Many people don’t know the story behind the Chinese zodiac | 12生肖 | 12 Shēngxiào and how the Animal Years came to be. Well, pull up a chair and pour yourself a cup of tea — it’s quite an interesting tale. Read more for the full story and a breakdown of your zodiac year. Read More
Who doesn’t love to watch TV? Whether it is a sitcom, romantic drama, crime thriller, or reality series, there’s usually a genre available for every taste. TV is often labeled a guilty pleasure – the more hours you spend in front of it, the guiltier you may feel. While wasting away those hours glued to the screen, a small voice at the back of your head whispers that you should really be reviewing the new vocabulary from your ChinesePod lesson, right? Well, for those of us learning Mandarin, there’s a way to enjoy watching edge-of-your-seat thrillers or tear-jerking romantic dramas without the guilt. At the same time, it will allow those new Mandarin words you just learnt really soak in.
The secret? Chinese dramas. Read more for my five tips for taking advantage of watching Mandarin Dramas to maximize on your language retention.
Wánměi完美. Perfection.
We all strive to achieve it, in various aspects of our lives, whether it be in our careers or relationships. However, just as in these other areas, in language learning, if we are constantly focused on reaching perfection, this focus can become a roadblock rather than a stimulus. While creating challenging goals may inspire you to study harder, striving for perfection can actually become counter-active to achieving successful results in the long term. Below are three “perfect” mistakes which I have seen many people make in their road to Mandarin learning (myself included), that cause you to lose confidence or feel discouraged, and ultimately, result in learning less, at a slower pace, and even Bàn tú ér fèi 半途而废 – giving up halfway. Read More
Get on your Mandarin Chinese grind in the New Year with this handy list of our Top Six ChinesePod videos from 2015. From getting a bikini wax to funky folk tales to not making Hulk angry, you’ll learn interesting and useful phrases to get you on your way to chatting like a native in the New Year. Read more for the Top Six videos from 2015!
Practice makes perfect, right? Well, when it comes to learning Mandarin, you’re never going to be perfect… and that’s okay! In many ways learning Mandarin is like paddling a boat upstream: it is a journey that requires hard work, determination, and patience. However, there is a review method I learned in high school that has become a vital addition to my Mandarin studies: keeping a Chinese diary. Keeping a simple diary in Mandarin makes learning fun and also establishes a consistent routine.
So what do you need to make a Chinese diary? Well, obviously a notebook, a pen, and ChinesePod definitely helps. What I like to do is fire up a ChinesePod lesson, and then use my diary to reinforce the lesson as I go along with the podcast. Read more for four ways to get started on your very own Chinese diary!
