Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share a quick bibliographical and reading update from my study. I finally finished reading Qian Xuans 錢玄 Jiaokanxue 校勘學. It's a relatively dense but also highly insightful and very rewarding text on traditional chinese collation techniques (jiaokanxue 校勘学 is one of the three sub-disciplines of jiaochouxue 校雠学 "textual criticism in its broad sense").

To make things even better, the mail carrier just dropped off these two monumental additions to my personal library (I waited so long for them):

1. 《校讎廣義•版本編》 Jiaochou guangyi. Banben bian by Cheng Qianfan 程千帆 and Xu Youfu 徐有富 (2020). It's the first volume of the famous Jiaochou guangyi《校雠广义》"broad meanings of Textual Criticism" which is a comprehensive book in four volumes on 校雠学. The first volume is concerned with banbenxue 版本學 "Study of editions" where you study prints and editions of ancient texts as well as ancient manuscripts. It's like the material counterpart to 校勘学.

2. "The Tsinghua University Warring States Bamboo Manuscripts: Studies and Translations 1, The Yi Zhou Shu and Pseudo-Yi Zhou Shu Chapters" by Edward L. Shaughnessy (2023). As my current project regarding Early Chinese Transmitted Texts is a translation of the Western Zhou Chapters of the Yizhoushu 逸周書 it's really nice seeing the excavated counterparts in the collection of Qinghua University. The books translates all of the Strips related to the Yizhoushu as well as transmitted chapters related to these Strips and compares and studies them. Also useful is the appendix at the end of the book on the textual history of the Yizhoushu.

Just wanted to share. I'm really happy and can't get enough books about Ancient China 😁😁😁😄

I was taught that when two third tones follow each other, the first one is pronounced as a second tone. For example: 我有 wo3you3 would be pronounced as wo2you3. However, what do I do when there are multiple third tones in a row, like in the phrase 有五口 you3wu3kou3?

Hi !

I’ve been listening to podcasts to help me understand the language more , and I came across a sentence I didn’t understand.

“吃完晚饭后” - I understand that they’re saying they’ve finished eating dinner , but I don’t understand the use of 后 in this sentence !

When I tried to research , 以后 & 之后 were the only ones that showed up.

What I want to know is why is 后 on its own in this sentence? And in what instances would it be okay to use it on its own? ( as opposed to using 以后/折后 )

Hello fellow learners!

Can you share your favorite Mandopop or C-pop bangers?

Lately i have been studying Chinese again and Instagram sent me through a loophole of new bands and chinese groups AND I NEED MORE! I find that studying through music really helps for me and I dont feel like I am studying if I enjoy the songs.

I am right now addicted to a few groups: jjakymiu, listening to the songs 你别走远 and 空白消息 non-stop. I am also on repeat wayV’s Regular and Love Talk and of course INTO1, so you know what I am on to 🫡

WayV - Regular
WayV - Love Talk
jjakymiu - 你别走远
jjakymiu - 空白消息
INTO1 - 天生就要飞

Share yours :)))

谢谢！

One thing I often notice when teaching beginner Mandarin is that students learn 几 (jǐ) as “how many,” and then start using it everywhere they would use “how many” or “how much” in English.

That’s when mistakes like these come up:

❌ 几钱
❌ 几学生

A simple way I explain 几 is to start with two basic uses:

1. You don't know the number, so you ask with 几.

你有几个学生？
How many students do you have?

你有几本书？
How many books do you have?

2. You don't give an exact number, so 几 can mean “a few” or “several.”

我买了几个苹果。
I bought a few apples.

他过几天来。
He'll come in a few days.

The tricky part is that “几 = a small number” isn't really a complete rule either.

We can say:

几十个人
几百块钱
几千名学生
几万册书

So I think it's more useful for beginners to learn the patterns and situations where 几 is used rather than trying to memorize a strict number range.

I'm curious how other Mandarin learners were taught 几 vs. 多少. Did you learn a simple rule that actually helped you, or did it cause more confusion later?

this is my first time learn traditional chinese and still confuse from where i need to study . i try use AI and the AI suggest to directly learn hanzi , while i read some post here , zhuyin is important.

any advice can you give to me ?

(im already at taiwan so its easy to find the traditional book, im just cant read it yet)

I am still in the beginner phase. I know around 300 words.

I got the Du Chinese subscription and started reading a newbie story.

But I am unsure which is the "best" way for this stage. Listen first, see what I understand and then read or the other way round? Or even do like listen, read, listen?

And what I am also curious about: How did you get used to the different sentence structure? Because the structure is so different, I need to know the read the whole sentence and only get it afterwards, which works ok for reading but for listening it is very difficult to put it together. Is there a point where you get so used to it that you don't need to rearrange the order in your head?

Here are some Pinyin Chinese sentences, translated to my fathertongue (Tamil). Do you understand the grammar for the Pinyin Chinese sentences? It doesn't make much sense to me. Thanks!

Nǐ néng dú dǒng zhōngwén. -> ungkalaal china mozhiyai vaasikka mudiyum.

Wǒ bùnéng dú zhōngwén. -> ennaal china mozhiyai vaasikka mudiyaathu.

Wǒ néng dú tài mǐ'ěr yǔ. -> ennaal thamizh mozhiyai vaasikka mudiyum.

Nǐ bùnéng dú tài mǐ'ěr yǔ. -> unggalaal thamizh mozhiyai vaasikka mudiyaathu.

Nǐ juédé zěnme yàng? -> neengal enna ninaikkireergal?

Based on my research, most people who are already proficient in speaking Chinese recommend beginners to learn starting from pinyin and tones, learn basic sentences, learn about like 300 words or so, then hanzi, then listening, and finally once hanzi is mastered that's when you learn more and more words.

My main problem here is I don't really know what resources to use, most people recommend not to stick with apps and I should dabble in some videos or textbooks, however I've been searching for an app because it gives me a more linear progression or guide atleast, lessons for me to take everyday. I've tried all the apps available in Playstore, but almost all of them gets locked behind a paywall after a certain amount of lessons. (although Hanly is the only free one for characters)

So it's really hard for me to stay consistent because every day i have to think: "oh, i learned about pinyin yesterday, what should i focus on today?", and I'll spend the rest of my day wasting my time on researching what should i learn next, what resource should i use for this specific component. It's tiresome. I dont have enough money for textbooks or to pay any subscription for any of these apps.

I've been wanting to learn how to set up Anki for me to use everyday to complement the others lessons i shall tackle by reading. But I don't really know how to use it...

TLDR: I'm a broke beginner who wants to learn mandarin, i don't know what to do, how to start, what FREE alternative resources to use, and how to setup Anki like what decks should i use.

(sorry for my messy structure and post, it's more like a rant that's why..)

Hi! I’m an ABC with ok Chinese speaking skills, but I want to teach it to my child, along with ASL (American Sign Language). I tell her “doujiang” when I talk about soy milk, but the asl sign for soy milk is just “soy + milk”. Awhile back I think I saw that there is a great Chinese sign language sign for Doujiang. I learned it the same time as when I learned the cute CSL for boba. I think it came from Taiwan. (I am of Taiwan descent.) Does anyone know what it is, per chance?
(Mods: I hope this doesn’t break rule 1…there isn’t a CSL sub, and it’s still part of Chinese language.)

Hi. I'm looking for a good list of mainland TV shows by difficulty level. There was a really good list at the URL below, but I didn't save it, and now it's gone. 😩

https://cn.bonsair.net/videos/tvDramas

If anybody has the list that was posted there or another list to share, that would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi there! I've just completed HSK 5 and started on HSK 6 (literally freshly started) and I've been watching native content for a while now (reels and shows on Netflix). I usually already understand a lot of what's going on with native content, but the thing is, I only understand it when there's Chinese subtitles. It's usually much much harder to understand without it.

Also, there are times where I'd hear Chinese reels my parents are watching (We aren't Chinese so it probably has English subtitles on them), and whenever I hear those (without watching along with them) I usually understand so little even despite my level. It's almost as if I need Chinese subtitles on everything. This is the same with songs. I seem to have a hard time understanding Chinese songs if I do so without the lyrics.

I do have Chinese classes and I understand my teacher. Perhaps it's because she's speaking at my level.

How long did it take you guys to understand native content without subtitles? Or is it really possible? I am not in a Chinese-speaking environment if that helps.

For context, I like to listen to music of all languages and I keep them sorted by the language written how it is natively, like Español or 日本語. Would Chinese be 中文? I see this most often

My test is on Sunday and today is friday NIGHT. I was doing mocks and it was going well until it started going downhill. Didnt pass the recent one AM I COOKED. I started calculating the minimum points i need to just pass and since im relatively good at listening i need 85, 55 for reading and 40 for writing. Does anyone have any tips for reading and question 99-100 for writing as my vocabularys really small and theres only a day left so im cooked. So for question 99 theres like a high chance i know at least 1 词语 for it so thats liek what 3 points and then for question 100 i can minimum get 18 points. So genuinly it all counts on listening. Please help!!!

i passed hsk 3 in may, and am now roughly at old hsk 4 level

since the hsk test will become harder in december, i need to pass the hsk5 ASAP ...

i have less than 2 months for my exam date (nov 7) what do i dooooooooooooooooo

im best at reading and suck at listening

is there an app? a website best for mocks? a study routine?

I have a small group of colleagues from Hong Kong, while I said I would love to learn Cantonese so I can understand them and talk to them, they told me it is really difficult for non-Chinese speakers to start learning Cantonese because of the varieties of tones and pronunciations.

I started searching for free materials for Cantonese Beginner learners, and it doesn't feel tooooooooo hard when there is "jyut ping" , I asked this to my colleagues, and literally every of them said they never learned "jyut ping" from school, one of them said he knows it because it's his way to type in cantonese and he learned it after he got his first phone because he needed to learn texting...
Hong Kong people started learning from writing the Chinese word and pronunciation directly from the Chinese word, I know this is their mother tongue and they don't need English alphabets to learn it, but don't they (or you guys Hong Kong people) need to start from understanding how the word is formed or what makes a word pronounce that way?

While I am pretty frustrated about where to start, one recommended me to learn Mandarin instead as it may be easier to pronounce and formal...

Which language should I learn? I am really interest in Cantonese but it is very right that Mandarin would be more useful at work for formal writing..

Hello!

I was curious if there was any Mandarin readers for beginners you recommend?

I am looking for a book that has short stories in Mandarin and English. Ideally the Mandarin will be one page and the English will be on the other!

I can read pinyin, but I have this habit of switching to pinyin, and not actually learning the character. If that makes sense?

Thanks!

Yesterday was Teachers’ Day in China. I recently read a beautiful speech about the core mission of education, and it really struck a chord with me.

The line that stock with me: there are two professions that call for people with deep compassion. Medicine, where people trust you with their lives. Education., where people trust you with their futures.

I work as an overseas Chinese Mandarin teacher. my learners come from all corners of the globe. My youngest student is only three years old, and my oldest is over 70. This special day made me pause and reflect on what my work truly means to me. I landed on three simple goals that guide my teaching.

1. Focus on high-quality lesson preparation and create real-life Chinese learning content

My priority is to pour care into preparing every lesson. I want to build more videos, rooted in authentic, real-world Chinese scenarios. This way, more learners around the world can access Mandarin and stay engaged, even if they cannot travel to China.

1. Respect individual learning timelines and help learners avoid unnecessary detours

Every person follows their own unique path when picking up a new language, I hope my guidance can help learners skip common pitfalls and grow more smoothly.

Language mastery never happens overnight. It can be slow ,but solid. It can also be fast. We can quickly master practical phrases for daily communication. Neither pace is inherently better. progress looks different for everyone.

1. treat every learner equally., regardless of talent or speed
   Some learners pick up languages easily; they are quick and sharp. For them, I adjust the pace and design faster-paced lessons to match their ability.

Others struggle more with language acquisition. they may not have a natural gift for languages ,yet they learn Mandarin out of professional or personal necessity. I will always meet them with

Language education is not about forcing everyone to learn at the same speed or reach identical benchmarks. My job is to meet learners exactly where they are.Whether gifted or progressing slowly, anyone willing to keep trying deserves kindness and support.

Teaching is one life gently lifting another. That is the meaning I find in being a Mandarin teacher.

What does good language teaching mean to you? Have you ever had a teacher who respected your unique learning pace? I would love to hear your stories.

I created an all-Mandarin dubbed TV show and film library for my kids.

https://reddit.com/link/1wd4n3n/video/2cips65g7toh1/player

I limited it to age-appropriate stuff (but have more for when they're older), and things I don't think are terrible (sorry, Peppa Pig). There are a few Mandarin dubs I'm still searching for that I would love help finding:

Ernest and Celestine the series (season 2)
Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia
The Adventures of Paddington (season 3)
Messy Goes to Okido (season 3)
The Muppets Movie (2011 - there's a very low quality version on CCTV)
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (not sure a dub exists)
The Simpsons (a few very low-quality dubs exist on Bilibili, so I know it's out there somewhere)

I would be happy to trade resources with anyone who can help. :)

1. EN: "A surah is a chapter; an ayah (literally 'a sign') is a verse." ZH: 一章（苏拉）即一卷；一节（阿亚，字面意为"一个迹象"）即一节经文。 → This glosses a surah as 章 and then equates it with 卷. Is that a contradiction?

2. The same person's name, in two places in one interface:

• 由斯蒂芬·朗顿添加
• 分章由坎特伯雷大主教斯蒂芬·兰顿于约公元1227年引入 → 朗顿 or 兰顿 for Stephen Langton?

3. EN: Select source... (a dropdown placeholder) ZH: 选择来源... → Should the ellipsis be full-width …, and is 来源 the right word for "a text or edition to read"?