3 Ways Chinese Parents Show Us “I love you” is Over-rated

Eng Chan November 24, 2016

My parents have never told me they love me…

Before you start feeling sorry for me, let me tell you something else. Most likely, if your Chinese friends, co-workers, or classmates were born before the 1990s, they too were unlikely to have heard these three simple yet profound words from their parents. Now, before you start feeling sympathetic for the whole Chinese race, let me clarify. Traditionally, Chinese parents don’t say I love you. It’s that simple. “Wǒ ài nǐ｜我爱你” just sounds awkward and strange and overly mushy.

Get your Weekly Mandarin fix with Mandarin Weekly

Lianca Van der Merwe November 22, 2016

The team here at ChinesePod just want to give a big shout-out to the people at Mandarin Weekly.

ChinesePod content is often featured in this amazing newsletter, curated for Chinese learners.

There are *lots* of online resources for people learning Chinese, including lots of blogs, videos, and tips. It’s hard to keep track of these all, and even harder to know where to turn to improve your Chinese.).

Happy Halloween 2016!

Lianca Van der Merwe October 31, 2016

The scary holiday is upon us. Learn how it is celebrated in China and arm your self with the right vocabulary to escape spooky encounters with ghosts and ghouls.

Why Pinyin Just Isn’t Enough

Eng Chan October 28, 2016

Learning Chinese is hard. I’d be hard-pressed to find someone who disagrees.

You have 4 tones and over 3,000 modern Chinese characters. Now, add on the complex question of whether to learn simplified versus traditional characters … or both. It’s enough to make some of us want to give up learning Mandarin altogether. So you might wonder: Why bother learning characters at all? Don’t all Mainland Chinese people know pinyin? If I write down an address in pinyin to a taxi driver, they will surely understand. Why bother at all?

Jobs Requiring Chinese: So You Want To Work In Chinese?

ChinesePod October 11, 2016

This is a guest Blog post written by Frances Chan, a language-learning consultant: she helps people learn languages. Her pieces on learning languages have helped thousands of people. She most enjoys teaching language-learners how to sound more like native speakers. If you are interested in more pieces that she has written, check out her blog.

Are you keen to work in Chinese but you’re unsure of where to start looking or which jobs to research that require Chinese?

You’ve been studying Mandarin for a few years, and you want to take your China-savvy to the next level: your career. But what do you do with it? There are few straightforward applications of this language—or any human language for that matter. Learn programming, and you can become a software engineer. Learn languages, and you… ?

What’s more, hundreds of thousands of Chinese students study in Anglophone countries each year, gaining professional fluency in English in addition to their already native grasp on Chinese. Based on language abilities alone, they have an absolute advantage over you. What do you do?

As an avid language-learner keen on applying my hard-earned skills, I was curious myself. So this past month, I interviewed ten early-career professionals who’ve begun building a career out of their Chinese skills.