Mandarin Weekly #141

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This is Mandarin Weekly #141, a free newsletter read by more than 20,000 students of Chinese around the world.

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Describing people Beginner Culture Grammar

How do you describe people? You can describe their personality and/or their appearance. Here, we get some basic terms for describing people:

http://www.fluentu.com/blog/chinese/2017/09/25/chinese-adjectives-to-describe-a-person/

Twitter: @FluentU

Family words Beginner Grammar

Chinese family words are more complex than in many languages, because they take the side (mother vs. father) and age (elder vs. younger) into account. Here are some basic terms to describe family members:

https://blogs.transparent.com/chinese/family-vocabulary-in-chinese/

Twitter: @ChineseLanguage

Hacking Chinese challenge All Learning

Want to improve your reading? Join the Hacking Chinese reading challenge, and read as much as you can during the month of October:

http://www.hackingchinese.com/chinese-reading-challenge-october-2017/

Twitter: @HackingChinese

Basic radicals Beginner Characters

When you first start to learn Chinese, the characters all look the same, A key part in distinguishing them is the “radicals,” which can be used to classify (and then remember) many characters’ meanings. Here are some examples:

https://medium.com/@LingQ_Central/break-it-down-chinese-radicals-for-beginners-28c44c5e4fbb

Mid-Autumn Festival All Culture

What is the mid-Autumn Festival, which begins this week? Here is a description of the history, culture, and celebration:

http://www.saporedicina.com/english/chinese-mid-autumn-festival/

Ancient Chinese history All Culture

Chinese civilization started about 4,000 years ago. But what about before then? Here is a description of ancient Chinese civilization:

https://www.writtenchinese.com/neolithic-china-beginnings-chinese-civilization/

Twitter: @WrittenChinese

Utensils Beginner Culture Vocabulary Video

What utensils are used for eating in China? And what cultural beliefs are associated with them? All is explained in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA7HB6cnG1Y

Twitter: @ECLSchool

Learning challenges (and solutions) Intermediate Learning

What are some problems that people face when learning Chinese? What models for success should we follow?

http://carlgene.com/blog/2017/10/lecture-1-how-to-improve-foreign-language-students-learning-habits-and-methods/

Twitter: @carlfordham

Planning ahead Intermediate Story

In this two-part story, a family learns to plan and take precautions:

http://www.imandarinpod.com/hoola/index.php/podcasts/15-2009-12-02-23-37-29/2954-2017-09-27-02-47-22

Twitter: @imandarinpod

Planning ahead Intermediate Story

In this two-part story, a family learns to plan and take precautions:

http://www.imandarinpod.com/hoola/index.php/podcasts/15-2009-12-02-23-37-29/2956-2017-09-28-05-27-37

Twitter: @imandarinpod

Quality, not just quantity Intermediate Story

In this story, we learn that it’s not how much you do, but how well you do it:

http://www.imandarinpod.com/hoola/index.php/podcasts/14-2009-12-02-23-37-05/2957-2017-09-29-01-25-01

Twitter: @imandarinpod


Also published on Medium.

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