Hanbridge Mandarin Chinese Online Learning

China has a long history and is rich in natural beauty, ancient culture and exciting cities to visit. You can see magnificent mountains and rivers, interesting animals and plants, numerous historical sites, traditional Chinese opera, music and dance, and architecture ranging from classical Chinese to late 19th and early 20th century Russian to post-modern skyscrapers. And then there are China's many different cuisines! So, to make traveling in China easier, here are some helpful phrases. English Pinyin/ Characters Travel- Going Somewhere Hello Nǐ hǎo 你好。 Could you please tell me where Happy Valley is? Qǐngwèn huānlè gǔ zài nǎlǐ 请问欢乐谷在哪里？ How much is the ticket? Ménpiào duōshǎo qián 门票多少钱？ Hotel I need a single room/double room. Wǒ yào yīgè dān rén fáng/shuāngrén fáng 我要一个单人房/双人房。 I am going to check out now Wǒ xiànzài yào tuì fángle 我现在要退房了。 Transportation Where is the metro/taxi station? Dìtiě zhàn/dí shì zhàn zài nǎ'er? 地铁...

We have shared Chinese names for girls before, and today we are going to share Chinese names for boys. Chinese parents choose names for their kids very carefully, always involves group discussion and superstitious consideration. At different time periods, parents’ preferences for names have changed with fashion. If you want to give your kid a Chinese name , you can choose either one of the characters or two characters from the list. Generally speaking, most Chinese parents choose names by the following principles: meaning, special significance, family connection, and sound. Most Chinese names are made up of three Chinese characters . The family name always comes first, and the last two characters are the given name. But sometimes you can find a four-character name for few peoples’ family names is made up of two characters. The following 10 words are the most used in China for a boy, and various combinations come with them. 1. 宇 yǔ : Literally means the edge of the roof, later ...

Generally, a Chinese name is composed of two or three characters, like Li Ling or Li Lingling. The first is the surname followed by the given name. 1. The name should be melodious The name as it is read it should produce a sweet sound. As the Chinese believe that a poor name will create interference in life because it will make a bad impression on others. So we always take care to the name. Many Chinese like to use reduplicated words for a name, like Huang Lingling, Li Fangfang, Qin Xiaoxiao, etc.. 2. Avoid homonyms Homonyms are words that have the same sound or spelling but have different meanings. So parents need to take care to avoid putting two words together that may create a troublesome meaning. Examples include Wu Limao (rude) and Wei Cong (feeding insects). 3. The Chinese horoscope Parents often consider the horoscope to name their babies. which corresponds to the baby's birth date to select a name. They will consult the coordination of yin and yang, the five e...

Listening skills is believed as the most fundamental ability to master a foreign language. It plays an important role when you try to operate a fluent talk with the native people. Good listening comprehension sometimes equals to a successful communication, especially when you find the fact that people spend more time in listening rather than speaking when they want to continue a speak. However, considering too much requirements it needs, such as plentiful vocabularies, quick response and good word-organizing ability, it is regarded as the most difficult skill to develop as well. In spite of the strict components it demands, there are ways to reach the good listening level by regular exercises. In this essay, I will introduce you several kinds of materials and tips to practice Chinese listening on the basis of various Chinese learning levels. For beginners 1. Among all the basic Chinese learning books, the series from 1 to 3 of “Our Chinese Classroom”(我们的汉语教室) is well recommende...

How should a beginner approach a Chinese conversation? Here are something you need to keep in mind. As a beginner, you won't know too much Chinese vocabulary. This will limit the range of topics you can talk about. Well, don’t worry, you can start with something topics which are simple and practical, such as schedules, interests/hobbies, food, or introductions. Below I list some basic Chinese conversation/ dialogue for you to practice. 1. Introduction -你叫什么名字？ nǐ jiào shén me mínɡ zi? What is your name? -我叫Julia。 wǒ jiào Julia. My name is Julia. -你是哪个国家的? nǐ shì nǎ ɡè ɡuó jiā de? Which country are you from? -我来自美国。 wǒ lái zì měi ɡuó. I come from United States. -很高兴认识你。 hěn ɡāo xìnɡ rèn shí nǐ. Nice to meet you. 2. Hobby -你喜欢做什么？ nǐ xǐ huɑn zuò shén me? What do you like to do? -我喜欢看电影。 wǒ xǐ huɑn kàn diàn yǐnɡ. I like to see movies. -你喜欢吃什么？ nǐ xǐ huɑn chī shén me？ What do you like to eat? -我喜欢吃饺子。 wǒ xǐ huɑn chī jiǎo zi. I like t...

Learn to speak Mandarin Chinese Online has many benefits, among which, the best part is you can speak wherever and whenever you want, especially for people with busy schedule. With commitment and daily practice online it is certainly possible to successfully master the language. There are many methods to learn Mandarin online, such as video clips, audio files and virtual classroom with real teachers, among which, the virtual classroom is highly recommended for its being flexible, effective and fun! Once you enter our website, a Chinese tutor recommended for you by our course consultant can fit most your lifestyle, which will definitely improve your speaking skill . On the platform of our online course, the chart can help you monitor your progress with instant feedback. Therefore your learning process can be tracked over times. Online analytics make it easy for you to track progress, identify weaknesses and view lesson notes and feedback from your teacher. It is a universal acknowledg...

Everyone who is learning a foreign language needs dictionaries, do you think so? How many dictionaries do you have? Maybe it’s normal that you have an electronic dictionary instead of some dictionaries made of papers. But here is an interesting dictionary that I want to introduce to you. This dictionary doesn’t have the most complete vocabulary, but there are very many useful words in it. There is a varies of contents and clear category. There are beautiful pictures and useful words. Most of the words you usually use in your life, you can find them in this dictionary. You can look and learn to recall a wealth of everyday vocabulary in Chinese with this intuitive easy-to-use visual language dictionary. Whether it's for business or pleasure, pick up 6,000 key Chinese words and phrases on a range of subjects: from shopping and eating out, to the sport and beyond quickly and easily. You can find every word you need to know fast using the clearly labeled color illustrated sc...

If you want to improve your Chinese reading, you must read as much as you can. There are so many reading resources online, so which one is better? Today, I will introduce the 10 best Chinese reading resources that are available online. No. 10 煎蛋：地球上没有新鲜事 http://jandan.net/ Suitable for: Intermediate or advanced This site includes many interesting articles about science and technology. The style of the articles are humorous and relaxed. You don’t need to actually understand every single one of the articles; just get their general idea. You can also leave your comments in the comment zone and discuss with other readers. You can improve your Chinese reading with ease through this site. No. 9 好读： http://www.haodoo.net/ Suitable for: Advanced This website contains a large amount of traditional Chinese e-books. Most of them are famous Chinese classical novels. You could read them online or download them to your computer. My suggestion is to download them because the online text...

There are a lot of language books on the market. It’s not easy for a student to choose a suitable book for learning a language. Today i will recommend a very useful grammar books for learning Chinese. Sometimes in life, it’s not everyone can have a teacher when you are studying, so a good book is the beginning of success. As we know grammar is the framework of a language. Once you know how to understand and use the grammar of a language, you just need to accumulate the vocabulary and put the word with the right grammar structure, then you can master this language very well. <<外国人实用汉语语法>> : The English name is A Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners . This book already had 20 years history. At the same time, it is also constantly revised in accordance with the needs of the learners in improving constantly in order to better help everyone to learn Mandarin grammar and understand Chinese better. There are 10 chapters in this book. Chapter 1 is an introduction. It...

While learning Chinese have become hugely popular around the world, more and more people are trying to learn Chinese, and many celebrities also learn to say a few words of Chinese, seem to learn Chinese is a very fashionable thing, but learning Chinese is not an easy thing, I think only strong motivation and sufficient interest can prompt you to overcome many difficulties and successfully acquire Chinese language. Why do so many people choose to study the Chinese language? Because learned Chinese, you can get a lot of really good benefit, now I will list the benefits of learning Chinese one by one. Benefit 1: Learning Chinese, be helpful for your business The benefit draws people here and runs them there. The biggest motivation to learn Chinese is doing business with Chinese people. China's economy has been developing in the growth, huge population and consumption potential, in the process of doing business with Chinese, if can use Chinese Mandarin communicate with Chinese pe...

AP, it means Advanced Placement. It is provided by The College Board and used in high school. America high school student can take it as an elective course. The marks you get in AP test which can earning college credits. Normally it should take thousands of dollars to take a course at the university, but take an AP test only need $82. So it is not only can present the student's assets and capabilities, but also it is a good way to save money. That’s why now AP course are more and more popular in school. Today we are going to talk about the vocabulary for the AP Chinese. No matter which language, the vocabulary always is the most essential and fundamental part. To get enough vocabulary and know how to apply it in real world is a bottom line for students who are learning Chinese language . In general amounts of vocabularies and phrases helping a learner to get better reading and clear listening comprehension . When a learner faced the unknown words guessing the meaning of that vo...

Since worldwide language teachers’ target is to help students build proficiency and fluency, which can be accomplished in different methods with or without a universal textbook, the host community of AP Chinese Language and Culture exam does not provide a list of textbooks that meet the curricular requirements of this exam. But we do find few books that are recommended by lots of test takers as well as teachers. 1. Barron’s AP Chinese Language and Culture 2nd Edition By Yan Shen, M.A. Department of Asian Languages & Cultures, UCLA, Los Angeles Many students have been using this book almost as an official guide to this exam, and its popularity is worldwide and is recommended by a lot of AP Chinese Language and Culture teachers for the test preparation. Considering the usage of both traditional and simplified Chinese characters by test takers, this book is presented in both versions. Two complete mock exams are presented with answer keys, which enables students to have an overa...

AP Chinese language and culture course and exam include listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students should well master both spoken and written Chinese at a sophisticated level. So AP Chinese is not that easy, students should improve their Chinese level in all aspects. Listening There are two parts of listening included in AP Chinese language and culture exam. The first part, listen to the beginning of a conversation and select the appropriate continuation of the conversation. For example, A: 你是从哪个城市来的？ B: 我是从旧金山来的，你呢？ 1. 什么？你没去过旧金山？ 2. 我哪儿不想去 3. 我可不想去那儿 4. 我也是从那儿来的 To understand what they are discussing, select the appropriate reply to it. The right answer should be no.4 A：Where are you from? B: I am from San Francisco. How about you? A: So am I The second part, listen to a conversation or instruction or report and then answer some questions based on the content. There will be more than one question after a relatively long conversation or report e...

Every nation has its own traditional clothing. Traditional clothes represent the culture of the country. China has not only fifty-six ethnic groups, but also has a variety of clothing, which reflecting the rich and colorful Chinese culture. Speaking of China's traditional clothing, we must first think of the Chinese cheongsam，there is another name Qipao. The Chinese cheongsam is very beautiful traditional Chinese clothing, in particular, can be very beautiful to show a woman's body. The origin of Cheongsam’s name is very historical. The Qing Dynasty is the last feudal dynasty in Chinese history, emperors of the Qing Dynasty also known as the Manchu, the Qing dynasty women's hairstyle is called Qitou, clothes also called Qizhuang, and now the cheongsam looks pretty like Qizhuang. Now, more and more Chinese people like the Chinese dress, feel that the cheongsam shows the beauty of Chinese woman. Until 2014 the APEC meeting, China has chosen the dress as the leading lady ...

The AP Chinese Language and Culture Exam(Commonly known as AP Chinese) assesses interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational communication skills in Mandarin Chinese, as well as the knowledge of Chinese culture. The AP Chinese Exam is approximately lasts 2 hours and 15 minutes, which consists of 4 sections: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Section I: Multiple-choice questions Part 1: Listening The Listening section is worth 25% of the total score for AP Chinese exam. To do well on this section , you should practice listening in many methods and listen to many Chinese resources. You can find lots of the resources on Internet just like Chinese radio, Chinese TV shows . Chatting with native speakers is really a good and effective way to improve both listening and speaking skills. Instead of learning by yourself, talking with some Chinese friend and ask their suggestions to choose some useful textbook, and then listen to the materials is also an excellent way to improv...

Learning Chinese is never easy. However, constant dripping wears away a stone. As long as you master the right method and practice continually, you reach success. Here are six suggestions for Chinese learners. 1. Set Goals If you know why you want to study, setting goals is easy. For example, maybe you want to travel to a Chinese-speaking country. Great! Your goal might be to learn " Survival Chinese ". Perhaps you already know many useful phrases, but you want to improve your listening skills and pronunciation. Whatever your goals are, write them down. How long do you need to study to achieve your goals? This answer is different for every student. The important thing is to be realistic. If you work 60 hours per week, then don't plan on spending another 40 hours a week studying Chinese. Start off slowly, but study regularly. Use material that is challenging, but not too difficult. Find out what works for you. After you have studied for a few weeks, adjust your stu...

If you are learning Chinese by yourself, then good resources will be super helpful to you. Chinese learning blogs can help you learn in an easy and relaxed way. However, there are tons of such blogs so, which ones are the best? Here are ones I recommend. 1. Zhōng Wén Central You can find the most useful Chinese learning tips on this blog about Chinese grammar or Chinese characters. In addition, blogger Ryan shares his learning experiences in different language schools to help you if you are considering how to choose a school. He also provides some helpful China travel guides. 2. Hacking Chinese This blog provides the most comprehensive Chinese learning tips I have seen for every language learning level. It has detailed categories so you can find exactly what you need quickly. Every post has rich contents. 3. 中文Hacks This is a popular blog providing a variety of Chinese learning tools and advice. The categories are clear and well designed and include vocabulary, idioms, pic...

Facebook is a great place to practice your Chinese, just type in “Chinese learning” in the Facebook search box and a lot of related pages come up, but you still need some recommendations because search results are not absolutely perfect that you may miss some wonderful pages. Moreover, the page with the most Likes does not necessarily mean a better one. Thus we list ten most helpful Chinese Learning Facebook pages for you below. Note before start : Although you can view the page’s content without logging in, it is highly recommended to log in your Facebook account or create an account to like these pages. By liking a page, you can see the update in page feed in time, you’re able to interact with the page owner who probably is a native Chinese teacher as well as with other Chinese learners from around the world. 1.  Hanbridge Mandarin Facebook This is our own Facebook page where we share various Chinese language topics in a fun way, including the latest Chinese catchword, freque...

Chinese New Year 2017 is coming up. For many people, Chinese New Year is a religious festival as well as a lot of fun. There are many taboos during the period of Lunar New Year in according to Chinese traditions and culture. Chinese people traditionally consider a special moment or action as a bad sign or fortune. We either call is superstition or taboos. Some elder people still take them seriously. There is an old saying “To be safe than to be sorry”, it’s all up to you to believe it or not. Here is a roundup of the taboos during the Chinese New Year, which will all on Feb 8th this year. Taboos before Chinese New Year On 24th, Dec in Lunar calendar, is commonly called 小年xiǎo nián. People start to clean their houses to welcome the coming of the new year. On 25th, Dec. in Lunar calendar, do not chase after debtor in Taiwan. On 26th, Dec. in Lunar calendar, you should never give alms to someone else. On 29th, Dec. in Lunar calendar, people will make steamed bread for ancestor wor...