Can you believe we’re about to say goodbye to 2017 and hello to 2018? Time flies (时间飞逝 – shí jiān fēi shì)! The end of the year is always a great time to reflect on the past and look forward to the future. We love looking at the year-end stats and seeing which posts were the most popular with our readers so that we can plan even more awesome content for you in the New Year. Here are our most popular posts of 2017:

10. Days, Weeks, Months and Years

Learning how to talk about time is one of the first things you do when learning any language. In this helpful post, you’ll learn the days of the week and months of the year, as well as lots of other useful vocabulary.

9. Family Vocabulary

Talking about your family is a great way to practice. The family tree in Chinese gets a bit complicated, but we’ve sorted it out for you in this post. You can even follow along with this video for extra practice:

8. Very Superstitious

There are tons of superstitions in Chinese culture. In this post, you’ll learn why the number 4 is bad and 8 is good, why people eat fish for Chinese New Year, and why you shouldn’t give someone a clock as a gift.

7. Chinglish Pictures

What happens when you try to translate Chinese directly into English? You end up with Chinglish. Laughing at Chinglish signs is one of my favorite things to do in China, and I chose some of my favorite pictures to share with you in this post. For more laughs, check out this video:

6. 10 Things I Hate About China

First of all, let me preface this by saying there’s also a “10 Things I Love About China” post. It didn’t quite make the Top 10, which isn’t surprising since people love being negative on the internet. My intention in writing these two posts back-to-back was to show the good, the bad, and the ugly about living in China as an expat. My wife likes to say it’s the biggest love-hate relationship she’s ever had. Read both posts to get an inside look at all the things I loved and hated about living in China.

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

It’s been a few years since the “Little Apple Song” took China by storm, but apparently people still want to learn how to sing it and how to do the dance. Get the lyrics and the dance moves in this post.

4. Introduce Yourself in Chinese

It’s no wonder this post is high up in our list, as introducing yourself is the first thing you need to learn how to do. Go through the basic questions and answers and get some more practice with this video:

3. 100 Most Common Chinese Characters

There are thousands upon thousands of Chinese characters, which can be quite intimidating. To start with, try learning the 100 most common ones.

2. Swear Words in Chinese

Once again, this post comes in very high on our list. It should come as no surprise that people want to learn how to swear in Chinese. Go ahead and learn the dirty words in this post, but don’t go using them all the time!

1. Chinese Numbers 1-100

Learning how to count is a very important task in any language. We help you get from 1-100 in Chinese in this post, and 100 of my students help you with your pronunciation in this short video.

 

Thanks to all of our readers for another great year. We love hearing from you on the Facebook page and here on the blog. Please feel free to leave us a comment and let us know what topics you’d like to see us cover in 2018. Thanks again, and Happy New Year (新年快乐 – xīn nián kuài lè)!