Yes, we all enjoy having a giggle over the myriad of ‘Chinglish’ mistakes we see all around us in China. I myself was posting a picture of a menu offering “catch-up sauce” when it occurred to me: what about the other way around? Do our mistakes in Chinese get laughed about? So I investigated the most common and the most embarrassing mistakes made by foreigners and have distilled my favourites into a nice list below – over which you are welcome to ‘LYFAO’. Continue reading
Chinese language
A Cup of Milk Tea
What could be more simple than ordering a cup of milk tea?
After a few months of being restricted to cafes with picture books as menus, I began to rue the loss of my eloquence as I could only point to things I wanted with a childlike, “这个”（zhège: this one) and “那个” (nàgè: that one). Feeling like an idiot soon became a bore.
So I decided to expand my vocabulary range using café menus as my textbook. One morning I decided to take the plunge and order a milk tea… properly. As I waited in line, I looked up the words I thought I would need: Continue reading
Foreigner Faux Pas: Too Many Words (2)
Continuing on from the last article where we dealt with the tempting trap of adding too many articles and too many ‘的’s to your Chinese sentences, this article will look at how to whittle your sentences down to sheer succinct masterpieces, just like a real native speaker. Continue reading
Hazardous Homophones
To a non-tonal language speaker’s ear, Chinese can sound like just a jumble of similar sounds:
“Shi si shi shi si, si shi shi si shi.” Continue reading
Learn Chinese in a group setting or one-to-one: which is better?
When I first moved to China, I was working full time and only had a few hours a week set aside to tackle the language beast. I didn’t have the opportunity to join a class at the time, and just learnt by going through a textbook with a teacher. Continue reading
Chinese Feats: Seth and Tang Poetry
There are some people who have really made friends with the Chinese language and it comes out of them so naturally that you need a double-take to make sure they are not Chinese. I was so inspired by these people’s hard work that I decided to interview them for some tips and wisdom to help the rest of us on our journey towards fluency.
Name: Seth
Nationality: Alaska
Learning Chinese for: 6 years (on and off)
Chinese Proficiency: HSK6 + Continue reading
Chinese Feats: Olof and Gamification
There are some people who have really made friends with the Chinese language and it comes out of them so naturally that you need a double-take to make sure they are not Chinese. I was so inspired by these people’s ability that I decided to interview them for some tips and wisdom to help the rest of us on our journey towards fluency.
Name: Olof
Nationality: Sweden
Learning Chinese for: 7 years (on and off, mainly self-taught)
Chinese Proficiency: HSK5-6 Continue reading
Chinese Feats: Bjorn and Traditional Chinese
There are some people who have really made friends with the Chinese language and it comes out of them so naturally that you need a double-take to make sure they are not Chinese. I was so inspired by these people’s ability that I decided to interview them for some tips and wisdom to help the rest of us on our journey towards fluency.
Name: Bjorn
Nationality: South Africa
Learning Chinese for: 9 years (on and off)
Chinese Proficiency: Fluent Continue reading
Chinese Feats: Rebecca and Raspberries
There are some people who have really made friends with the Chinese language and it comes out of them so naturally that you need a double-take to make sure they are not Chinese. I was so inspired by these people’s ability that I decided to interview them for some tips and wisdom to help the rest of us on our journey towards fluency.
Name: Rebecca
Nationality: USA
Learning Chinese for: 10 years (on and off)
Chinese Proficiency: Fluent Continue reading
Tonal Traps
Chinese may have what seems to be an infinite number of characters, but the phonic variations are definitely finite. That makes it easier then, you say – less words to learn right? WRONG! This particularity results in one word (or sound) being attributed to multiple characters.
Tricky Tones
Chinese comes with its challenges, and everyone must find a way of overcoming them. For me the greatest challenge has been getting my tones right. I can never seem to remember which tone goes with what word, and often confuse words with similar sounds but different tones.
Back-to-front: Sentence Structure in Chinese
It always amazes me how Chinese can be so exactly opposite to English sometimes. Names are written surname first; dates come with the year first, month then date; Continue reading
The Ubiquitous Use of the Word 吃
In learning Chinese, I have found that the the topic of eating plays a significant role in the language. I am often greeted with a considerate 吃饭了吗? (Chīfànle ma? Have you eaten yet?) – in place of, “How are you?” because if I have eaten, I must be alright, mustn’t I? There are also many 成语 (Chéngyǔ/ sayings) advising us on what to eat, when, where and how:
