Q: Hi, I’m a beginner student of Chinese and have been studying Chinese on and off for the past year. I’ve found that there are many different ways of saying the days of the week like xingqiyi or libaiyi and there’s also ri. Which one should I use and what is the difference between them? Read More…

For a long time, China was considered a smoker’s paradise, with more than 300 million of China’s 1.35 billion being smokers, and with more than half of adult men being regular tobacco users according to WHO. You could smoke in a restaurant, in a taxi (though that became harder to do in bigger cities such Read More…

Many of our students venture to China sooner or later and we thought it would be interesting to ask them to share their experience with others. Below is a short report from our student Alastair: “I had an interesting and enjoyable trip to China. The nine months learnings that I have had with your Mandarin tuition course was Read More…

One of our students recently asked us this question: I notice that in Chinese there are many ways of saying often. I came across the words “changchang, jingchang, tongchang, pingchang” so far. Can you tell me what is the difference between them? We will certainly try. You are correct, there are many ways of expressing Read More…

As every other language, Chinese language has undoubtedly been undergoing many changes, such as new vocabulary and even new sentence structures, particularly under the influence of English. New words have been seeping into Mandarin since Qing dynasty, but the process has been much more notable in the recent decades. This has been propelled by the Read More…

Dear students, As you already know we’ve recently announced that we are working on creating a set of physical flashcards that are going to be extremely beneficial to those in the beginning stages of their language learning journey. The entire set of 300 cards which we have named Core Vocabulary, will be available for purchase soon Read More…

上有天堂，下有苏杭。 (Shàng Yǒu TiānTáng, Xià Yǒu Sū Háng) Paradise in Heaven, Suzhou and Hangzhou on earth. Hangzhou (杭州 HángZhōu) is considered to be the cradle of Chinese civilisation with its history spanning over more than 2,200 years. Besides being a major tourist attraction and being renown for its scenic beauty, Hangzhou is also the provincial Read More…

Hi everyone, we have listened to your requests and decided to publish a set of physical flashcards designed to help you learn faster and more efficiently. This set of flashcards which we have named Core Vocabulary, includes 300 most frequently used words and characters and covers most of the vocabulary from our Module 1. The Read More…

Oh, the dreaded Chinese menu. Here you are, sitting comfortably in a small restaurant in China, hungry and ready to dig into some big bowl of noodles or a pile of dumplings. The waiter comes by and hands you the menu. Oh no, no pictures! And, what’s worse, no English translations either. Sure, the translations Read More…

Martial arts have a long history in China, with the first origins dating back to at least 2,000 years ago, to a time when China was dominated by warlords, bandits and foreign invaders. They can largely be divided into two forms: armed and unarmed arts. The former include disciplines such as spearmanship, archery and swordsmanship Read More…

1. Lang-8 Established back in 2006, Lang-8 today boasts more than 750,000 users from 190 different countries around the world. The concept of Lang-8 is simple: new users register on the website and provide the information on which language they want to learn or are currently learning (target language) and which is their native language. Once their Read More…

Recently one of our students asked us this question: I was reviewing some of the words we have learned in Module One, and I need some clarification on the different words for happy. So far I have learnt Kai1xin1, Kuai4le, and Gao1xing4. Could you please help me understand the distinction between these words? And here is our Read More…

In an informal setting there are hardly any special rules for dining in China and as a foreigner you will often be excused for any potential mistakes. But, if you find yourself in a business setting, for example, attending a formal banquet, there are a couple of things that you should bear in mind in Read More…

Our students often ask us: what are some good, free resources for studying Chinese? We are here to answer those questions! These days, there are plenty of  resources for studying Chinese available, some better than others, some paid, some for free. To make things easier for you, we have broken them down into separate categories, and we’ve Read More…

Dear LearnMandarin, I need help with grammar. When speaking 的, 得 and 地 all sound the same (de). They are all used for grammar purposes and seem to be used all the time. What’s the best way to learn the differences between the three and how can I use them correctly? This in an excellent question and something Read More…