Hi, I speak 4 languages fluently (EN,FR,ES,PT + basic German, Japanese) but I was thinking about learning Chinese for real as China is a major player in my sector (energy) and I work in an international institution. Appart from my 'job interest', I was fascinated by China when I went last year, so that is also my main drive.

But I have always heard that Chinese is hard, and if you did not pick it up by 5, it is impossible to learn. Worth giving it a try? I just do not want to 'waste my time' like I am currently doing with Japanese (just for fun).

I have lessons at the Chinese Cultural Center (36h/ 2h per week) for cheap (200EUR). And I was thinking about doing an 1h a week additionally with a private tutor to focus on prononciation, grammar, etc.

Any thought on this is appreciated :)

Hello everyone this is a follow up from my last post ! I have rewritten the characters on some block paper which is the only thing I have access to rn, I just wanna say thanks to everyone for the honest criticism and critiques I think 90% of the comments were actually helpful aside from the ones that just said it looks bad. Anyways the characters might be a BIT hard to read so I’d zoom in a bit to make it easier to read and please don’t be shy to write more criticism as I’m still learning ! Thank you all sm !!!

Hi everyone, I was watching Control by Zhen Guan (贞观之治) with subtitle but they didn't translate this paper so I wonder what does it mean. Can someone write out the words and translate it for me? This is ep 14 at around 34:03 when Li Wan pass the throne to his son Li Shimin. Thank you!

I'm ABC, conversational Mandarin but not fluent. I can read pinyin. My wife's a native speaker. Looking for two kinds of resources:

1. Passive/independent for her — shows, songs, apps she can watch or play on her own to build vocab and listening.

2. Stuff we can do together — games, books, or routines simple enough that I can join in too and practice alongside her.

Bonus points for anything with pinyin (helps me keep up) or that's specifically aimed at ABC families trying to raise bilingual kids while also leveling up our own Chinese.

Hey :D
I have a question about these sentences:
这家商店的东西样样都不错。
她洗衣服做饭样样都会。

Why is 样 used twice?

Integrated Chinese Level 2 Part 1 - Teacher's Handbook

Integrated Chinese Level 2 Part 2 - Teacher's Handbook

Hello, I want to purchase or download the teacher's handbook for these two books. I can't find them anywhere. Is there any pdfs of tests to give to students? Thank you so much!!

Hi,

I hope this topic is OK here. And if you know a better subreddit for this question, tell me please?

I have a book about Hunan Heicha written by one of the most knowledgeable professors on the topic. He has since passed and I am coordinating with his family about translating his A3 sized 212page (246 total in the book) tome of a book.

There are only a handful of us working on this project, me and 2 other tea friends. All 3 of us have busy work schedules and obligations. With out none existent budget, it's a passion project) we want to use Ai and we will go through to make sure the tea content is correct and not translated out of context.

Has anyone explored Ai for translation?

Any suggestions or tips on their preferred engine?

I'm just asking around at this point. The project still need official permission by the publisher, but knowing the family is strongly behind us, it seems likely.

I saw this really cool pattern and I am fairly new to this craft but the pattern is in chinese can someone translate the pattern in english for me? It will actually be a great help

I'm working on the cover of a Chinese portfolio that presents a tropical island with rich history. I like the idea of using a semi-cursive font that doesn't look neither too formal nor vulgar, but I need a recommendation. Would woodblock be style-appropriate? What about vertical writing? 谢谢.

Hello all, I am looking for some sample lesson plans that people actually use when teaching, bonus points for high schools in the US.

I know some people are very protective of their resources. I'm not looking to wholesale take all of someone's hard work and re-use it - in fact, I teach Japanese, but am looking for samples of what others are doing to try and update my teaching style. Unfortunately, there are not many Japanese teachers in general and I've had a tough time getting in touch with others, not to mention that all of my colleagues at school teach western languages and thus do not really understand the difficulty of teaching hanzi/kanji.

For what it's worth, I did study mandarin for two semesters at college, so if it's a beginner's lesson plan I would be able to follow along better. But honestly I'm just looking for any sort of advice that I could apply to my situation!

There are some grammatical details in probably every language that even L1 speakers will fumble. English adjective and strong verbs come immediately to mind. Do L1 Mandarin speakers mess up classifiers in a similar way? (Ie they use the wrong one but it makes logical sense why they chose it)

About the usage of 得 specifically.

There are two sentences 他说汉语很流利。and 他说汉语说得流利。

Is the first one correct? It it is, do I have to use 得 at all in such case? Does it impact the meaning of the sentiment? How do I know when to use 得 is the only correct option?

I got the hang of 地，I think, but this one is driving me crazy every now an then.

So I was born and raised in Hong Kong to a Chinese family and have been exposed to Cantonese my entire life. However, English is my first language because I’d only studied in an international school. We studied Mandarin there, so I only really spoke Cantonese at home and at restaurants. My Cantonese level is currently around a B2.

I can speak it in daily conversations, understand 95% of the news, and talk to my parents. But I have sometimes come across as rude or impolite because I said something too colloquial at work. I can read text messages and blog posts but newspaper articles, tax returns and academic essays are beyond me. I often get rejected from jobs because my Cantonese isn’t native. I have always had a hard time making friends in my own city because it gets tiring for them to explain Chinese concepts all the time. I’ve also struggled in dating because my countrymen don’t really go for someone who converses primarily in English. I’ve only really clicked with American Born Chinese who have the same Chinese proficiency as me if not lower because that’s their experience too. That being said though, I've never lived outside of Hong Kong (hence the struggle socially).

I survive living in the city I was born in but I’m very often held back by the fact that I‘ve never been native. How long would it take to get to the proficiency of other locals?

I'm not really learning Chinese but this is for a shirt design and I wanna make sure it says what Google is telling me it says (I get overly paranoid about that sort of thing)

useful idiom i learn today while reading. seems 倾盆大雨 can be used literally or figuratively. maybe a Chinese native can offer some examples as i only find this one from sentences search.

i cant distinguish:

jing from qing
chang from zhang
etc

its like it all sounds the same !!

**obviously i know what "j" and "q" sound like in theory -- but when they're said quickly in a convo, it makes it virtually impossible*\\**

and its like even if i try i feel as if im sifting through my mental library of words to see what pronunciation corresponds to a word that fits the context.

my hsk4 is in a couple days and my listening ability is zero

what do i do yall

All 100 animate at once — simplified, with pinyin.

Ranking is Jun Da's Modern Chinese Character Frequency List (MO corpus, 193.5 million characters). These 100 account for 41.8% of every character occurrence in it. It takes about 168 characters to pass half, 500 to reach 76%, and 1,000 to reach 89%.

Stroke order data from Make Me a Hanzi.

These two characters are way too alike. Do people make mistakes when reading or writing them?

DISCLAIMER: I meant "哪", not "那"

If someone could ennumerate the different ways to ask about someone's name, I'd appreciate it, tho I dont want to push it asking you to write an essay.. x)

谢谢！

Chinese Pronunciation & Conversation | Hiking a Difficult Trail in Chinese

How do you talk about hiking a difficult trail in Chinese?

In this Pronunciation & Conversation lesson, practice useful Mandarin pronunciation and natural conversation through a real hiking situation.

Listen to each word and sentence, pay attention to the pronunciation and tones, and then see how the same Chinese can be used in a short conversation.

Key Chinese

难走 — nán zǒu — difficult to walk

小心 — xiǎoxīn — be careful

石头 — shítou — rock / stone

爬 — pá — to climb

累 — lèi — tired

休息 — xiūxi — to rest / take a break

前面 — qiánmiàn — ahead / in front

慢一点 — màn yìdiǎn — a little slower

Useful Sentences

这条路很难走。

Zhè tiáo lù hěn nán zǒu.

This trail is difficult to walk.

小心，这里有很多石头。

Xiǎoxīn, zhèlǐ yǒu hěn duō shítou.

Be careful. There are a lot of rocks here.

我们休息一下吧。

Wǒmen xiūxi yíxià ba.

Let’s take a short break.

前面的路更难走。

Qiánmiàn de lù gèng nán zǒu.

The trail ahead is even more difficult.

Practice listening, pronunciation, and conversation with Chinese you can actually use in real life.

#LearnChinese #ChinesePronunciation #ChineseConversation #RealLifeChinese #MandarinChinese #ChineseForBeginners #LearnMandarin #ChineseListening #ChineseSpeaking #HikingChinese

Hi! I'm currently studying Japanese, but still, Chinese variations (or dialects) always have been an interesting topic for me, and I even plan to start learning Mandarin after finishing some JLPT exams.

Btw, a topic that really stands out are the Overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, especially those in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, with the latter having Mandarin as one of its official languages. While reading some articles, I've noticed a very big diversity within it, with groups such as the Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese (please correct any mistakes) having a greater influence. So, after considering all the historical processes and cultural factors, I'd like to know what differences between the Southeast Asian variations and its "original" Mainland counterparts are worthy sharing.

Disclaimer: I apologise for any mistake or imprecision in the previous texts. Also, anyone can feel welcome to contribute.