Laowai Chinese 老外中文

Contrary to what one of my students said, It’s very fun! I think that it is a good for learning Chinese. I actually don’t think there’s much pedagogical value to the song (although I did try to use the most common / useful characters I could). But I still thought it might be fun to post here since […]

In the spirit of the season (and also because I haven’t had time to get to any of the 70 drafts waiting for me), I’d like to give you 3 new, original songs as a little present for the holidays. 1. Yǐwéi 以为 by me Part of the ongoing 我不是东西 collection or Chinese pop songs […]

I’m delighted to announce that my sister Marie has just finished recording two Mandarin songs here in my little studio. 1. Rich Girl I wrote the song with our college’s hip hop dance team in mind (I haven’t heard from them whether they like the song or not yet). I invented a character (I imagined […]

Here’s an up-tempo, happy pop song from the singer of such classics as “In A Thousand Years” and “Back to Back Hug” (translations coming someday…maybe). I’ve actually seen Lín Jùnjié 林俊杰 perform live and he was great (assuming he was really singing what I was hearing). Here’s my humble attempt at a translation (requires Adobe […]

My little Audacity-powered home recording studio just cranked out my third Chinese pop song: Kuàilè 快乐 (Happy). Inspirational Story It was my friend Adrian who first said, “Have you ever noticed every Chinese pop song has the word ‘kuàilè’ 快乐 in it?” He’s pretty much right. Of course there are about three songs getting air […]

My humble home recording studio has gotten quite a workout this past week as I finished up (finally) my second Chinese pop song: Àimèi de Guānxi 暧昧的关系. Inspirational Story The idea for this song came from one week of class when the topic for my English major students was romance and relationships. Invariably, in every […]

“I want to learn a Chinese pop song. Which one should I learn?” If that’s your question, I usually recommend this one (requires Adobe Reader). (For the MP3, do a Baidu search.) It’s one of the easiest songs I know for the following reasons: 1. Short (few vocabulary words to learn) 2. Repetitive (the few words […]

Since this is a strictly apolitical, language-learning blog, I’d like to go on record as saying I’m posting the lyrics to this song because: 1. The Beijing Olympics are just around the corner and you’re likely to hear this song on TV or the radio or at a shop at some point (if you haven’t […]

I know my little translations of pop songs are some of the least popular content on this blog, but I just can’t help it, sorry. “Fairy Tale” (tónghuà 童话) by Guāng Liáng (光良) is very popular right now (in this part of the country at least). It also has the added benefit of being one […]

I was first xīyǐn to this song’s peppy beat and funky accordion accompaniment. This is the first song by Zhōu Xùn 周迅 I’ve translated. I called it “Watching the Sea,” but “Kàn hǎi” 看海 could be translated “Looking at the Sea” too (not that it matters). The lyrics, while providing useful examples of many uses […]