Adam Schokora gets up close and personal with ChinesePod host Jenny Zhu in an interview on his new blog, 56minus1.

A report has found that the standard of Chinese teaching in Australian high schools is ineffectual, with 94 per cent of final year students being 'first language' speakers.

WHAT'S COOL: A free quick test of your Chinese word recognition skills with the UK's Times Online animated flash cards. WHAT SUCKS: Does not provide pronunciation for any words.

"O'Kane admits he is a little uncomfortable about [the attention]. For him, the popularity of his blog is more a demonstration of the "talking dog effect" rather than his excellence in Chinese writing."

You registered for the HSK and start to feel nervous as the test is drawing nearer and nearer? Or you consider your Chinese acceptable, but you believe that you are a horrible test taker? Here are some advices and test taking strategies to succeed during the HSK. This post is not about the preparation work before the test, but rather the strategies to use during the test!

Think Chinesepod should be scared?

I haven't tried this one out yet, but it's good to see more Chinese study sites popping up.

They claim to have you speaking "common" chinese withing 30 days.

A little insight into the rather topical and useful Chinese slang term: chaozuo, or fried work. As the article states, 'chao' is used in a number of common slang terms, but chaozuo in particular has an ever-increasing meaning in how it relates to Chinese media.

"Chao is now often combined with zuo (work). So chaozuo (fry work), or cooking or creating a buzz is now being practised by some who are becoming experts in the field.

They do whatever it takes to ensure that chaozuo can be applied extensively.

An American consular officer's take on a Taiwanese judge declaring an American Woman's English grammar to be "wrong" and deciding against her.

Google has released a Pinyin-based character-input method for Windows systems. It offers a number of special features … download the program from this page.

A review of a new Chinese language learning software developed by Cornell graduates. A life instructor guides you along the entire program. Fully interactive and beautifully designed.