Socializing can be a challenge anywhere, but it can be especially stressful in a Chinese business setting! It’s evident that there’s an ongoing increase in the number of international businesses…
Flowers and trees are closely related to people’s lives. Because of this, for thousands of years, the Chinese people have coined many plant-related words and expressions. For example, Chinese people…
Before we start our topic today on Chinese homophones, let’s first look at the following two sentences: 一朵漂亮的花儿。(Yī duǒ piàoliàng de huār. )他今天花了一百元。(Tā zuátiān huā le yībǎi yuán.) We can…
As with all languages, Chinese has an informal set of slang words which can be quite useful to know and can help one communicate better. Chinese slang usually can’t be…
Here are two facts about Chinese idioms: there are lots and lots of them, and for the most part they are not particularly useful. I’ve been a student of Mandarin…
You may be looking for a way to say “Because” or “So” in Mandarin Chinese. Or perhaps, you have learned how to say “Because” (“因为” yīnwèi), and “So” (“所以” suǒyǐ),…
Once Chinese learners reach the intermediate or advanced stage, they will encounter, “synonyms”, or words with similar meanings. Telling the difference between words with similar meanings is a key part…
A huge bulk of the words in Chinese are compound words, consisting of two or more characters put together. Even if you’re already aware of the fact that Chinese characters…
A real question many Chinese learners will encounter early is how to express future events. In Chinese, we have a series of time words to address that: “将来”(jiānglái), “未来”(wèilái), “以后”(yǐhòu)…