The 4 Best Ways to Learn Mandarin Faster
As a fellow Mandarin-as-a-second-language student, I know first-hand how challenging it can be to learn Chinese, especially if it’s your first language other than English. Fluency can frequently seem like…
The Major Differences Between 两(liǎng) and 二(èr)
Numbers are often one of the first topics that learners tackle when starting a new language, and Chinese is no different. However, Mandarin is unique in the fact that it…
Four Words that Mean “latest” in Mandarin
Do you have the latest iPhone? What’s the latest on the U.S. presidential election campaign? Did you see the fashions on display at the Shanghai Fashion Week? Daily conversation so…
Mandarin Chinese Coffee Vocabulary for the ‘Up-and-Coming’ Chinese Coffee Market
In addition to having the one of the strongest tea cultures in the world, coffee culture is also exploding in China. As of July 2015, Coffee Consumption is in a…
Mastering Chinese Characters Through Radicals – Understanding the Three Drops of Water Radical
A radical in Chinese is a collection of brush strokes that convey a certain meaning. Radicals combine to form characters, and recognizing a particular radical can often hint at the…
Secrets of Saying Sorry: “对不起”’s Correct Use
If you’ve ever learned even a little Chinese, you probably know the phrase “对不起(duì bù qǐ)”. In most textbooks, “对不起(duì bù qǐ)” is translated to mean “sorry,” or “I’m sorry.”…
Alipay(ZhiFuBao) – China’s Favorite Way to Pay!
Ever run out of cash at the worst possible time, and run into a business that won’t take your credit card? Want to buy things on Taobao (China’s excellent answer…
5 Common Mistakes Chinese Learners Make
Having taught Chinese for a while, we’ve noticed a lot of common errors that English speakers make when learning Chinese. This is understandable, as Chinese has very different grammatical rules…
Cool Chinese Character Memorization Methods
It seems like every day a new app comes out that promises to help you learn Chinese characters easily. With a growing pool of research in memory and memory competitions…