It demotivates a lot. How long does it take for characters to stick to your brain once and for all. How many times should I write them down.

Chinese sikna Lai k kaha best hola Sathi vai haru video , site or anything ? Suggestion please !!!!

I am currently learning Chinese and desperately want to improve!

In exchange, I can offer you high-quality English lessons. I am a seasoned English teacher with 6 years of teaching experience, so I can help you with grammar, pronunciation, natural conversation, or professional English.

If you are a native Chinese speaker looking to seriously improve your English while helping me with my Chinese, please reach out! 谢谢

Hi! I'm a native Mandarin speaker looking for a native English speaker who wants to learn Chinese.

I can help you practice Mandarin, and you can help me improve my English. We can learn from each other for free through text or voice calls.

I'm interested in technology, gaming, books, and culture.

Feel free to DM me if you're interested! 😊

(The video above is a zhongruan中阮 performance)

Today, let's meet another member of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove (竹林七贤) — Ruan Xian (阮咸), the nephew of Ruan Ji (阮籍).

The Story Behind the Idiom

According to A New Account of the Tales of the World (世说新语), there was a custom of showing off fine clothes during a traditional festival. While his relatives and neighbors displayed their fancy silk garments, Ruan Xian(阮咸), who wasn't wealthy, simply hung out a pair of ordinary short trousers instead.

He reportedly explained: 未能免俗，聊复尔耳。
Roughly translated: “I can't escape the custom, so I'll just go along with it!”

Ruan Xian was known for his unconventional personality and disregard for rigid social rules. He seemed to go along with the custom, but didn't really care what others thought of his ordinary trousers. I find that attitude both amusing and charming!

What Does 未能免俗 Mean Today?

Today, we use it when we do something not because we particularly care about it, but simply to fit in or because it's expected.

Example:
The company party wasn't really my thing, but it would've felt awkward not to show up, so I went anyway. 未能免俗!

One More Interesting Fact

Ruan Xian was also famous for playing a traditional Chinese string instrument associated with his name: the ruan (阮).

The video at the very top of the post is a performance on the zhongruan (中阮), an instrument of medium size in the ruan (阮) family. Give it a listen!

There's another video, the second one on the right is Ruan:
https://youtu.be/n8eS9KpRpXo?list=RDn8eS9KpRpXo&t=284

Pretty cool that his name lives on in Chinese music, too!

(AI-assisted editing)

My Chengyu (Chinese Idioms) Posts

I’m back with another speaking challenge!

Same idea as last time: read the sentence, try saying it naturally in Chinese, and then write down what you came up with. You don't have to translate it word for word, and there's no single correct answer.

Try saying it out loud before looking at the comments. Chinese characters or pinyin are both fine.

Here's today's sentence:

“I was going to cook at home, but I realized I was missing a few ingredients, so I ordered takeout instead.”

Try your own version before reading the other answers. I'm curious to see how people express this one!

Anyone has experience learning Chinese with a tutor on preply? I am looking for my kiddo’s supplementary tutor.

Hi guys,

I'm searching actually a good tutor for mandarin to practice my conversation and get feed back. I don't have much budget but 10 dollars per seance is the most I can afford. If anyone know a good tutor on preply or italki or any other plateform thanks.

Can I do a running thread here? I often have mini-questions about specific words occurring in certain contexts, or about grammatical details, and I don't want to start a new thread for each and every little thing I want to ask. I hope this is okay? I'll be posting each question as a top-level comment in this thread.

Anyone interested in offering answers, please subscribe to the thread by using the "Follow post" option.

Hi everyone! I learned English from zero just by watching anime with subtitles for about 4 years, and I always wondered if the same trick could work for Mandarin. It turns out Chinese needs more than "just add subtitles" (tones, characters...), so over the last few months I built an Android app for it: LanLan (懒懒, a very lazy panda).

You scroll real videos from everyday life in China (vlogs, street food, comedy, gaming) with hanzi, pinyin and English under every line, and you can tap any word to see what it means and save it as a flashcard. There's a 0.5x speed now too, for when a video is way too fast. Honestly half the fun is just seeing what normal life there looks like.

Android -> LanLan: Learn Chinese Lazily

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the link here, so if you want to try it just DM me! I'd love feedback, there's still a lot to fix and adjust, but most importantly have fun doomscrolling!

I have a service dog and I was hoping someone could tell me how to write “service dog, ignore me” for a vest. Thank you in advance 😁

Work the work, don’t let the work work you. This is a scene from the movie “Chinatown Detective.” Directly from YouTube with dub sub. I went in settings and jacked that font up to 300%. The only reason I can not read the Hanzi is I can’t YET. First scene, I get to learn a simple thing. 下车。 It was used as a command. Movie is hilarious. I will do my magic trick and watch it nightly until I puke.