I get asked all the time by prospective students, new students, or even seasoned students–“How do I improve my spoken Chinese?” And not only do they want to know the answer to that question, they also want to know: “How can I do it fast?” …
Quite often, I receive messages from parents outside China who would like some guidance and suggestions on how to motivate their children to learn Mandarin Chinese and what goals to set. While standardized tests may only motivate some students, I do find that the AP …
1. B 2. D
Answer Analysis: 1. Ronald, at age 50, is a mature learner. He enjoys talking about news headlines (answer A) and using the new words in a sentence (answer D). He is also at the stage where the teacher is …
Although our students enjoy private, personalized 1-to-1 Chinese classes, each individual student is not alone in being part of the eChineseLearning team. We have a team of teachers from around China and an alumni of tens of thousands of students from over 100 countries (and …
1. About Learning Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin Chinese is the official language of Mainland China and Taiwan. There are many versions of Chinese spoken throughout China; including Cantonese (spoken in Guangdong province), the Beijing dialect and the Shanghai dialect; but Mandarin Chinese is most common dialect …
Answer: B Tā yǒu liǎng gè ér’zi, dà ér’zi jīnnián shísuì, xiǎo ér’zi jīnnián sān suì. 他 有 两 个 儿子，大 儿子 今年 十岁，小 儿子 今年 三 岁 。 He has two sons, the oldest son is 10 years old this year. The youngest son …
When my Mandarin Chinese students come to China and study in our program, they often think that the stressful, high-pressure days of test-taking are behind them. Not quite! Mandarin Chinese students have goals to set and reach just as junior high and high school students …
From listening to music and playing sports, to taking photos and playing video games, I have lots of hobbies. What are yours? Watch Video Answers
It depends on your gift for language-learning as well as the time you are able to dedicate to learning it. If you study a few hours every day you’re going to learn a lot faster than someone who only spends one day a week. For …
Chinese is growing in popularity, so there are new ways to learn online popping up every day. They aren’t all good though. I believe the best resource is, of course, you can work one-to-one with qualified instructors online. Here are some of the other…
Chinese is only hard if you don’t have the right mentor to ensure that you acquire the solid foundation you need. If you try learning alone without the guidance of a native speaker, you risk not learning the tones correctly and emphasizing the wrong vocabulary …
When learning Chinese, especially when you are not in China, you need a method to help you make the Chinese stick. One way to do that is to make Chinese feel like it is essential to your every day life, as it would be in …
Key Learning Point (Preview): 隔墙有耳 (géqiángyǒu’ěr): walls have ears
Cóngqián, yǒu yíge hàoqíxīn hěn zhòng de rén. 从前， 有 一个 好奇心 很 重 的 人。 Once upon a time, there was a curious man.
Tā zǒngshì xǐhuan sìchù dǎting biérén de mìmi. 他 总是 喜欢 …
“对牛弹琴 (Duìniútánqín)” is used by Chinese people to describe someone who is explaining something complicated to a fool, or sometimes this idiom is used to describe a person who is trying to tell something to the wrong audience. In English, people sometimes joke around by …
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Finding a good Chinese tutor is key if you want to learn the Chinese language correctly and in an effective way, but how do you know if your tutor is the right one for you? Use the following checklist as …
(Learn Chinese through listening to popular kids’ songs.) Xiăobáitù guāiguai, bă mén kāi kāi, kuàidiăn kāi kāi, wǒ yào jìnlái. 小白兔 乖乖， 把 门 开 开，快点 开 开，我 要 进来。 Little rabbit, hurry up and open the door, I want to come in.
Bù …
Yǒuyìtiān, dàxiàng hé mǎyǐ fāshēng le yìchǎng zhēnglùn, tā liǎ dōu rènwéi zìjǐ de lìqi bǐ duìfāng dà. 有一天， 大象 和 蚂蚁 发生 了 一场 争论， 他 俩 都 认为 自己 的力气比 对方 大。 One day, there arose an argument between an elephant and an …
For Chinese learners, one major difficulty you may face during your Chinese studies is the pronunciation of the four tones. These include the 1st tone which is level, the 2nd tone which rises, the 3rd tone which falls then rises, and the 4th tone …
业余爱好 (Yèyú àihào) Hobbies
初级 (Chūjí) Beginner Level
Lily: Mài Ke, nĭ xĭhuan páshān ma? Lily: 迈克，你喜欢爬山吗？ Lily: Mike, do you like climbing mountains?
Mike: Nà dāngrán le, wǒ de àihào jiù shì páshān. Mike: 那当然了，我的爱好就是爬山。 Mike: Of course, my hobby is mountain climbing.
生词 …
Free Chinese Learning Tips—Where to Start?
Where does one start when learning Chinese? Chinese pinyin should be the first step. Pinyin uses the English alphabet to represent Chinese syllables. The earlier you start learning Chinese Pinyin, the easier it will be to grasp the …
