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Archive | August, 2012

FluentU Launching Public Beta in 3 Days!

By on August 31, 2012 in FluentU

Since announcing our planned beta launch less than two short weeks ago, we have welcomed hundreds of new users, uploaded dozens of new videos, and been featured on some of our favorite Chinese learning blogs (all the while tweeting and blogging as usual of course). If you have been living under a rock (one without wifi that [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Kevin Lewis

By on August 29, 2012 in Chinese Learner Interview Series, Chinese Learner Interviews, Chinese Learning Tips

Today we are proud to feature Kevin Lewis.  As Principal of Mandarin World in Shanghai, we are thrilled to get his tips and advice for learning Chinese.  In his own words, I am originally from Adelaide Australia, and I’ve been living on and off in China since 1998. I’ve spent many years teaching English to university students [...]

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No Nonsense Newbie Tips: Question Particles 吗, 吧, 呢

By on August 27, 2012 in Beginner Chinese, No Nonsense Newbie Tips

One of the pure joys and enduring charms of spoken Chinese is the prevalence of “exclamatory particles”.   These are one syllable, neutral tone words which slip off your tongue at the end of a sentence to add emphasis, soften or stiffen the tone, or indicate a question or command.  They range from grammatically necessary to playful additions [...]

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Hot on Weibo: Being Single on Chinese Valentine’s Day (七夕)

By on August 23, 2012 in Beginner Chinese, Hot on Weibo

七夕节 (qī xī jié), commonly known as Chinese Valentine’s Day or Magpie Festival, is an ancient traditional holiday falling on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It is a folktale about the romance between the 7th daughter of Emperor of Heaven and a humble cow-herd.  For the adventuresome, read [...]

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FluentU Launching Public Beta September 3rd!

By on August 22, 2012 in FluentU

Over the past year, we have worked hard bringing you some of the web’s best Chinese learning content on our blog, Twitter, and Facebook. Yes, you may already be familiar with our essential chengyus, Chinese learner interviews, hot on Weibo, No Nonsense Newbie Tips, and daily language tweets. But today, we are thrilled to make an announcement signaling a new era [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Allan Ngo

By on August 17, 2012 in Chinese Learner Interview Series, Chinese Learner Interviews, Chinese Learning Tips

Next in our series is Allan Ngo!  Allan has been a good friend of FluentU over the months, and we are happy to have the chance to feature him today. A bit about Allan: Allan Ngo helps busy people like him to learn Chinese on the side for fun and profit at his site Money in [...]

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Understanding, Honesty, and Waste: Abstract Meanings of 白

By on August 15, 2012 in Advanced Chinese Vocab, Intermediate and Advanced Chinese

We’ve looked before at the very auspicious meanings of 红 (red) in Chinese. Today, let’s examine 白 (bái- white), and explore some of its wide range of meanings. In an excellent paper from 2008, Janet Zhiqun Xing discusses how colors in Chinese are flexible in their meanings, and are often used in very abstract ways.  She identifies [...]

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No Nonsense Newbie Tips: What the Heck is up with 了?

By on August 13, 2012 in Beginner Chinese, Chinese Grammar Tips, No Nonsense Newbie Tips

The mother of all Newbie conundrums: 了 This is one of the simplest of all Chinese particles, one which you probably encountered in Chapter 1 of your textbook. However, after the initial “new word glow” wears off and you get deeper into its usage, you’ll start encountering all these confusing phrases like “resultative complement” and [...]

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Hey Ladies! “Handsome” Chinese Chengyus

By on August 8, 2012 in Advanced Chinese Slang, Essential Chengyu, Intermediate and Advanced Chinese

To our female readers who felt snubbed by our post on Chinese Female Beauty, don’t fret! 与众不同 (yǔ zhòng bù tóng- stand out from the crowd) and say goodbye to the tired 帅哥 (shuài gē) next time you find an object of your attraction. Inspired by chiseled and hunky, elegant and charming Olympic men gracing our television screens [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Matt Johnson

By on August 6, 2012 in Chinese Learner Interview Series, Chinese Learner Interviews, Chinese Learning Tips

In the 15th post in our Chinese Learner Interview Series, today we feature Matt Johnson. Matt has had a few exciting years in China, and is now in Beijing working as a tech-journalist. He brings his signature optimism and good natured wit to this interview. Definitely a great read! He is, in his own words, Basically [...]

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