大家好! (Hi, everyone!) Welcome to the latest Mandarin Weekly, with yet more links and information for those of us learning Chinese.
Please tell your Chinese teachers, fellow students, and others about this free resource.
To receive Mandarin Weekly in your e-mail inbox every Monday, just use the subscription box on the left side at MandarinWeekly.com. Or follow us on Twitter, at @MandarinWeekly!
New Year traditions
Chinese New Year is about to begin, and it’s thus time for us to learn (or re-learn) the words and phrases that have to do with that festival. In this post, we learn about popular traditions among people celebrating Chinese New Year:
http://speakupchinese.tumblr.com/post/138224129866/chinese-new-year-traditions
Twitter: @SpeakUpChinese
Chinese New Year vocabulary
Written Chinese also chimes in with a vocabulary list for the Chinese New Year:
https://www.writtenchinese.com/chinese-new-year-greetings-useful-cny-words/
Twitter: @WrittenChinese
Boom! Crash! Ouch!
How do you express certain real-world sounds in Chinese? This article introduces onomatopoeia, Chinese style, with many useful words and phrases:
http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/blog/2016/01/27/onomatopoeia-chinese/
Twitter: @FluentU
Two ways of saying “two”
Why does Chinese have two ways to say “two,” and when is each used?
http://mandarin.about.com/od/usingnumbers/fl/Two-ways-of-saying-two-in-Mandarin.htm
Useful grammar patterns
Certain grammar patterns repeat themselves all of the time in Chinese. In this posting, we learn about two of them, “VERB 一VERB” and VERB + 来/去:
http://www.duchinese.net/blog/15-would-you-like-some-goldfish-tea
Twitter: @DuChinese
Creative ways to express love
How can you say “I love you” in Chinese? This video provides us with 13 different ways to express your affection:
http://www.fluentinmandarin.com/content/13-ways-to-say-i-love-you-in-chinese/
Twitter: @Fluent_Mandarin
Beginner Chinese videos
Just starting to learn Chinese? Here are some videos that you can use to get a jump-start on your learning of the language:
http://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/10-beginner-chinese-videos/
Twitter: @ChineseLanguage
Saying “yes” and “no”
LearnChineseNow answers one of the most common questions asked by newcomers to Chinese: How do you say “yes” and “no”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7kn4dB9MU0
Twitter: @LearnChineseNow
A Spanish couple
Learn about an elderly Spanish couple in this story, read aloud, with characters and Pinyin:
http://chinese-at-ease.com/learn-chinese-online-one-lifetime-one-couple/
Twitter: @ChineseAtEase
Chinese pronouns
How well do you know your pronouns in Chinese? This chart and introduction from Dig Mandarin should help you to get started and/or serve as a useful reminder:
http://www.digmandarin.com/pronouns-in-chinese-characters.html
Twitter: @DigMandarin
The “knife” radical
Another list of characters containing the “knife” radical:
Top Chinese adjectives
YuTing from ChineseClass101 provides us with a video, demonstrating and pronouncing 25 common adjectives in Chinese:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZe4hH67UZw
Twitter: @chineseclass101
Where are you from?
What country are you from? That is a common question you’ll get when in China; with this list, you’ll (probably) be able to answer them:
http://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/countries-nationalities-and-languages-in-chinese/
Twitter: @ChineseLanguage
Long-distance relationships
Seeing someone special? But they live far away? In this video, ChinesePod offers us the chance to learn how to talk about such relationships in Chinese:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHHIkh6PRWM
Twitter: @ChinesePod
Tiger-related idioms
Chengyu, Chinese idoms, are an important part of learning to speak and understand Chinese. Many include tigers. In this posting, we learn about several of the more common tiger-related Chengyu:
http://www.digmandarin.com/tiger-stories-and-idioms-in-chinese.html
Twitter: @DigMandarin
Numbers, from 11 – 100
Want to count from 11 to 100 in Chinese? It’s surprisingly easy, as indicated in this video from ChineseClass101:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPBZqbjlU6Q
Twitter: @chineseclass101
Translating nouns
Translating from Chinese to English isn’t always so straightforward; in this posting, we get some practice trying to perform such translations:
https://mandarinwithmanu.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/nouns-are-weird-translation-exercises/
Twitter: @MandarinWManu
Famous Chinese dishes
Traveling to China? Or just want to eat authentic Chinese food? This list of famous dishes, including their characters, will help to set you straight:
Did learning Chinese change your life?
A discussion among people who are relatively fluent in Chinese, who tell us how knowing the language has affected their lives and careers:
Do Chinese children learn Pinyin?
Do Chinese children learn Pinyin, either before or while learning characters?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Chinese/comments/431h6n/is_pinyin_taught_in_chinese_schools/
Do native speakers know their tones?
If you ask a native speaker to identify the tones, can they do it? Does this matter for non-native speakers who are learning Chinese?
How’s it going?
How can you ask someone how something is going? And when you do so, how which 的/得 is appropriate?
Li Li Li
What is the difference between the characters 裡, 裏 and 里? All are pronounced lǐ, but are the meanings or uses different?
Your opinion, please
What is the difference between 看法 and 想法? Both seem to mean “opinion,” but are they used in different ways?
I thought so
What is the difference between 认为 (rèn wéi) and 以为 (yǐ wéi)? Both seem to mean “I thought so,” but they aren’t quite the same:
Beautiful and ugly behavior?
You can use 美 and 丑 to indicate that something is beautiful or ugly. But does this work for behavior, or is it limited to appearances?
Receiving
There are two ways to receive something in Chinese, and the distinction between 受 (shòu) and 收 (shōu) isn’t always obvious: