#zhongwen

[doitinanotherlanguage]

Updates on Learning Mandarin Chinese 3/∞: 我看了电视就。

A while ago, I asked people to recommend me Chinese/Taiwanese dramas so I could practice my Chinese listening comprehension. I got a bunch of recs (thank you so much everyone who recced me dramas! ❤️), so I decided to sit down and try them out. My method was to watch the first episode of all these dramas, and then continue watching the ones I found interesting.

Here are the dramas and my thoughts on the first episodes:

开端 (2022; Reset)

Mystery Sci-Fi Thriller

After repeatedly finding herself dying in an explosion while riding the same bus, a college student finally concludes that she is stuck in a never-ending time loop. Inadvertently, she drags a fellow passenger into her loop and they pair up to find out what is going on.

My verdict: This is very exciting! After watching only the first episode of Reset, I have no idea what the heck is going on but I’m excited to continue the show and find out! I love mysteries, so this is definitely something I’m interested in. I’m absolutely going to finish this drama.

琅琊榜 (2015; Nirvana in Fire)

Historical Drama

A revenge drama set loosely in the period of the Southern and Northern dynasties, Nirvana in Fire is about a strategist who wants to avenge his former house and its 70 000 soldiers, massacred in a conspiracy.

My verdict: Okay, so I’ve never actually managed to watch a Chinese historical drama (that is set pre-1900s) beyond the first couple of episodes. Unfortunately, Nirvana in Fire doesn’t feel like it’s going to become an exception. I’m really intimidated by the episode count (54 + a sequel), and political machinations and power-games in a palace/court don’t necessarily interest me as a plot. Idk, next year I’m planning to read about Chinese history, so I might come back to this then if I get a craving for historical settings.

想見你 (2019; Someday or One Day)

Sci-Fi Mystery Romance

In 2019, a 27 year-old woman is missing her boyfriend, presumed dead in a plane crash. One day, she falls asleep listening to a walkman she mysteriously received and is transported into the body of a high school girl, living in 1998. The girl’s friend looks exactly like the missing boyfriend but obviously cannot be him. Things get even more muddled after she learns that the girl whose body she’s inhabiting is destined to die in 1999.

My verdict: This one immediately hooked me. Consequently, I binged the whole thing. Amazing OST (I cannot stop playing the title track and 伍佰’s “Last Dance” over and over again!). Very well acted. A fun mix of different genres (high school, romance, mystery/crime). The mystery keeps you hooked, watching and guessing. And while I have to admit I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the ending, I wholeheartedly loved the journey there. (Thank you so much @marilearnsmandarin​ for giving me the push to give this one a go!)

 山河令 (2021; Word of Honor)

Mystery Wuxia

A disillusioned leader of assassins sets out for the martial arts world, where he becomes entangled in a conspiracy and encounters a bosom friend. With this new friend, he embarks on an adventure to find a legendary treasure.

My verdict: Like Nirvana in Fire, Word of Honor is a visually gorgeous drama (historical dramas are always so dang pretty!). However, it still isn’t for me. I think it’s because I’m not that into watching martial arts or fighting, or upper class (-adjacent) people (much like why NiF didn’t do it for me either). If there are historical dramas about servants and peasants and regular life, please someone point me in their direction!

沉默的真相 (2020; The Long Night)

Mystery Crime Thriller

It’s supposed to be an open-and-shut case: the murder suspect is caught with the body on a busy subway station and he confesses to the murder. And yet, when the case is tried in court, the prosecutor discovers that all is not as it appears. The murder might just be a cover for another more shocking injustice.

My verdict: I. AM. HOOKED. This I’m definitely going to finish! From the first few minutes, The Long Night got me hooked and on the edge of my seat, and I’m dying to know more. Like I said before, I absolutely love a good mystery. And I’m thinking that there’s going to be some social critique? Like about corruption, etc., or something. (Thank you @m1azena​ for reccing this!)

理智派生活 (2021; The Rational Life)

Business Romance Drama

From swimming through the cesspool of office politics with its nepotism, sabotage and company problems, to withstanding familial pressure to settle down and marry, to handling suitors interested in her for their own selfish personal motives, to being counsellor and mentor to her best friend and her juniors, a professional career woman tries to navigate through life in her thirties.

My verdict: Another fantastic find! I thought that a couple of things in the first episode were lowkey annoying, but I got interested enough that I put on the second episode... And I’m so thankful that I did! I’m now on episode 10, and I’m obsessed! I really like the main character - I might not be in my thirties quite yet, but the pressure to have your shit together and the constant badgering to settle down with a guy.... yes, I can relate. This drama deals quite a bit with the pressures and obstacles women face, and it’s very compelling. (Thank you @jellycannot​ for the brief but super convincing description of this show, I don’t know whether I would’ve given this a chance without it!)

最亲爱的你 (2018; Youth)

Comedy Romance Drama

Five young women share a house while attending the same university. The drama follows their hopes and struggles in life and in relationships.

My verdict: This was a nice surprise! Youth is a Chinese remake of the South Korean 청춘시대 (2016; Age of Youth), which I watched several years ago. I’m so excited to see a Chinese version! The first episode is pretty faithful to the original (as far as I can remember), and I’m looking forward to seeing whether there are going to be any major changes.

猎罪图鉴 (2022; Under the Skin)

Police Procedural Mystery Thriller

A skilled portraitist and a respected police captain put aside their bad blood to work together and solve cases using methods that can only be described as uncanny.

My verdict: As much as I love mystery and thriller, and can deal with crime-solving as part of the plot... police procedurals just don’t do it for me. I think it’s because I filled my quota by watching a lifetime’s worth of CSI shows when I was a teen... However, I must admit that this one seems to be of very good quality. I’m probably not going to be in a hurry to continue watching this, but I’m going to leave the option open, because this does look well-made and promising. Would definitely recommend this to fans of detective and police shows.

#mandarin langblr #chinese langblr #learning mandarin #learning chinese #zhongwen #updates on learning mandarin

[oodlenoodleroodle]

Yesterday I learnt about one of the handiest resources for learning Chinese ever:

Wiktionary category pages that list all nouns that use a given measure word!

First you find the measure word you want to look up, for example 本 . In the Chinese section find the definitions, and among the definitions find the one that mentions it being a classifier (here number 8). There is a small link to "all nouns using this classifier" which in this case is

Like how many times have I said that there needs to exist a list of all words using a given measure word? Most of the time you google it you get like lists of a lot of different measure words with one or two examples each, and that is the opposite of what I have always wanted.

And of course it being Wiktionary is, like at the same time amazing and obvious. Of course crowdsourcing this is perfect, people really are amazing and want to create good resources like this, the entire Wikimedia project is proof of this.

#langblr #chinese #mandarin #hanyu #zhongwen #汉语 #中文

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

#ACLA24 #ACLA24Leaders #youtube #youtube video #climate leaders #climate solutions #climate action #climate and environment #climate #climate change #climate and health #climate blog #climate justice #climate news #weather and climate #environmental news #environment #environmental awareness #environment and health #environmental #environmental issues #environmental justice #environment protection #environmental health #Youtube

[linghxr]

Noun + Measure Word Compounds (名量式合成词)

I’ve noticed several words in my studies that are of the form noun + m. word. I thought this was really interesting, so I started jotting down the words I noticed or could think of. In some cases, the compound word basically means the same as just the plain noun! I’ve noticed that the compounds tend to be used in writing or more formal speech. In other cases, the compound has a distinct but related meaning. This is certainly not an exhaustive list—I hope I encounter and learn more in the future!

一封信 yì fēng xìn - a letter 封 fēng - to confer / to grant / to bestow a title / to seal / classifier for sealed objects, esp. letters 信封 xìnfēng - envelope 

一辆车 yí liàng chē - a vehicle / a car 辆 liàng - classifier for vehicles 车辆 chēliàng - vehicle / car

一张纸 yì zhāng zhǐ - a piece of paper 张 zhāng - to open up / to spread / sheet of paper / classifier for flat objects, sheet / classifier for votes 纸张 zhǐzhāng - paper

一本书 yì běn shū - a book 本 běn - root / stem / origin / source / this / the current / original / inherent / originally / classifier for books, periodicals, files etc 书本 shūběn - book 

一匹马 yì pǐ mǎ - a horse 匹 pǐ - classifier for horses, mules etc / ordinary person / classifier for cloth: bolt / horsepower 马匹 mǎpǐ - horse

一幅画 yì fú huà - a painting / a picture 幅 fú - width / roll / classifier for textiles or pictures 画幅 huàfú - painting / picture / dimension of a painting

一束花 yí shù huā - a bouquet of flowers / a bunch of flowers 束 shù - to bind / bunch / bundle / classifier for bunches, bundles, beams of light etc / to control 花束 huāshù - flower bouquet

一朵花 yì duǒ huā - a flower 朵 duǒ - flower / earlobe / fig. item on both sides / classifier for flowers, clouds etc 花朵 huāduǒ - flower

一朵云 yì duǒ yún - a cloud 云朵 yúnduǒ - a cloud

一粒米 yí lì mǐ - a grain of rice 粒 lì - grain / granule / classifier for small round things (peas, bullets, peanuts, pills, grains etc) 米粒 mǐlì - grain of rice / granule

一滴水 yì dī shuǐ - a drop of water 滴 dī - a drop / to drip 水滴 shuǐdī - water drop

一件事 yí jiàn shì - a thing / a matter 件 jiàn - item / component / classifier for events, things, clothes etc 事件 shìjiàn - event / happening / incident

一口人 yì kǒu rén - a person 口 kǒu - mouth / classifier for things with mouths (people, domestic animals, cannons, wells etc) / classifier for bites or mouthfuls 人口 rénkǒu - population / people

#nerdy language stuff #chinese #mandarin #mandarin chinese #chinese language #zhongwen #chinese vocab #mandarin vocab #langblr #studyblr #language #languages #language learning #language study #language stuff #language blog #learn chinese #study chinese #learn mandarin #study mandarin #learning chinese #studying chinese #learning mandarin #studying mandarin #chinese langblr #chinese studyblr #mandarin langblr #mandarin studyblr #learning languages #learning a language

[chineseffect]

Just go to chineseffect.com and experience it for yourself. :)

It is as simple as that.

#chinese #mandarin #learn chinese #learn mandarin #chinese langblr #mandarin langblr #edublr #langblr #chinese vocabulary #mandarin edublr #study chinese #study mandarin #zhongwen #hanyu #中文 #汉语 #chinese vocab #mandarin vocab #chinese app

[ichigokoneko]

I'm looking for someone who knows Mandarin (or has been learning for a long time) to chat with me :3 I've been learning recently and want to just text back and forth a couple times a day

On discord preferably but texting through tumblr is fine too

#langblr #mandarin #chinese #hanyu #zhongwen #汉语 #中文

[daiiststyle]

Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year is coming! I wish you all the best in the year of rabbit. I feel so grateful that you love the art works from my grandfather and father. Art is a world common language and it could touch our heart whoever you are and wherever you come from. Thanks all the artists for making our life so colorful 🎊🎊🎊 #chineseculture #china #chinese #hsk #chineselanguage #learnchinese #learnmandarin #mandarin #studychinese #zhongwen #mandarinchinese #chinesecharacters #chinesephrases #mandarinlessons #chinesegirl #chinesevocabulary #chineselessons #chinesenewyear #chinesestyle #learnchineseonline #chineselearning #pinyin #chineseart #beijing #travel #chinesewords #chinesefood #hanyu #learningchinese #hanfu （在 KPM - Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin） https://www.instagram.com/p/Cnrhu49osry/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#chineseculture #china #chinese #hsk #chineselanguage #learnchinese #learnmandarin #mandarin #studychinese #zhongwen #mandarinchinese #chinesecharacters #chinesephrases #mandarinlessons #chinesegirl #chinesevocabulary #chineselessons #chinesenewyear #chinesestyle #learnchineseonline #chineselearning #pinyin #chineseart #beijing #travel #chinesewords #chinesefood #hanyu #learningchinese #hanfu

[realfunmandarin]

Why do Chinese people always ask you to do everything slowly? 🦥

#china #chinese #chinesegirls #hanyu #hsk #mandarin #zhongwen #learn mandarin

[xiongmaoyu]

#language #chinese #zhongwen #累 #冷

[critical-thinking-devil]

晚上好💙

#critical-thinking-devil #chinese #zhongwen #中文 #汉语

[bootersbordello]

#drmario #zhongwen #romhack #nes

[doitinanotherlanguage]

Updates on Learning Mandarin Chinese 1/∞: 我用《新实用汉语课本》学习中文。

Any other textbook learners on langblr? 🙋

I’m learning Mandarin Chinese primarily by using the textbook series New Practical Chinese Reader (新实用汉语课本). I first started learning Mandarin at university and there we used the first book in the series (+ material prepared by the teacher). I’ve stuck with the series, even after continuing my studies independently. I like how the books concentrate on practical spoken Chinese, following a group of twenty-something students in China and showing their interactions, while also providing plenty of other reading material.

In my opinion, the New Practical Chinese Reader textbooks are easy to learn with, engaging, and pretty straightforward. They give a good structure and a road map, which I can supplement with other material from online sources as needed. The books contain dialogues, vocabulary, exercises (mostly pronunciation and reading practice), grammar explanations, instructions for writing and learning Chinese characters, and cultural notes. They are meant for classroom learning, so there’s no answer key included (although you can get a separate instructor’s manual, if you want), but I’ve not found that to be a hindrance.

There are six books in the series, the first four for beginner and pre-intermediate levels and the last two for intermediate level. I recently started the third book, and I’m so excited to continue to progress in my studies! I also ordered the last three books for Christmas, so I’m also anticipating getting to flip through them and seeing what I have to look forward to in the new year!

#learning mandarin #learning chinese #mandarin #langblr #zhongwen #updates on learning mandarin #i've not tried any other chinese textbook so i can't make comparisons #but i've been super satisfied w this series so i very much recommend it to other learners

[oodlenoodleroodle]

Today I found a YouTube channel that does little stories in Chinese at my level and I am So! Excited! Finally some comprehensible fucking input!

Like I have been listening to the You Can Learn Chinese -podcast, which talks about learning Chinese (it does not teach you Chinese) and they are really on top of the most recent research on second language acquisition, and, yeah. You need motivation and comprehensible input, and I've been flimsy on both lately.

But now I have found these videos and y'all, it feels So. Nice. to watch/listen to these and like, I understand what she is saying! Not all! Not a 100%. But like 98%. Which is within tolerable and doesn't dip too much into reading pain.

#chinese #langblr #zhongwen #hanyu #中文 #汉语 #mandarin

[linghxr]

Chinese Surname Ranking Analysis

According to this list, these are the top 10 surnames in China as of 2020*:

李 Lǐ

王 Wáng

张 Zhāng

刘 Liú

陈 Chén

杨 Yáng

赵 Zhào

黄 Huáng

周 Zhōu

吴 Wú

I’ve seen articles like this one discussing the regional distribution of surnames. I wanted to take a look myself and compare the top surnames in different provinces/municipalities. For instance, do any locations have a top 10 list that is the same as the overall country top 10? Which surname is ranked #1 in the most locations? Let’s explore and have some fun along the way.

*The top surnames for 西藏 Tibet are not included. I believe this is because the population is vast majority Tibetan.

1) Find how many surnames in a location’s top 10 are also in the national top 10.

Most in common

Arrows: grey = same as national rank, green = higher than national rank, red = lower than national rank Circles: orange = in national top 10 but missing from top 10 of individual location, blue = outside national top 10

四川 Sichuan - 9/10 surnames Missing: 赵 Zhào Added: 罗 Luó

贵州 Guizhou - 9/10 surnames Missing: 赵 Zhào Added: 罗 Luó

Fewest in common

浙江 Zhejiang - 6/10 surnames Missing: 杨 Yáng, 赵 Zhào, 黄 Huáng & 周 Zhōu Added: 林 Lín, 叶 Yè, 郑 Zhèng & 徐 Xú

广西 Guangxi - 6/10 surnames Missing list: 赵 Zhào, 黄 Huáng, 周 Zhōu & 吴 Wú Added: 梁 Liáng, 韦 Wéi, 陆 Lù & 卢 Lú

上海 Shanghai - 6/10 surnames Missing: 刘 Liú, 杨 Yáng, 赵 Zhào & 黄 Huáng Added: 朱 Zhū, 徐 Xú, 沈 Shěn & 陆 Lù

2) Find the average national rank for each location’s top 10 list.

OK, this section is a little confusing. Basically, I was thinking that just counting overlapping surnames this isn’t necessarily the best metric. When it comes to surnames outside the national top 10, just counting like I did above can’t distinguish a rank of 100 from a rank of 11! So I decided to take averages.

For each location, I found the national rank of the its top 10 surnames and averaged them. This should give me an idea of which location’s top 10 surnames collectively rank the highest in the whole country. If you add up 1-10 and divide by 10, you get an average of 5.5, so that would be the minimum possible average. 

Lowest average

Highlighting: red = lower than national rank, green = higher than national rank, no highlighting = same as national rank Blue circling = outside of national top 10 Annotated numbers = national rank

湖北 Hubei - 6.2 average Outside national top 10: 胡 Hú & 徐 Xú

安徽 Anhui - 6.3 average Outside national top 10: 徐 Xú & 孙 Sūn

江苏 Jiangsu - 6.5 average Outside national top 10: 徐 Xú & 朱 Zhū

Highest average

海南 Hainan - 30.5 average Outside national top 10: 符 Fú, 林 Lín & 郑 Zhèng

广西 Guangxi - 28.2 average Outside national top 10: 梁 Liáng, 韦 Wéi, 陆 Lù & 卢 Lú

上海 Shanghai - 16.2 average Outside national top 10: 朱 Zhū, 徐 Xú, 沈 Shěn & 陆 Lù

3) Add the difference in rank of surnames for each location to create a composite score.

Then I started to think about order within the top 10. After all, a province for which 李 Lǐ ranks #10 should be treated differently from one where 李 Lǐ is #1. So I wanted to capture the difference between a surname’s national rank and its rank for individual locations.

For example, in 广东 Guangdong, 陈 Chén ranks #1, but it’s #5 in the whole country. The difference is 5 - 1 = 4. I did this for the other 9 surnames in 广东 Guangdong’s top 10 as well and added the numbers to get a composite score. Then I repeated this for the other locations.

I used absolute values—otherwise a positive difference and negative difference would offset each other! But I used + and - signs in the images below to show more information. You could also divided by 10 to get the average difference for the top 10 surnames each location.

Lowest score

Highlighting: red = lower than national rank, green = higher than national rank, no highlighting = same as national rank Blue circling = outside of national top 10 Annotated numbers = difference b/t national rank and local rank, with (+) indicating a higher rank locally and (-) indicating a lower rank locally

安徽 Anhui - 14 score

四川 Sichuan - 15 score

宁夏 Ningxia - 20 score

Highest score

海南 Hainan - 264 score

广西 Guangxi - 253 score

山西 Shanxi - 113 score

上海 Shanghai - 113 score

4) For each location, determine how many surnames have no difference in rank.

As an extension of the above, for each location, I counted the number of top 10 surnames that had no difference in rank compared to the national rank. Let’s look closer at locations whose top 10 lists had the fewest changes:

四川 Sichuan - 6 surnames 李 Lǐ, 刘 Liú, 陈 Chén, 杨 Yáng, 黄 Huáng & 吴 Wú

青海 Qinghai - 4 surnames 李 Lǐ, 刘 Liú, 杨 Yáng & 吴 Wú

云南 Yunnan - 4 surnames 李 Lǐ, 陈 Chén, 赵 Zhào & 周 Zhōu

重庆 Chongqing - 4 surnames 李 Lǐ, 刘 Liú, 杨 Yáng & 黄 Huáng

I’ll also list the locations for which no surnames had the same rank as in the top 10:

广东 Guangdong

福建 Fujian

江西 Jiangxi

江苏 Jiangsu

贵州 Guizhou

Summary: Which location’s top 10 is closest to the national top 10?

We just saw several different ways of looking at this. Someone who is better at math than I am would probably devise a way to combine the different metrics into a single score. I’m just going to recap which locations we saw appear the most.

Overall most similar: 四川 Sichuan & 安徽 Anhui

Overall least similar: 广西 Guangxi, 上海 Shanghai & 海南 Hainan

5) Find which surnames appear on the most and least location top 10 lists.

This wasn’t something I was initially curious about, but after my analyses above, I grew curious. I’m just looking at the national top 10 surnames here. There are 30 locations total, so 30 is the highest possible number.

So 李 Lǐ and 张 Zhāng are the only two that appear in the top 10 for all 30 locations!

I also thought it would be interesting to see which locations are missing for the surnames that were close to 30/30:

陈 Chén - 29/30 Missing: 新疆 Xinjiang

王 Wáng - 28/30 Missing: 广东 Guangdong & 广西 Guangxi

刘 Liú - 28/30 Missing: 海南 Hainan & 上海 Shanghai

杨 Yáng - 26/30 Missing: 海南 Hainan, 浙江 Zhejiang, 江西 Jiangxi & 上海 Shanghai

6) Which surname ranks 1st in the most locations?

This questions grew pretty naturally off of the question above. I spent far too long making this map to go along with the numbers!

The winner is...王 Wáng with 15 locations! It’s so interesting to see how 王 Wáng is dominant in the north, 陈 Chén rules the southern coast, etc.

王 Wáng - 1st in 15 locations

李 Lǐ - 1st in 6 locations

陈 Chén - 1st in 4 locations

张 Zhāng - 1st in 3 locations

刘 Liú - 1st in 1 location

黄 Huáng - 1st in 1 location

The winner is...王 Wáng with 15 locations!

7) Mainland China vs. Taiwan vs. Hong Kong

I thought this would be an interesting comparison. I wanted to include Macau as well, but I had difficulty finding a list. Here is the Hong Kong data source.

Arrows: green = higher than Mainland rank, red = lower than Mainland rank Circles: orange = in Mainland top 10 but missing from the HK and/or TW top 10, blue = outside Mainland top 10

I was actually surprised how similar the top 10s are for Taiwan and Hong Kong!

I also wanted to compare Taiwan and Hong Kong to Fujian and Guangdong, respectively. These are the two provinces in Mainland China that they are closest to.

Now, I’m no history expert, but I know that a lot of Taiwanese have roots in Fujian, so it makes a lot of sense that their top 10 lists look so similar. I don’t know much about the history of migration to Hong Kong, but as such a major economic center, I’m guessing people from all over China came to Hong Kong.

Thank you!

If you actually read this whole post, I’m impressed. Thank you! 

I initially began working on this post in September 2021. Needless to say, this post ended up being a lot longer and taking up a lot more of my time than I had anticipated. I asked my dad to read over an earlier draft of this post for me, and he literally asked me, “why are you doing this?” I didn’t really have a concrete answer. I just thought it would be interesting to explore surnames a bit. And so here we are :)

Extended list - 大陆25大姓氏

李 Lǐ

王 Wáng

张 Zhāng

刘 Liú

陈 Chén

杨 Yáng

赵 Zhào

黄 Huáng

周 Zhōu

吴 Wú

徐 Xú

孙 Sūn

胡 Hú

朱 Zhū

高 Gāo

林 Lín

何 Hé

郭 Guō

马 Mǎ

罗 Luó

梁 Liáng

宋 Sòng

郑 Zhèng

谢 Xiè

韩 Hán

#chinese name #chinese names #last name #surname #chinese #mandarin #chinese language #mandarin chinese #china #mainland china #hong kong #taiwan #chinese studyblr #chinese langblr #mandarin studyblr #mandarin langblr #zhongwen #hanyu #chinese culture #learn chinese #study chinese #learning chinese #studying chinese #learn mandarin #study mandarin #learning mandarin #studying mandarin #langblr #language learning #studyblr

[chineseffect]

无为 /wúwéi/ EFFORTLESS ACTION (or Enlightened Action) is one of the most inspiring concepts of Chinese philosophy.

It may sound strange to people in the West, because Western culture is all about ME, ME, ME while 无为 comes from the recognition that Ego is an illusion.

But the stranger it sounds the more valid and valuable it is, especially now at the time of the inevitable collapse of the decaying Western culture.

The literal translation is No-action, but that doesn’t mean that we should be passive.

The position of Wúwéi is a position of total Freedom.

That is the position when our judgement and therefor our actions aren’t corrupted by our desires, ambitions, our wants and needs - basically by our ego.

When we act in the 无为 way, we act like a free medium of Life itself.

The action happens through us.

Your Chinese learning can be very different. It can be Fun&Easy. Just follow the link.

#wuwei #无为 #daoism #dao #daoist #chinese philosophy #chinesephilosophy #no action #spirituality #asian culture #philosophy #learn chinese #study chinese #learning chinese #zhongwen #hanyu #中文 #汉语

[1o1percentmilk]

在Tumblr上突然看或听到中文总是会吓我一跳

#i need to get better at my chinese my dad wants to take us to taiwan over winter break #mostly reading and writing #eh simplified is enough right... (taiwan uses traditional) #oTL #yap #so if anyone knows any good beginner chinese books to read tell me. #zale... wo de zhongwen tai lan.....

[neige-leblanche]

hi hi Lu! do you have have any recommendations for someone wanting to teach themself Chinese (Mandarin)?

Yes, the Popup Chinese podcast, which has lessons from Absolute Beginner to Advanced!! This podcast was the talk of the town back when I started learning around 2011, and while they aren't active anymore, there are a ton of great lessons on the website (presumably still also apple podcasts, etc. too) that are both interesting and informative! I used to listen to these before bed as a kid which I attribute a lot of my pronunciation skills to :3

For reading, there's also Chinese Reading Practice, which lets you hover over words to see what they mean, and they're actively updating :3

I unfortunately can't give any resources I used on beginning to learn characters but afaik Duolingo now has a minigame/side section for that!

#ask #if you like the format of CRP i recommend the zhongwen chrome/firefox extension which lets you hover over words on the web in the same way! #assuming thats the most up to date one; the big one used to be called perapera popup dictionary #they both use the same dictionary as MDBG and Pleco!! both of which are also great (though stuff like the radical search can take a little #getting used to)