Month: December 2016

大家好！ (Hi, everyone!) This is Mandarin Weekly #102, a free newsletter with links and information for those of us learning Chinese.

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You’re great!

Intermediate How do you compliment someone in Chinese? And if you’re given a compliment, how do you respond? Here are some options, at different levels of difficulty, for you to use:

https://www.writtenchinese.com/the-right-way-to-compliment-and-show-thanks-in-chinese/

Twitter: @WrittenChinese

Using a dictionary

Intermediate If you want to say something but don’t know how, you might use a dictionary to find the appropriate term. How do you do this without using the completely wrong one?

http://www.hackingchinese.com/looking-use-words-chinese-right-way/

Twitter: @HackingChinese

Adjectives

Beginner You might think that adjectives are a simple subject, similar to adjectives in other languages. And in many ways, that’s right. But adjectives in Chinese can be a bit different and trickier than other languages, as explained here:

http://www.saporedicina.com/english/adjectives-in-chinese-grammar/

I’ll be off my phone… never

Beginner Are you addicted to your phone? Do you have friends who are addicted, checking their e-mail, messages, news, and social media every few minutes? If so, here’s a useful term: 手机控 (shǒu jī kòng), or “phone addict”:

https://themandarincornerblog.com/2016/12/18/what-to-say-when-your-chinese-friend-is-a-phone-addict/

Chinese cuisine(s)

Beginner Talking about “Chinese food” is like talking about “European food” — yes, there are some overall similarities, but each region of China has its own style, ingredients, and spicing. Here is an introduction to the various types of Chinese food you might encounter in China:

http://www.saporedicina.com/english/chinese-culinary-culture/

Doer of things!

Intermediate A brief introduction to the suffix 者 (zhě), which can be added to numerous words to give you a noun:

http://www.decodemandarinchinese.com/suffix-zhe-and-its-formula/

Twitter: @DecodeChinese

Pronouncing Chinese

Beginner Pinyin is a great way for Westerners to learn to read and pronounce Chinese. There’s just one problem: The Latin letters you’re used to from you native language don’t map to the sounds you’re used to hearing and saying. Here’s a brief video introduction, from ChineseClass101.com:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThldFzLouK8

Twitter: @chineseclass101

Using 之 (zhī)

Intermediate What is 之, and when would we use it? A short video introduction from LearnChineseNow.com:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vQgD3GJu2U

Twitter: @LearnChineseNow

Christmas words

Beginner It was Christmas this week, and while China doesn’t celebrate Christmas per se, there are lots of decorations, sales, and other seasonal specials. Here are some Christmas-related words in Chinese:

http://allaboutchinese.tumblr.com/post/154853194145/allaboutchinese-%E5%9C%A3%E8%AF%9E%E8%8A%82%E8%AF%8D%E6%B1%87-christmas-vocabulary

Christmas songs (in Chinese)

Intermediate Want to sing your favorite Christmas songs in Chinese? Here’s your chance, with these translations (using characters and sung in a video, but, no pinyin):

https://www.asianlanguageschool.com/christmas-songs-in-chinese/

Twitter: @AlsSydney

Breakfast in China

Beginner Breakfast in China isn’t like in other countries; here are some typical Chinese breakfast foods, along with their names in Chinese:

http://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/chinese-breakfast/

Twitter: @ChineseLanguage

Leftover eggs?

Beginner What do leftover eggs have to do with Christmas? A Chinese pun, along with other Chinese customs around Christmas:

https://chinesepod.com/blog/leftover-eggs-christmas/

Twitter: @ChinesePod

Multiplication rhyme

Intermediate Want to practice your multiplication tables in Chinese? Of course you do! Not only will it teach you some Chinese, and also give you a cute rhyme, but it might even help you with math in your native language:

http://www.yoyochinese.com/blog/Learn-Chinese-Multiplication-Rhyme-Time-Tables

Twitter: @YoYoChinese

Love song

A new (and in my opinion, quite beautiful) love song, with video, characters, pinyin, and translation:

http://www.chinesetolearn.com/%e4%ba%94%e6%9c%88%e5%a4%a9-wu-yue-tian-mayday-%e5%a6%82%e6%9e%9c%e6%88%91%e4%bb%ac%e4%b8%8d%e6%9b%be%e7%9b%b8%e9%81%87-ru-guo-wo-men-bu-ceng-xiang-yu-never-met-lyric-pinyin-englis/

Twitter: @ChineseToLearn

I’m asking you to do it

Beginner A common sentence structure in Chinese is sometimes called “pivotal,” and involves the first subject asking the second subject to do something. You’ve probably said such sentences before; this is your chance to understand and formalize it:

http://www.digmandarin.com/chinese-pivotal-sentence.html

Twitter: @DigMandarin

Where am I?

Intermediate If you travel in China, you’ll likely get lost. How do you get where you need to go? Ask the locals! Here are some pointers and tips for asking for directions, including a number of common, useful phrases for getting back on track, via a variety of modes of transportation:

http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/blog/2016/12/21/chinese-travel-phrases/

Twitter: @FluentU

Joke-telling in the wild

Beginner What happens when you try to tell a joke in Chinese in a shopping mall? A brave volunteer did this for ChinesePod.com, and then had his pronunciation analyzed for everyone’s benefit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T5nDzf-8XI

Twitter: @ChinesePod

Naïve and generous

Intermediate The phrase 冤大头 (yuāndàtóu can be useful when describing someone who isn’t so wise about using their money:

http://www.echineselearning.com/blog/know-yuandatou-and-its-warning-signs

Twitter: @ECLSchool

Identifying parts of a character

Intermediate When you start to read Chinese characters, you learn that many characters have a “meaning” part and a “phonetic” part. How can you identify them, and when is the difference not obvious?

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22261/are-characters-divided-into-meaning-part-and-phonetic-part-with-no-overlapping

Boiling water

Beginner Why do we use the character 开 (kāi) to describe boiling water?

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22290/why-is-hot-water-called-%e5%bc%80%e6%b0%b4

Who or what rains?

Beginner To say “it’s raining” in Chinese, say 下雨 (xià yǔ). Why is there no subject?

http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/%E4%B8%8B%E9%9B%A8.3267241/

What does 以 (yǐ) mean?

Advanced In literary Chinese, what does 以 mean?

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22278/how-to-define-this-usage-of-%e4%bb%a5

大家好！ (Hi, everyone!) This is Mandarin Weekly #101, a free newsletter with links and information for those of us learning Chinese.

Thousands of people from around the world now subscribe to Mandarin Weekly. If you enjoy it, please share it with your teacher and/or fellow students:

Full archives are at http://MandarinWeekly.com, as is our list of discounts for students of Chinese.

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How to use 了

One of the trickiest things for people learning Chinese is the use of 了, which describes a change in state — often associated with the “past tense” in other languages, but not quite. Here is an introduction to the use of 了:

http://www.saporedicina.com/english/use-particle-chinese-grammar/

Boiling water

Beginner How do you talk about boiling water in Chinese? It’s a bit more complex than you might think, as we see from this video from ChinesePod.com:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G-PYb6aAmw

Twitter: @ChinesePod

Change

Intermediate The character 变 (biàn) refers to change, and is a part of many words that have to do with changes:

http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2016/12/on-the-character-%E5%8F%98/

Twitter: @WorldOfChinese

Basic Mandarin mistakes

Beginner If you’re an English speaker learning Chinese, then you have likely made some or all of the mistakes described here. Fortunately, the explanations are simple and the remedies simple, too:

https://themandarincornerblog.com/2016/12/15/do-you-make-these-five-basic-mandarin-mistakes/

Better listening

One of the most challenging parts of learning Chinese is learning to understand people speaking. Between the high (natural) speed, the accents, and the tones, it’s often hard to understand what people are saying. Here are some hints for improving your listening comprehension:

http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/blog/2016/12/15/improve-chinese-listening/

Twitter: @FluentU

Touring Nanjing

The city of Nanjing offers a number of important and interesting historical sites, as well as some breathtaking natural beauty; I traveled there in 2015, and enjoyed it a great deal. Here is some information about what to see in Nanjing, including the characters and names for those locations:

http://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/a-visit-to-nanjing/

Twitter: @ChineseLanguage

Separable words: A uniquely Chinese kind of verb

Intermediate Some verbs are “separable,” meaning that they consist of a verb and a noun, and work differently from other verbs. How can you identify such verbs, and then use them? This in-depth article explains:

http://www.digmandarin.com/chinese-separable-words.html

Twitter: @DigMandarin

Top Internet keywords

Intermediate Which Internet keywords were hottest in 2016? Which trends and slang terms continued to be used online? Here are a number of them, as collected by the World of Chinese magazine:

http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2016/12/top-keywords-of-2016/

Twitter: @WorldOfChinese

I get it

Beginner When you fail to understand someone’s spoken Chinese, what do you tell them? Here are some ways to respond (and not), and then a discussion of the word 意思 (yì si), which can be useful in such cases:

https://themandarincornerblog.com/2016/12/12/can-you-understand-this-chinese-phrase/

Loanwords in Chinese

Intermediate Every language borrows words from other languages, and Chinese is no exception. But of course, those borrowed words in Chinese can sometimes seem a bit foreign:

https://www.writtenchinese.com/wai-lai-ci-loanwords-and-transliteration-in-the-chinese-language/

Twitter: @WrittenChinese

No tricks!

Intermediate Planning to play a mean trick on someone? Or deny that you have intentions of doing so? Talk about it in Chinese, by mentioning 搞小动作 (gǎo xiǎo dòng zuò):

http://www.e-putonghua.com/zone/index.php/2016/12/17/how-to-say-2/

Twitter: @eputonghua

The ant and the dove

Beginner A simple story, told with characters and pinyin by eChineseLearning.com, about an ant and a dove:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBkrHehv7P4

Twitter: @ECLSchool

Princess Wei Young theme song

Beginner Princess Wei Young (锦绣未央) is a historical drama on Chinese television that started running last month. Here is the theme song from that series, with characters, pinyin, and translation:

http://www.chinesetolearn.com/lin-%E5%A4%A9%E8%8B%A5%E6%9C%89%E6%83%85-tian-ruo-qing-heaven-love-theme-song-princess-wei-young-lyrics-pinyin-english-translatioin/

Twitter: @ChineseToLearn

Faster!

Beginner How can you ask someone to speed up what they’re doing?  Here are some good phrases to help you out?

http://www.e-putonghua.com/zone/index.php/2016/12/15/how-to-say-speed-up-in-chinese/

Twitter: @eputonghua

Study habits

How do you study Chinese? For how long each day or week, and using what system? In this discussion, students of Chinese compared notes, technologies, and techniques:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/5ib7mv/so_what_are_your_study_habits_like/

Possession

Beginner The word 的 (de) is used for possession, but also for description. Many times, however, you’ll find that it’s dropped from places where you might think it should be. When and why is that allowed?

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22204/why-no-%E7%9A%84-in-this-sentence

Slowly but surely

Beginner How can you differentiate between “slowly” and “gradually” in Chinese? As in English, there are two different words:

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22189/whats-the-difference-between-%E6%85%A2%E6%85%A2-and-%E6%B8%90%E6%B8%90

Eaten yet?

Beginner A common greeting in Chinese involves asking whether the other person has eaten. This actually has nothing to do with eating, which strikes many Westerners as strange. When did this become a standard greeting in Chinese?

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22148/how-old-is-the-%E4%BD%A0%E5%90%83%E9%A3%BD%E4%BA%86%E5%97%8E-greeting-in-chinese

Doing better

Beginner How can you say that something is much better?

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22141/how-do-you-say-much-better-in-mandarin

大家好！ (Hi, everyone!) This is Mandarin Weekly #100, a free newsletter with links and information for those of us learning Chinese.

Thousands of people from around the world now subscribe to Mandarin Weekly. If you enjoy it, please share it with your teacher and/or fellow students:

Full archives are at http://MandarinWeekly.com, as is our list of discounts for students of Chinese.

To receive Mandarin Weekly in your e-mail inbox every Monday, just use the box on our Web site, at MandarinWeekly.com. Or follow us on Twitter, at @MandarinWeekly! We’re also on Facebook, at http://facebook.com/MandarinWeekly, and Medium, at http://medium.com/@mandarinweekly.

Measure words (“classifiers”)

Beginner Measure words are a fundamental part of Chinese grammar; every noun has (at least) one, and learning which word goes with which noun can take some getting used to. Here’s an introduction to measure words, as well as a list of the most common ones:

http://www.saporedicina.com/english/classifiers-chinese-language/#

Hey, dummy!

Beginner Want to call someone an idiot in Chinese? Try the term 白痴 (bái chī):

https://themandarincornerblog.com/2016/12/05/why-you-should-never-try-diy-plumbing-in-china/

Money words

Intermediate Chinese attitudes toward money are easier to understand when you have a few key phrases under your belt:

http://www.yoyochinese.com/blog/Chinese-Culture-Attitudes-Toward-Money-Habits

Twitter: @YoYoChinese

Tongue twisters

Chinese isn’t hard enough to pronounce for Westerners, so here are four tongue twisters designed to make your mouth beg for mercy:

http://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/five-chinese-tongue-twisters/

Twitter: @ChineseLanguage

Translation challenge

Intermediate Time for another Hacking Chinese challenge! Try to translate as much as possible over the next two weeks:

http://www.hackingchinese.com/chinese-translation-challenge-december-10th-31st/

Twitter: @HackingChinese

Preview your lessons

If you arrive at your Chinese lesson without first reviewing the material from the previous time (and even the coming time), you’re losing out on an important way to learn:

http://www.hackingchinese.com/preview-every-chinese-lesson/

Twitter: @HackingChinese

On time

Intermediate Are you generally punctual? Maybe, but how would you describe that quality in Chinese? And how is that different from being on time for something? Here’s a summary of these different time-related terms:

http://www.decodemandarinchinese.com/zhunshi-vs-shoushi-vs-jishi-vs-anshi/

Twitter: @DecodeChinese

Tough characters

Intermediate Differentiating between characters can be hard, especially when they’re complex. Identifying the semantic component can be helpful in remembering and identifying them, as indicated here:

http://www.decodemandarinchinese.com/how-to-learn-similar-characters/

Twitter: @DecodeChinese

Hotel talk

Intermediate Going to China? Planning to stay in a hotel? Here are some useful words and phrases, from ordering to check-in to check-out:

https://www.writtenchinese.com/foolproof-phrases-for-booking-a-hotel-in-chinese/

Twitter: @WrittenChinese

Learning Chinese with YouTube

Intermediate YouTube is full of Chinese learning goodness. Here are some useful channels for learners of all levels:

http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/blog/2016/12/07/learn-chinese-with-youtube/

Twitter: @FluentU

May I?

Beginner The word 让 () talks about letting people do things, and can be used in a number of ways, as shown here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id-9TuyhabM

Same old, same old

Intermediate Has anything changed? No? Then you can use the expression 大同小异 (dà tóng xiǎo yì):

http://www.e-putonghua.com/zone/index.php/2016/12/09/idiom-20/

Twitter: @eputonghua

Taking HSK5

Advanced Thinking of taking the HSK 5 exam? Here is how it went for one student of Chinese:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/52794-what-i-learned-from-taking-the-hsk-5/

Chinese chemical names

There are four new elements on the periodic table? What are their Chinese names? And who establishes them?

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22056/how-are-new-element-names-characters-decided

Special delivery

Beginner There are several words that have to do with sending or bringing; how are they different?

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22125/the-difference-between-%E9%80%81-%E5%B8%A6-and-%E6%8D%8E

Using 所

Beginner The word 所 has a number of meanings — including as a modifiers for the word (character) that follows it, making it somewhat passive:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/5h9iaj/meaning_and_when_to_use_%E6%89%80/

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大家好！ (Hi, everyone!) This is Mandarin Weekly #99, a free newsletter with links and information for those of us learning Chinese.

Thousands of people from around the world now subscribe to Mandarin Weekly. If you enjoy it, please share it with your teacher and/or fellow students:

Full archives are at http://MandarinWeekly.com, as is our list of discounts for students of Chinese.

To receive Mandarin Weekly in your e-mail inbox every Monday, just use the box on our Web site, at MandarinWeekly.com. Or follow us on Twitter, at @MandarinWeekly! We’re also on Facebook, at http://facebook.com/MandarinWeekly, and Medium, at http://medium.com/@mandarinweekly.

Sponsor: Du Chinese

Winter activities

Intermediate What can you do in China during the winter? It depends on where you live, of course, but between holidays, snow, and the generally colder weather, there are many things to do. Here’s a list of what to do, eat, and see:

http://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/a-chinese-december/

Twitter: @ChineseLanguage

要 (yào) vs. 想 (xiǎng)

Beginner For many Chinese learners, the words 要 (yào) and 想 (xiǎng) are quite similar. When do you use each one?

https://www.writtenchinese.com/whats-difference-xiang-yao/

Twitter: @WrittenChinese

“If” vs. “if”

Intermediate There are two ways to say “if” in Chinese, as LearnChineseNow.com describes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMQW2Yr7HeE

Twitter: @LearnChineseNow

Using 的 (de)

Beginner The most common character in Chinese is 的 (de). It can be used in a variety of ways:

http://www.saporedicina.com/english/particle-de-chinese-grammar/

Chinese without China

Immersion in a langugage is often considered a great way to improve your fluency. Butif you’re not in China, then how can you immerse yourself in Chinese? Here are some ideas for how to surround yourself with a language without actually being there:

http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/blog/2016/11/30/chinese-immersion-at-home/

Twitter: @FluentU

Compound words

Intermediate How are compound words (i.e., words containing multiple characters) formed in Chinese?

http://www.decodemandarinchinese.com/formation-of-compound-words/

Twitter: @DecodeChinese

The people in your neighborhood

Beginner What sort of work do you do? It’s a common enough question in English, and it’s also common in Chinese. Which means that you should probably know how to describe your profession in Chinese. Here’s a list to help you out:

http://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/jobs-and-workplaces-in-chinese/

Twitter: @ChineseLanguage

Comparisons

Intermediate How can you compare two things in Chinese? The character 比 (bǐ) is your friend, and can be used in a variety of ways:

http://www.digmandarin.com/comparisons-in-chinese-structure-bi.html

Twitter: @DigMandarin

Using 抠 (kōu)

Intermediate What is the connection between being stingy and a Chinese wedding? This introduction to 抠 (kōu), and words associated with it, will help you to understand:

https://themandarincornerblog.com/2016/11/28/what-can-you-win-at-a-chinese-wedding/

Phrases to impress

Intermediate Want to impress your Chinese-speaking colleagues with some native-sounding phrases? Here are a few that you can incorporate into your conversation:

https://mandarinhq.com/2016/11/make-great-impression-chinese-coworkers/

Twitter: @MandarinHQ

Christmas vocabulary

Beginner It might be a bit early to celebrate, but Christmas is coming later this year — and here are some words to talk about it in Chinese:

http://nihaohello.blogspot.co.il/2016/12/chinese-vocabulary-for-christmas.html

Adjectives vs. adverbs

Intermediate How do you distinguish between adjectives (describing nouns) and adverbs (describing verbs) in Chinese? Here’s a brief introduction:

http://www.decodemandarinchinese.com/how-to-differentiate-adjectives-from-adverbs/

Twitter: @DecodeChinese

Character formation

How were Chinese characters formed? There are several origins, illustrated and described here:

http://www.decodemandarinchinese.com/character-formation/

Twitter: @DecodeChinese

Being sarcastic

Intermediate Being sarcastic? You can use the Chinese phrase 风凉话 (fēng liáng huà) to describe your tone:

http://www.e-putonghua.com/zone/index.php/2016/11/30/old-saying-2/

Twitter: @eputonghua

Traditional 才

What is the traditional form of the character 才 (cái)? And why isn’t it used more?

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/52774-traditional-form-of-%E6%89%8D/

Taxes

Intermediate If you ever wanted to talk about taxes in Chinese, this discussion led to an answer that’s more complete than you probably ever imagined was possible:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Chinese/comments/5f771s/is_the_most_common_word_for_tax_simply_%E7%A8%8E/

Understanding 就

Beginner The character 就 (jiù) is used in a number of ways and places that aren’t immediately obvious to non-natives. Here is a discussion that might help you to understand it a bit better:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/5fj6na/can_someone_give_a_chinese_explanation_for_%E5%B0%B1/

Fat? Plump? Obese?

Intermediate There are different ways of describing someone (or something) as being fat:

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22026/vocab-problem-%e8%82%a5-vs-%e8%83%96-vs-%e8%82%a5%e8%83%96

How do you say “was”?

Beginner In English (and many other languages), we have a past tense form of the verb “to be.” How can we express that in Chinese?

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22011/how-do-you-specify-past-tense-for-%e6%98%af

You must, you should, you need to

Beginner There are different ways of saying you need to do something in Chinese. How are they different?

http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/22009/what-is-the-difference-between-%e5%bf%85%e9%a1%bb-%e5%be%97-and-%e9%9c%80%e8%a6%81

Food-ordering words

Beginner Ordering food in a restaurant? This discussion introduces a number of terms that you’ll probably want to know and use:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/5fkurt/specific_phrases_used_around_order_and_eating_food/