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There are many thoughts which have been flowing through my mind for years. All of those thoughts have gradually – or not so gradually – shifted, and some of them have dispersed completely. The thoughts which have stayed with me are the thoughts I voice here.
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The Notes Which Do Not Fit 
Hi Sara,
I read with much interest your article about learning chinese by reading manga on Hacking Chinese. Thanks! It was inspirationnal.
I am studying chinese by myself and would like to find mangas in simplified chinese. My level is between beginner and intermediate, but my grammar is poor. I looked a lot on Internet to find references but most mangas seems to be in traditionnal caracters. If you have time, could you suggest a Web site or specific mangas that would be helpful?
Thanks again.
As someone who (currently) only reads traditional characters, I am not an expert on what’s available in simplified. Nonetheless, I know there are children’s manga which are available in simplified characters, including the extremely popular 哆啦A梦. You can get all 45 volumes of it in simplified characters at this site:
http://product.dangdang.com/product.aspx?product_id=20645820
If you want a cheaper option, you can explore this website with webcomics in simplified characters. There might be something there which might be suitable for you.
http://comic.zongheng.com/
Thanks for the dang dang link. I’ll order them. I’m a teacher-librarian K-6 looking for suitable /age appropriate offline comics and manga in simplified characters. I was also interested in your comment in hacking chinese about nonfiction comics and would appreciate if you have any leads on that again in the primary context. Thanks in advance.
Unfortunately, I can’t help you much with that, especially if you want simplified characters. Most of what I know about nonfiction Chinese-language comics comes from browsing bookstores in Taiwan, which obviously are going to be in traditional characters.
However, in a quick search on the dang dang website, I found a series of comics in simplified Chinese about various countries in the world (here’s a link to the one about France):
http://product.dangdang.com/23599013.html
Hi there! I have a question about your blog. Could you please email me when you get a chance? Thanks!!
Since I am not sure who you are, I would like to know more about you before I send you an email (if you want to keep it private, say so in the comment, and I will not publish the comment).
I’ve nominated you for the “Very Inspiring Blogger Award”! I don’t know how you feel about this, but you can check out the details in the post http://somethingqueertoread.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/193/ if you’re interested in it.
Hi,
Thank you very much for the nomination!
I am travelling now and my internet access is inconsistent, so about continuing the chain … well, that is to be determined.
Regardless of how I respond, it is an honor to accept this nomination!
-Sara
That’s ok, I just wanted to let you know I love your blog. I can’t wait to read about your travelling!
😀
I happen to talk about travel in the next scheduled post.
Hello Sarah,
How are you? I found your blog through your guest post in Olle’s blog Hacking Chinese. Awesome article!
It’s funny. I am actually making an infographic about Chinese learning. We ask bloggers the TOP THREE resources they use to learn Chinese.
Is it OK I send you an email? I am happy to send you the infographic when it’s done.
Hope I can hear from you. Either way, thanks Sarah and love your awesome blog:)
Cheers,
Yang
Hi Sara,
My name is Michael and I have been studying Chinese since 2008. I was in the military for 6 years as a Chinese translator and after separating a couple years ago I have struggled to find a Chinese-related job in the U.S. I am very interested to hear your story and how you managed to end up in Taiwan! Any advice for someone trying to make that big move to Asia (China/Taiwan in particular)? Thank you so much and I really enjoyed your post on Hacking Chinese.
Michael
To be honest, unless you already have some kind of lead (someone who can introduce you to a potential employer, someone who’s willing to host you for a while, etc.) I do not recommend moving to China or Taiwan for economic reasons. One of the reasons that I left Taiwan is that the economic situation for ordinary people was getting worse. I expect that things will get worse for jobseekers in China and Taiwan before they get better.
I don’t have any particular information on what it’s like to get Chinese-to-English translation work in Asia (I did not work in translation).
That said, if you are determined to go to Asia and try your luck, make sure you have enough savings to go for at least 3 months, ideally longer (cost of living is cheaper in Taiwan than in USA) and put effort into meeting people who can get you a job. I got my job in Taiwan by meeting in a hostel a guy who was leaving Taiwan, and he put in a recommendation at his employer to hire me as his replacement.
I am very biased, but unless you have particular reasons to choose China, I suggest that Taiwan is the better of the two.
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Hi Sara, have you ever come across dual language comics? I saw some (doraemon and others, eg. http://animeyume.com/files_not_in_use/rewrite_scans/PICT0176.jpg ) which had both languages running at the same time but I’m looking for something initially in english but which introduces basic and then increasingly complex Chinese words (hanzi) and phrases. Have you ever seen anything like that? Please keep this post private as if there isn’t anything like that, I’m thinking about creating it! Thanks, Ben
Replying to a private comment:
I am not familiar with anything like that. If you are going to try to create it, I wish you good luck 😀
EDIT: Whoops, I did not realize that replying would un-private your comment (I could not find your email address, otherwise I would have responded that way). If you wish, I can delete your comment.
Hi Sara! I came across your old blogs of the Legendary Couple/Return of the Condor Heroes. I was wondering if you knew where I could download the english versions digitally?
As far as I know, none of the English translations of the comic adaptations are available digitally.
If you mean the original novels, the first novel has been partially translated and published in English, and the publisher plans to publish the whole trilogy in English; there may be an ebook version available for sale, I haven’t checked.
Hi Sara
I’m not sure if you are aware of the wuxia society website:
https://wuxiasociety.com/translations/
It’s a collaborative effort by fans to translate Jin Yong novels into English. While I wouldn’t say the quality is on par with professional translators is still good enough to give non chinese readers a taste of the stories.
I too learned to read Chinese through a Jin Yong novels, but my first book was the much less popular 連城訣 Still, as my first, it still holds a special place, and the plot twists and characters are on par with any others
Yep, I’m aware, I’m even in the Discord server 😀