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 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.

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?

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?

Shower thought

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！

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?

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?

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?

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!!!

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?

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?

My Chinese professor has been uploading the Character Book for our class, but stopped last week because we "had enough time to buy the textbook". Very low-income and can't afford it. I found the other books I needed, but not the last one!

Does anyone have the PDF or a copy of New Practical Chinese Reader (Vol 3) Character Book? I just need pages 23-31! Plsssssssssss

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