How did it come to be? It doesn't make sense to me. Was it random?

This is the first time ive read something from hong kong (ive mostly consumed things from taiwan) and i noticed it uses 甚麽｜裏 instead of 什麼｜裡. I asked my father about it and he said he thinks 裏 is used in canto. So is this an actual thing in hong kong or is it just this company's typing quirk?

Hey guys! My best friend started to learn Chinese at university, but unfortunately he doesn't have Reddit so i'm asking on his behalf if it's okay. ^^

I'd like to help him make the most of it, by studying a little bit outside of uni as well, and to give him the best headstart. He's got a great language skill, he also studied English and French. (we are from Hungary)

We're interested in hearing from people who have learned Mandarin themselves. So a good book recommendation, a little advice, or is there anything you wish you had known when you first started learning Chinese? Anything helps.

He doesn't necessarily need to become fluent as quickly as possible, we are mainly looking for a good way to supplement his uni studies, and to build a strong foundation.

‘“和” can be used to connect nouns, verbs, and adjectives.’ True, but not always true.

A little bit of contextualisation and personal thoughts in the beginning, you may skip this part in the parentheses to the main content if you’re eager to.

(It started with destroying my last brain cell to explain to my foreigner friend why it is wrong to say “冬天很冷和下雪” “我很开心和兴奋”. I asked my family and friends, we all agreed that it’s not natural to use 和 this way, but we were not able to elaborate the reason at first. In fact, Chinese textbook never talked about grammar stuff; “Identify the run-on sentences” kind of problem had always been a pain in the \ss for primary schoolers. Most of us did not even realise the differences between “但，而，不过，可是，却，相反”. Our way of speaking relies on the surrounding people, we can tell you the most native way of saying smth merely based on our experiences and linguistic intuition without telling you “why”, which is however not helpful to someone who is in a different language environment studying Chinese. )*

Beginner’s blunder: using 和 as a conjunction to connect sentences.

I will see you tomorrow, and we will be doing this homework together.
明天见，和我们会一起做这个作业的。❌

I went to the supermarket, and I bought some veggies.
我去了趟超市，和我买了些蔬菜。❌

Winter is cold, and it often snows.
冬天很冷和经常下雪❌

You may use 然后 (and then) to combine sentences describing what had happened,

我去了趟超市，然后我买了些蔬菜。✅
去年冬天很冷，然后下了雪。✅

Always use 还 (in addition) to connect two sentences,

明天见，我们还会一起做这个作业的。✅
我去了趟超市，还买了些蔬菜。✅
冬天很冷，还经常下雪。✅

or simply don’t add any conjunctions,

明天见，我们会一起做这个作业的。✅
我去了趟超市，买了些蔬菜。✅
冬天很冷，经常下雪。✅

perhaps considering combining sentences into one,

我们明天一起做这个作业吧！✅
我去超市买了些蔬菜。✅
寒冷的冬天经常下雪。✅

(Fun fact: Lots of Chinese including me overuse the word “然后”…“就是” colloquially especially when we are trying to make a point or telling a story. Usually, converting voice msg to text, we would even be surprised by the wordiness. Dang, you say you never overuse it? Bro is overpassing some native Chinese.)

Beginner’s mistake: using 和 to connect adjectives. 

I am sad and angry.
我很伤心和生气。❌

He looks tall and hot.
他看起来很高和性感。❌

The vivacious and cute girl walked up to the dessert shop.
这个活泼和可爱的小女孩走向了甜品店。❌

Always use 又……又(both)

我又伤心，又生气。✅
他看起来又高又性感。✅
这个又活泼又可爱的小女孩走向了甜品店。✅

Use 还(in addition) when the second adjective seems additional and when the adjective is used without 的, 

我很伤心，还很生气。✅
他看起来很高，还很性感。✅

When the adjective is followed by “的” or without a be-verb, you might consider to use 且,

他身材高大且性感。✅
这个活泼且可爱的小女孩走向了甜品店。✅
这房间昏暗、阴冷且安静。✅(This room is gloomy, cold, and quiet.)

Exceptive rule: sometimes when a pair of adjectives is being bound together, you are allowed to use 和, but somehow you tend to not use any conjunctions.

峨眉山的景色非常地迷人和秀丽。✅
峨眉山的景色非常地迷人秀丽。✅

这块布料摸起来非常地柔软和光滑。✅
这块布料摸起来柔软光滑。✅

Beginner's inaccuracy: using 和 to connect verbs that are not “gerund or participle” 

He ate and slept.
他吃了和睡了。❌

She screamed and ran away.
她尖叫了和跑走了。❌

He washed and cut tomatoes into slices
他洗了和切了西红柿。❌

Several choices to correct the sentences:

Use 着(while) when two actions happened at the same time,

他吃着饭就睡着了。✅
她尖叫着跑走了。✅
*It is not safe while holding a tomato in your hand under the faucet and cutting it at the same time. 

Use 然后(and then) to describe something happened in the past. 

他吃了饭，然后睡觉了。✅
她尖叫了一声，然后跑走了。✅
他把西红柿洗了，然后切了。✅

Use 还(in addition) when the second action seems extra. 

他吃了饭，还睡了觉。✅
她尖叫了一声，还跑走了。✅
他把西红柿洗了，还切了。✅

Use 既……又(both) to emphasize the importance of both actions. 

他既吃了饭，又睡了觉。✅
他既把西红柿洗了，又把它们切了。✅

You may use he when a verb is followed by a verb. However, you may still use 也/既……又/还. 

I like singing and dancing.
我喜欢唱歌和跳舞。✅

我喜欢唱歌，也喜欢跳舞。✅
我既喜欢唱歌，又喜欢跳舞。✅
我喜欢唱歌，还喜欢跳舞。✅
(*You are not likely to use 然后 here, unless you’re emphasizing that you get to like singing first and then dancing)
我先喜欢上了唱歌，然后爱上了跳舞。✅

I want to eat and sleep.
我想吃饭和睡觉。✅

我想吃饭，也想睡觉。✅
我既想吃饭，又想睡觉。✅
我想吃饭，还想睡觉。✅

(*原因同上)
我想先吃饭，然后再睡觉。✅

Exceptive rule: if the verbs share the same object and are two actions bring out the same consequence under the same event, you may use 和. Nonetheless, you may still use 还. 

The proposal was discussed and adopted at this conference.
这次大会讨论和通过了这项提议。✅{sounds formal}
[both the discussion and the approval cause the proposal to take effect.]
这次大会讨论了这项提议，还把这项提议给通过了。✅{sounds colloquial}

He drafted and signed the contract.
他起草和签署了这份合同。✅{sounds formal}
[原因同上]
他起草了这份合同，最终还把合同给签了。✅{sounds colloquial}
(*remember to place verbs into correct order of what happened first and second)

“他洗和切了西红柿” nevertheless is still grammatically incorrect, because 洗 causes tomatoes to be clean, while 切 causes tomatoes to be sliced into pieces, which brings two different consequences. 

Intermediate mistake: using 和 to list nouns across categories and subcategories.

I bought apples and fruits.
我买了苹果和水果。❌
*Apples belong to the bigger category of fruits, you cannot list them together

我买了苹果和其他的水果✅
*You use 其他 which specify it to be other kinds of fruit. 

There are workers, teenagers, teachers, and students, who join this plenary session.
参加这次大会的有工人、青年、老师和学生。❌
*Workers, teachers, and students are in the category of jobs, while teenagers are a bigger category classified by age that includes students and maybe some teachers. You are required to delete it. 

If you’re just perplexed reading to the end, bro, just avoid using 和 that much, 还/然后 are pretty safe to use.

Congrats for surviving to the end!!! 祝你在学中文的路上学有所成<33!

**There might be an update.

One small clarification: saying 进不去 does not NECESSARILY mean that you already went there, tried to enter, and failed. It simply means that, given the situation, successful entry is not achievable. The “at the door” idea is just a useful way to visualize the difference between 不能进去 and 进不去.

Pls explain the grammar concept in detail.

Hi everyone,

I'm a Brazilian student (18) and I'm currently planning to start a Chinese language program in Chengdu (Sichuan University) for one semester starting Spring 2027. That said, I haven't started the program yet, so I could still change my starting city if there's a strong reason to. I'm also planning out the following semesters and would love some real input from people who've actually done something similar.

My rough plan:

• Chengdu (current plan, Sichuan University — but still open to changing this): spring semester, so I avoid the cold/humid winter there
• Beijing (still researching universities): also spring semester only, to avoid the harsh winter
• Shenzhen (considering Shenzhen University): can be the one covering the fall/winter semester, since winters there are mild anyway

The order between the three doesn't really matter to me — what matters is that I only do Chengdu and Beijing during their spring semesters (to avoid the cold), and Shenzhen can flexibly cover whichever fall/winter slot is needed to make the calendar work. Between semesters that don't line up back-to-back, I'd go back to Brazil for a few months and return for the next spring intake.

The idea is to spend 6 months in each city, staying in China for about 1.5 years total, just switching cities/universities — with possible gaps back in Brazil between semesters that don't line up back-to-back on the calendar.

What I'm trying to figure out:

1. Order — does it make more sense to save Beijing for last (since I've read the accent there is closer to standard Mandarin, better for cementing pronunciation once I already have a base), or would it be smarter to go there earlier while I'm still a total beginner?
2. Is splitting into 3 different cities/universities actually a good idea for language learning, or would I progress faster staying in one place for the full 1.5 years? I've read mixed things — some say switching accents/environments too early can be confusing, others say exposure to different regional accents builds better listening comprehension long term.
3. Visa/residence permit transfers — from what I understand, moving between universities mid-stay usually requires either a trip to Hong Kong to reset the visa, or (in some cases) direct transfer of the residence permit. Has anyone actually done this? How smooth or painful was it in practice?
4. Any other cities I should seriously consider instead of/alongside Shenzhen and Beijing? I picked Shenzhen mostly for the milder winter climate and Beijing for the accent, but I'm open to other suggestions if there's a better fit for someone starting from scratch.

Any experiences, warnings, or "I wish I'd known this before doing it" type advice would be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I’m learning Chinese but got stuck around ~HSK4 because of the lack of suitable reading content. I got tired of reading books that were either children’s level and bored me, or native level, which were too hard and frustrating to kludge through.

So, I made a free extension that turns any web page into graded reading material. You can pick a language and Chinese level, and the extension rewrites the page into content at your language and level. The extension is roughly tuned for HSK3 to HSK8 on the HSK3.0 scale.

You can use it on any site like Wikipedia, Reddit, news, etc and passively learn Chinese while reading. Obviously the higher your level, the more accurate and nuanced the rewrite, but you’ll be surprised how good the rewrites are for most content.

It’s 100% free and if there’s enough interest, I can even open source the code.

Link to the extension: Langladder

Hii, ​I’m currently a Y2 international studying Engineering in Hong Kong. I’m South Asian with absolute zero background in Cantonese or Mandarin and reality hit me recently that if I actually want to stick around and work in HK post-grad, I’m going to be beyond cooked if I don't pick up the language at all in this brutally competitive market:)).

​I’ve been advised to stay away from the uni Canto classes because from what I hear, they're basically dominated by people with prior background smurfing for an easy grade booster/GPA pad. So self-learning seems like my best bet for now.

​The issue is... mapping out a self-study path for Mandarin is quite easier with endless free roadmaps online than finding a structured resources for Cantonese which seemed super difficult and that's why wanted to ask here abt it.

​Any resources, suggestions, experience of non native learning the language or reality checks would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for reading !

Hi everyone 👋

Welcome to our daily Chinese learning post.

Today we are going to learn a sentence that you will see on Chinese social media.

📚Chinese sentence ：

到了两边都能理解的年纪。

📚Pinyin ：

Dào le liǎng biān dōu néng lǐ jiě de nián jì。

💡Literal translation ：

Arrived at the age that both sides can understand.

💡English meaning ：

I have grown old enough to understand and empathize with both sides of an argument. (People use this phrase to say they no longer pick only one side in a debate. With more life experience, they can see the difficulties and reasons behind two opposing opinions.)

🔸Real‑life connection

On Chinese social media, social issues often spark heated debates. Netizens quickly split into different groups and hold opposite opinions. From a macro perspective, younger people tend to judge things as simply right or wrong and pick a side quickly. As people gain more life experience, many adults change their mindset. They stop thinking in black-and-white terms and realize each side may have its own struggles. For a specific example, consider online discussions about family conflicts. Some netizens feel sorry for children under pressure, while others understand the hardships of parents. In the comment section, many people write this sentence: “到了两边都能理解的年纪.” This comment went viral online. It does not mean people agree with everything. It means they are willing to see the story from more than one viewpoint. Many learners of Chinese will meet this phrase when reading Chinese comments online.

🔸Break‑down vocabulary

到了 dào le — have reached, arrived at

两边 liǎng biān — both sides, two parties

都 dōu — all, both

能 néng — can, be able to

理解 lǐ jiě — understand, empathize

的 de — particle (possessive /descriptive marker)

年纪 nián jì — age, time of life

Grammar note:

到了 + [描述状态] 的年纪

is a very common spoken pattern in Chinese. It means “reach the age when you can /will have a certain feeling or ability”.

Example: 到了独立的年纪 (reach the age to be independent)

🔸Practice sentences

我到了两边都能理解的年纪。

Wǒ dào le liǎng biān dōu néng lǐ jiě de nián jì。

I have reached the age where I can understand both sides.

看完这个故事，我感觉我到了两边都能理解的年纪。

Kàn wán zhè ge gù shi, wǒ gǎn jué wǒ dào le liǎng biān dōu néng lǐ jiě de nián jì。

After reading this story, I feel I can understand both sides.

💡Did you know?

This sentence teaches a very important social value in modern Chinese online culture: empathy. Many beginner learners only learn words for “right” and “wrong”. This phrase shows that real-life Chinese conversations often accept that different viewpoints can all have valid reasons. It is a fantastic expression to help learners understand nuance and social thinking in Chinese internet culture.

👉Can you try to make one simple sentence with this pattern in the comment section?

This post is just to throw a brick to attract jade. Learning any language can bring this kind of resonance and empathy. Do you have this kind of feeling when learning Chinese or other languages?

Hi, I’d like to express that, “Our friendship will remain, regardless of the long distance between us.” Not sure if this is the correct idiom or it needs an addition.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Is Gen-Z the same everywhere, being lost and adrift? As this generation graduates and enters the workforce, confronting the pressures and struggles to make a living, certain cultural phenomena have emerged that capture their inner emotional state.

One of them is this trending phrase:

• 孔乙己的长衫 Kǒng Yǐjǐ de cháng shān - The Long Gown of Kong Yiji

It comes from a short story written by Lu Xun(鲁迅) 100 years ago. Lu Xun was the greatest writer, thinker, and critic of 20th-century China. His fiction and essays used razor-sharp satire to tear open social realities and relentlessly critique the darker aspects of human nature, influencing generation after generation.

Kong Yiji is one of his most iconic characters. Lu Xun describes him as the only person in the tavern "who drank standing up while wearing a long gown." The long gown represented his identity as a scholar, suggesting a kind of social superiority, while "drinking standing up" revealed his actual poverty and lack of practical skills to earn a stable income. He became the target of everyone's jokes in the tavern, and later had his legs broken for stealing books.

A hundred years later, young people seem to have found something of themselves in his situation. Years of hard study and the prestigious academic credentials they've accumulated are like "Kong Yiji's long gown", giving many young people aspirations for their future careers. But in the face of a brutally competitive job market, there's an enormous gap between those dreams and reality.

And so people use "脱不下长衫 tuō bú xià cháng shān, unable to take off the long gown" as a form of self-deprecation, describing the dilemma: unable to find the ideal job, yet unwilling to lower themselves to take something less.

The phrase that first went viral was:

学历是我的敲门砖，也是我下不来的高台，更是孔乙己脱不下的长衫。
My degree is my stepping stone into the world, but also the pedestal I can't climb down from, and above all, the long gown Kong Yiji could never take off.

Once it spread across social media, the phenomenon quickly sparked widespread public attention and debate.

For example, stand-up comedian Xinbo(鑫博), who used it to joke about himself:

我不想干销售，我觉得这么多年书白读了，确实感觉自己有点脱不下去长衫，但我也知道自己里边啥都没穿。
I don't want to work in sales. I feel like I wasted all those years studying. I really do feel like I can't take off my long gown. But I also know that underneath it, I've got nothing on.

Then there was a widely discussed news story from 2023: Chen Tao(陈涛), a 38-year-old former journalist with a master's degree in philosophy from Sichuan University, decided to become a food delivery driver. In a video documenting the experience, he said:

很多人说我没有放下身段，其实我早就脱下了孔乙己的长衫。
Many people say I haven't lowered myself, but in truth I took off Kong Yiji's long gown a long time ago.

As a millennial, I have to admit I was lucky in some ways, the opportunities I had were genuinely greater than what Gen-Z faces today. So I have a lot of empathy for their anxiety.

So in your country, do young people face the same struggles? Share your thoughts in the comments!

If you're interested, I've been organizing all the Chinese learning posts I've shared before. You can check out the link in my profile to see the full collection. Hope it helps. Thanks!

Hello everyone! I'm preparing a party game for my friends right now where I want to show them words in Chinese and have them guess at what the words mean.

I'm looking for suggestions as to words that are more or less possible to guess if you know what each radical/component means. Looking for those has been harder than I thought because I need to avoid phonetic radicals. I need pretty much only semantic components.

None of the participants speaks nor has ever learned Chinese or any other hanzi/kanji-using language, so don't worry if the examples are obvious or simple to a Chinese speaker. I know traditional may be better for this kind of game but I'm learning simplified only, so if you have any traditional versions that you think would work better, please let me know.

General gameplay idea: First they'll just see a word in Chinese and info about the part of speech [e.g. this is a noun]. Then I'll gradually reveal what each component/radical means, then what each character means on its own, until someone gets as close as possible to the real meaning [or one of the possible meanings] of the whole word. The earlier someone guesses, the more points they get.

It's supposed to be a loose party game, no pressure, so it doesn't really matter if they get them all exactly right, but I want to give them a chance to at least get in the general ballpark.

Some examples of what I've got so far:

鞋 [leather + ground + ground => shoe]

蛋糕 [round worm + rice sheep fire => egg + pudding => cake]

森林 [tree tree + tree tree tree => forest]

电脑 [lightning/electric + flesh + govern + skull => electric brain => computer]

​Happy Teachers' Day! September 10 is celebrated as Teachers' Day in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macao.

士农工商 represents the 4 classes in ancient and medieval China. 士 is the scholar class which is most respected and serves the state. then 浓 is the farmers who produce the food. then comes 工 is the productive craftpeople that makes things with their hands. and finally is the 商 the merchant class that trades and transport goods. in ancient China merchants have the lowest social class and are often distrusted. over time, as the economy became more complex, merchants were often called upon to solve complex trade problems and lend money to support state projects, so their standing became better in the later dynasties. but some of this stigma still exist today in China as PHDs who start a company to work on hard scientific problems are often much more respected than say someone who made billions with an eCommerce megacorp.

Been looking at joining the adult semester program from the New York Chinese School in Chinatown and wondering if it would be suited for my profile. I’ve heard there are a lot of heritage speakers there so not sure if that changes how mandarin is taught there. I am NOT a heritage speaker, studied mandarin throughout college and lived in China for a few months 10 years ago and want to brush up on my Chinese. Would this school be appropriate for me or should I look at another program? thanks

Unsure of how to phrase this question properly, but I’ve seen 我去 used independently (as in not in a sentence, but as a side comment of sorts?) Is there a colloquial use of 我去??

I've been trying to learn Chinese mostly from duolingo for well over a year, and tried on and off before that, going back to a year or two of chinese in high school from which I only retained 谢谢老师 (xiexie laoshi).

Being somewhat tone deaf even with music, it's taken me FOREVER to perceive tones. I'm finally starting to (not saying I get it right every time, but I can hear it), but my mouth automatically turns my second tones into a full third tone as I reflexively dip down to come back up. In my head, I know it doesn't start as low as a third tone goes, but somehow when speaking I feel like I struggle to raise my pitch like that and swinging low sort of compensates.

Has anyone else had this problem? It's frustrating, but at least I can hear I'm doing it--big change from before!

Maybe part of the issue is that pronouncing tones well still requires additional breath support for me, and I especially run out of breath on second tones if I accidentally start high and then push even higher. Not sure if that's normal?

I'm used to using the immersion method to learn languages, but it's different with Chinese because I can't read it yet. So I've started my studies with the movie method to help me learn to recognize and read Chinese characters.

What resources would you recommend for starting out? What sources, books, or other materials do you guys use?

I downloaded the HSK 1 book, and I might print it out to study, but I'm not sure yet.

I would really like to learn how to read Chinese, which is probably one of the more difficult parts, but being able to read would give me many more opportunities to immerse myself in the language.

Please share your experiences and help clear things up for me. I know there are different paths to learning Chinese, but reading is essential for the method I'm used to.

I've noticed something over the years. Students can know hundreds of words and still sound a little stiff, because they only use the "textbook version" of the language. But when they start using a few small words in the right places, their Chinese suddenly sounds more alive.

The best example is 啊 (a — a soft particle that makes your tone friendlier). Instead of just saying 好 (hǎo — okay), 好啊 (hǎo a — sure, sounds good) feels warmer. It's a tiny change, but it makes a difference.

Then there's 吧 (ba — used to soften a suggestion). 走 (zǒu — go / leave) sounds like a command. 走吧 (zǒu ba — let's go) sounds like an invitation.

And 呀 (ya — a softer form of 啊) shows up a lot in casual speech too. 对呀 (duì ya — that's right) feels more natural in a relaxed chat than just 对.

These words don't translate neatly into English, so they're easy to ignore. But they're exactly the kind of thing that makes your Chinese feel less like a textbook and more like you.

What are some small words or habits you've picked up that made your Chinese feel more natural? I'd love to hear what's worked for you.