The New Year is a great time for reflection – looking back on the ups and downs of the past year – and also a good time to look forward. With each year that goes by, we want this blog to be better and better, and the only way to do that is by making our awesome readers happy. We like to know what you guys like, so we always look back on the past year to find out what the most popular posts were. I’ve already given my Top 10 Posts from 2015, but those aren’t necessarily the ones that got the most love from our readers. If you’re new to the Chinese blog, you might want to start out by reading these ten posts, which were the most popular amongst our readers for 2015:

10. Chinese Superstitions

Which colors represent good and bad luck in Chinese culture? Why won’t you find the numbers 4 or 14 on many elevators? Why does Donald Trump hire feng shui masters? All of these questions and more are answered in this post about superstitions in China.

9. Mandarin Numbers 1-20

Not surprisingly, a lot of people want to know how to count in Chinese. We’ll go a bit higher later in the list, but for now you can really focus on getting the numbers 1-20 down with this post and accompanying video.

8. 20 Hilarious Chinglish Signs

It really warms my heart that this post is as popular as it is. I absolutely love Chinglish – it’s just one of those things that makes me smile, even when I’m having a rough day (which happens from time to time living in China). I have a collection of hundreds of funny pictures, but 20 of the best ones can be seen here.

7. Chinese Self-Introduction

The next two posts on our list are a bit similar, but it’s definitely worth studying them both. This first post is all about practicing the basic questions you’ll ask/answer when doing self-introductions – your name, hometown, age, job, and hobbies.

6. Introduce Yourself in Chinese

In this post, I introduce myself in a short paragraph in Chinese, and then explain the sentences one by one. Using the vocabulary and grammar from this post and what you’ve learned form #7, you should be able to confidently introduce yourself in Chinese as well.

5. 100 Most Common Chinese Characters

There are thousands and thousands of characters in Chinese – a fact that intimidates many a new learner of the language. Don’t be discouraged, though! By learning the 100 most commonly used characters, you’ll be well on your way. For pronunciation practice, there’s also a video series on our YouTube channel that you can follow:

4. 10 Things I Hate About China

I kind of wish my post on the “1o Things I Love About China” had made it onto this list instead, but that’s beyond my control. For the record, my experience in China was great overall – if it hadn’t been, I certainly wouldn’t have stayed for five years. I just wanted to give prospective expats a realistic look at what life is like in the Middle Kingdom, which definitely has its ups and downs just like any country.

3. How to Sing and Dance the “Little Apple” Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDyo6IAnbVY

Back in 2014, “Little Apple” (小苹果 – xiǎo píng guǒ) took China by storm. This silly song by the Chopstick Brothers was an overnight sensation – you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing it. People all over the country were also practicing the dance out in the public squares on a nightly basis. In case you missed it, you can learn the words and the dance through this post.

2. Chinese Numbers 1-100

As promised earlier, we’ll teach you how to count even higher with this post. Get all the numbers from 1-100 in Chinese and pinyin, and even learn the hand signals for the numbers 1-10. For some more practice, watch this video of 100 Chinese people counting to 100:

1. Swear Words in Chinese

Despite the fact that we teach all sorts of useful language and cultural tidbits here on the blog, it seems as if our readers really just want to know how to curse in Chinese. This should come as no surprise, as it’s a popular Google search item for just about any language. I suppose if somebody is going to teach you how to swear in Chinese, we’re happy it’s us…

 

There you have it, folks – our 10 most popular posts from the year that was 2015. We’re hoping that 2016 is going to be an even better year here, so let us know what kind of stuff you want to read about or see in videos this year! Leave a comment at the bottom and we’ll do our best to add it to the schedule.