Archive for 'Vocabulary'
4 Must-Know Expressions for Chinese Beginner’s Traveling in China Posted by Ayana on Sep 4, 2017
Yuzuki is a Japanese girl I met on the train to Kunming. It was only her third month in China, but thanks to her Asian features, the locals kept approaching her with rapid Mandarin. She was grateful for the opportunities to practice her new language, but consistently had to use her broken Chinese to remind…
Choosing a Chinese Name Posted by sasha on Aug 16, 2017
If you’re planning on traveling extensively in China or living there, it’s a good idea to choose a Chinese name. English is not widely spoken in China, and people there often have a hard time pronouncing English names. There are a few routes you can go when choosing a Chinese name. We’ll take a look…
A Guide to Buying Clothes in Chinese Posted by sasha on Aug 8, 2017
Shopping for anything can be difficult in a foreign language. This is especially true when visiting giant clothing markets in China. Everyone is competing for your attention (and your RMB), you have to bargain hard, and you’d better do so in Chinese! Once you get your language skills up to a decent enough level, shopping…
At the Beach in Chinese Posted by sasha on Aug 3, 2017
We’re in the dog days of summer at the moment. It’s so hot outside you could even fry an egg on the sidewalk. What better way to beat the heat than a trip to the beach (沙滩 – shā tān)? Let’s learn some beach related vocabulary and take a look at a few popular destinations…
15 Chinese Words Using Lao Posted by sasha on Aug 1, 2017
There are thousands upon thousands of Chinese characters. While it’s certainly a Herculean task to learn them all, there are a few hundred you can focus your energy on that are very common and important. One such character is 老 (lǎo). Not only does this mean “old” or “elderly,” but it also refers to being “skilled”…
Directions and Locations in Chinese (Part Three) Posted by sasha on Jul 17, 2017
We’ve already learned so much about directions and locations in Chinese through the first two posts. Go back and read them if you haven’t already, as you’ll need the language learned in those for this final post. Part One gave a list of places and common location words, and Part Two teaches how to ask…
Directions and Locations in Chinese (Part Two) Posted by sasha on Jul 13, 2017
Getting lost is no fun, especially in a foreign land where you can’t speak the language. In Part One of this series, we learned a bunch of Chinese words for common places and location. Now we’ll get into some more details as we learn about directions in Chinese. Asking for Directions Before you can begin…