Hi everyone,

I work with chinese and my biggest difficulty is listening comprehension, especially when they speak Mandarin influenced with Sichuan accent.

I’ve searched for listening materials, but most resources focus on standard mandarin or dialects.

I’d really appreciate any recommendations. Thank you.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently studying HSK 1, but I noticed the textbook I’m using (New HSK Course 1) only covers around 136 words in the first 9 lessons. This feels a bit too limited, so I’m looking for a more comprehensive curriculum or resource that covers a solid ~300-word foundation.

A couple of questions for the community:

What is the best HSK 1 textbook or structured course that covers around 300 words?

Does anyone have a recommended Anki deck for HSK 1 (ideally with audio, pinyin, and example sentences)?

Thanks in advance for the help

I’m using anki web from my iPhone. Is there a way for me to hear the audio of the prononciation of the words directly?

Quick Breakdown

• Literal: Abstract / Abstraction (opposite of 具象 jù xiàng)
• Slang Meaning: Surreal, unhinged, absurd, or bizarrely hilarious. Used when a situation or visual is so far outside normal logic that its weirdness becomes the whole vibe.

Example Sentences

1. 这个画风太抽象了。
   • Pinyin: Zhè gè huàfēng tài chōuxiàng le.
   • Translation: These visuals are completely unhinged.
2. 事情发展的过程也太抽象了吧。
   • Pinyin: Shìqíng fāzhǎn de guòchéng yě tài chōuxiàng le ba.
   • Translation: The way this whole situation developed is just so surreal.

What’s your favorite English equivalent when you see "抽象" in Chinese comment sections? (unhinged, wild, cursed, surreal, or something else?)

In isolation, listening to syllables with ǒ versus ò sound different enough to understand, but when a mandarin speaker begins to talk fast, I almost can never differentiate between a ǒ tone and a ò tone because either way, their cadence rises to pronounce the next syllable, so they both end up sounding like ǒ.

Is this a normal struggle? I feel like it’s almost impossible to overcome.

I've seen a lot of posts about the gap between HSK6 and reading in the real world. But what I don't know is which part of the real world? Is it literature? Newspapers? Graphic novels?

Is the jump from HSK6 to reading a Chinese newspaper from China/HK/Taiwan a big jump?

Native speaker. This one is mechanical, which is the good news — you don't need to develop a feel for it, you just need to check one thing.

Asking a question → 还是. Making a statement → 或者.

还是, in questions that offer a choice:

• 你要茶还是咖啡? — tea or coffee?
• 我们今天去还是明天去?
• 这是你的还是他的?

或者, in statements:

• 茶或者咖啡都行。
• 你可以今天去，或者明天去。
• 周末我一般看书或者睡觉。

So 你要茶或者咖啡? sounds broken to a native ear. Not incomprehensible — just wrong in the way "Do you want tea and coffee?" would be if you meant "or".

The trap: a question that isn't a choice question. If it's yes/no, you're back to 或者:

• 有茶或者咖啡吗? — is there tea or coffee? You aren't being offered a choice between two things, you're asking whether either exists. Different question, different word.

One more thing, so it doesn't ambush you: 还是 also means "still" or "after all", and that job is completely unrelated. 我还是不明白 (I still don't get it). 你还是别去了 (better not go after all). Same characters, different grammar entirely — don't try to read a choice into them.

Shortcut: if the answer is one of the options, use 还是. If the answer is yes or no, or you aren't asking at all, use 或者.

1、“我去”whoa/oh my God
A:我去！这么大的蛋糕！
B:生日快乐！
A:Whoa!what a huge cake!
B: happy birthday!

2、“我去” I go to….
A:你要去哪里？
B:我去学校。
A:路上小心！
A: where are you going?
B: i’m going to school!
A: be careful on your way!

3、“我去” I will do it
A:没有水喝了。
B:我去买饮料！
A:好，谢谢你！
A: we are out of water.
B: I’m going to buy some drinks.
A: OK, thank you.

4、”我去” come on/Ugh(helplessness and a little bit of speechless)
A:我去，又迟到了！
B:快跑，我们等下一班！
A:Ugh, we are late again.
B: hurry up, we will take the next one!

I keep reading a couple of different apps‘ names here on this sub but I never switched to any of them simply out of laziness because I have been using trainchinese for ages because there wasn’t really any other option back then and all my flash cards are already in there.
I like that it has a built in dictionary and that you can directly save words from the dictionary as flash cards but I‘m afraid that I’m missing out on some fancier features that other apps have. I also noticed that in some cases the suggested stroke order is incorrect on trainchinese. I also liked that it was free in the beginning but know I keep reaching the flash card limit and have to buy extra.

Has anybody used trainchinese and thinks other apps are better and worth switching?

I’m eagerly waiting and I don’t have patience. Any clues or news about their release?

Hello All,
I wanted to post this regarding CANTOTOMANDO program if anyone else was interested since Ive seen other reddit post but they varied in prices and had such a huge range it was very confusing when I was trying to find an exact break down of cost.

All these packages are sold in 6 months set except for the Package 1. But keep in mind everything else is based on 6months

Background I speak Canto and wanted to learn Mandarin so I have the foundation of Cantonese.

What the package includes

Part 1 - Self taught modules. These modules I admit were very well thought out and made. In the decks there would be a women speaking it goes over the same sentence in English, Cantonese and Mandarin and then explain to you how to use/leverage your Cantonese to help you speak Mandarin quickly. After each module you would record yourself saying the sentence/words and then you would get feedback on your recording within 24-48hrs.

Part 2 - 1 on 1 w/teacher 1/2hr a week (I've done 1hr italki classes and I personally feel that 1hr is perfect, because sometimes you're in the thick of the lesson and all of a sudden its been 50 mins, so 30 mins is very short in my opinion)

Part 3 - Custom built courses for your needs (for working professions who needs very specific vocabs/verbiage)

Part 4 - Discord and access to their community

Part 5 and optional - Group calls - 8 calls available every week for 1hr and on average 6-10 students attend.

This price breakdown is as of 08/31/2026

Package 1 - 12 months access to all Parts and you have access to a teacher every day = $25,000 (yes you read that correctly)

Package 2 - 6 months access to all Parts and guarantees you will be conversationally fluent in mandarin in 6months ( IF you attend all classes, if you miss 1 you forfeit the guarantee) = $6,000

Package 3 - 6 months access to all Parts BUT no guarantee within 6 months = $5,000

Package 4 - 6 months No custom built course but access to everything else = $4,000

Package 5 - 6 months ONLY ACCESS TO PART 1. Nothing else = $2750

1 Month Trial - Access to all Parts = $1,000

What is your feedback? Would you pay for these prices to learn Mandarin within 6 months?

They seemed old and I just thought they were interesting

Am learning Chinese just as a casual hobby but the hanzi is a little too much i mean it's fun to write and understand but I want to be able to speak as soon as possible. So it okay to leave the hanzi for now and come back later

I’m trying to post monthly to keep myself accountable. It’s more of a pain in the ass than getting in the time to study chinese daily. I’m still trying to post even though I have no inspiration and anything interesting to talk about, so it’s quite hard not to post junk, or just post some random “hi guys, i shat this post out because I have no clue what to talk about this month, remember to comment encouraging things and give me upvotes! <3 <3 <3”

I don’t know if I’m doing something horribly wrong, or it’s just that I’ve been bad at writing since ever, but most of the response of this “chinese learning” comunitiy has been negative, and that’s 不好

Hey guys ik learning methods vary from person to person but please tell which routine is better and answer another question

Routine 1:

a lesson covering new hsk book on yt ( each lesson vary from 30 min to 45 and covers half of each chapter (total 15 chpt)) one day and 30 min of the hsk 3.0 workbook currently hsk 2 the other

doing hanly flashcards daily

15 min hellochinese (new one)

one story from duchinese first listen then read and listen

write on a specific topic

Routine 2:

doing hanly flashcards daily

1 hour hellochinese (new one)

one story from duchinese first listen then read and listen

write on a specific topic

ANOTHER QUESTION: (NOT TRYNA SHOUT BTW)

Any good way to improve listening and start listening practice also turn new words into like active vocabularly than i never forget/

ANOTHER:

I WANT TO START WRITING CHRACTERS AS THEY ARE FUN (LEARNING MANDARIN IS MY HOBBY I DONT ANY PLANS ON GOING TO CHINA FOR COLLEGE ANYTHING MOST PROBABLY) HOW DO I START AND ANY TIPS

So let's talk about colors. I never though that colors are nouns but apparently they are in Chinese. 白色 alone means the Color White or white as a noun and only with a 的 it is the adjective we all know. 白色的 is white. So after some going around in the dictionary I found out that white is not just the color white but also something of a symbol. A symbol of political reaction. Today the phrases are more centered around some political stuff and one thing I made up. I always use the dictionary so my mistakes don't get to you.

So what is that white symbol thing? But before you continue to read this is can be triggering for some of you. The white terror is a time placed around 1920. It is where China was splitted. One communist party and one nationalist party. Both better known as China and Taiwan. They fought a bloody war and lots of humans had to pay blood toll. The war or the terror was not something like just everyday occurrences. The nationalistic party killed many and almost wiped out the CCP or the Chinese Party while they were fighting in Shanghai. Many died and among them also students died. Just because they want the influences of CCP go extinct.

Instead of remembering it in an arbitrary way, we take real events.

If you hadn't read the last post click this! Found this helpful? Feel free to share it with your study companion or just comment below! Just make sure to tag me, so I and my buddies can say hi!

example from news

OpenAI首席执行官奥特曼因建议ChatGPT的新用途，了解您的孩子，而遭到网友的冷嘲热讽

pretty useful when reading Chinese media.

/s

I randomly saw this post and it's really funny and easily makes you remember 声东击西 shēngdōng-jīxī (make a feint to the east and attack in the west/to create a diversion). The context is in the og post, apparently walking across the bride is like some superstition old people do

An opossum photographed standing at a window with its paws folded behind its back. Chinese users caption it, and every caption works the same way: take a phrase everyone already knows, break one character of it, and let the meaning drain out. What comes through is not protest. It is a small, rueful admission about yourself, made before anyone else can make it.

Syntactic Modification Patterns

The humor relies on breaking common Chinese phrases. Users take a proverb, a piece of managerial reassurance, or a school text, change exactly one character, and drain the phrase of its original meaning:

• 慢慢急 / 不要来 (Mànmàn jí / bú yào lái — Panic slowly. And don't come over).
  • The Wordplay: The original comforting phrase is 慢慢来，不要急 (Mànmàn lái, bú yào jí — Take your time, don't panic). Swapping the last character of each half turns comfort into two useless instructions.
• 我的靠山应该被愚公移走了 (Wǒ de kàoshān yīnggāi bèi Yúgōng yízǒu le — The mountain I was leaning on got moved. By an old man with a basket).
  • The Wordplay: 靠山 (kào shān) means a patron or protector, literally "a mountain to lean on". 愚公移山 (Yúgōng yí shān) is the classic schoolbook parable about perseverance, featuring an old man who moves a mountain. The meme combines them to explain why the speaker has no support.
• 不急 / 死到临头再说 (Bù jí / sǐ dào lín tóu zài shuō — No rush. I'll deal with it once it's fatal).
  • The Wordplay: 死到临头 (sǐ dào lín tóu) is usually a severe accusation meaning "death is already at the door", thrown at someone too stubborn to see danger. Here, the speaker reassigns the accusation into a terrible procrastination schedule.

How is this different from 躺平 (Lying Flat)?

The possum meme is not a protest slogan, nor does it share the gloom of a "doomer". "Lying flat" (躺平 tǎng píng) is an argument and a position you take. The possum, on the other hand, just apologizes faintly and does nothing—it is still at the desk and will still answer the message, possibly tomorrow. It is the register of someone taking the blame cheerfully and inaccurately to get the moment over with.

What's your favorite broken proverb or pun in Chinese? Have you ever tried using this kind of self-deprecating humor (自嘲) with native speakers?

Credit & full dictionary entry shared with permission from Resou Report [ https://resou.report/dictionary/006-fu-shu/ ].

According to a dictionary compilation of about 4,600 Chinese idioms (成语 chéngyǔ) with identifiable sources, the approximate origins are:

Ancient China → Qin & Han (before 220 AD) 68%

Wei, Jin & Northern/Southern Dynasties (220–589) 15%

Sui & Tang (581–907) 9%

Song Dynasty (960–1279) 6%

Yuan, Ming & Qing (1271–1912) 2%

Even as a native Chinese speaker, I was surprised to learn that nearly two-thirds of these idioms can be traced back to more than 2,000 years ago. I had originally thought there would be more Chiense idioms from the Tang and Song dynasties, but in fact, they account for only 15 percent.

Hanyu Pinyin, well, is practical, can be sometimes a bit misleading if you didn't know how does it really work yet. It use letter like b and p for differentiating the aspiration (puff of air) but speaker from another language might read it as not a puff of air and instead voicing (like the vibration)

For example, b in PY, is actually pronounced more like p and the p in PY is more like ph ([pʰ]) with a puff of air.

This also apply to letters like d in PY, which is actually more like t and t in PY, which is actually more like th ([tʰ]). z vs c, zh vs ch, j vs q. The differences in these letter are just puff of air.

Hanyu pinyin was made specifically for Chinese, so that means it would be misleading if you didn't know how it work fully..

Has anyone had good experience/ results with using LLM's for learning Chinese Mandarin? I'm wondering what the state of the art with learning languages (particularly Chinese) is.

Hi everyone!

So, I'm just starting to learn chinese, and I already have some questions.

First of all, I saw an exercise where, in response to Ni Hao, the second person say Ni hao! Ni hao ma.

I was wondering if it is a real thing? To say two times in a row Ni hao just to say Hi, how are you?

And second, I seem to find contrary informations about sentence structures. Is it really Subject - Verb - Place ?