am sharing my compilation of the trip. Initially I manually edited things down to around an hour, which had coverage of most places we visited, but honestly I think most people don’t have that much attention span or patience (I don’t!). So I edited it down further to around 13 minutes, though the resultant transitions and such aren’t as smooth as the original long version. Still, I think this is a good way to sample some of the places we saw. I decided to not add music or do too much detailed editing, because ultimately this more about just what we experienced instead of trying to mold things together into a coherent story. By the way, though the Pocket 3 is a bit expensive, I found overall it was easy to use and gave a really good quality result. The main difficulty I had is managing the huge files, but by shooting in lower quality (and buying another USB drive) I was able to deal with things. Highly recommended for travel video production! https://selftaughtjapanese.com/2026/09/16/japan-2026-trip-fun-in-western-japan-compilation-video/

Chinese reading challenge, August 2026 It's time for a Chinese reading challenge! It starts on August 10th, so enrol, set your goal and read as much as you can before the end of the month. This article contains more information about the challenge, as well as some advice about improving reading ability in Chinese. The post Chinese reading challenge, August 2026 appeared first on Hacking Chinese. https://www.hackingchinese.com/chinese-reading-challenge/

Japanese Pronunciation: two categories of i-adjective intonation patterns Pronunciation in Japanese has two elements: the sounds themselves (vowel/contant) and the intonations on each mora (a mora is basically a syllable). The former is relatively easy to learn, though there are some things that may give you difficulty like the “fu” sound, the “ra” row (ra,ri,ru,re,ro) and the “o” vowel. However, once you learn to hear the sounds and get your tongue and mouth to make the right shapes, I think you can probably pronounce reasonable sounds. But the intonations (high, low) are a different story, and are one of the hardest parts of the language to master. There are a few reasons. First, it is not just “high” and “low” pitches, but in longer runs of “high” pitches the pitch actually continues to raise a little. Second, pitches differ between regional dialects, so unless you are careful you might accidentally pick up a non-Tokyo dialect (which is fine, as long as that is how you want to talk). Also, intonation patterns differ between words in a fairly irregular way, not to mention that one word can sometimes affect the next word’s pitch! Fortunately, there are a handful of rules that help you here. One of my favorite rules about intonation patterns is how all i-adjectives follow the “accented” pattern (more formally 起伏式, [kifukushiki], which means the accent starts low and rises until it reaches the mora before the “i” (the second to last) and then drops suddenly. Even though the pitches are not simply high and low, we can still use notation to get an idea of what the pitches look like. For example, let’s look at “aoi” (blue): 青い => L/H/L [aOi] Here, the pitch goes up for the “o” part in “aoi”, then drops on the “i”. Another: 安い [yasui] => L/H/L [yaSUi]. Note that this is not an emphasis accent like English, but rather the pitch rises and falls. A long time ago I read somewhere that all i-adjectives followed this pattern, and purposefully tried to emulate that in my speech. However, when doing some research recently for my new educational site Japanese Vocab Maker, I made a shocking discovery: that there are actually a few exceptions to this rule! It turns out some of the common i-adjectives are actually flat or monotone (平板式 [heibanshiki]). The good news is that there is a relatively small number of everyday words with this pattern. Here is a list of such words: 赤い [akai] = red (L/H/H) [aKAI] 甘い [amai] = sweet (L/H/H) [aMAI] 重い [omoi] = heavy (etc) 軽い [karui] = light 黄色い [kiiroi]: yellow 茶色い [chairoi]: brown 遠い [tooi]: far 粗い [arai]: rough 重たい [omotai]: heavy To hear the difference, tou can listen to a native pronounce “aoi” vs “akai” in these two linked videos. Furthermore, it turns out that a bunch of i-adjectives can be pronounced in either monotone or accented. Here is a partial list of those: 明るい, 厚い, 危ない, 薄い, おいしい, 遅い, 固い, 暗い, 冷たい, 辛い, 丸い, 難しい, 優しい, 眠い, 悲しい, 易しい, 浅い, 怪しい, きつい, 四角い, 分厚い, 危うい, 堅い, 気まずい, たやすい, 手厚い, 程遠い, よろしい, だるい, 細長い, 乏しい, 望ましい, 目新しい, 疑わしい, 煩わしい, むなしい, 重苦しい, 堅苦しい, 気恥ずかしい, 口やかましい, 荒っぽい, 恐れ多い, 多い, たわいない. I wouldn’t memorize the above list, though. I think the best strategy is just to memorize the earlier list of monotone-only words (akai, amai, etc.), and then use accented for the rest. At leat until you hear a native speaker do otherwise. https://selftaughtjapanese.com/2026/09/17/japanese-pronunciation-two-categories-of-i-adjective-intonation-patterns/

How to create mnemonics for general, abstract or overlapping character components Mountains, trees and rocks are easy to use in mnemonics. But what do you do with character components whose meanings are general, abstract or overlapping? The post How to create mnemonics for general, abstract or overlapping character components appeared first on Hacking Chinese. https://www.hackingchinese.com/how-to-create-mnemonics-for-general-or-abstract-character-components/

A new way to easily learn Japanese vocab: Listen and learn with Vocab Channel (Click here to jump right to the tool) In designing and shipping features for my new learning site Japanese Vocab Maker, I’ve realized that the popularity of a feature doesn’t necessarily correlate to how “cool” I think a feature is, or how much time it takes me to develop. Rather, I’ve noticed a trend where features that are easier and quicker to use tend to get more usage than those with longer time to set things up. So for my next major feature I decided to make something that is extremely easy to use, and requires very little effort. It’s called “Vocab Channel”, and is a simple way to learn a variety of vocabulary words just by watching or listening. You can decide the subset of words you want to learn, for example all JLPT words associated with a certain level (N5, etc.). You can also use vocab lists you created on other pages of the site, for example a list about a certain topic, or from the pages of a book you scanned in. You can set the length of the space of each word, and the order of the words. You can optionally turn on voice for both the Japanese word and English definitions, which is the easiest way to expose these words, whether you are relaxing in bed, going on a walk, or driving in the car. There are thousands of words available, so on the default speed settings there is literally weeks of content here to listen or watch. The words automatically go by once you click ‘Play’, and along with each word it’s reading, definition, and intonation marks (if available). You can click on the word to get usage info, for example sentences where the word is used, and you can even add words to a custom vocabulary list (for example if there are words you want to review again at a later point). It also tracks the total number of words you watched/listened and the total time. If you are studying Japanese please consider trying it out (click the checkbox “speak word and definition” in the top left if you want audio): https://www.japanesevocabmaker.com/channel https://selftaughtjapanese.com/2026/09/18/a-new-way-to-easily-learn-japanese-vocab-listen-and-learn-with-vocab-channel/

Communicative handwriting: Writing Chinese with a real purpose Flashcards can teach you to write Chinese characters, but they can be boring and hide problems. Communicative handwriting is more engaging and prepares you for real-world tasks. The post Communicative handwriting: Writing Chinese with a real purpose appeared first on Hacking Chinese. https://www.hackingchinese.com/learning-to-write-chinese-characters-through-communication/