Tag Archives | funny stories

Chinese Learner Interview Series: Jesse Appell

This week we feature Jesse Appell on our Chinese Language Interview Series. You may recognize him from the viral video, “Laowai Style.” He’s definetly got a story to tell & tips to share as he’s blazing his own trail & leaving a footprint already in the world of Chinese language. In his own words: Hi [...]

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Fayin Messups: Dumplings & Big Turkeys

We’ve learned not to confuse “soup” for “sugar” or “church” for “caramel” in Chinese from last time’s fayin messups post. From a lot of our language learner interviews, we know that pronunciation is important. Here are some more entertaining stories related to food (since we aren’t done eating despite the Thanksgiving feast) of why!   [...]

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Fayin Mess Ups: No Treats, Just Tricks?!

Tones and characters and chengyu, oh my! Pinyin and stroke order and final particles? OH MY!!  There are so many things that can make learning Chinese tricky. One of the main challenges for an English speaker tackling this beast is understanding the different tones and having proper pronunciation (标准发音 -biāo zhǔn fā yīn). Yes, they do [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Alex Luo

This week on our Chinese Learner Interview Series, we feature Alex Luo! In her own words: Hey! My name is Alex Luo. I’m 23, and have roots in New York, Boston, and Seattle. I just recently moved to Shanghai last week and am in that wonderful stage of life, namely, job-searching. I graduated from college in 2011 [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Matt Owen

Today we feature an old friend of ours here at FluentU.  Matt Owen came to China on a whim in 2006, and ended up studying Chinese at Tsinghua University for 3 semesters.  I can personally say I’ve never seen anybody have more fun learning Chinese than Matt, and this interview is definitely a fun read. [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Sarah Heintze

Next up in our Chinese Learner Interview Series is Sarah Heintze.  In her own words, My name is Sarah, although my friends call me Selly. You’re very welcome to use my Chinese nickname 小南瓜 (very popular among my friends!) or just use my Chinese name: 韩香萍. I’m German but I moved to Ireland seven years [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Dan Jones

Next up in our Chinese learner interview series is experienced learner Dan Jones.  Be sure to check out his blog here, where he posts lots of great photographs from China.  In his own words: I’m from the Wales and currently teaching English at the Dalian University of Technology. I love photography, I have my own projects [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Benjamin Dickman

In the 10th (!) post of our Chinese Language Learner Interview Series, we are thrilled to speak with Benjamin Dickman.  In his own words: I’m originally from Brookline, Mass., and currently living in New York City.  After majoring in math at Amherst College , I spent the following academic year in Nanjing, China, learning about [...]

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Chinese Learner Interview Series: Hamish Young

Next up in our Chinese learner interview series is Hamish Young.  As an experienced Chinese translator, we thank him for sharing his unique insights with us!  In his own words- I was tricked into coming to China in 2005 and have been desperately learning Chinese ever since.  After teaching for a few years and learning [...]

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