Mandarin Weekly #64

大家好！ (Hi, everyone!) Welcome to the latest Mandarin Weekly, with yet more links and information for those of us learning Chinese.

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Tomb-Sweeping Day

Some background on Tomb Sweeping Day, which takes place today in China:

http://www.learnchinesechina.com/site-content/40-blog/1701-how-much-do-you-about-qingming-festival

Particles

Particles are characters that change the meaning of a sentence. This week, we learn about a few simple particles that can affect the timing of actions described:

https://www.writtenchinese.com/the-complete-guide-to-chinese-sentence-particles/

Twitter: @WrittenChinese

Dictionary errors

Chinese-English dictionaries often contain mistakes that can point to interesting facets of both Chinese and English:

http://carlgene.com/blog/2016/03/top-12-errors-in-chinese-english-dictionaries/

Twitter: @carlfordham

Bad wedding gifts

Are your friends getting married? Terrific! But if they’re Chinese, then some gifts are probably bad ideas?

http://www.echineselearning.com/blog/four-taboo-chinese-wedding-gift-ideas-intermediate

Twitter: @ECLSchool

Saying “thank you”

How do you say “thank you” in Chinese? Here are a number of expressions you can use, which mean “thank you” in different ways:

https://ninchanese.com/blog/2016/03/31/how-to-say-thank-you-in-chinese/

Saying “goodbye”

What are some ways to say “goodbye” in Mandarin?

http://www.fluentinmandarin.com/content/ways-say-goodbye-chinese/

Twitter: @Fluent_Mandarin

New wedding terms

How do you describe modern Chinese marriage arrangements in Chinese? This list should give you some linguistic and cultural insights:

http://www.digmandarin.com/emerging-marriages-china.html

Twitter: @DigMandarin

Dragons

China is famous for its depiction of dragons. But for mythical creatures, dragons have a fairly complex set of names, behaviors, and relationships! In this article, we learn about those dragons, and the ways in which we can discuss them in Chinese:

https://ninchanese.com/blog/2016/03/29/chinese-dragon/

Blind date

How do you prepare for a blind date in Chinese? Here are some good questions (and answers) to think about in advance:

http://www.getchinesetic.com/2016/03/how-to-prepare-for-chinese-blind-date.html

Spring!

Now that spring has arrived, here is a list of spring-related vocabulary to spice up your conversations:

http://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/chinese-spring-vocabulary/

Twitter: @ChineseLanguage

Tricky words

Having trouble pronouncing some words? Here is a guide, with some example words that are tough even for natives:

http://mandarinhq.com/2016/03/pronouncing-tricky-words-in-mandarin-chinese/

Twitter: @MandarinHQ

Discussing allergies

A short dialog (with characters, pinyin, and translation) about allergies in Chinese:

http://www.chinesetolearn.com/2016-dialogue-5-allergies-%E8%BF%87%E6%95%8F-guo-min-allergy/

Twitter: @ChineseToLearn

Sick of it

How can you use 讨厌 (tǎo yàn) in conversation to indicate you’re sick and tired of something?

http://themandarincornerblog.com/2016/03/28/im-sick-of/

Fortune cookies

Why are fortune cookies not to be found in China? Watch this video from LearnChineseNow, and find out why (or at least put a smile on your face):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_HqgKyfzZ0

Twitter: @LearnChineseNow

Things to burn

On Tomb Sweeping Day, it’s traditional to burn all sorts of things. What can you burn? Here’s a list, along with prices, for those who really want to give their deceased ancestors the best possible afterlife:

https://chinesepod.com/blog/22-things-you-can-burn-for-qing-ming-festival/

Twitter: @ChinesePod

Working in a Chinese office

What’s it like to work in a Chinese office? What sorts of Chinese terms must you learn to say? Here is an amusing article describing some of the pressures, expectations, and vocabulary for someone working there:

http://www.yoyochinese.com/blog/Chinese-Office-Culture-Work-In-China

Twitter: @YoYoChinese

WeChat vocabulary

How do you use WeChat (微信)? And how do you talk about it with your friends,using Chinese? This article will teach you both:

http://www.duchinese.net/blog/23-how-to-chat-with-chinese-using-wechat

Twitter: @DuChinese

Allergies

Do you have allergies?

http://www.chinesetolearn.com/2016-dialogue-5-allergies-%E8%BF%87%E6%95%8F-guo-min-allergy/

Twitter: @ChineseToLearn

How long does it take?

How long does it really take to learn Mandarin? The answser, of course, depends on how you define “learn”:

http://www.saporedicina.com/english/how-long-does-it-take-to-learn-mandarin/

Pronouncing radicals

Should you learn to pronounce the radicals? Should you be learning radicals? Here is a long description of what you can and can’t expect from learning such things?

http://www.hackingchinese.com/learn-pronunciation-of-radicals/

Twitter: @HackingChinese