The Latest Mandarin Chinese Language Lessons
Excellent Materials for You to Learn Chinese Mandarin Language
Latest Lessons
The Spring Festival Gala Beijing Standard Time
Today's BST discusses an event that occurs only once a year: the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. To say that the gala has become something of a lunar New Year's tradition in China is an understatement; the viewership of this New Year's Eve extravaganza is approximately 700 million each year! Listen in to hear more about this extremely popular televised event. Rabid TV junkie? Check out ChinesePod's lessons on The Olympics on TV and TV Commercials.
Chinese New Year, Spring Festival, mobile phones, text messages
New Year's Well-Wishes Qing Wen
Today's Qing Wen is all about ringing in the lunar New Year. In addition to all of the quintessential New Year's wishes, we've added a number of dragon-pertinent terms and idioms that are sure to impress your Chinese friends and bring them good luck too! Happy year of the dragon to all our poddies and listeners!
idioms, culture, zodiac, dragon, Spring Festival
Buying a Prepaid Cell Phone Card Elementary
So you've just had an hour-long argument with your landlord about the electricity bill or exchanged a few hundred texts with your significant other; either way your phone is out of credit. Don't panic! Learn how to recharge your cell phone minutes in today's highly useful Elementary lesson.
cell phones, shopping
坑“妈”的防辐射服 Media
一位朋友曾经很好奇地问：”在我们办公室有一位孕妇，她每天都穿同一件衣服，从春天到夏天，从夏天到秋天，直到她的宝宝出生。是她特别喜欢这件衣服还是她只有一件衣服呢？“哈哈，答案当然是，不！因为这不是一件普通的衣服，而是一件价格昂贵的防辐射服。它能屏蔽电脑、手机等电器的辐射，保护肚子里的宝宝。哦，这件衣服真的有那么神奇吗？你是不是也开始怀疑了呢？ 来源链接：别让防辐射服成为“皇帝的新装”
clothes, technology, pregnancy, government
Birthday on the Lunar Calendar Pre Intermediate
The lunar calender is decidedly important in China as it determines the date of various holidays like Chinese New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival, but did you know that birthdays on the lunar calender are also treated with great importance? How do you choose which one to celebrate? Learn about birthdays on the solar and lunar calender in today's Intermediate lesson!
birthday, culture, lunar calendar, time
Whose Home for Chinese New Year? Upper Intermediate
Chinese New Year is all about going home to one's family and enjoying precious time with family stuffing one's face. But what happens when a husband and wife are from different cities and they both want to go home to their own families for CNY? This dialog ensues, that's what!
family, holiday, Chinese New Year, culture, transportation
Restaurant Recommendation Elementary
Each person has his own preferences, but the Chinese way to finding a good restaurant is -- no, not Yelp or Dianping -- asking friends, face to face, the good old-fashioned way! In this lesson, follow such a conversation about where to eat lunch and learn some Chinese.
eating, restaurant, daily life
An Interview with Zhang Ayi Beijing Standard Time
Today's BST is a mini-follow-up of sorts to our previous podcasts on Chinese dialects. Due to requests from a number of our users for a podcast with a taste of 四川话 (Sichuan Hua), we present an interview with Zhang Ayi. Hailing from Sichuan, she discusses Sichuanese, her experiences in Shanghai, and celebrating the new year in her hometown with us. Enjoy the show and leave your comments and questions below! If you haven't already, be sure to check out both part one and part two of our BST on Chinese dialects. Eager for more of Sichuan? Try ChinesePod's Hungry Traveler: Sichuan lesson!
housework, dialect, Chinese New Year, Spring Festival
Popular Slang from 2011 Qing Wen
Even though the year 2011 is behind us, the slang words popularized then are still just as useful as ever. Tune in as the Qing Wen team breaks down some of the most popular and commonly used words from the internet and pop culture. Don't forget to leave your comments and questions below along with any other slang from last year that you find particularly useful!
language, internet, people
Market Research 3: Assessing the Competition Upper Intermediate
In part three of this series, some serious research has been done on the motor home market in China. We're talking market share, we're talking core competitive advantages, we're talking high-end markets and low-end markets. Learn some of this very important marketing speak in this Chinese lesson.
marketing, business
Directions for the Taxi Driver Elementary
Why bother to even ask for directions at all, when you can just hop in a cab, call your Chinese friend, and have her tell the driver where you want to go? In this lesson, our lazy office visitor does just that. But you may just learn some Chinese from the exchange if you listen in and pay attention!
directions, location, transportation
Getting to the Office Elementary
You'd normally just check online for the fastest route via public transportation to get to your destination, but you're out of data on your smartphone and can't find wireless. What do you do? Good thing you listened to this ChinesePod lesson and learned how to ask for and understand directions in Mandarin Chinese! Crisis averted!
transportation, place, visit, traffic
Teaching English to the Neighbors Intermediate
Foreigners are generally treated in a very friendly manner by the Chinese, but those friendly gestures are sometimes followed by a request: teach me English! In this lesson, we join one such soul in several encounters as he explains why he really isn't the best one to be teaching anyone English.
culture, language, daily life
ChinesePod Hall of Famers News and Features
Today we have a very special News and Features featuring a pair of our long-time subscribers Robin and Zhen Mei. Hailing from Massachusetts in the USA, they're not only two of our earliest users (they started listening to us in 2005!), they've also been coming to our ChinesePod office once every year since then for a total of six years in a row! Thank you Robin and Zhen Mei for your incredible dedication over the years and to all our users, old and new, who've allowed us here at ChinesePod to continue bringing everyone one of the highest quality Chinese-learning podcasts out there for six years and counting!
interview
Old and New Qing Wen
In light of the recent new year, Qing Wen is featuring a highly practical show on the usage of "old" and "new" in Mandarin Chinese. Learn how to talk about all your new holiday gifts as well as all your old possessions relegated to the garbage can after the holidays passed. Tune in and enjoy!
people, things
Afternoon Meeting Elementary
Afternoon meetings are a fact of life in many offices, but in many companies they're on a dangerous collision course with the Chinese "afternoon nap" custom. In this lesson, learn the key Mandarin phrases for reminding others about meetings. As for actually staying awake in that meeting... you're on your own!
business, meeting, internet, computers, office
Visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art Intermediate
This is a Chinese lesson specifically for all you workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We know what you have to deal with... the ticket sales, the audio tours, the lines. And we know you'd also like to do it in Chinese. So here it is.
museum, travel, entertainment
Extreme Weather and Pollution Upper Intermediate
The weather has been a ghastly roller coaster of weirdness in recent years, and in China, many are taking a closer look at pollution. Specifically, we're talking about fine particulate matter. Listen in to learn more about this very timely issue.
weather, pollution, temperature