Micro-blogging and language learning
Posted by Filed under Technology
Recently, I dipped into the Chinese microblogging world, ruled by 微波 (wēi bó). Like Twitter, it can be completely overwhelming to the uninitiated, especially with the millions of users and the Chinese interface. I wasn’t sure how much time or energy I wanted to spend on it, and how much benefit I would end up getting out of it. So here I sit at the edges without throwing myself in.
On one hand, there is a wealth of information out there, and so many people to interact with. I know some non-native speakers who rave about the service, and about how you can say so much more with Chinese characters than with English in the 140 character word limit.
On the other hand, there is a lot of slang and language shortcuts to navigate through, which is very intimidating for the average language learner.
Have you had any luck learning from foreign language blogs or microblogs? Would you recommend one over the other?