One of my favorite parts of the language is the writing itself, so I dedicated quite an effort into learning how to write 'naturally', trying to copy from copying 行书 scripts and all. Still, I feel like my handwritting is sooo messy, it doesn't come naturally and it gives me cramps T~T

Here's an excerpt, any advice or critique on what could be improved and how to improve it? (Also, I'm left handed, so I write rather slanted)

(Fragment reads:)

凡有生命的，若一直面对现实，不久都会发疯，就连云雀和螽斯多少都会做梦。希尔山庄这屋子是疯的，它耸立在山丘旁，里头幽幽暗暗，过去八十年如此，未来恐怕会再耸立八十年。屋里墙面直立、砖头整齐，地板坚固，一道道门无不紧闭；希尔山庄木头和石砖之间笼罩着寂静，无论里头潜行着什么，都与世隔绝。

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.

Something I've noticed is that Chinese textbooks don't seem to cover expressions of surprise, shock, or frustration very much. But when you watch Chinese dramas or movies, you hear them all the time.

Things like

天啊 (tiān a — oh my god)

我的天 (wǒ de tiān — my god)

妈呀 (mā ya — oh my god / holy crap)

我操 (wǒ cào — fuck / holy shit)

I think these are worth learning because they're the kind of things people say spontaneously in everyday conversations, but you don't necessarily learn them from studying grammar or memorizing vocabulary lists. And they don't all have the same feeling. Some are pretty mild, some sound more dramatic, and some are definitely more vulgar.

So, what other expressions like these you've come across. Are there any that you hear a lot in Chinese shows or from native speakers but rarely see in textbooks? I'd love to hear some more examples.

As a native Chinese speaker, I’ve known 天地玄黄 as the opening of the Thousand Character Classic for a long time. What I find interesting is that its characters have also been used one by one to number collections of texts—more like A, B, C than names for different subjects.

玄 might be confusing in that setting. In 天地玄黄 it refers to a dark colour, while in other contexts it can mean “profound” or “mysterious.”

If you saw 天字号、地字号、玄字号 without an explanation, would you understand them as an ordered set? Or would you expect 玄字号 to contain something mysterious?

I am a casino table games dealer and majority of the players are asian. I would love to conversate and translate. It gets so boring and tiring sometimes when I cant talk for 8 hours straight and just listen. Being able to communicate would be very nice as well, especially when they have questions or my supervisor needs to tell them something and can’t. I also think if I know some of their language(s) it would be beneficial in moving up. I know most speak Chinese, Korean, and mandarin. Which would be easier or most likely known by most?
I only speak english. I tried learning Spanish and little Chinese with Duolingo and i just couldn’t stick with it. I feel like I should go to in person or online classes and probably pay for it so that I actually have to do it. I am broke though so the cheaper the better, lol. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated though, thank you!

My previous two posts were about theory—specifically, why Mandarin has 7 tones, instead of 4 , and warnings about common tones practice mistakes.

This post is about the practical application: how to master Mandarin tones with 16 sets of 4-tone drills.

Note: You need to practice each set in two versions:

1. With the complete 3rd tone.
2. With the half 3rd tone (tone sandhi).

I also prepared 99 disyllabic compound words formed by these single-syllable words (and the characters they correspond to).

With this practice method, I've never had a student fail or be disappointed.

Let me know what you think!

Next up, I'll share the compound word list here.

Are you preparing for your GCSE Mandarin Speaking exam?

One common mistake students make is giving very short answers without developing their ideas.

Let's see how to turn a basic answer into a more advanced one!

Question: 你一般放学后做什么？

What do you usually do after school?

Level 1 — Basic Answer

放学后，我做作业。

After school, I do my homework.

✅ Correct, but very short.

Level 2 — Add Details

放学后，我一般先做作业，然后听音乐。

After school, I usually do my homework first and then listen to music.

✅ Better! You've added more details and used sequencing words:

先……然后…… — First... then...

Level 3 — Different Time Frames + Complex Structures

放学后，我一般先做作业，然后运动。虽然我每天都有很多作业，但是我还是会运动半个小时。昨天放学后，我和朋友一起踢了足球。明天放学后，我打算一边听音乐，一边做作业。

After school, I usually do my homework first and then exercise. Although I have lots of homework every day, I still spend half an hour exercising. Yesterday after school, I played football with my friends. Tomorrow after school, I'm planning to listen to music while doing my homework.

✅ Why is this answer stronger?

1. Different Time Frames

• Present/habitual: 放学后，我一般先做作业，然后运动。
• Past: 昨天放学后，我和朋友一起踢了足球。
• Future: 明天放学后，我打算……

2. Complex Sentence Structures

• 虽然……但是…… — Although...but...
• 一边……一边…… — Doing two things at the same time

3. Useful Structure

• 和……一起…… — Doing something together with someone

My Teacher's Tips

To improve your GCSE Mandarin Speaking answers:

1. Answer the question directly. The question asks about activities after school, so keep your examples relevant.
2. Develop your answers. Add relevant activities, opinions, reasons and details.
3. Use different time frames. Show that you can refer to past, present and future events.
4. Include complex structures. Try 虽然……但是……, 因为……所以……, 不但……而且…… or 一边……一边…… when appropriate.
5. Focus on accuracy and fluency. Longer answers aren't always better!

Remember: You don't need every time frame or complex structure in every answer. Use them naturally when relevant.

Your Turn!

你一般放学后做什么？为什么？

What do you usually do after school? Why?

Try including:

• An opinion and a reason
• Different time frames
• At least one complex sentence structure

Share your answer in the comments!

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

I understand when native speakers use those sounds. However, I never learned to use them when I speak. Will this be a problem?

I simply Require an explanation for this. Five hundred... rice?

Hi everyone,

A few years back, I had a 2 year period learning chinese, but things weren't working out as I intended so I switch languages and started learning Japanese (which I'm super happy with! I'm currently starting the N3 level).

I've always knew I wanted to go back to learning chinese, and I think now's a great time: I've got a lof of free time for the next months, my japanese language learning has a nice and steady flow to it, and I'm motivated to get started.

I'll try to explain were I was at when I stopped, why I stopped, what I see I did wrong and what I thought of doing so far. Your opinion and help is much appreciated!

Where and why I stopped

Text wise, I'd say I could read kinda well. Most of my time with chinese was spent in the Du Chinese app, reading stories. I used to write summaries of the stories I'd read, and my tutor would check them, so I could also write in a so-so manner

Listening and speaking wise... It was a not great experience. I used to have a VERY hard time with the sounds, pronunciation and tones. My tutor would do her best to correct me and try different approaches for me to learn, but it was in vain, really. This big frustration is without a doubt the main reason for me taking a break and going for something else. 2 years in I felt like I couldn't order a coffee in chinese.

Also, something I was kinda frustrated with was the media to be consumed. I tried chinese dramas, comedies, music, but nothing really clicked. I did really love the Du Chinese stories tho.

What I did wrong

To be fair, back then I wasn't really in that good of a place, so it was really hard to keep a nice study routine and do harder things. So doing harder things like really sitting down and focusing on a podcast or something was hard to pull off. I remember a few times I tried to transcribe audio to text, and even though I saw good results, I didn't manage to do it consistently because it required a lot of effort.

Also, I really didn't consume enough audio/visual media. I maybe could've searched around more for interesting stuff to watch. I kinda neglected that part, and focused solely in the written media.

I didn't do flashcards! Anki is now part of my daily life, and it's a complete gamechanger.

One good thing I did was writing a lot of hanzi by hand, which thankfully helped me a lot with japanese btw.

What I thought of doing (so far)

I thought mainly of going back to doing what was working, and trying to do differently what went wrong.

Going back to Du Chinese. It's a great, great app and it's a lot of fun to me. I've checked and you can export the words you're learning to a csv file, that I can use to create Anki cards the way I like, which is very nice.

Really focusing on listening comprehension, and also on pronunciation at some point. This is for sure the main point of attention. Vocab is not really a problem because I really reading and I use Anki daily now. Grammar in chinese was not really a problem back then. Is really the sounds aspect. I'm down to transcribe text and try to push through this first hill, I'm really open to suggestions on this.

I love Anki, and thought of having in the front like only audio, and the answer in the back. Idk how good of a ideia is that, honestly. Maybe it's good with phrases.

Eventually, finding enjoyable media to consume. I really liked the Three Kingdoms stories in Du Chinese, there's prob a lot of media in that genre available

Even further on, I'm willing to get a tutor to help me, but I want to get a solid foundation atm (I already pay for japanese lessons)

Also, a lot of mandarin related videos have been popping up on YouTube for me, channels like Zoe Languages, the Mandarin Blueprint, Canto to Mando, they seem to be a lot of help.

Thank you very much for the help!

- I am only halfway through Integrated Chinese textbook 1, just learned introductions, drinks, and 了 as a past tense marker

- using vocab acquired from the book thus far, not looking up new words while writing

- ignore the highlights

Learn 5 authentic Mandarin expressions through a funny real-life story about China's unusually long clothing return tags. Discover how native speakers use these expressions to talk about clever tactics, online slang, and a battle of wits.

Which expression is new to you? and enjoy your Mandarin learning journey!

Who has a copy of HSK 2 exam? Can i have it in preparation for my HSK 3 examination.

I want to try another little speaking challenge for intermediate Chinese learners.

Read the sentence and try to say it naturally in Chinese. Don't translate it word for word. You can change the structure or express the idea in your own way.

Try saying it out loud before writing it down. Chinese characters or pinyin are both fine.

Here's today's sentence:

“I used to think learning Chinese was mostly about memorizing words, but now I realize that being able to use them in conversation is just as important.”

Try your own version before looking at the comments. There's no single correct translation.

Contextualchinese has been my saviour for the past year, it provided deep explanations and lots of examples, underlining every single nuance of every word.. I just got back to university, I wanted to better understand a word, so I searched it up on there.. And what?

There’s like 1/10 of the information that was there before.

Some entries still have the iriginal information (such as 上传), but most don’t

Does someone know if there’s any method to bring back the old site? This one is useless, really

(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

你好！

I’m currently in my first year of learning chinese at university. I’m moving to Taiwan next semester, and then spending the summer there as well, I’ve chosen to learn traditional characters, since I’ve got long-term plans to be in Taiwan.

My question is which iphone keyboard should I use as I start learning? Right now I currently use the pinyin one. We just started learning characters, and I’m picking up the characters pretty easily, but I selected the “Stroke” keyboard and have zero idea what I’m doing!

Here are the options! Any help is appreciated, also ideas on if multiple keyboards? I mainly use the Chinese keyboard for talking with a friend and penpals, but I feel like the pinyin is cheating and if I keep doing that I’ll never learn the characters…

Okay so small summary of how much I know, not really relevant to the question. I've been learning Chinese for about a year now, very on and off because of University, but I reached HSK 3 on HelloChinese (which I'm aware isn't anywhere near actual HSK 3). I've also been practicing memorising the characters and writing.

Anyway, I went to China last december and it was amazing, I didn't really know chinese except asking for the price or other small things because I was scared. Now that I'm a bit better and more confident making small basic sentences I was wondering if I should try speaking more chinese when I go to China in november or will they find it more confusing than me using a translator since my pronunciations aren't the best.

I personally like when people try and speak to me in my native language but I don't wanna be more annoying to them as a tourist. Sorry for the stupid question but I'm overthinking it.

Edit: Thanks everyone you definitely made me feel better, so I'll try my best to speak and understand them if we aren't in a rush!

Hey, so I want to learn chinese via no specific way, like I would take app recommidetiond to real classes. I am not sure where to begin. Any suggestion would be nice.

贝棠 for an earnest, outgoing male social worker in his early 30s

甘一苇 for a super enthusiastic, curious 9-year-old girl

___

I fished these out of the 诗经 and did as much homework as I could on them, but I need second and third opinions. Are they comfortable names? Not too pretentious? Did I miss any bad associations?

I'm eager to hear your reactions to them. Thank you!

Yesterday I chatted with my friend and wanted to tell him he won't see how many arms I had if I cover them under my coat. Then I forgot how to quantify arms. He was puzzled for a while and later gave out “一條胳膊” and “一隻手臂”.

Is that real?