First time poster, polyglot here deciding to take on Mandarin as my 6th language. I've decided to NOT learn the characters, but to focus on pinyin and speech with the goal of having a basic conversation or ordering food at my local Chinese restaurant in 6-9 months. And ultimately to visit China next year. I wanted to visit this year but had to cancel for work, and hoping next year having a little bit of the language will make it more special.

Anyway I am a software engineer and with AI it's so tempting to make something for myself to make things easier but to me this is another version of procrastinating rather than actually learning the language. Though I have fallen into the trap already of making a little flashcard thing to test me on Pinyin just because another one I found that I liked was free and I'm trying to save money right now.

I use Anki religiously. And I am working through Pimsleur. Is there any other good app that you have found genuinely useful? Anything to help with Pinyin or pronunciation?

I'm indifferent about following HSK or not.

I am learning Chinese. Could you tell me what opportunities might open up once I’ve learned it (in terms of work, income, or further study)? I would appreciate any advice or personal experiences you could share.

大家好!

今天我学习了 - 就要
Today I learned the word - will, shall be going to

1.今天我就要吃意大利面

2.我就要去工作

I have only been on my HSK1 journey for a little while, but today I could ask and answer questions with my teacher. I understood what she was asking and gave comprehensible answers. I know it's a small first step, but it feels like a big accomplishment and a foot in the door on my language-learning journey. :)

Hey all, I'm planning a month long trip to china next year in about 8 months time and I would love to know a little bit of Chinese before I go. What strategies would you all recommend so that I'm comfortable enough to order food, barter in markets, ask for directions, and just make casual small talk? I really appreciate all the help!

I've recently decided to really take my learning of Mandarin Chinese seriously and am feeling like I'm drowning a little.

What helps is that my husband is Chinese and each evening we go through various miscellaneous sentences and words to help broaden my word bank, knowledge and understanding of sentence structure. However, at what point have you all decided to learn to write the words you are saying?

I feel the right way is to write as you learn and to really study hard but I don't want to slow down.

How have you gained momentum? How did you understand sentence structure and did you learn to write Mandarin Chinese later or right away?

Thanks, everyone! 🫶🏻

Hi everyone!
My university requires me to pass HSK 3 (3.0), including the mandatory speaking component, and I’m honestly quite worried about it.

I have an undiagnosed speech condition that makes it physically difficult, or sometimes impossible, for me to pronounce certain sounds correctly, particularly /j/, /z/, /zh/, and /ch/. No matter how much I try, these sounds come out differently from what I intend to say.

To explain what I mean, if you’ve ever heard someone with a cleft palate speak, you might have an idea of the kind of pronunciation difficulty I’m describing. I’m not saying I have a cleft palate, but my speech has some similar characteristics.

This isn’t because I’m a beginner in Chinese or haven’t practised enough. I experience the same difficulty in my native language, and sometimes even native speakers have trouble understanding certain words I say.

My concern is that even if I learn all the required vocabulary and grammar and know exactly what I want to say, my physical inability to produce certain sounds might affect my speaking score.

I wanted to ask:
Does anyone know how pronunciation is assessed in the new HSK 3.0 speaking component?
Are there any accommodations for candidates with speech or articulation difficulties, especially without an official diagnosis?
Has anyone with a similar condition taken HSKK or another Chinese speaking exam?
Is it possible to pass despite consistently mispronouncing certain consonants due to a physical speech limitation?
I’m willing to put in the effort to learn Chinese, but I’m scared of failing a mandatory graduation requirement because of something I physically struggle to control.
I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thank you!

Today (Oct 23) is 霜降 shuāngjiàng, Frost's Descent, the last solar term of autumn.

降 has two readings, and they mean almost opposite things:

- jiàng = to come down (降落 landing, 降温 temperature drop)

- xiáng = to surrender (投降 tóuxiáng)

So it's shuāngjiàng. The frost comes down, it doesn't give.

The old calendar also splits 霜降 into three 5-day pentads. My favorite is the first one, 豺祭兽 chái jì shòu: jackals lay out their kill in a row before eating, like an offering. The other two are 草木黄落 (leaves turn yellow and fall) and 蛰虫咸俯 (insects dig in for winter).

I’m from Changsha, and I’ve heard the saying 霜降吃柿子: eat persimmons on this day and you won’t have a runny nose all winter. Folk wisdom, of course.

Persimmons come with wordplay, too. 柿 (shì, persimmon) sounds like 事 (shì, “things”), so 事事如意 (“may everything go your way”) becomes 柿柿如意, and 好事发生 (“may good things happen”) becomes 好柿发生. And since 霜 (shuāng, frost) sounds like 双 (shuāng, “a pair”), 好事成双 (“good things come in pairs”) can become 好柿成霜. A lot of puns for one fruit. （PS:The pictures are for reference only）

What other characters with two readings still trip you up?

Shower thought

I'm a freshman studying Chinese as my major in college

I'm having a hard time memorizing 汉字 and i forget it them way too easily

Ex: I've memorized some verbs yesterday and I don't remember them today

I study by learning the order of the strokes and write it repeatedly in my notebook

Does anyone have tips for me?

我朋友发给我a meme saying “instead of falling in love use that time to learn chinese” and I’m talking it seriously.

\- i heard 志愿 ＞ 选择 and 录取 ＞ 拒绝 in the context of school but 因为我只在学习两个月所以 I’m sticking to the simplest vocab possible for retention

\- is this font readable for you?

Hi, I am interested in learning the Early Middle Chinese language but the problem is that there is almost no informaion about the grammar. So, I feel like learning Classical Chinese could help because their grammar might be the same. But if it isn't, pls do give some info about Early Middle Chinese grammar.

Thanks!!!

How do you do it how do you keep it together. So amazing.

Like maybe a Pleco for my Mac? I've found that having a dictionary is much easier than using translation apps for certain words. Any help would be much appreciated. 我祝你们拥有美好的一天！

Earlier this year, I completed the HSKK Intermediate exam. The exam was conducted in a single room, with maybe 20-30 test-takers seated at individual desks. Each student was given a digital voice recorder and instructions on how to use it.

After the questions/statements were played, all the students in the classroom had to speak the answers into this digital voice recorder at the same time. Some questions required brief answers; others were longer responses.

While the questions/statements were totally fine, the auditory environment when answering was next to impossible for me. Trying to keep my thoughts and memory in line while having 20-30 people in the same room, answering the same questions in normal volume was so distracting. There was also the pressure you felt if you were one of the last people still talking into the recorder.

Is this the same format for HSKK exams everywhere around the world?

Today I learned the days in chinese. I was reading this text in madarin companion that said ”一个周五的晚上” which translates to ”A friday night”. I could somewhat read it and spotted the ”wǔ”. I was so confused hahaha but then I learned that wǔ means friday in this context!

So 5th day (wǔ) = Friday
That means sān (three) has to be Wednesday?

I was reading some comments from Chinese learners the other day, and I kept seeing people talk about this same problem. You know what you want to say, and sometimes you even know the Chinese words, but when you actually try to speak, your brain just goes blank.

One person mentioned that their brain would switch to English or even another language when they tried to speak Chinese. Honestly, I think a lot of learners can probably relate to that.

It's kind of annoying when you think about it. You can hear someone say something in Chinese and understand it just fine, but then when you want to say something similar yourself, suddenly you can't remember the word you need. And sometimes you remember it like five seconds later, when the conversation has already moved on.

I wonder if this happens more when you're talking to a native speaker and feel a bit pressured, or if it happens even when you're just practicing by yourself.

Does this happen to you too? And when you get stuck, do you usually manage to find the Chinese a few seconds later, or do you just give up and switch to another language?

I recently came across Tanjie's Minecraft series and I've been enjoying it quite a bit. She speaks clearly and explains vocabulary as she is playing, which makes it easier to follow along. I'm kinda tired of seeing the same Chinese vlogs all the time, so its pretty refreshing, what do you guys think? :)

I'm trying to figure a good Chinese name corresponding to "Robert" without just transliterating with hanzi. From an etymology standpoint, I feel like a name with 明，榮，or 耀 would be a good choice. Maybe 德明 or 耀明? What do you think?

Some mainlanders I met seem to have no problem understanding texts written in traditional Chinese despite never having learned it systematically, and claim it's a "built-in" ability for all Chinese people. However, I also know some without such "ability".

Since they're all native speakers living in a Chinese environment since birth, it's natural for them to find variants of the language to be familiar (also, music and media from HK and TW, which both use TC, used to be popular there), so the result doesn't tell me much. I'm curious: from a non-native learner's perspective, how different are they? (I've been answering ppl in TC in the sub for quite some time and just realized it might not be what they need since most are learning SC) I wonder if any of you could share some of your experiences?

I'm just starting to learn HSK1 and I'm finding the third tone a bit hard and it sounds different from one word to another, I watched a few videos but they all cover the basic pronunciation of the third tone which doesn't solve my problem. can anyone please share a help source or tip please?😅

if you also have any tips for someone who's just starting then I'd really appreciate.