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Archive for 'Vocabulary'

Introduce Myself (自我介绍) Posted by on Jan 6, 2012

When learning a language, one of the first things you need to learn how to do is how to introduce yourself (自我介绍 – zì wǒ jiè shào). Whether you are making friends, chatting with co-workers, or looking for love, you’ll obviously have to be comfortable talking about yourself and sharing basic personal information. As a…

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What’s in a Chinese Character? (Vol. 1) Posted by on Dec 2, 2011

For foreigners studying Chinese, one of the most difficult aspects can be reading and writing Chinese characters (汉字 – hàn zì), which number in the tens of thousands. Functional literacy in the language requires a knowledge of about 3-4,000 characters. If you know this many, you should be able to read a newspaper (报纸 –…

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Tongue Twisters (绕口令) Posted by on Nov 22, 2011

On the first day of study abroad in Beijing, my Chinese teachers taught our class this little tongue twister to help us work with our tones: 老师是四十四,是不是?(lǎoshī shì sìshísì, shì bú shì) Translation: The Teacher is 44, no (is this true/true of false)? Why this seemingly innocuous sentence? Was it really all that important to…

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Using the “的” Modifier for Possessive Construction Posted by on Nov 17, 2011

 As your Chinese improves, adding complexity to your sentences can be tricky without the proper grammar tools. Especially when it comes to descriptions of particular nouns. Fortunately for you, showing ownership or possession in Chinese is quite easy to do grammatically using the modifier “的”. The Chinese particle “de” (的) is most commonly used as a…

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Counting in Chinese from 100 to 1,000 Posted by on Oct 31, 2011

In Part Two of our “counting in Chinese” series, learn how to count from 100 up to 1,000. For Part One, click here. While you’re at it, check out our Chinese word of the day page – a new Chinese word every day!

Chinese Love – Part One Posted by on Oct 7, 2011

Throughout my time living in China, one question has managed to come up multiple times from friends and family back at home – “Is there a Chinese word for love?” While it is certainly true that Chinese people express the most complicated human emotion in different ways than Westerners, that doesn’t mean there is no…

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Counting from 0-100 in Chinese (Video) Posted by on Sep 30, 2011

If you’re going to learn a language, at some point you are going to have to learn how to count. Whether you’re bargaining in a market, giving someone your phone number, or paying your bill in a restaurant, this is a critical skill that you have to get down early in your studies. Learn how…

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