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Archive | April, 2012

Top 10 Tweets of April

By on April 30, 2012 in Top 10 Tweets of the Month

Another month has flown by and that means we’ve tweeted another 20 or so language tweets via our Twitter account @FluentU. As always, our aim is to provide you guys with useful, relevant, yet fun and interesting, words and expressions that stick. Oh, and how do we know what’s relevant? We find our words via [...]

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Hot on Weibo: Award-Winning Study Shows Counting Money Relieves Pain

By on April 24, 2012 in Hot on Weibo

Suffering from back pain? Instead of going to see the doctor, how about going to the ATM to find some money to count? Chinese netizens are buzzing over an award-winning scientific finding by researchers at Zhongshan University that counting money can relieve pain. You can read their comments under the hashtag: #数钱可以缓解疼痛#(shǔ qián kě yǐ huǎn jiě [...]

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Presenting… Our New FluentU Demo Video!

By on April 23, 2012 in FluentU, Uncategorized

We’re proud to present our new FluentU demo video! (If you are having trouble watching the video above, then you can watch it here.) If this is the first time you’re hearing about FluentU, FluentU helps you learn Chinese through the web’s best online videos — anything from music videos and movie trailers, to news and inspiring talks. [...]

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3 Ways to Say Funny: 好笑 vs 可笑 vs 幽默

By on April 19, 2012 in Beginner Chinese, Chinese Vocab 101

Do you know these 3 ways to say funny: 好笑 ， 可笑， 幽默 ? How about the differences between them? They might sound similar but they’re actually different – don’t get them mixed up! The best place to start is with 好笑 (hǎo xìao). 好笑 (hǎo xìao) is the most basic, vanilla way to say “funny.” It’s a [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Chris Hubbard

By on April 16, 2012 in Chinese Learner Interview Series, Chinese Learner Interviews, Chinese Learning Tips

For the fifth entry in our Chinese Language Learners Interview Series we interviewed Chris Hubbard, a reader of the blog and expat living in Taipei, Taiwan. Chris is a great example of someone who’s taken language learning into their own hands. After coming to Taipei to learn Chinese, Chris started out at a local university’s [...]

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Chinese Idiom for a Real-Life Batman

By on April 12, 2012 in Essential Chengyu

You don’t see this every day: A real-life batman in a Lamborghini “Batmobile” pulled over on the highway for not having a valid license plate. Though he hasn’t fully followed the law, you can tell that the police in the video rather like Batman. And you know why: because he’s 与众不同 (yǔ zhòng bù tóng). 与众不同 [...]

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Chengyu for China’s Many iPhones

By on April 9, 2012 in Essential Chengyu

A Chinese analyst tweeted that Apple CEO Tim Cook was apparently very happy on his recent trip to China. Why? “Because he saw a lot of people on the streets using iPhones.” “There are iPhone3, iPhone4, iPhone4S, as well as iPhone5 and iPhone6. There are [iPhones] with three-inch screens, four-inch screens, five-inch screens, single-screens and [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Sara Jaaksola

By on April 5, 2012 in Chinese Learner Interview Series, Chinese Learner Interviews, Chinese Learning Tips

In the fourth installment of our Chinese Learner Interview Series, we interviewed Sara Jaaksola of Living A Dream In China. Sara has been a Chinese learner for as far back as her middle school days. What started as an interest, has developed into a full-on passion that has led her to where she is now [...]

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The Hot New Sacrifice for Tomb Sweeping Day: Paper iPhone

By on April 2, 2012 in Hot on Weibo

It’s almost April 4th, meaning that 清明节 (qīng míng jié), aka “Tomb Sweeping Day” is almost upon us. This is the holiday when Chinese people go back to their ancestors’ graves to pay their respects. Traditionally, people burn sacrificial offerings (祭品 - jì pǐn) — like paper money, paper houses, or even paper cars — so that their [...]

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