Mandarin Weekly #139

 

Image

This is Mandarin Weekly #139, a free newsletter read by more than 20,000 students of Chinese around the world.

Customize Mandarin Weekly for your interests and learning level, and support the creation of each issue, by subscribing to Mandarin Weekly Plus. It costs less than $1/week, and less than 50¢/week for students. Click here to subscribe!

If you enjoy Mandarin Weekly, please share it with others. And don’t forget to take advantage of our list of discounts for students of Chinese.

To receive Mandarin Weekly every Monday, sign up MandarinWeekly.com. Every Tuesday, we go up on Facebook, at http://facebook.com/MandarinWeekly, Medium, at http://medium.com/@mandarinweekly, and Twitter, at @MandarinWeekly.  Please like, share, and retweet us!

If you offer products or services aimed at students of Chinese, and want to sponsor one or more issues, then please contact Reuven at reuven@lerner.co.il.

Step by Step, by MayDay Intermediate Culture Video

May Day is a popular Taiwanese band. Follow and learn one of their most popular songs, to get a better sense of Chinese culture — and of course, to learn some new words and phrases. And if nothing else, the video has some amazing pictures of an elephant:

https://www.tutormandarin.net/en/learn-chinese-song/

Twitter: @MyTutorMandarin

Sad words Beginner Vocabulary Video

Feeling down? Express it in Chinese with the words introduced in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjAQIXh2QV8

Twitter: @chineseclass101

App roundup All Reviews

Which apps should you use to learn Chinese? Here is a list of the best and best-known ones:

https://www.chinasmack.com/5-best-mandarin-chinese-learning-apps

Improve your speech All Reviews

Chinese is hard to pronounce for many foreigners — and yet, pronunciation is key if you’re going to gain fluency. Here is a review of Speechling, which tries to help you improve your pronounciation:

https://www.alllanguageresources.com/speechling-review/

Invented in China All Culture

Lots of everyday objects were invented in China. What things? Here’s a list that is almost guaranteed to surprise you:

https://www.writtenchinese.com/10-things-you-didnt-know-were-invented-in-china/

Twitter: @WrittenChinese

Vocabulary lists All Learning

Many blogs offer long lists of related vocabulary for you to study. Is that a good way to go? Here are some thoughts:

http://www.hackingchinese.com/should-you-learn-chinese-vocabulary-from-lists/

Twitter: @HackingChinese

So sorry! Intermediate Vocabulary Video

Are you sorry about something? You can express your remorse in a few ways, as described in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR8JUUs3wVM

Twitter: @ECLSchool

Chinese covers Intermediate Culture Video

Have you ever dreamed of listening to Western hits, translated into Chinese, sung by Chinese artists? Of course you have! Here are five Chinese versions of hits you might know, but sounding oh-so-slightly different:

http://www.fluentu.com/blog/chinese/2017/09/14/learn-chinese-with-music/

Twitter: @FluentU

The “Gao Kao” entrance exam All Culture

Chinese students who want to attend a university take the 高考 (gāo kǎo) exam, which can have a huge affect on their future. Here is a summary of what’s on the exam, how students take it, and how they prepare:

http://www.saporedicina.com/english/school-gao-kao/

Early success Intermediate Vocabulary Learning

How can you learn Chinese successfully? One way is to wake up early. But 早 (zǎo) has multiple meanings, as we see here:

https://themandarincornerblog.com/2017/09/11/is-this-the-key-to-langauge-learning-success/

Buying tickets Beginner Story

Planning to travel? This short story about airline tickets will get you in the mood:

http://www.imandarinpod.com/hoola/index.php/podcasts/14-2009-12-02-23-37-05/2943-2017-09-14-06-51-03

Twitter: @imandarinpod

Different kinds of “late” Intermediate Grammar

Both 迟 (chí) and. 晚 (wǎn) can mean “late,” but in different ways:

https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/26511/%e9%81%b2-vs-%e6%99%9a-in-mandarin-when-to-use-which-one

Recognizing vs. knowing Intermediate Grammar

The word 认识 (rèn shì) means to recognize, and 知道 (zhī dào) means to know. But are there times when it’s not obvious which to use, or when they have subtly different (but overlapping) meanings?

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/%E8%AE%A4%E8%AF%86-%E7%9F%A5%E9%81%93.3367207/

Talking vs. reporting Intermediate Grammar

Using 报告 (bào gào) or 演讲 (yǎn jiǎng) to describe a speech:

https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/26508/when-should-one-use-%e6%8a%a5%e5%91%8a-b%c3%a0og%c3%a0o-or-%e6%bc%94%e8%ae%b2-y%c7%8enji%c7%8eng-when-saying-to-give-a-talk


Also published on Medium.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *