This dialogue reinforces a lot of words and phrases you already know, which just a few new ones. In this dialogue, 小李 and 阿明 are talking about going to have some food, and who is going to drive. We learn best when we learn from context. Letting your brain try to infer the meaning and usage of a word or phrase is much more effective than having someone just tell you. Facts are forgettable, but experience lasts. However, in order to learn the patterns of a language, it's not enough to just see a w...
Jun 24, 2020•11 min
After you've listened to Lesson 8, use this track to reinforce what you've learned with short listening and speaking practice sessions every day over the following week. Dialogue transcription M: 小李，你最喜歡吃什麼？ L：我最喜歡吃韓國菜，你呢？ M：我也喜歡吃韓國菜，但我最喜歡吃拉麵 L：我要去吃晚餐了，你要不要跟我一起去？ M：好啊，但你要去哪吃？ L：我要去韓國餐廳，很久沒去 M：好啊，你開車嗎？ L：對啊，我開車去 M：什麼時候？ L：等一下就要去了 M：他們也有麵嗎？ L：有啊 M：那好，我們一起去吧，我餓了！ Want to support the podcast? ★ Support this podcast ★ Thanks for listening!...
Jun 18, 2020•4 min
In this lesson, we'll talk about the single most important thing you should be doing for your spoken Mandarin. We'll also learn how to talk about food, and how to make plans to go eat with other people. Have you ever had the experience of studying a language for a long time, of feeling like you should be able to speak it by now, but then when the opportunity arises you get stuck, or maybe even get cold feet and make some excuse as to why you're not ready yet? If so, the question you should be as...
Jun 17, 2020•20 min
Dialogue transcript L: 你今天也在咖啡店？ M: 對啊 L: 但是，今天的咖啡店跟昨天的不一樣 M: 對，你看： 今天的咖啡店有貓咪！ L: 為什麼？ M: 沒有為什麼啊 L: 為什麼你每天都去咖啡店？ M: 你問我為什麼... L: 為什麼你可以每天出去，但我每天要待在家裡？！ M: 這個嘛... L: 為什麼？！你跟我說！ M: ...你不喜歡待在家裡？ L :沒有人喜歡待在家裡啊 M: ... 你想再看一下貓咪嗎？ L: 好吧 Want to support the podcast? ★ Support this podcast ★ Thanks for listening!...
Jun 11, 2020•4 min
In this lesson, you'll learn how to identify and produce the four main tones in spoken Mandarin, and some essential COVID-19 vocabulary to help you talk about your situation -- whatever it may be -- plus how to ask why? Why??! Let's talk about tones. For someone coming from a non-tonal language background, it's easy to imagine that tones are something extra, like some kind of garnish sprinkled on top of the language, possibly put there just to make it fancy or to make it harder to learn. This co...
Jun 10, 2020•21 min
Dialogue transcript: M: 嘿，你今天好嗎？ L: 我今天還OK啊，你呢？你在哪裡啊？ M: 我在咖啡店，你看 L: 喔！很漂亮！ M: 對啊 L: 你在喝咖啡嗎？ M: 還沒，等一下 L: 你在等咖啡？ M: 對啊，我還在等 L: 欸！有東西來了！ M：喔對！（謝謝）我的咖啡來了！ L: 好喝嗎？ M: 等一下！我還沒喝... 喔！好喝！ L: 我也要一個！ Want to support the podcast? ★ Support this podcast ★ Thanks for listening!...
Jun 04, 2020•3 min
In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about things that haven't happened yet. Learning how to say familiar words in another language, it's easy to get the impression that every language is simply another way of saying the same things, but using different sounds. The truth, however, is that each language is a unique system for dividing up all the meaning and concepts that the human mind is capable of representing. There's no one-to-one mapping between languages, which is what makes translation...
Jun 03, 2020•17 min
Dialogue transcript M: 喂？你聽得到嗎？ L: 我聽得到！你呢？你聽得到嗎？ M: 有，我聽得到 L: 那，我們開始說中文吧！ M: 呃。。。我們在說中文啊 L: 喔，對了，哈哈。嘿，你在喝東西嗎？ M: 有啊，我在喝東西 L: 你在喝什麼？ M: 我在喝咖啡。你喜歡咖啡嗎？ L: 我還好，我喜歡喝茶 M: 你現在在喝茶嗎？ L: 有！你看，這是我的茶 M：那是什麼茶？ L：這是烏龍茶 Want to support the podcast? ★ Support this podcast ★ Thanks for listening!...
May 28, 2020•4 min
In this lesson, you'll learn how to have a successful video call, and how to talk about what you're drinking, and what you like. It's tempting to focus on all the things you don't know how to say yet. But really, why do that? If you consider what you already do know how to say, even after just a handful of lessons, you might be surprised. It's all about combinatorics -- at this stage, everything you learn increases what you're able to say many times over. By the end of this lesson, your range of...
May 27, 2020•18 min
About learning Chinese characters Teaching Chinese characters is outside the scope of this podcast, but if you are learning Chinese characters with another course or method, you can use the transcript below to follow along. Learning characters can be a fulfilling project, and can help you to remember and differentiate similar-sounding words. And, of course, it opens up more avenues for practicing your Mandarin, such as reading (books, children's books, comic books) and corresponding with Chinese...
May 21, 2020•3 min
The contents of this episode are pretty standard fare for a language learner, or anyone else for that matter: What's your name? Nice to meet you. Do you have an English name? But hidden in the sentences are a handful of other extremely useful expressions. A note about pronunciation : The vocabulary list below includes the Chinese characters and the pinyin romanization system. The advantage of pinyin for English speakers is that it uses the familiar symbols of the Latin alphabet. The disadvantage...
May 20, 2020•12 min
About learning Chinese characters Teaching Chinese characters is outside the scope of this podcast, but if you are learning Chinese characters through another course or method, you can use the transcript below to follow along. Learning characters can be a fulfilling project, and can help you to remember and differentiate similar-sounding words. And, of course, it opens up more avenues for practicing your Mandarin, such as reading (books, children's books, comic books) and corresponding with Chin...
May 14, 2020•4 min
A big part of being able to speak naturally and fluently is being able to convince yourself on some level that you're actually from the same place as other native speakers. It’s one thing to learn a bunch of words and phrases. But to be able to use them like a native speaker requires being able to think like one. In this episode, you'll learn how to tell people where you are, and where you're from. If you were from, say, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, or China, what would that version of you be li...
May 13, 2020•14 min
About learning Chinese characters Teaching Chinese characters is outside the scope of this podcast, but if you are learning Chinese characters through another course or method, you can use the transcript below to follow along. Learning characters can be a fulfilling project, and can help you to remember and differentiate similar-sounding words. And, of course, it opens up more avenues for practicing your Mandarin, such as reading (books, children's books, comic books) and corresponding with Chin...
May 07, 2020•3 min
It's OK to feel tired sometimes, and acknowledging it is part of staying motivated. In this episode, you'll learn how to ask and talk about feelings, especially that feeling of needing some rest. --- Learning a language is the project of a lifetime. There's usually a starting point -- that day you decide will be your first day learning Mandarin, say -- but there's never a stopping point. From that moment forward, the language is alive with you, a part of you. It's important to make sure the lang...
May 06, 2020•12 min
Learning to recognize and speak the sounds of another language is a form of exercise, and it requires repetition. By listening to -- and repeating -- the same dialogue every day, you're training new muscle memory, and signaling to your speech recognition center that "these sounds are important." After you've listened to Lesson 1 once, use this track as your daily practice routine. At less than four minutes, I think you'll agree getting your Mandarin off the ground is really no big deal. About le...
Apr 30, 2020•4 min
In our very first lesson, we'll get you started speaking useful Mandarin right away. You'll learn how to say whether or not you can speak Chinese, and we'll start building a good foundation for your accent, copying exactly what you hear. ~ When you're listening to the sounds of Chinese or any other language, pay close attention to the intonation. This is the first thing that infants copy in their native language, and it should be the first thing you copy when learning Mandarin. Give yourself per...
Apr 29, 2020•17 min
Nothing stands in the way of you getting fluent in Mandarin. Billions have managed it. So why does it seem so hard? In less than three minutes, I'll explain how you can start to change learning Chinese from an insurmountable obstacle into a way to get more in touch with yourself and your ears. New lesson released every Wednesday. Subscribe to start building your Mandarin from the ground up! Music: https://soundcloud.com/jonasmyersmusic ★ Support this podcast ★...
Apr 16, 2020•3 min
