Mandarin Weekly (每周中文) #111, 2017-February-27

大家好！ (Hi, everyone!) This is Mandarin Weekly #111, a free newsletter with links and information for those of us learning Chinese.

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Eating vegetarian

Beginner If you’re a vegetarian, then you’ve probably discovered the hard way that in China, even vegetarian food can contain some meat. (“It’s just a little bit…”) How can you tell people that you’re a vegetarian? Here is some background, and some suggestions:

https://themandarincornerblog.com/2017/02/20/why-is-it-so-difficult-to-be-vegetarian-in-china/

Spring cleaning

Intermediate Spring is almost upon us, and it’s thus time to start thinking about cleaning our homes. Here are some words and phrases having to do with cleaning, to ensure that your house sparkles and that you can describe such sparkling in good Chinese:

https://www.writtenchinese.com/make-home-sparkle-chinese-spring-cleaning-list/

Twitter: @WrittenChinese

Don’t call your wife an old hag!

Beginner There are numerous terms for “wife” in Chinese. One of these is 老婆 (lǎo po), which you might think means you’re calling your wife old. But the truth is more complex:

http://answers.echineselearning.com/questions/2017-02/27/092606952FHYEXGWD.html

Shopping phrases

Beginner Planning to shop in China? Here are some useful, basic phrases that you can use to try out your Chinese:

http://mychinesereading.com/beginner-shopping-sentences/

Long noodes, long life?

What do people eat on their birthdays in China? One common food is long noodles, representing a (hoped-for) long life:

http://www.echineselearning.com/blog/what-chinese-eat-on-their-birthday-longevity-noodles

Twitter: @ECLSchool

Chinese chess

I had long heard about Chinese chess, but never really thought about how it worked as a game. Here’s a great introduction to it, including the vocabulary you’ll need to describe and play:

http://mandarin.about.com/od/chineseculture/fl/Learning-to-play-Chinese-chess.htm