How to Say “Family” in Chinese: An Ultimate Guide to Family in Chinese Culture
How to say “family” in Chinese -- plus many more Chinese family words, and what family really means in Chinese culture.
Language: Chinese
Learning Mandarin Chinese as Explained by a Peace Corps Volunteer
Kelly Branyik spent two years in China as a Peace Corps volunteer. In this article, she shares the exact techniques she followed to learn Chinese while living in China.
I Messed Up Learning Spanish… and Now I Speak Chinese
Learning Spanish, I got bruised in the “school of hard knocks”. But every mistake contains a lesson - here’s what I learned.
How I Learned to Speak Mandarin Chinese while Living in Kansas
You can learn to speak Mandarin Chinese wherever you live following these seven simple simple tips you've never heard before.
Encouraging quotes, Chinese proverbs with original translations, and inspirational thoughts for language learners
I asked those following my Facebook and Instagram pages what their favourite encouragement quotes or short inspirational ideas were, to inspire language learners and got some real gems! I also did my own research online and tried to include some sayings on this blog that people have really enjoyed. And finally, I searched long and hard […]
Did I Really Learn to Speak Chinese in 3 Months?
The big question regarding my Mandarin project that a lot of people have been asking is How well can you really speak it Benny? From the blog’s origin era (2009–2014) — kept as lived proof of the method. See all the missions. I’ve been saying it’s about a B1 (lower intermediate), but I’m sure self […]
2,000km train journey video: Benny gets his Chinese name, makes new friends and meets pandas!
Here it is! My video of the epic 2,000km (that’s about 1,250 miles in “old money” as we say) train ride I took to get to Chengdu, starting from Shanghai. This video shares the people (and pandas) I met along the way! 🙂 Click CC to enable subtitles (in English, and traditional or simplified Chinese) […]
Why Chinese isn’t as hard as you think: Encouragement for Learners
“Mastering” Chinese can indeed take a long time to do, but getting to a very useful intermediate level is well within the reach of most people, and from that point progressing further won’t be that bad. It is indeed hard work, but if you put it side by side with European languages, then saying it’s “damn hard”, or “orders of magnitude harder than European languages” is nothing but an exaggeration
Benny travels China: the real point of the mission to speak Mandarin as quickly as possible
It’s time to announce my next 3 month project, while clarifying what the real motivation behind my Mandarin 3 month project has been! I am going to travel deep into China – beyond 1,000km inland – by land (no flights), over the next two months, and then travel through Taiwan (outside of Taipei) for several […]
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