The earliest forms of paid advertising date back to the early 19th Century, when soap companies would try to associate their brand names with images of beautiful young men and women with perfect skin. In my research, I was hoping to find that the earliest forms of advertising were naive and sweet, and even (shudder) honest about the prices and value of the products. I’m guessing that didn’t last too long.

But that’s all changing. For one thing, we have TiVo now (or specifically, DVRs are ubiquitous). We can skip ads. On the Internet, we can opt not to click on any ads (though our eyeballs are still bombarded with ads on Youtube, Google Search, any Media Site of note, etc, so some degree of psychological damage is unavoidable.). Print Media is barely profitable, and waning in popularity, making it a bad place to advertise.Downward spiral. Luckily they’re all moving to websites with paywalls.

So what happens when no one clicks on any ads, on any form of media?

Advertising has to change. It has to compete. It has to get better. It has to get honester (I checked). Most would agree the next shift in advertising is going to be the death of advertising altogether (don’t worry, we’ll still have Superbowl ads, like the above 1984 ad).  So what does a no advertising model look like? Social Media, of course. But this does not mean, ‘Get a Twitter page, and a Facebook page’ and sit back. No, no, no. It means, hopefully, that bad companies will never be able to survive because the social networks will destroy them (and conversely, great companies and great products will soar ever higher on good reviews and recommendations from… real people).

As Steve Jobs once proclaimed, the more money a struggling company spends on advertising, serves only to double down on their failure: it tells the story that really this company is trying to spend its way back to profitability. If you’re great, your customers will make noise. It’s that simple. No advertising dollars required. Just empower your customers to talk about you, and if you do a good job, they’ll, on average, say good things about you. Advertising in the internet age usually means you’re well aware of the conversation going on about your company (if anything) and you want to change it. That is about as inexpensive and effective as the short bald guy in the European sports car.

Between Friends and Fanboys.

So we know there are a few companies that have ‘free’ and unpaid promoters online–lovingly called ‘fanboys’. There are Sports fans, tech fans, fashion fans, TV fans, Movie fans, but surprisingly few toothpaste fans. As I’ve mentioned in the past, the problem with ‘boring’ products like toothpaste is they have no culture. They may be scientifically and technically fantastic, they may be cheaper and better, but if they have no culture, no one will talk about them. And if no one talks about them, then the social media sites can do nothing for them. For these companies, advertising isn’t the best option, it’s the only option. Until ‘boring’ companies learn how to have fun with even the most mundane products, and acknowledge that they are creating cultural content with their promotions, they will be stuck in the past, while everyone else races forward with wildly more effective, inexpensive, viral online campaigns.

In ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie, he discusses the sheer power of listening in building friends. Imagine going to a party, saying but a few words, listening attentively, and being called the greatest conversationalist ever. That’s what Dale experienced. He shut up and listened. And listened intently, genuinely–this is no acting job (see here and here for tips).  Turn on your TV and all you see/hear is people and companies yapping at you. What if companies were listening to you instead? What if they were really listening, not just giving you Questionairres and online Surveys to fill out? It’s obvious to me that the next shift in advertising/marketing/branding is using social media tools to listen to what people are saying about you, and then do something about it. Does it mean you do what the public says? Of course not. The public are not expert product designers. But they are saying something, and they want to be heard. Don’t use social media to sell, to yap, to harass, but to listen.

All you have to do is listen and engage with customers like a friend would. Sincerely. That is the only way this is going to work. Friends don’t call you up trying to get you to buy a car (or soap). Friends want you to be happy. They want to give you stuff. They want you to come over and watch a movie . That’s how the dinosaur of advertising dies, and businesses use social networks to build new brands–by letting their rabid fanb– er, loyal customers do the selling for them.

I’d love to hear your thoughts by commenting on this post in Twitter.

Recently, I’ve been writing about how all of us can create “works of art” which are authentic, and why it’s so much more productive and interesting to create work of your own surroundings and your own life. So in this post I want to highlight someone who has created everything from his surroundings, and managed to make millions off it, and become incredibly famous.

As it turns out, some of the most successful celebrities are ‘creative’ in the ways they’ve been able to monetize (or productize) various aspects of their lives. This is taking the ‘artistry’ we mentioned earlier and effectively adding salesmanship. Since their ‘products’ come from their own lives, it’s easy to keep coming up with new ‘content’ or ‘material’, seemingly without effort. One comedian/writer in particular I’ve paid attention to recently is Adam Carolla. He has an extremely popular Podcast (90 minutes a day, free to download), comedy shows around the United States, as well as the books and movies that he creates, and recently, he’s gotten into marketing his own beverages (Man-gria). Adam can talk for hours (again, since he’s talking about himself), and so he basically tells funny stories from his life, often in the form of hilarious ‘complaints’ or ‘rants’,  on top of interviewing interesting people.

When asked why he’s so successful, Adam never mentions any of this. He just thinks he’s working harder than everyone else. But he’s not working hard doing something he hates, he’s working hard doing something invigorating and stimulating. That’s the trick. Hard work is overrated. Do the ‘right’ work, and you’ll never worry about overtime pay, you’ll never lack content, and you’ll never. In a way, hard work is less important than authenticity. You could work hard on something you hate for 30 years, what would take you 5 years if done authentically. Focus on a few things which are authentic.

Now in considering how you might learn from Adam, remember, that as long as you have interesting content, the medium is up to you: you could do an audio-only podcast (like Adam), or you could do a blog (like 21tiger), or a videoblog (Youtube, etc). Of course any artwork that you want to show people can be ‘hosted’ online, as a way to reach potential fans (eg. a comic book illustrator putting up an online gallery and selling books on his website).

Alright, on that note, let’s step back and talk about social media for a second. I mentioned the ‘salesmanship’ aspect before, well, Social Media is what marketing and ‘promotion’ looks like in the 21st century, so you better get a handle on it. While I don’t think of my Twitter stream as ‘art’, it is still ‘content’. And that content can be genuine, or it can be fake. It can be about the real me or it can be about the ‘me’ I’m trying to manufacture. Which one do you think is more interesting to followers?

For even more details on how to build an empire using this ‘authentic career’ method, check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush It“. It’s motivational and gives you the concrete steps for building an audience and the multiple income streams that go with it.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, hit me up on Twitter.

]]> http://21tiger.com/2013/05/01/the-authentic-career/feed/ 0 21tiger Adam+Carolla+Alliance+Children+Rights+Right+ORoBydSJ_Cyx http://21tiger.com/2013/04/26/art-as-a-reflection-of-the-life-you-lead/ http://21tiger.com/2013/04/26/art-as-a-reflection-of-the-life-you-lead/#comments Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:09:08 +0000 Michael A. Robson http://21tiger.com/?p=2421 ]]>
In Conversations with Students, legendary Graphic Designer Paul Rand put forth a challenge to all young design students to read through John Dewey’s “Art as Experience”. Rand contended that most students would not have the gumption to read the lengthy tome on Art Theory, and that its considerations went so far beyond ‘make it look pretty’ that most young students would get bored five minutes in and give up. It reminded me of a similar hammer being thrown down to young students by one Bill Gates years ago, who contended that he would hire anyone who could read and understand the massive collection, The Art of Computer Programming”.

And while I have little interest in the programming side, I’d love to take the late Rand up on his challenge with ‘Art as Experience’. As you might expect, its heady, and gets deep into the weeds on composition, rhythm, story, meaning, the nature of thought, the origin of imagination, colour, light, and all the rest of it. But I wanted to extract something for this post that casual readers might find interesting. So here goes.

One of the ideas that struck me was the notion that art, in its many forms, are interchangeable media for capturing a slice or a snapshot of our lives–a moment’s emotions captured on film, in poetry, or with water-colour paint. But notice the trick here: it only works if it’s from your life; your art must be authentic.

So what about fiction? Where does it fit into this ‘rule’: some of the greatest work of film, writing, painting, song, is completely fictional. I hesitate to put such a fine point on it, lest I banish all fictional works, but there is a sense that, if you’re a suburban kid living in Canada, perhaps you shouldn’t spend all of your time writing about Pandas, or Russian Mob Crime stories. As every High School English teacher worth his/her salt told you, “Write what you know.” 

Writing, or singing, or painting (or taking photos) what you know brings with it the authenticity that is absolutely necessary to impute the feelings, the sensibility in your work. Moreover, writing what you know makes writing (or producing) high volumes of content much easier.

Even if you are creating works of fiction, perhaps the greatest stories (just like the greatest characters from the best movies and TV shows) are heavily inspired by reality. If I combine various real-life people in imaginary ways, my work is authentic. If I visit the settings and study the mood of the environment before I take a snapshot in my medium of choice, I’m not  making it up. Artists should be able to see the interesting relationships and stories in the world around them and share them with the public. In sum, Art is a reflection of the life you lead or it’s a lie.

I’d love to hear your thoughts by commenting on this post in Twitter.

Lately I’ve been re-reading an amazing book called ‘Radical Honesty‘ which espouses a lifestyle of 100% complete honesty. This can obviously lead to some awkward “Yes, in fact that dress does make you look fat honey” moments, but there is a bright side: complete and total clarity. Also know as, getting your sanity back. The author, a Phd and eccentric Therapist named Brad Blanton, points to Moralism as the source of all our anxiety and stress.

Moralism
Definition: The practice of moralizing, esp. showing a tendency to make judgments about others’ morality.

Morality
Definition:
1. The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct.
2. A system of ideas of right and wrong conduct: religious morality; Christian morality.
3. Virtuous conduct.
4. A rule or lesson in moral conduct.

And so moralism is ingrained in our modern culture as a hangover from our more rigid authoritarian past, where governments used organized religion to keep their populace (and their military forces) in line. Here’s a shocker: stealing is bad. Another tip? Killing is bad, too. But beyond the obvious ‘sins’, modern society seems filled with rules and taboos which are much more nuanced. The system of decreeing what is good and what is bad is actually hotly debated by philosophers, legal experts, psychologists and political figures. But as long as we cling to this system of judging our fellow men and women as being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ people, we’re still stuck in this moralism loop.

Moralism gets us into trouble because being ‘good’ or being ‘bad’ is the reason why we lie to begin with. And having a head full of lies is what agitates and paralyses us. Over time, the guilt of dishonesty wells up inside us, and we either erupt (eg. passive aggressive) on our loved ones, go into hiding (escapism, or literally skipping town), or use some kind of drug/medication to numb the pain. Alas, Good and Moral Society is made up of total liars, it would seem. And after they lie, they get a knot in their stomach, or in their minds, that never goes away until they come clean. You’ll never get what you want if you don’t ask for it, and ‘don’t ask for it’ is exactly what you do when you lie. You suppress your true needs, until you go crazy.

Part of that suppression is creating a PG-13 version of your actual self, called a ‘personality’. A personality is a subset of character traits that are ‘suitable’ and ‘good’ in today’s society. In other words, if you’ve cherry picked certain parts of your personality to reveal to the world, you aren’t being totally honest about what you think or what you believe, and you start to become a dishonest person. And in so doing, you divert some of your life energy away from life and towards suppressing your true self. Ouch.

The book takes you through a range of exercises you can use to build a whole new relationship with your friends, lovers and family, and I must say, it’s pretty amazing. Once you establish a policy and habit of total honesty, you can actually get back all the passion and energy you’ve been suppressing for the last 20 years ‘trying to be a good person’, and it seems to have an incredibly expansive effect on various aspects of life, releasing us from the paradox of ‘good’ vs ‘bad’, so we can resume our carefree honest lives.

I’d love to hear your thoughts by commenting on this post in Twitter

]]> http://21tiger.com/2013/04/12/on-moralism-the-truth-shall-set-you-free/feed/ 0 21tiger Libra-astrology-15139498-1753-1274 http://21tiger.com/2013/04/05/renaissance/ http://21tiger.com/2013/04/05/renaissance/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 05:38:06 +0000 Michael A. Robson http://21tiger.com/?p=2288 ]]>

“People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.” – Alan Kay, 1982

Back in 2011, then-CEO of Google Eric Schmidt was asked which are the most important companies in the Technology business: he named Google, Apple, Amazon, and  Facebook. What do these companies have in common? Each of them dominates their respective corner of the Tech industry: Google clearly dominates Online Advertising and Services, Apple dominates Mobile Devices, Amazon dominates eCommerce and Facebook dominates Social networking.

a) You may have noticed that since those words were spoken, each of those companies has started to nudge into each others’ respective space. Google makes beautiful hardware now. They also do a Social Network. Apple is now a huge Online Gaming and Services company. And Facebook, clearly is chewing more and more of Google’s Ad business up.

b) You may also notice that two very strong companies are missing from that list: Microsoft and Samsung.

“Beleaguered” Microsoft is off the list because they happen to dominate a sector that is very large, but growing less and less attractive with each quarter: the traditional desktop/laptop PC industry.  Yes, they’ve moved into the Search Engine business, and they’re doing their own hardware. Frankly, they do everything now. And their partners don’t know what to think.

And Samsung? Well, they weren’t as dominant in 2011 as they are now. Surely they deserve a seat at the table. But to do so they have to bump Apple off the ‘Mobile Devices’ spot. And they have, outselling (or basically matching) Apple in Mobile devices sold last quarter. The line is that only two companies are making any money in the mobile phone business, Apple and Samsung: Apple gets 75% of industry profits and Samsung gets 25%. So for now, Apple is still the king of Mobile devices, but that could change very quickly.

So what does the industry look like going forward: all of these businesses are going to be fighting over engineers in hardware, software, and cloud services, with advertising pushing down prices wherever the customer will bear it (remember Google makes almost all their money from ads; same with Facebook). They’ll make their own devices, with their own software platforms, and host their own cloud services. And they’ll beg you to jump ship.

And that’s where Alan Kay and the Renaissance Man comes in. For decades Apple was uniquely positioned as the only Renaissance tech company in the world, because they made the “whole widget”. Their kooky ideas on corporate strategy were actually taken from way back in the early IBM days, when specialization was impossible. Apple made the whole widget and was ridiculed for it, year after year. Eventually, the haters couldn’t keep laughing. Apple kept winning. So here we are, in 2013, and every one of these major players is going old-school in full ‘vertical integration’ mode. Thats’ why today’s Facebook Event was so brilliant: Zuckerberg hopes to overthrow the entire Android install base of devices, without hiring a single factory worker.

And what’s at stake? Lock-in. Each of these companies is building a mobile devices and development platform (yes, even Amazon) in the hopes of getting you to buy a few apps, and lock you in to their ecosystem of hardware and services. It happened with Windows, it happened with iTunes Music Store, and it’s happened with the App Store. In the next few years, consumers are going to be forced to pick a platform to host all of their music, photos, apps and games. And just like Microsoft all those years ago, we all benefit when we converge on a single platform–dare I say it–a monopoly. Give Microsoft their due: they were bloody rich, bloody competitive and bloody scary. But they just had a monopoly on a couple markets.

Imagine one company owning the whole damn industry.

I noticed recently that I’m addicted to starting new things–addicted to beginnings. When I got bored of Chinese, I studied Korean, and then Japanese.When I got bored of reading Dewey’s Art as Experience, I drop it and started reading Goethe.When I get bored of a particular career, I jump. When I get bored of a particular girl, I wander.

I like the beginnings of movies, when we meet the characters the first time, and set up the conflict, but by the end of it, the 20 minutes of non-stop explosions bore me to tears. I like the beginning of books, whether I’m writing them or reading them. Sometimes I fire up old video games I used to play in the 90′s, play for a while, then within 10 minutes I’m done. Starting the game is enough. Actually playing the game is dull.

Over and over I come back to this paradox. Skillsets, talents, and new ventures are incredibly enjoyable to start, but eventually become work, and lose their appeal.

It follows then, that the only way to stick with something to a level of Mastery is to do it for another reason. Rather than the stimulation or enjoyment or ego trip you get from picking up a new skill, get addicted to the process. Perhaps masters don’t think it’s fun, but they still get a great deal of satisfaction from the process. If you focus too much on your day to day progress, you’ll become dejected and frustrated whenever you hit a speed bump. Speed bumps, challenges, learning curves–these things happen. Overtime, our skills improve, and our ability to derive tremendous satisfaction improves.

Focus: pick a few things to focus on— not for fun, or for money, but choose a process that is satisfying, preferably out of the range of hobbies and skills you’ve already begun to study. Note that you will never be rewarded for being mediocre at six different things but by mastering a few of them and merging them together, and developing all new disciplines. For example, merging cutting edge computer software, and cutting edge graphic design leads to breakthroughs and invigorating work. Being mediocre at five different hobbies can never hope to reach this level of breakthrough.Satisfaction over ‘Fun’. Know thyself. Focus like crazy.

How about a platform? Okay, so it’s an overused term. Let’s try to flesh it out. Microsoft is a platform. Facebook is a Social platform. Comedy Central is a Platform. Your favourite  Podcast is a platform.  So what the hell is a platform and why’s it so important?

When I hear the word, I think of the stage in my old high school gym. It’s just a wooden stage (Let’s take this literally, then walk it back). The stage is the performers stand on. Not just you, but everyone in the performance. They all stand on this raised ‘platform’ and do their thing. Because they’re on the platform, more people can see them; because more people can see them, the play, concert or performance can be 10 times as successful. If they just stood on the floor, everyone past row 3 would be checked out. Seems pretty simple.

If you’re good at your job, you are a platform on which others can stand, rely, and thrive. They depend on you for their prosperity. Whether you work at the 7-11, or Bain Capital, you’ve got to account for those who depend on you (above and below you). Is it a big number? Great. If not, get to work.

Your platform is the best way to compete against other companies and others in your field. Why? Because the world is full of totally cool, well-educated, but mostly self-centred people. Yeah. Just like you. Your employees and colleagues and…your customers. They want to make money. If your’e helping them do that, you’re doing your job. If you’re just covering your ass, you’re not. Help others thrive on your platform, then brag about it (Yup that graphic is Apple does it). I came this realization, like all great realizations, by stealing it from someone much smarter than me. Hard work and smarts are great, but they’re not sustainable. Build a platform of excellence (strong partners and customers), and you’ll outlast everyone. 100 or 1,000 people working on the same project will always be better than the Lone Ranger. Speaking of which, focusing on your platform will force you to correct ‘glitches’ in your personality that have held you back in the past. Yes these are reasons why you do job interviews, and write quirky cover letters. Personality is huge. The way you make your employees feel is everything. And it’s so much more important than where you got your MBA.

Not only does platform promotion help your business life, it works in your personal life too. You (or your friendship) are of like a platform for fun and happiness for in the people in your life. Feeling lonely? Maybe your platform sucks. Maybe, just maybe, you, like 90% of people out there, have only been thinking about what makes them money, and what makes them happy.

See where I’m going here? The platform is just a model we’re using here to describe the relationships you have the people around you. They’re using you. And you’re using them. It doesn’t mean they don’t love you. If you wanna be happy make 10 other people happy (on the subway, in your office, at a house party, at a night club, whatever). If you wanna be rich make 10 other people rich (again, customers, partners, colleagues, bosses). Why are we able to use this model everywhere, and see so many fantastic results? Because behind all the bullshit titles, entities, groups, labels, the world is full of people. If you suck with people, everything in your life will be hard; if you focus on making those around your better off, happier, richer, everything is easy.

I’d love to hear your thoughts by commenting on this post in Twitter and Facebook

Take, for example, Ikkyu Sojun, an eccentric 14th century Zen Buddhist monk. Separated from his parents at an early age, he travelled Japan, bouncing from one Zen master to the next. What made him such a wildly popular folk hero in Japan was his rampant flouting of the norms, the status quo, and even the most sacred practices of Zen. Here was an idealist, one who looked at something so pristine as Zen meditation and the priesthood and saw rampant hypocrisy. Though he achieved enlightenment at an early age, his subsequent behaviour confounded observers.

Ikkyū was among the few Zen priests who believed it was better to toss out the old rules than live as a hypocrite; he was even seen walking into brothels and cavorting with pavilion girls. He would later insist that lustful acts were religious in their intimacy, and no one, not even a monk, should be denied them. Though it was not acceptable behaviour, of course there were many monks that would frequent the bars and brothels of Ancient Japan. They usually wore plainclothes, so as not to be recognized, but not Ikkyu. He wore his monk garb and proclaimed that the act of sex was a part of the great awakening.

The depth of understanding here is incredibly subtle: what is good and what is bad? Is the prostitute bad for having such a dirty profession, or is the customer bad for supporting it? Perhaps both are bad, or perhaps both are good for acting in line with their thoughts. There is a primitive form of Integrity, Honesty and (dare I say) Integration at play here, which is absent in many modern day priests.

In the end of the pursuit of sense pleasure is an empty one. And therein lies the very subtle difference: perhaps what Ikkyu sought upon entering these Japanese bars was not physical stimulation, but the honest expression of himself. It is the motive, not the act itself, that seems to determine right and wrong (and yes, I’m aware much of this sounds like revisionist justification). There is beauty in simplicity here: when you’re thirsty, drink. When you’re hungry, eat. The danger comes not in the eating, but in thinking about food before you eat, and after you’ve already eaten. It’s the grasping that gets you in trouble.

Despite his odd and even sinful behavior, Ikkyu was revered in his later age. By holding to his principles, he was decisive. Even when he was offered honours and certificates from the temples he found to be so hypocritical, he refused to graciously accept them. His own fame and acclaim were meaningless compared to his integrity. This consistency and resiliency is part of what makes legends, and folk heroes. He absolutely refused to act hypocritically. Some believe meditation, years and years of peaceful meditation, to be the key to a peaceful mind–and equanimous mind. Perhaps Ikkyu simply believed integrity and radical honesty to be the key to still relaxed mind, and a contented spirit.

I’d love to hear your thoughts by commenting on this post in Twitter and Facebook

The reason I mentioned going to a Second Tier city is because it will force you to learn all this stuff. Have a Chinese friend take you to the local bookstore (yes they have those), and help you pick out something you’d be interested in reading if it were in English. Horror stories, sports biographies, business books (yawn), Harry Potter, Twilight, whatever. For me it was this huge collection of legendary writer/director Alfred Hitchcock’s short stories, all translated into Chinese (not just one huge book, but two). This method works for me: it’s expanded by vocab massively in the last two months, and best of all, it’s actually enjoyable.

1. Crack the book open and try to read one page of text, and highlight in bright yellow any words you don’t know. This should take you about five minutes, depending on the font size. Adjust accordingly. If there are some words you don’t know, that’s okay: think of them like speedbumps. Skip over them, spending but a few seconds to guess at the sound/meaning, then move on. Get comfortable with ambiguity.

2. In lined notebook, try to write out all the characters, or groups of characters you don’t know along the left side, one phrase per line. Remember, you could very well know the exact meaning of each of the characters and still not know what the heck it means (these are idioms or expressions, most likely). Write ‘em down anyway. For Chinese, that’s ‘Chinese characters/汉语拼音/English meaning’. Where did I get the Pinyin and English from? Next step.

3. You’ll need either a Smartphone for this (I have Android and an iPod touch–both work). Go into the language settings and switch on the Chinese language input (if your monochrome Nokia phone doesn’t have this, you’re sunk). Fiddle around with the settings, until you’ve switched on the International Keyboard (Chinese/Simplified) and something Touch Input (手写). This will allow you to ‘draw’ the Chinese characters with your finger. The trick is, if you want to write it slowly, don’t take your finger off the screen until you know what to write next. Two seconds after you take your finger off the screen, the phone will give you suggestions. Test it out so you can write basic stuff in Chinese, and  send a Chinese text message to your friends. Cool! It’s just like 汉语拼音 but 10 times slower! In all seriousness, this little piece of tech is a godsend (you don’t know want to know how Chinese paper dictionaries work).

4.Now go back to that list of new words on your lined notebook. You should never have more than one full page (one side) of new words– it’s too intimidating/daunting. Any more than that and definitely scale back the amount you’re reading (or switch to an easier novel/comic book). Using your smartphone and Google Translate (you should bookmark the site, creating a one-tap link, for these daily study sessions). Google Translate will give you the Hanyu Pinyin (Romanization), and the English meaning. Write them both down in your lined book for each new Chinese word/expression.

5. Lastly, read through the original Chinese text again, this time with your ‘cheat sheet’, and be sure to understand everything that’s going on in the story. Good job! Now you’re hooked.

(Optional: Use this lined bookas a Vocab list, and read through it before each daily session. As you memorize more pages you can tear out the oldest pages)

Update 5/1/2013:  Once you get up to an decent level.. you’ll want to read faster and faster, and the whole ‘making lists’ thing will feel like a drag. Instead, just read along with a smartphone and as you come upon new Chinese characters you don’t know, use your wifi-enabled device to look up the character (Google Translate is decent) using the input method where you draw the strong directly on the touch screen. You’ll get the English translation back, as well as the Pinyin Romanization (which you can write the directly on the page, if you want, assuming you own the book) and then continue on with the story. This will dramatically increase you reading speed and your engagement level in whatever you’re reading.

I’d love to hear your thoughts by commenting on this post in Twitter and Facebook

I’ve been learning Chinese for ages, so I’m in some position to actually give advice to anyone dying to learn Chinese. For anyone Learning to Speak Chinese, my advice is to study Basic Chinese in your home country, (Lots of Podcasts on this, like ChinesePod, Popup Chinese, and iMandarinPod on this, many great resources are free) then go to China as soon as possible. Resist the temptation to ‘get better’ by sitting at your desk. That’s what I did, and it was mostly a waste. Without confidence (which comes from experience, not booze), your studies are worthless. I learned more in two months in Shenzhen, China (no I didn’t work at Foxconn) than I did in like 5 years studying in Canada. So get your basics, then get on a plane.

Where to? I’d suggest one of China’s second tier cities (二线城市), a group of cities, the Chinese government and media have deemed ‘average’ size (between 8 and 12 million people!) Here’s the list: Nanjing, Wuhan, Shenyang, Xi’an, Chengdu, Chongqing (contender for biggest city ever),Hangzhou, Qingdao, Dalian, Ningbo, Ji’nan, Harbin, Changchun, Xiamen, Zhengzhou, Fuzhou, Urumqi, Kunming, Lanzhou,Suzhou, Wuxi.

So if you want to kick serious butt in Chinese, absolutely take an English teaching position at one of these “smaller” cities.  The smaller the city, the faster your Chinese learning will accelerate. English teachers get great salaries for basically goofing off (I tried it. It’s really fun), and in your time off you can explore the city, the food, and practice speaking Chinese (also known as ‘freaking out the locals’). Bonus points if you can make friends, and get a few phone numbers. There is nothing better than having fun in a foreign country, both for your sanity, and your language experience. Don’t believe the hype: every “amazing linguist” you’ve ever met, or seen on TV, got that way by having fun (read: partying, socializing and dating) in a foreign language.

Next up, I’ll discuss my method for learning to read and write Chinese.

I’d love to hear your thoughts by commenting on this post in Twitter and Facebook