Today I'm going to share with you several of the insights that I have had into the differences between Chinese and Western culture. These points are based on my own personal experience living in Taiwan and being married into a Taiwanese family. Enjoy and share your experiences below!
1. Children live with their parents for much longer…even after they're married!
2. Western people are more "in touch" with their feelings and talk about them, Chinese people keep them bottled up inside.
3. Food is eaten family style, with everyone sharing dishes.
4. Activities are often dictated by religious belief and the lunar calendar, such as, "when is a good time to open a business?"
5. Families will have an altar in their home for them to make offerings and pray at.
6. Grocery shopping is still commonly done in outdoor markets, with different people selling meat, vegetables, etc. if you want something, you often need to go to a store that sells that thing specifically(but not always).
7. People are warm with family and friends, but somewhat cold to strangers. People often bump into you In a crowd and move along like it never happened, and they don't hold the door for people.
8. Whereas people in America(especially women) want to have nice, tan skin, Chinese people would rather have pale, white skin.
9. Alcohol is sold 24 hours a day, and people can drink in public as much as they like as long as they behave themselves.
10. When someone gives you a red envelope at your wedding, you will count the money out and write it down(often in front of them!) so you know how thankful to be(someone will have this specific job delegated to them).
P.S. I wanted to remind you guys about the group Chinese webinars that I alluded to recently, stay tuned for a BIG update on this over the next week!
Here's a list of ten words in Mandarin whose pronunciation is similar to words in English. Making an association with words you already know can help you to remember new vocabulary. I want to stress, this is only one tool, don't abuse it and make her you have more tools in your language learning toolbox.
1. 豬 sounds like "zoo"
zhū- pig
2. 牛 sounds like "Neo" from the Matrix!
niú- cow
3. 不可 sounds like "book"
bùkě- cannot, mustn't
4. 我們 sounds like "woman"
wǒmen- we, us
5. 襪子 sounds like "what's", as in "what's up?"
wàzi- sock(s)
6. 好 sounds like "how?"
hǎo- good, fine
7. 買 sounds like "my"
mǎi- buy
8. 你的 sounds like "need"
níde- your, yours
9. 位 sounds like "way"
wèi- measure word for people(polite)
10. 頭髮 sounds like "too far"
tóufa- hair(on your head)
The list goes on and on, these 10 words barely even scratch the surface. Most importantly, remember to have FUN with your Chinese learning! Stay tuned for our next installment in this series, and in the meantime make sure to follow along with all of our lessons and articles. 洗牙。。。sounds like "see ya!"
Hey guys, I just wanted to let y'all know about an article that I wrote as a guest post for chinese-tools.com earlier this week. It has some pretty powerful ideas for how you can keep from plateuing in your Chinese learning. And it will also remind you what is really important, and why you're learning Chinese to begin with.
Hey guys, how was your Labor Day weekend? Did you go anywhere, or do anything exciting? I went on a road trip with my family. We got up bright and early Friday morning and piled in the car, where we would stay for the next 8 hours! My legs were cramping big-time by the time we arrived, but it was all worth it though, as we found Hotsprings, Arkansas to be a really interesting place. In fact, it may sound weird, but my wife and I both felt like it was almost like we were back in Taiwan! Well, not really, but the similarities were there: mountain views, tightly packed streets with plenty of store-front shops, and even hotsprings! It was a lot of fun, and I recommend you go there and check it out for yourselves!
Anyway, on to business!
The biggest factor in sucessfully learning a language is whether or not you actually spend an adequate time speaking it. You could memorize vocabulary flashcards until your blue in the face, but it won't really help you in the long-run. You need to engage other people in real-life conversation if you want to achieve any level of proficiency. Period.
Well, that might be a problem. You might find yourself without anyone to practice with, and while talking to yourself is usually discouraged in most circles, it can help…to an extent! So with that in mind, I have decided to provide a new service to you, my loyal readers, as I want nothing more than for you to succeed in learning Chinese, which is why I have decided to host weekly webinars(1-1.5 hrs in duration) at various pre-set times(feel free to attend as often as you like, the more frequently you do, the faster your Chinese will improve!) to give you all the chance to come together as a community and speak Chinese. During this time, I'll be offering some instruction, but the overall focus will be on conversation, as the only way to get better at something is to do it…a lot.
Stay tuned for more updates on the webinar sessions, the first of which will be taking place later on in the month.
I really and truly aim to get you speaking Chinese, not just learning it, using it! So let me know what you think, and let's get a conversation going!
These five phrases are essential, especially if you ever plan to visit a Chinese speaking country as a tourist, or even live in one. Armed with these phrases, you will come across as a very polite, respectful and well-mannered individual, and I wouldn't be surprise if you found the local people going out of their way to help you. So pay attention! Also, let me know how this lesson helped you, and if there are any other phrases that you just have to know. Study hard and I'll see you next time!
In a perfect world, you wouldn't have to waste time thinking about things like how your language exchange partner should behave, because they'd be perfect! If that's the case, then good or you! If, however, you're stuck down here on Earth like the rest of us, then pay attention. This article may save you some headaches, and heartbreaks, lol!
1. Patience
This is super important, because when you first begin speaking a new language, it's very difficult to make yourself coherent, and chances are you are going to have to repeat yourself A LOT in order to get your meaning through. Don't let this discourage you, is part of the learning process! If you have a language exchange partner that is immediately or reacting you, not trying to understand what you are trying to say, or sort of all, laughs at your attempts to peak their language(unless they explain a joke of some sort, maybe a lingual mishap on your part, I've had some!), then you should kick them to the curb, they aren't helping you learn!
2. Equality
This might seem like a no brainer, but make sure that the time spent speaking Chinese is equal to that spent on English. Don't be surprised if your LE partner tries to monopolize on the time, especially if their English is more advanced than your Chinese. It may not be intentional, they may not really know what to teach you if you just started learning and everything is new, but that's no excuse, your time is valuable too!
3. Reliability
Nobody likes arranging to meet with a friend, going out of your way to accommodate them by meeting in a place that's convenient for both of you, just to have them call and say they can't make it, or worse, just not show up! Everyone should have a chance to explain themselves, and life does happen. But if your LE partner makes a habit of it, then you need to let them know that it's not going to work. You need someone to actually show up in order I practice your Chinese with them!
4. Honesty
If you can't trust someone, then how are you going to trust them to teach you? Your LE partner should be a man/woman of his/her word. And so should you! If they say that they will do something(like meet you to practice) then they had better do it, though as I previously mentioned, life can get in the way. If you find them lying to you to protect themselves after ditching you, or constantly making excuses, or even cutting out after you just spent an hour on English, because something "came up", then you should find someone else to practice Chinese with!
5. Passion
Your LE partner should be just as passionate about learning English as you are about learning Chinese. They need to be committed to showing up, week after week, and talking with you until they're blue in the face. That's the only way either of you are really going to learn. If they don't really even like learning English, but just see it as a necessity for furthering their career(the two aren't mutually exclusive, by the way), then they won't keep up with it in the long run, and sooner or later you'll be stuck without a LE partner!
So how does your LE partner stack-up? Tell us in the comments below, let's get a discussion going!
There's no doubt about it, Chinese is the biggest "fad" language around. Everyone wants to learn it(or should!), and for good reason. In today's article, I'm going to break it down for you and give you my top seven reasons to start learning Chinese today!
1. More people speak it than any other language:
China is the most densely populated country in the world. Seriously, there's over a billion people in China. That's around a fifth of the world's population. Granted, not all of them speak Mandarin(there are soon many dialects of Chinese, almost as many as there are people!) but more and more do, and eventually they all will. Take Hong Kong for example. In the past, people from, say Taiwan, would be unable to communicate with Hong Kongers. Now, more and more of them are learning Mandarin(since being reunited with China), enough so that when my wife and I run-into them here in Texas, we can communicate with them. Mandarin is growing like crazy, and there's never been a better time to learn it.
2. Those billion people make up a huge market for any corporation:
Chinese people love everything and anything having to do with the West. Just take a look at how many Taiwanese kids spend their life savings on a pair of Timberlands and you'll start to see, that these people want what you have to sell. Really, anything with ties to America, be it McDonald's, KFC, PizzaHut, Levi's, Nike, Apple is extremely desirable to the Chinese youth, and the list just goes on and on and on.
3. Business opportunities abound:
I mentioned previously that the Chinese present a huge market for international sales. China/Taiwan also presents a lot of opportunities to the business-savy entrepreneur looking to make some money. There are so many Chinese companies that would love to have a presence in the American market, or to otherwise cooperate with American businesses in joint-ventures. Many of the CEOs of these companies will be versed in at least rudimentary English, but learning Chinese will deepen your relationship with them, and enable you to get the most out of your investment.
4. Learning Chinese will make you smarter:
Without a doubt, learning Chinese, especially to read and write it, will make you smarter. Written Chinese consists of characters, each of which can have many different meanings and, more often than not, alternate pronunciations. While this makes learning Chinese difficult for foreigners, it also forges a powerful mind capable of processing logic/puzzle based information much more efficiently than the average mind. Ever hear the stereotype that Chinese people are good at math? Well, not all are, but there is some truth to this statement. Studies have been done linking the ability of Chinese speakers to process mathematical problems, and they have been shown to have an aptitude for it. Learning Chinese also gives you a sharp memory, as you need it to correctly recall all of the characters when reading/writing. Of course, that is assuming that you went about learning it the right way.
5. Two is better than one:
Being able to speak two languages is becoming more and more essential in today's world. Consider the following scenario: Two otherwise equally qualified applicants applied for a job, one was bilingual, the other only spoke their mother tongue. Who do you think got the job?
6. Your own secret language:
No doubt about it, being able to speak Chinese with my wife in "public-privacy" has been extremely useful since we moved back to America. We call Chinese our 秘密語，or "secret language". It allows us to discus things that we'd rather not have other people overhear, whether unintentionally or otherwise. It allows us to say things to eachother that would otherwise be embarrassing in public, such a "your fly is own" etc.
7. It's just plain fun!:
Chinese is a beautiful language, with an unbelievable amount of depth; I myself am "fluent", but I'm still constantly learning(hey, I don't even know every word in English, my native tongue!). Furthermore, learning Chinese will help you to understand Chinese culture, something that is completely impossible to learn otherwise, and will allow you to befriend Chinese people, and really get to know them. I could go on, but I think you get the point!
There you have it, my top 7 reasons for you to start learning Chinese today, NO, immediately! It doesn't matter which reason on this list got you to commit to learning, it just matters that you get to it!
If you liked this article, checkout these related articles HERE and HERE!!!
Also, don't forget to join my mail-list and get started with our free Chinese lessons NOW!
Today I'm going to teach you how to use 一點 in Mandarin. This is useful when talking about how you want something, or how you want it done. Such as bigger, smaller, more, less, etc. follow along with the video and make sure to pay close attention to the sentences below. This one lesson will help you to really make your Chinese sound more complete. Enjoy!
I hope everyone enjoyed last week's post:Interview with a Chinese Learner. Check it out HERE if you haven't already. Today, we are continuing with this segment!
Last week, my interviewee, Oll Linge, lives in Taiwan and has studied Chinese extensively there. However, as a contrast, this week I am interviewing Daniel Scott, from Discovering Chinese Life. His experience differs in that he lives on the mainland, and as such has experienced a different breed of Chinese language and culture. I know what you're thinking, "but Chinese is Chinese, right?". Wrong. Thing about the differences between American English and that spoken in the UK, and you will be on the right track. In fact, this topic deserves an article of its own, but I digress.
Daniel is a teacher in a private Chinese school, and has shared a lot of experiences similar to my own, though I myself have never been to Mainland China. So let's see what he has to say about his time in China, and more importantly for our purposes, his insights into learning Chinese!
Q: What Made you decide to learn Chinese?
I saw learning Chinese as a necessity and opportunity when moving to China. I work at a private Chinese school so I need to know how to read and communicate with the nationals I work with whether they know English or not. It’s also quite humbling knowing I daily interact with my students who know 2-4 languages. When going public, as soon as I step out my apartment’s front door, I’m immersed in a culture where English is becoming more popular but where locals are highly appreciative of foreigners knowing their native tongue. It’s amazing the relationships you can build.
Q:How long have you been a student of Chinese, and how long did it take you to become conversational?
I have studied Chinese for over three years now. The first six months was spent on tones and simple phrases alone. As far as becoming conversational, it would depend on the context. My wife and I both went out quite often the first two years of living here and were able to communicate. It’s not an impossible language. We still go out a lot to practice and pick up new words. Of course, there’s always the internet to help learn what words or phrases are “hot."
Q:What was your biggest challenge learning Chinese? And what came easiest to you?
A challenge that still happens is when I’m with locals and they discuss an issue that I haven’t come across or studied yet. I get a gist of what they’re taking about, but certain vocabulary has me turning to my Pleco occasionally. It’s no biggie since I can turn those words into cards that I’ll study for the future. The easiest thing about Chinese is possibly the grammar. Being an adult, apart from my elementary students, I can pick up the rules and apply them. Now it takes practice obviously to have it become more natural, but it definitely can happen over time. Failure would probably be the top thing though, but it’s one of the most important factors when it comes to learning another language. My students would second that notion.
Q:What advice would you give to our readers who are just embarking on their journey with Chinese?
Practice, fail and apply as much as you can in real life. You can listen to mp3’s all you want, which isn’t at all worthless, but at least here in China you can hear the same phrase or word said in numerous ways. The more exposure you have, the most understanding you will have in the long run. When it comes to writing, in my case, there was a point where I had written and studied so many Chinese characters that when learning a new character, I could look at it 1-2 times and already know how to write it without practice.
Q:Do you have a favorite Chinese phrase? If so, what is it and why?
There was a point at school last year where I really wanted to say to my students, “Get over it.” They weren’t trying to be spoiled. I think just a bunch of little things were adding up in my head so I wanted to say something off-the-cuff. So I asked a co-worker who recommended “拉倒吧” to me. He then said that it probably wasn’t the most polite since “算了” could do just fine. It created a good joke that had me remember the phrase, and I use it with that particular Chinese, culture-bridge friend whenever something petty comes along that we should get over. 拉倒吧！
Q:What's your one biggest "hack" for learning Chinese?
I use two dictionaries, Pleco and Youdao. Pleco is used mainly by foreigners, and it gives a good breakdown of words, meanings, pinyin, etc. Youdao is used by Chinese-speakers for English study, but Youdao has better translating for longer sections of words. If a word doesn’t sound right in Youdao, I simply insert it in Pleco. Both dictionaries have vocabulary card systems that make it easy for practicing so the words can quickly become a part of one's arsenal. They’re what I use when I read posts from my students, co-workers and friends on QQ, WeChat and Weibo. These people don’t know it, but they teach me every time they make a post.
Thank you for your time Daniel! Daniel's attitude towards learning is very proactive, and one that we can all learn from, even long-time Chinese learners like myself. Make sure to practice his tips, because there is pure gold in this article. His advice to use Pleco is spot-on, I myself feel that it has been one of my most powerful learning tools, though I've never heard of Youdao until now…you can rest assured that I will be checking it out ASAP! Until next time, keep learning!
I think that anyone who has found there way to my little corner of the web will agree that command of Chinese is a valuable, desirable skill to have. Though not particularly an easy one to obtain. Granted, it helps a lot when you know the right way to approach your studies, but don't be fooled, you are still in for a lot of work if you want to really take your Chinese to the next level.
One of the best, if not the best ways to do this is to live abroad and completely immerse yourself in a Chinese speaking culture. There is no lack of language programs for foreigners living in Taipei, Taiwan for example. I myself attended one such school for a semester. You could also higher private tutors from amongst the locals to further your studies. These are both great ideas, but they aren't cheap.
In today's article, I'm going to offer you some alternatives: 5 free ways to learn Chinese. I think we can all "afford" free, right? So let's take a look.
1. Live with a Chinese family:
If you decide to live abroad, one way to rapidly improve your Chinese(especially comprehension) is to live with a local family. I did this for around half a year or so when I was living in Taipei and focused on intensely on my Chinese studies at Shida University.I lived with an elderly couple that went by simply "A'gong" and "A'po", Meaning grandfather and grandmother respectively in Taiwanese dialect. They must've been at least in their 70s, and they didn't speak a lick of English. Needless to say, my Chinese improved immensely just chatting g with them…and boy did they love to talk! If you have the opportunity, I definitely recommend living in a household where Chinese is spoken exclusively, it will really help you speed-up your progress.
2. Find a Language Exchange Partner:
If you don't have the opportunity to live with a Chinese family, you can at the very least make friends with a local person and have them become your language exchange partner. Trust me, you will have no lack of people wanting o be your friend just to learn English, so why not take advantage of that and learn Chinese? It's a win-win situation for everyone. Because Chinese people can be shy when they feel their Enlish is not up to par, don't let that stop you. Star conversations, be friendly. And when all else fails, check on Tealit.com for people interested in finding an LE partner(if you're in Taiwan), or make a profile on Italki.com and find a partner to Skype with. The bottom line is: Make it happen!
3. Watch Chinese shows on Youtube:
One of the best ways to improve your listening comprehension and vocabulary in a foreign language is to watch TV shows in that language, and Chinese is no different. Do a Youtube search for 康熙來了, one of my wife's favorite shows. It's a talk show with a lot of funny characters. You should also check out 大學生了沒 while you're at it! Or if you are in the mood for something more serious, check out 痞子英雄, a Taiwanese cop drama. Another good option would be to watch the news. These are just a few examples, but you get the idea, now go veg-out in front of the TV!
4. Listen to Some Music:
Another great way to improve your listening skills is to listen to Chinese music. You can find a lot of music for free on youtube, or on various radio apps. Why not start by searching for these artists' songs on youtube: Lu, zhang, Chen. That will get you off to a good start.
5. Go to your local Chinese restaurant:
Another idea for improving your Chinese without spending any money is to go down to the local Chinese restaurant and try to speak with your waiter in Chinese. Now, they will most likely be from Hong Kong and primarily speak Cantonese, but most will likely speak Mandarin as well. You'll never know if you don't try! My wife and I have started a lot of conversations by just ordering food, since she is Chinese. It always makes for an interesting time. So go on, be adventurous!
I hope that you found something that you could use in this article. It's easy to think that you'll never learn a language due to limitations that you place on yourself, such as being unable to find native speakers to interact with. Just know that there really is a lot that you can do, you just have to have an open mind to see the possibilities. If you want it bad enough, then you'll make it work.
PS
If you found this article useful, then check-out my article 10 tips to reverse engineering the Chinese languagefor more Chinese learning tips! Also, please don't be afraid to comment below and share your thoughts!
PPS
Don't forget to join my mail-list to stay up to date with all of the developments here at EazyChinese.com!!!
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