Let's Learn Mandarin~

Blog dedicated to learning Mandarin(please don't test my Cantonese and Taiwanese....is bad). All the resources you may need should be here too! -LinLin

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Also for Taiwan, what did you do for money? did you get an easy card how did that work? would recommend sticking to cash or?

Even though they are mostly a cash country you will need an easy card. Right in the airport there is a 7/11 that you can get one from that will load it for you too. You need that for any busses or MRT but most taxis and convenience stores will accept it too. Usually how I was doing it and most locals is use the easy card for public transport only since those are fixed rates and you can figure out when you need to reload and how much. But if you forget cash it is there as back up. But most like markets especially night or street markets only accept cash, so it is good to like always have cash with you.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Hello!

Hello guys! 你好！ 

I know so haven’t been on in forever, but I was in China and Taiwan for two weeks. Then I came home and my pay with work messed up so I am working like 3x as much to make what I need to pay bills and survive right now. My grandparents were in a car accident and my uncle was in the ER, so I had to go help them for sometime. And my health was horrendous for like a month I am even still passing out some. However, I should sort of be back some now. I like to make my posts on my laptop and my sister has been confiscating that for college, so we will see. Anyways I have stuff in the works, and I also am super willing to answer any questions I can about China and Taiwan from my trip!!! I am ready to relive that! Here are some basics of my trip so you know what I may be able to answer for you!

China~

-Beijing(4 days): 

The Summer Palace

The Great Wall (Simatai section) and Gubei

The Forbidden City

Hutongs

-Chengdu(2 nights)

Panda Research Center and volunteering there

Shopping until our flight

-Shenzhen(2 days)

Splendid China Park

Shopping and exploring(this time where the locals do not the large westernized mall)

Almost dying in Shenzhen metro because of a bias of mine(that’s a funny story)

Taiwan~

-Taipei(6 days)

The weather was bad so I mostly explored and made friends but we did see a few things.

Taipei 101

Shilin Night Market (twice the one time this boy almost fainted cause of me that is a story lol)

Visiting a temple in operation and seeing a funeral home(an interesting cultural experience, I learned a lot from)

[praetor-canis]

Wait a minute, you didn’t go see the Forbidden City in Taiwan? You need to see that part in conjunction with the palaces of Beijing.

All the good treasures are in the Taiwan museums, since the KMT took a lot of valuables with them during the retreat.

Thus, to get the full experience of Qing Dynasty palace life, you should do see both.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Yeah I know, we really didn't get to experience much in Taiwan I was a little disappointed. However, I made tons of plans for returning and am currently working on the financing for that. So I will definitely include those in my next round. Circumstances just got complicated that week so I will take what I got and prepare for next time. 

(Sorry about it reblogging so much, this is why I use my computer not my tablet.)

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Dialects

So guys I am working on a series that breaks down some of the dialects of Chinese, like the differences and so on. Comparing them and all. If you guys have any specific dialects you want me to research(yes I will do the work so you all don’t have to) let me know. I am game for whatever. I will do any, well known and not so well known.

[praetor-canis]

Start with something easy, say Beijing lingo? I can help with Beijinger stuff.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Beijing lingo alrighty then lol

See Beijing accent was explained to me as the standard and proper Mandarin accent, but I am still not all that familiar with it. Even after my time in Beijing, due to circumstances there I didn't hear Beijing accent that much.  However, if that is what there is an interest in I can go for it for sure.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

@praetor-canis I got your ask! And wow so much to ask. I will have to find my map for the location of the hutongs, but it was very popular(people taking tiktok videos all over the place let me tell you). If I still have a map I will send you a picture too, if I can. I did not take trains in Beijing but I used the metro almost the entire time though we did have some times when we used taxi. Did you have questions or something about the train or metro or their main station? I didn't see any shows really though they did have some street performers in Gubei and Spledid China in Shenzhen had performances of part of the Peking Opera that I watched.  I will get you the information about the hutongs and those food pictures hopefully tomorrow when I catch a minute! If you think of anything else you want to ask just send it my way!

[magnetizedtomandarin]

I’m about to study abroad in Taiwan for 4-5 months. Anything I should know? How’s the air quality? I will actually be in Taichung, but I assume the air quality of Taipei is similar. (I have pretty severe asthma, that’s why I ask).

I have pretty bad asthma too, so I understand the concern. I have friends in Taichung right now actually. The nice thing about cities in Taiwan is that the large cities have lots of parks, that plus how much it rains means that the air quality really isn’t something to be super concerned with. I would take/buy some masks just in case if it doesn’t rain for a while(which is real rare) and it does start to build some air pollution. You can also download an aqi app and put in your location to get live air quality updates people with asthma should probably put on a mask at about 100 I believe it tends to be about 60 in most cities in Taiwan.

Other than that I would just say to carry around a paper with your address on it in Chinese for the first few weeks to month, cause almost everyone I know who has visited or moved to Taiwan gets lost at some point. Taiwanese people are extremely nice so just anyone for directions if you get lost and show them the address, a lot of people will likely even offer to take you there themselves.

Hope this helps! Have fun in Taiwan hon!

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Hello!

Hello guys! 你好！ 

I know so haven't been on in forever, but I was in China and Taiwan for two weeks. Then I came home and my pay with work messed up so I am working like 3x as much to make what I need to pay bills and survive right now. My grandparents were in a car accident and my uncle was in the ER, so I had to go help them for sometime. And my health was horrendous for like a month I am even still passing out some. However, I should sort of be back some now. I like to make my posts on my laptop and my sister has been confiscating that for college, so we will see. Anyways I have stuff in the works, and I also am super willing to answer any questions I can about China and Taiwan from my trip!!! I am ready to relive that! Here are some basics of my trip so you know what I may be able to answer for you!

China~

-Beijing(4 days): 

The Summer Palace

The Great Wall (Simatai section) and Gubei

The Forbidden City

Hutongs

-Chengdu(2 nights)

Panda Research Center and volunteering there

Shopping until our flight

-Shenzhen(2 days)

Splendid China Park

Shopping and exploring(this time where the locals do not the large westernized mall)

Almost dying in Shenzhen metro because of a bias of mine(that's a funny story)

Taiwan~

-Taipei(6 days)

The weather was bad so I mostly explored and made friends but we did see a few things.

Taipei 101

Shilin Night Market (twice the one time this boy almost fainted cause of me that is a story lol)

Visiting a temple in operation and seeing a funeral home(an interesting cultural experience, I learned a lot from)

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Dialects

So guys I am working on a series that breaks down some of the dialects of Chinese, like the differences and so on. Comparing them and all. If you guys have any specific dialects you want me to research(yes I will do the work so you all don't have to) let me know. I am game for whatever. I will do any, well known and not so well known.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Sorry I haven't been on this blog much guys. Been gearing up for my trip to China and Taiwan next month and dealing with family drama/health issues. Please feel free to continue asking questions though and requesting posts on things.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

do you have any resources that you used to learn traditional mandarin? I'm planning to move to Taiwan so i think i should learn traditional mandarin but most of the resources i have gotten are on simplified mandarin. is it okay to use the simplified mandarin resources to learn traditional Chinese? i mean besides the characters/writing style, nothing else is different, right?

OMG!!! DO YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR WHEN YOU ARE MOVING??! I JUST STARTED MY FUND TO MOVE THERE!!!

 Onto the topic though…..everything is the same except for the characters. Even the writing style/rules are the same, just for different characters. Typically resources for learning are in Simplified characters by default, but some will do either both or give you an option in settings (or languages for multilingual apps and such) to use or learn traditional characters. 

[space-dev]

I know I wasn’t asked but LingoDeer, my favourite app for learning Asian languages, has a Chinese course, and there is an option to learn using traditional characters. All you have to do is go to your settings with the Chinese course selected, and the second module is for ‘character system’. Click on that and it should be straightforward from there.

[quaelearns]

@magnetizedtomandarin next school year. unless i get like some crazy offer from Harvard or something, i’m pretty set on moving to Taiwan. I want to go to NCCU in Taipei but i won’t turn down a good offer from a different uni tbh. and thank you for letting me know!

@dev-bee thank you so much!!! i downloaded lingodeer today and i was about to delete thinking it doesn’t have traditional chinese but I’m so glad you mentioned this! 

[magnetizedtomandarin]

@dev-bee I agree LingoDeer is one of my favorites as well!

@she-learns ahh I see, I see. You have looked up the governmental requirements for foreign students then? If I remember correctly they were quite lenient compared to other countries.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

@sunflos @she-learns

Yes HelloChinese  is a pretty good resource(they have done a long ways from how they originally were). The only thing is there seem to be some tech issues with it. It hated my tablet when I got the new one, but the old tablet it was fine on for whatever reason. So just little things with devices and stuff to be aware off.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

for the get to know this blog ask: 1, 2, 5, 15, and 20

1. No one is able to say my name right, so Bre  and Breeze are my nicknames. My Chinese name is LinLin(with both 1st time I believe).

2. I am 19 years old.

5. I am currently in my 3rd year of Mandarin, but this is also the year where I am really cracking down and getting myself to study right.

15. Ohh....so  I think the biggest thing is cultural aspects of the language probably. Which I can really get into and rant about if you guys wanted, but anyways. To overcome it, I think just not give up. Those you more of learn  through experience so it just takes time and patience.

20. I am learning Mandarin, because I have always had a love of languages and always wanted to be able to communicate with as many people as possible. You really can't truly understand someone's culture unless you know their language. So in starting to learn languages,I just fell in love with Mandarin and the cultures tied to it.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

My name is Atika. I recently graduated from High school. I want to learn mandarin because I love how it sounds and I really want to study in Taiwan. I plan to learn at least 50 characters while I wait to make the final decision about studying in Taiwan or China. I don't think I will have too much difficulty in remembering the characters, however, the pronunciation is really hard for me.

Pronunciation can be super hard, especially when you are new. It takes a lot of practice but don't get discouraged! And just know that you always have me hon!

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Get To Know This Blog!

So my lovely lovely people, I realized that while that is not why we are here(no, we are here to learn Mandarin), we have never gotten to know each other at all. Not that it is of any major importance, but knowing people who are also language learners can help you make friends (practice buddies) and stay motivated, so..... let's learn a bit about each other. You can answer or you can ask me. Questions: 1. What is your name? 2. How old are you? 3. Are you in school? If so what grade/major for my college student followers? 4. What do you do for work? 5. How long have you been learning Mandarin? 6. Do you have an siblings? 7. Do you have any pets? 8. What are your strengths? 9. What are your fears? 10. Favorite word/phrase in Mandarin. 11. Favorite animal? 12. Favorite color? 13. What are your hobbies? 14. Do you learn languages with any friends? 15. Most challenging part about learning Mandarin in your opinion.(Bonus how do you get past that?) 16. Favorite song? 17. Favorite food? 18. How do you sleep? 19. Where would you like to travel? 20. Why are you learning Mandarin? Or just make up your own /tell us a little about you. Anon or not, everyone is welcome!!

[magnetizedtomandarin]

What's the difference? - Huì vs néng

So if you really want to be get technical then the words

huì- 会-會

&

néng- 能

Both have the same meaning of - to be able to/having the ability

However, this is when Mandarin start a to make you think because these words are not(typically) interchangeable. In Mandarin huì is used to express 'I can't/I am unable to', whereas, néng is used to express 'I won't'.

So for example:

Wo(3) bùhuì shuo(1) zho(1)ngwén. - 我不会说中文。 - 我不會說中文。 - I can't speak Chinese.(In terms of I do not know how to.)

Wo(3) bùnéng shuo(1) zho(1)ngwén. - 我不能说中文。- 我不能說中文。 - I will not speak Chinese. (As in I refuse to speak it.)

*Tip: Good rule of thumb is whatever one they use to express something to you is what you use to converse back.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

do you have any resources that you used to learn traditional mandarin? I'm planning to move to Taiwan so i think i should learn traditional mandarin but most of the resources i have gotten are on simplified mandarin. is it okay to use the simplified mandarin resources to learn traditional Chinese? i mean besides the characters/writing style, nothing else is different, right?

OMG!!! DO YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR WHEN YOU ARE MOVING??! I JUST STARTED MY FUND TO MOVE THERE!!!

 Onto the topic though…..everything is the same except for the characters. Even the writing style/rules are the same, just for different characters. Typically resources for learning are in Simplified characters by default, but some will do either both or give you an option in settings (or languages for multilingual apps and such) to use or learn traditional characters. 

[space-dev]

I know I wasn’t asked but LingoDeer, my favourite app for learning Asian languages, has a Chinese course, and there is an option to learn using traditional characters. All you have to do is go to your settings with the Chinese course selected, and the second module is for ‘character system’. Click on that and it should be straightforward from there.

[quaelearns]

@magnetizedtomandarin next school year. unless i get like some crazy offer from Harvard or something, i’m pretty set on moving to Taiwan. I want to go to NCCU in Taipei but i won’t turn down a good offer from a different uni tbh. and thank you for letting me know!

@dev-bee thank you so much!!! i downloaded lingodeer today and i was about to delete thinking it doesn’t have traditional chinese but I’m so glad you mentioned this! 

[magnetizedtomandarin]

@dev-bee I agree LingoDeer is one of my favorites as well!

@she-learns ahh I see, I see. You have looked up the governmental requirements for foreign students then? If I remember correctly they were quite lenient compared to other countries.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

do you have any resources that you used to learn traditional mandarin? I'm planning to move to Taiwan so i think i should learn traditional mandarin but most of the resources i have gotten are on simplified mandarin. is it okay to use the simplified mandarin resources to learn traditional Chinese? i mean besides the characters/writing style, nothing else is different, right?

OMG!!! DO YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR WHEN YOU ARE MOVING??! I JUST STARTED MY FUND TO MOVE THERE!!!

 Onto the topic though.....everything is the same except for the characters. Even the writing style/rules are the same, just for different characters. Typically resources for learning are in Simplified characters by default, but some will do either both or give you an option in settings (or languages for multilingual apps and such) to use or learn traditional characters. 

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Learning Tones- Listening, Speaking, Tips, and Tricks~

Ahh Chinese tones, what always scares people off. So lets see if we can't make this a tad bit easier hmm? 

Step 1: Learn what the 4 tones are. I have made a post on this it should me under the tag tones if you simply want to search for it. But for now a quick review.

First tone: mā

Second tone: má

Third tone: mă

Fourth tone: mà

Fifth/Neutral tone: ma

Basically your voice rises/lowers in the direction the tone mark goes.

Step 2: Get a basic understanding of how the tones sound. Now let me explain this to you, if English(or probably any other non-tonal language) is your first language you likely will not completely be able to differentiate between all of the tones since it isn't something your ears are yet trained to look for, this takes a good deal of time and training, that training primarily from EXPOSURE. 

There are a couple pinyin charts in apps and such that will play each specific vowel in that tone(with a few different letter combinations)for you to start getting a feel for it. I also noticed that occasionally I think different vowels with different tones sounds different than a different vowel under that tone, so just feel it out some first.

*It there are times you notice are harder for you to differentiate in hearing you will likely struggle more with these tones in speaking as well. For example I struggle with 1st and 4th and am great at 3rd whereas 2nd is passable.

There are also some YouTube videos of people speaking in each tone to listen. And pleco will say words outloud, just whatever works for you.

Once you feel a little comfortable and like you have a basic foundation you can move on to the next step.

Step 3: Practicing Speaking.

So there aren't a ton of reasons that really focus on speaking the tones per say. It is more overall speaking than specifically tone practice. There are quite a few resources that have you repeat what it says. My personal favorite is the Pandarow app, you speak some of the phrases it has been teaching you, and actually grades it 0-100. The only thing is I have noticed that sometimes it doesn't hear you the best, so when you retry for a better score it usually just needs you to speak a bit clearer or enunciate a bit more.

I know that ChineseSkill has an app called SpeakChinese, I have yet to try that one. I really need to though.

[magnetizedtomandarin]

Correction

@germanpsychiatrist you're right, I forgot about the 过 and 了 thing, thank you for bringing that to my attention. 过 and 了 do indicate a past action that has been completely and is placed after the verb in a sentence. ( @squidsandfishes ) however, I have noticed it used mostly in written form and not spoken Chinese. Also, it is understood perfectly without the 过 and 了. Usually when I have heard it someone asks a question using one of those two particles and so the proper response would contain the used particle as well.

Words:

过(過) - guo - (particle) represents past time/action

了- le - (particle) indicates completes action

*Please never hesitate to (kindly) correct any mistakes that you see I have made.