Fluent in Mandarin.com: Recent Episodes
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Click here to download the MP3 audio of the video 中国人早餐一般喜欢吃什么？ Zhōngguórén zǎocān yībān xǐhuān chī shénme? What do Chinese people normally eat for breakfast? 早上中国人一般喜欢吃一些热的食物，比如说最受欢迎的粥类： Zǎoshang zhōngguó rén yībān xǐhuān chī yīxiē rè de shíwù, bǐrú shuō zuì shòu huānyíng de zhōu lèi: In the morning, Chinese people generally like to eat hot […]
Click here to download the MP3 audio 哪个季节最适合来中国旅游? Nǎge jìjié zuì shìhé lái zhōngguó lǚyóu? Which is the best season to travel in China? 大家都知道，中国的地域非常广，所以你可以在不同季节到中国的不同地区，去领略这个季节所带来的美景。 Dàjiā dōu zhīdào, zhōngguó de dìyù fēicháng guǎng, suǒyǐ nǐ kěyǐ zài bùtóng jìjié dào zhōngguó de bùtóng dìqū, qù lǐnglüè zhège jìjié suǒ dài lái de měijǐng. Everybody […]
Click here to download the MP3 audio 学习中文有什么好处？ Xuéxí zhōngwén yǒu shénme hǎochù? What are the benefits of learning Chinese? 首先，学习中文可以帮助你更方便地来中国旅游，体验中国的美食，美景。 Shǒuxiān, xuéxí zhōngwén kěyǐ bāngzhù nǐ gèng fāngbiàn de lái zhōngguó lǚyóu, tǐyàn zhōngguó de měishí, měijǐng. First of all, studying Chinese will make it more convenient for you to travel in China, and […]
In this video, I outline the basics of writing Chinese characters. In fact, there are only a handful of strokes that are used to write all the characters in Chinese. Check out the video above to find out what these basic strokes are and practise writing a few characters yourself. And if you have any […]
People ask me all the time why I wanted to learn Chinese. Living in China, I also get this question a lot when I first start talking to people, and I often just give answers like: “Because I’m interested in the culture.” “Because I’m interested in foreign languages.” “Because I wanted to get the chance […]
There are a few words in Chinese that can be translated as ‘think’. I’ll explain them in this post. Some of the time, 想 (xiǎng)，觉得 (juéde) and 认为 (rènwéi) can be used interchangeably, but they do have slightly different meanings 想 means ‘think’ – referring to a thought/idea (想 also means ‘to want to’ do […]
看 (kàn) can mean ‘look at’ 让我看看 Ràng wǒ kànkan Let me have a look 人老了，眼睛看不清楚了 Rén lǎo le, yǎnjīng kàn bu qīngchu le When people get old, they can longer see clearly 看 (kàn) also means ‘watch’ (sports games/TV/plays) 我喜欢看足球比赛 Wǒ xǐhuan kàn zúqiú bǐsài I like watching soccer/football games. 你看过《星球大战》吗？ Nǐ kànguo xīngqiú […]
‘Can’ or ‘be able to’ is an easy verb to translate in many languages, but in Chinese it is not so simple. There are 4 words/ways to translate the idea of ‘being or not being able to do something’ in Chinese depending on the sentence: 1. Using a verb complement 2. 会 huì 3. 可以 […]
想 (xiǎng), 要 (yào) and 想要 (xiǎng yào) in Chinese are confusing to a lot of people, because they do mean similar things. However, each one is used differently, so let’s clear up the differences Use 要 (yào) when you are saying that you ‘want’ something physical or an object 我要一瓶啤酒 Wǒ yào yī píng […]
There are normally two words that you use for ‘know’ in Chinese, depending on the situation: 知道 zhīdào and 认识 rènshi 认识 rènshi normally means to know of a person or a place, or (be able to) recognise 你认识路吗？nǐ rènshi lù ma? Do you know the way? 你认识多少字？Nǐ rènshi duōshao zì? How many characters do […]