I love you – the Chinese way
Are you aware that for the Chinese, it’s double Valentine’s this year? CNY ends today, the 15th of the first month. This day is called 元宵节 (Yuánxiāo Jié) or 灯节 (Dēng Jié – Lantern Festival). It is...
Category: Mandarin
May You Have an Eggplant on the Horse!
Today is the first day of Chinese New Year. May you have an eggplant on the horse! This is indeed a weird New Year greeting. Well, it’s actually part of a series of trending CNY greetings this...
Chinese New Year Visits
It seems that we have only just welcomed the New Year, and yet very soon, we are going to celebrate it again! This time, the Chinese New Year. With New Year close on the heels of Christmas,...
Mandarin Pronunciation Lesson 2 – 3rd Tone Rules
Here’s the second video on Mandarin pronunciation! In this video I talk about the rules of the 3rd tone, which you have to know well in order to master the tones of Mandarin. Learn how to say...
Mandarin Pronunciation Lesson 1 – Four Tones
Have you been wondering what the four tones are? Or have you been wanting to do a revision on them? Watch this video! Watch Lesson 2 here. If you’ve enjoyed this, don’t forget to hit one of...
Chinese Family Relationship Terms
Family ties are of great importance to the Chinese, and huge emphasis is given to terms of family members, including relatives. However distant a relative may be, you can be almost sure that there is some specific...
你好— Ni hao! Simple Mandarin Greetings
Let’s learn some simple Mandarin greetings that you can use daily. Probably what comes to mind when we mention Mandarin is the phrase “你好”nǐ hǎo, which means ‘hello’. 01 ni hao You can use it when you...
Xin Nian Kuai Le! – Chinese New Year Greetings
Chinese New Year is just two days away! This is probably the most important festive season for Chinese people all over the world. In Mandarin, Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) is known by various names,...
Lucky and Unlucky Numbers
Let’s chat about a cultural quirk today – the love-hate relationship between the Chinese people and numbers. What are the numbers that Chinese people love, and what are those that we loathe? There are of course differences...
Know the Origins (1) – Long Time No See
As we all know, the English language has borrowed extensively from different languages. Let’s have a look at some expressions that have originated from Chinese. The expression we’re going to learn today is ‘long time no see’,...
