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4 Direct Approaches to Jump Start Your Mandarin
Why do things the hard way if you don't need to? Learning a language is not a one size fits all endeavor. For this reason, we suggest selecting a study method and focusing your energy towards your...
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Ten suprisingly simple weird characters
Last week we brought you some of the most obscure, complex characters in Chinese. This week we’re taking things in a different direction, and showing some of the most unusual simple characters. Some of...
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Mastering the Fine Art of Compliment Dodging
No matter your Mandarin speaking level - beginner, expert or somewhere in between - be prepared to be over-praised. As you progress with your language studies, you're going to face an inordinate number...
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Diplomat Dialect
In a press conference in 1963, Western journalists asked what weapon hit a U-2 reconnaissance aircraft from Taiwan, and Chen Yi, the then foreign minister, replied, “We poked at it with bamboo sticks.”...
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Xie Hou Yu - A Chinese "Game of Riddles"
Xiē hòu yǔ 歇后语 is a two-part enigmatic folk simile, that starts off with a basic statement and finishes with a twist. They are humorous and witty sayings from a variety of sources: Chinese mythologies,...
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Five tips to improve your Chinese handwriting
Hand-writing characters is often considered one of the most difficult parts of learning Chinese, even to native speakers. While many lament the slow death of calligraphy at the hands of pinyin input...
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Challenge Yourself With This Lively Chinese Language Tongue Twister
Some of our linguistically inclined Cantonese friends wouldn’t let us publish China Simplified: Language Gymnastics without including this beloved Cantonese tongue twister. The Cantonese recording...
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The Hardest Chinese Character
The character biáng requires 62 total strokes to write and contains a 馬 horse, 月 moon,刂 knife and 心 heart plus other radicals. Biáng doesn’t exist in Modern Standard Mandarin which only serves to...
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Ethanol tampons
Oh, the things you can buy at your local Carrefour... Language Log takes a look at this product name translation gone horribly wrong. more »LanguageEthanol tamponschinglishLanguage Logfailfunny
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Top 5 Free Online Chinese Dictionaries
Well, the dust has settled and the much beloved and maligned Nciku Chinese online dictionary has gone to the great website graveyard in the sky. Now where on the web can you go to look up your latest...
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Useful Everyday Chinese Phrases
According to the Beijing Chinese Character Study Bureau, there are exactly 91,251 Chinese characters in use today, from which one could derive an almost infinite number of words and expressions. We’ve...
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On the Character Quan 权: Right to Rule
The character 权 (quán) is the ultimate symbol for power and authority in Chinese. Such power, or 权力 (quánlì), may stem from an incredible amount of wealth or prestige and reputation. But 权 is not just...
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Street Talk: Fanning the Flames
Chinese have their own slang to describe all manner of obsessive fans, not to mention their various subsets: "black fans", "advanced black fans", and "brain-damanged fans"... Which type of obsessive...
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Minority Languages Stare into the Abyss
While China enjoys a fabulous linguistic diversity, many of them may not live out the next few generations. A recent Chinese study identified 129 “independent” languages being spoken within her borders...
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Mandarin for When You're Sick | Shanghai Expat Blog
The best thing about being sick is taking time off work, taking medicine, and recuperating. The worst part is struggling to do all of the above through a language barrier. With this guide, though,...
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Appreciating and Complimenting Female Beauty
Have one of these timeless expressions ready for when you need it! Beauty is subjective; we all get that. And while there are plenty of online posts about the latest pretty girl expressions, we...
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Street Talk: Hole in the Head | The World of Chinese
Open up your 'head hole' and your imagination by diving head-first into these peculiar phrases. The saying overlaps with “open your mind”, much in the same way a book would “open your mind”. But, it...
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Kaiser's "Dude System" of Tones
John Pasden shares the "dude system" for understanding Chinese tones, originally developed by Kaiser Kuo for The Beijinger, including an audio example. more »Languagecsllearning chinesemandarinchinese...
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Real spoken Chinese (video interviews) “What makes you laugh?”
Struggling to understand spoken Mandarin in conversations with Chinese people? This video post is the first in a series aimed at helping learners improve their listening ability through exposure to a...
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On the Character 神
Evolution of the storm deity was anything but lightning fast, here's everything you need to know about origins of the character 神 (god/deity) and its usages in everyday life. more »Languagecharacter...
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