Mandarin Weekly #160

 

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This is Mandarin Weekly #160, a free newsletter read by more than 21,000 students of Chinese around the world.

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Adverbs with 然 (rán) Intermediate Grammar

The character 然, when connected to another character, provides with a number of adverbs whose meanings are easy to understand, but hard to translate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nhgIjFirIk

Twitter: @ChinesePod

Click here to sign up for ChinesePod

Not again! Intermediate Grammar Video

Are you doing something again? Then you can use this useful and common grammar pattern:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2EN5E_fT04

Twitter: @ECLSchool

Sign up for ECL, and get one free week by mentioning “Reuven Lerner”

Why should kids learn Chinese? All Learning

Lots of adults are learning Chinese, but so are many children. Why? And why is that a great thing for them? Here are some reasons:

https://www.writtenchinese.com/6-reason-why-your-kids-should-be-learning-chinese/

Twitter: @WrittenChinese

Language or dialect? All Culture

There are many forms of Chinese, such as Cantonese. But should we consider Cantonese to be an independent (but related) language to Mandarin? Or is it a dialect of Chinese? This article describes some of the considerations, and the ongoing debate:

https://chinachannel.org/2018/02/06/language-or-dialect/

Twitter: @larbchina

Spring Festival vocabulary Intermediate Culture Vocabulary

It’s Chinese New Year, aka the Spring Festival! That means it’s time to dust off your festival vocabulary and use it with your Chinese friends. Here are some terms and customs to get you started:

https://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/chinese-vocabulary-for-spring-festival/

Twitter: @ChineseLanguage

Improve your vocabulary All Learning

What are some good techniques for improving your Chinese vocabulary?

http://www.chinese-breeze.com/my-personal-method-for-learning-chinese/

Tallying with Chinese Beginner Culture Characters

How do people in China tally things? They use the character 正 (zhèng), which has five strokes, as described here:

https://www.digmandarin.com/chinese-tally-mark.html

Twitter: @DigMandarin

Chinese documentaries Advanced Reviews Video

Want to improve your Chinese and your knowledge of China? Here are some documentaries you can watch four double learning:

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/chinese/2018/02/05/chinese-language-documentary/

Twitter: @FluentU

Unicycle or anatomy? All Learning

Is learning Chinese closer to learning anatomy, or to riding a unicycle? This post analyzes the different types of learning involved, and compares them with learning Chinese:

http://www.hackingchinese.com/learning-to-unicycle-learning-anatomy-and-learning-chinese/

Twitter: @HackingChinese

What do you know? Intermediate Vocabulary

There are three types of “knowing” in Chinese, and you should, well, know the difference between them:

https://themandarincornerblog.com/2018/02/04/so-you-think-you-know-this-chinese-word/

Don’t plastic me! Advanced Expressions

Young people in Taiwan have recently been using a new expression: Don’t plastic me can mean, “Don’t ignore me,” among other things:

https://medium.com/@twannotation/%E4%B9%9D%E5%B9%B4%E7%B4%9A%E7%94%9F%E7%9A%84%E5%90%B6%E5%96%8A-%E5%88%A5%E5%A1%91%E8%86%A0%E6%88%91-42eed0d9554c

Old phones Beginner Story

Have an old cellphone? Then you’ll sympathize with this story:

http://www.imandarinpod.com/hoola/index.php/podcasts/14-2009-12-02-23-37-05/3066-2018-02-06-02-42-02

Twitter: @imandarinpod

Migrant workers Advanced Story

What do you think about migrant workers? Here is a short story and discussion of the topic:

http://www.imandarinpod.com/hoola/index.php/podcasts/16-2009-12-02-23-37-52/3068-2018-02-08-10-41-51

Twitter: @imandarinpod

Something familiar Beginner Grammar

Do you know something well, then you should really learn this verb:

https://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/get-familiar-with-the-chinese-verb-%e7%86%9f%e6%82%89/

Twitter: @ChineseLanguage

Planning ahead Intermediate Vocabulary

Do you plan ahead? If so, then you might want to know the differences between several words that have to with planning and arranging:

https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/28740/difference-between-%e6%89%93%e7%ae%97-%e5%ae%89%e6%8e%92-and-%e8%ae%a1%e5%88%92

Changes Intermediate Vocabulary

How can you talk about change in Chinese? The words 变化 (biàn huà) and 改变 (gǎi biàn) aren’t quite the same, are they?

https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/28739/as-nouns-is-there-any-difference-between-%e5%8f%98%e5%8c%96-and-%e6%94%b9%e5%8f%98

Parentheses Advanced Grammar

How do you say “parentheses” in Chinese, and why are there multiple terms for them?

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/%E6%8B%AC%E5%BC%A7-%E6%8B%AC%E5%8F%B7.3422821/

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