Laowai Chinese 老外中文

Since I’ve always lived in southern China (Nanchang, Kunming, Guangzhou), it’s been fun to travel up North these past few weeks and hear the locals speaking Mandarin with slightly different vocabulary choices than I’m used to hearing in the South. This list is based on my incidental observations and isn’t meant to be comprehensive (or […]

Shèngdàn kuàilè 圣诞快乐 everyone! (Such a strident seasonal greeting–it just doesn’t sound as merry in Chinese.) Before I get back to wrapping my gifts, I thought I’d mention an actual free gift (as opposed to this) available to everyone for the next week. Apparently, ChineseTeachers.com is doing a Christmas special offering unlimited Chinese lessons (voice […]

Even though I live in China, it’s sometimes hard to find someone to speak Chinese with me. I’m not talking about all the “duōshao qián” 多少钱 and “yes, I’ve eaten” exchanges. I mean someone I can really stretch my vocabulary muscles with and speak with for a long period of time about some subject other […]

As I watch the starting line up for Michael Phelps’ next race, my two thoughts are: 1. Maybe the Chinese commentators are right. Maybe he is an alien (wàixīngrén 外星人), and that’s why he swims so fast (he does have slightly webbed toes I’m told). 2. What a lot of work someone went to, translating […]

I was looking for seedless oranges the other day. Here’s how the conversation with the lady selling oranges went: Me: zhè zhǒng yǒu méiyǒu zǐ? 这种有没有子? Does this kind have seeds? Lady: méiyǒu. 没有. No Me: nà zhǒng ne? 那种呢? What about that kind? Lady: nà zhǒng gèng méiyǒu! 那种更没有! That kind has even less! […]

A recent article in The Guardian features the founder and creator of the Pinyin system we’ve all come to know and love . Pinyin turns 50 this month, but incredibly, the creator of Pinyin, Zhōu Yǒuguāng 周有光, is still alive and kicking (well, writing at least) at the age of 102. The article includes a […]

In addition to the endless hours of fun and instruction we can get from anecdotes of other foreigner’s mistakes, some careful listening and a little intuition can turn your Chinese friends’ English mistakes into hot Chinese-language tips. Chinese people often speak English as if it were Chinese, but with English words. This often causes mistakes […]

If your goal is to learn a language without making any mistakes, I’ve got bad news for you: I couldn’t and I’ve never met anyone who could. Since making mistakes are an inevitable part of this complex, tricky, and often magical process of learning to speak in a different tongue, what should our attitude be […]

Ok, that may be a little harsh. Let me rephrase that and say goals can be bad. Specifically, when learning a language, goals can torpedo your motivation. Learning a language is not like learning other things. It’s a far more complex and sometimes even magical process that takes much more time and effort than most […]

For adults learning a language, there’s really no escaping the fact that we have to memorize vocabulary. There are various ways to make the process more efficient or enjoyable (like flashcards, or labeling your house), but in the end, it’s still memorizing. So, given our limited time and memory, it would be nice if we […]