Review & Fun (1)
This week, let’s review some of the characters that we’ve already learnt in previous lessons. To keep it interesting, I have decided to introduce you to “上大人 (shàng dà rén).”…
Freezing “to death?” – Adjective/Verb+死+了
It has been very cold in Beijing recently, and out on the streets, you might hear some Chinese people saying: “冷死了(lěng sǐ le, I’m freezing).” “死 (sǐ)” literally means “to…
A Thematic Learning Approach – Exploring Body-Related Chinese Characters
Learning Chinese characters can be challenging due to the complexity and diversity of the symbols. One effective approach is the topic-oriented characters learning method, which focuses on specific themes to make the process…
How to tell 另外(lìng wài) and 另(lìng) apart!
Are you an intermediate Chinese learner struggling with synonyms? Do you find yourself wondering which words to use in certain situations? You’re not alone! Many learners have difficulty with this…
Mastering Chinese Characters Through Radicals – Analyzing Characters with the Mouth Radical
Grouping Chinese characters with similar meaningful parts can help when learning to write them. Today, we’ll focus on characters with the 口 (kǒu) radical. The ancient form of 口 resembled…
The Best Resources to Improve your Chinese Handwriting
Writing anything down helps us to remember it better. A quick web search will yield a plethora of websites, software and mobile applications that all promise to significantly improve your…
Basic Verbs that are Different in Chinese and English Part II
Although I always know Chinese and English were poles apart, I didn’t realize how much simple differences between the two languages could create problems for learners until I started developing…
Mastering Chinese Characters Through Radicals – Recognizing Chinese Characters by Their Radicals
This week, I have chosen a set of Chinese characters that beginners may easily confuse. In the picture below, you’ll see six pairs of characters. The symbols in the second…
4 Common Chinese Measure Words – 个/只/支/头
Many people have trouble understanding which “measure word” they should use in different situations. If you don’t know what a measure word is – it’s a word that is used…