Greetings other than 你好 (nǐ hǎo)
One of the first things that any Chinese lesson, book, or teacher will teach you is “你好 (nǐ hǎo).” 你好 translates into “Hello.” Funny enough, native Chinese speakers rarely use…
The Marvelous World of Chinese Metaphor — When you can’t see the point, and all compasses point north
In my posts, I’ve touched before on how important it is to approach language as a structure, not as a laundry list. When you learn phrases and sentences, rather than piecemeal words,…
Periodical Quora Q&As Digest about Chinese Learning – April 2015
Do you have inquiries about learning Chinese or about Chinese culture? Here we recommend a website called Quora.com. You can learn ask any question and there will be great answer…
The Chinese Way to Use ‘make’
When I learned English, ‘make’ was a verb, which always confused me. For me, there are too many meanings of ‘make’ and some of them are quite different in Chinese…
Tones Prefer Company! – A New Way to Practice Chinese Tones
When you hear someone discuss the basics of Mandarin pronunciation, they usually start with the four tones and give an example like the famous (mā má mǎ mà). To be…
Practical Chinese for Hospital Visits
(AKA The time I broke my elbow in China) No one wants to get sick or have an accident, but it happens – and as a foreigner in China it’s…
5 Tips to Full Immersion with Mandarin
Over the years that I’ve spent learning languages, I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on Chinese apps, books, courses and anything else you might be able to imagine. Some were excellent…
Monthly Digest of Chinese Learning – March 2015
There is an abundance of wonderful Chinese learning blogs and articles on the Internet. Sometimes it is just impossible to filter through every single one. Don’t you wish you had…
Why Chinese Stroke Order is Important and How to Master it
What is stroke order? The Chinese stroke order system was designed to produce aesthetically pleasing, symmetrical, and balanced characters written with brush and ink on paper. It allows for the…