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Archive | January, 2012

How To Describe Chinese TV Show Host “Losing His Cool”

By on January 30, 2012 in Advanced Chinese Vocab

Now who said that Chinese reality TV shows aren’t real? This episode of “Only You,” China’s “Apprentice” style job-interview show, has to be one of the most real, tense, and awkward episodes ever recorded.  It actually starts off a little boring. But then applicant Liu Lili mentions her foreign educational background and her love of [...]

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Chinese Slang: The “Rushing Clan”

By on January 27, 2012 in Advanced Chinese Slang

Do you feel like there aren’t enough hours in a day? Do you feel the pressure of high housing, medical, and car costs? Then maybe you’re a member of the “rushing clan”!  奔奔族 (bēn bēn zú) is a word that has emerged in recent years, and literally means “rush rush clan.” It describes  Chinese people born [...]

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Chinese Slang: “Company Moths”

By on January 25, 2012 in Advanced Chinese Slang

Are you a workaholic? Or do you spend most of your life next to your office? A new Chinese slang word has appeared for this: 公司驻虫 (gōng sī zhù chóng). 公司驻虫 (gōng sī zhù chóng) are young, white collar workers whose lives revolve around their company. They get off work very late, and have little desire [...]

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Embarrassing Moment: How Not to Impress Your Girlfriend’s Mom

By on January 23, 2012 in Embarrassing Moments

As part of our Embrace the Embarrassing Moments series, we feature a reader’s story about an embarrassing moment from when they were learning Chinese. This week: a story about how one reader broke the ice with his girlfriend’s mom. Recently I was chatting with my girlfriend and her mother. My girlfriend speaks great English, but [...]

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China’s New “Her Economy” and “Mistress Experts”

By on January 20, 2012 in Advanced Chinese Vocab

The “Her Economy.” The “mid-lifers.” The “mistress experts.” Do you know these new words that have been coined for the Chinese economy? 她经济 (tā jīng jì), literally “her economy,” is the notion that with the rise of womens’ economic power and social status, there is a whole new sector of the economy that serves and caters [...]

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Chinese Slang for “Newbie”

By on January 18, 2012 in Advanced Chinese Slang

Whether you’re brand new to Chinese or not, you”ll find use for today’s Chinese slang word: 菜鸟 (càiniǎo) – “newbie”. This very popular word, which also means “rookie”, refers to someone that is new or inexperienced at something. The word gotten much more popular in the internet age, when newbies (sometimes written as “n00bs”) are [...]

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Chinese idiom for counterfeit RMB that’s only half fake

By on January 16, 2012 in Essential Chengyu

You know to watch out for RMB that’s not real. But did you know you should also watch out for RMB that’s only half real? It’s a kind of “mutant counterfeit currency” (变种假币 - biàn zhǒng jiǎ bì) that has appeared in recent years. Sometimes they cut the bill in half up the middle and stick them together. [...]

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Our blog now also covers Beginner Chinese!

By on January 15, 2012 in Beginner Chinese, FluentU

Our blog is expanding to also cover Beginner Chinese. We’ll keep focusing on to-the-point explanations and real-world examples. And we’ll keep scratching those hard-to-scratch itches. To start, we’ll have 3 series for Beginner Chinese: Chinese Grammar Tips: where we break down tricky Chinese grammar. Chinese Slang 101: where we help beginners learn must-know Chinese slang. [...]

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Chinese Food Vocabulary Word List – Shanghai Cuisine

By on January 13, 2012 in Chinese Vocab Word Lists

Are you eating the same things all the time at Chinese restaurants? Are your Chinese friends not impressed anymore when you order Chinese food? If so, maybe it’s time you got out of your Chinese food ordering rut. To that end, we’ve put together this Chinese food vocabulary word list here for Shanghai cuisine.  We’ve [...]

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Chinese idiom for cat meat murder

By on January 11, 2012 in Essential Chengyu

For 49 year-old billionaire Long Liyuan, it was just a lunch to talk business and eat cat meat.  Little did he know that it would be his last. A local official allegedly laced the cat meat with toxic herbs. You can just imagine the official’s expression while offering Long the cat meat. The Chinese idiom [...]

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