Later, when I was in college at the University of Wisconsin--Platteville,
I had the marvelous opportunity of beginning my studies.  The girl who
lived in the room across the hall was from Taiwan.  She gave me my
Chinese name -- a real Chinese name, one she spent a long time thinking
about -- Fung Li Xi ... it means Beautiful Poem and she chose it both because
of the sound and because I liked langauges.

She also taught me how to eat with
chopsticks -- but we didn't have
chopsticks -- so we used bic pens!
Trust me ... if you can pick your food up with
bic pens, chopsticks will never be a problem!

I've learned a bit about the Chinese culture from my friends.
I've learned more by sharing a house with students from
Taiwan, Hong Kong,  Mainland China, and Singapore for a year.

I studied Chinese at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison and had
the best professors in the world -- it was a total immersion class and was
taught in such a way that you just absorbed the grammar.  Tones were
no problem at all!  If you really want to learn Chinese -- and be able to
think Chinese -- I'd highly recommend taking classes with
Chen Gwang-tsai.  He developed his own curriculum and
it's fabulous!  I still remember a bit, tones & all, and it's
been more than 25 years!
 

Keep reading, cause I've got lots more below :)

Chinese Language Information Page
Chinese Language Related Links
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Now if you're  serious, here's a terrific place to go:
Chinese Teaching & Learning ...
I've spent quite a few hours playing with the downloads :)
It was really "cutting edge" when it started and it's only gotten
better as time goes on.

Dr Chen never made learning tones this complicated :) ...
but if you can't attend his classes, you might want to check out
Chinese Language Learning -- Tones.

Here's a site for Chinese writing:  Zhongwen.

No Chinese Langauge & Culture Page would be complete without
information on Chinese holidays -- especially since some of theirsare similar
to ours and others are  quite different.  Check these out:
Chinese Holidays ...
the big ones, with music!  It's a really terrific site with food, too.
Chinese New Year (changes annually)

Other neat, cultural stuff includes:
The Online T'AI CHI  CH'UAN Notebook
 
 

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My favorite opera is The Lady General Hua Mu-Lan
since I can't find that, I've settled for a number of Mu-Lan sites.
Hua Mu-Lan ... her history
Mu-Lan, the Poem  (5th or 6th Century)
Mu-Lan's Pavillion ... the story of the lady general (beautiful artwork!)
Mu Lan ... the movie (pre-Disney, I think)
Mu-Lan ... The Disney Flick ... it' ain't art like the Pavillion,
but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared.
 

More Chinese history ...
Hakka History
 
 
 
 

And, lastly, Splendid China ... if you're into glitzy
American tourist traps, you'll be disappointed.
But if you'd like to see miniatures of the major
Chinese landmarks.  Come to Florida
(if you can't make it to the original in Shenzhen).