bngrc

[bngrc]

How people craft maobi毛笔/traditional chinese calligraphy brush in pre-industrial times by Lu Lei 鲁磊

[bngrc]

Mandarin has more than just "或者 (huòzhě)" and "还是 (háishì)" to express “or.” Those two are the most common and foundational, but other words and structures are used depending on tone, formality, logical structure, or emphasis.

🔹 1. 还是 (háishì)

Used in: questions

Means: "or" (choice)

你喜欢茶还是咖啡？ Do you like tea or coffee?

Important: This form requires a question. Never use it in statements.

🔹 2. 或者 (huòzhě)

Used in: statements

Means: "or" (options, not a choice prompt)

我们可以坐车或者走路。 We can take a car or walk.

🔹 3. 要么 (yàome)

Used in: more emphatic “either… or…”

Often used for strong alternatives, especially in speech.

要么你来，要么我去。 Either you come, or I go.

她要么迟到，要么缺席。 She’s either late or absent.

This one highlights a firm choice—often used when there are only two clear options.

🔹 4. 或是 (huòshì)

Formal/literary version of 或者

Used mostly in writing or speeches

成功来自于努力或是运气。 Success comes from hard work or luck.

Not commonly used in casual speech.

🔹 5. 还是说 (háishì shuō)

Means something like: “Or are you saying…?”

Appears in more rhetorical or speculative questions.

他是忘了，还是说他根本没看到？ Did he forget, or are you saying he never saw it at all?

🔹 6. 抑或 (yìhuò)

Extremely formal or literary

Translates as “or,” “or else,” “alternatively”

他是真心的，抑或只是在演戏？ Is he sincere, or is he just acting?

Mostly found in classical Chinese, legal writing, or high-formality prose.

还是 (háishì) and 或者 (huòzhě) will cover 90% of your “or” needs.

要么 (yàome) is your next most useful for real-life speech.

The others are valuable if you read formal texts, write creatively, or want to recognize elevated styles.

[bngrc]

thinking about 对手 . my chinese isn't *that* good & my knowledge is full of gaps and holes but the way dfs says it right at the beginning has so much in it.. 这世上再无对手啊。李相夷之后，这世上再无对手了。只可惜功力尽复，我又能找谁战个痛快？

there is no one who can match me in this world. not after you.

the way 不是[X]的对手 means you are no match for [X]. I don't know how to capture it with english words "rival" or "opponent" which don't have the same history and usage vibes

(also, theory: dfs has been under the impression / "known" that li xiangyi "died" after their battle for many years already, while he was in seclusion in the cave. the way he talks about him sadly and wistfully doesn't sound like someone who just found out, but more like remembering an old ache, fond memory..)

also thinking about why li lianhua smiles that delighted, fond smile when he sees child form!dfs do anything. he does that when he sees him use his qinggong to jump up; he breaks out into another (completely insane, to the viewer) smile when dfs uses his inner energy to attack ge pan.

honestly it also drives me insane; why is he so fond?

maybe it's that he's finally seeing beifeng baiyang back in action and somehow that triggers fond memories (of fighting dfs before donghai?). dfs holds back there; he doesn't actually hurt ge pan badly, it's just a warning.

before, when he saw the hole in the cliff, llh said it was 一模一样。 the same as other times things got destroyed by beifeng baiyang?

was he happy to see that dfs is the same as ever, and back to, well, 60% of his previous power? was he admiring dfs's skill, as one martial artist admires another at the top of their game/art/craft/sport, despite himself?

how was llh planning to get dfs to tell him where shan gudao's body was, anyway? he couldn't have known in advance that there was asura grass in the tomb... or could he? could he have made an educated guess (since it was the nanyin princess's tomb) and just as dfs said, planned to trick him right from the beginning? i guess that's likely.

i kind of want to see more dfs being absolutely insane in his interactions with regular people, lol. 背着一把大刀的小孩，发着臭脾气 - he really didn't care lol, just stabbing someone's hand & saying 滚 to avoid talking to them, starting fights everywhere, saying 你算什么东西，也配跟我说话？

more feral / unhinged di feisheng, more loving di feisheng; this guy is so hard to get down lol

[bngrc]

😂😂😂 I just saw the transliteration of Shakespeare. 莎士比亚 Shā-shì-bǐ-yǎ. I love it so much. It's like how you'd pronounce Shakespeare if you were talking to a dentist in the middle of a teeth cleaning. I like to imagine the Chinese person who came up with this transliteration hearing the word Shakespeare and going, "LMAO, nah. Too many fucking consonants. I'm getting rid of half of those."

[bngrc]

Logged into Douyin for the first time in a long while, and apparently Douyin has removed the lesbian tags (again)??? And it happened over two months ago??

Namely, the tags #le and #姛 (lesbian = 女同, 姛 is used because it combines 女 and 同). So now people are using #la instead. I also saw some posts using the tag #陈乐 (popular lesbian creator, I've translated one of her videos here) instead. Huh

[bngrc]

The Chinese periodic table

In Chinese, every element has a monosyllabic name with a character assigned to it. This makes the Chinese periodic table really cool, because every box has a unique character.

However, the monosyllabic names may cause confusion because many are homophones. New characters had to be created specifically for the recently discovered elements. Some of them do not exist in Unicode.

Some patterns can be observed in the table:

All gases have the 气 (steam) radical.

The liquid elements (mercury and bromine) have a 水 or 氵(water) radical.

All metals except mercury have a 金 or 钅(metal) radical.

Solid non-metals and metalloids have the 石 (stone) radical.

(Originally posted on Quora.)

[bngrc]

Beginning to learn Mandarin - Resources:

Hi, are you starting to learn Mandarin? Do you like learning primarily through context? Do you want to watch videos to learn?

Check out vidioma.com! vidioma.com has been updated, and now has a login option to track hours watched on 1 account on multiple devices. Reddit user lekowan made vidioma.com to make it easier to find Comprehensible Input Mandarin lessons, the site has CI Lessons from youtube embedded, and ranked by difficulty. The site is free and will remain free, and you can click the youtube videos to go directly to the youtube channels (and the views from the embedded videos go directly to the youtube creator). The site has hours tracking which could be helpful for tracking study time, links a ton of amazing youtube creators I follow, and the sort-by-difficulty feature is quite useful. The website is exploring ways to show progress that are motivating/useful to users. The Approach page is basically the same as Dreaming Spanish Method page (which I recommend reading instead, because it's more in depth - the summary is DS Method is ALG with less severe restrictions/directions. When people say the CI Method they mean 'Dreaming Spanish Method'... comprehensible input is such a broad term, it encompasses CI Lessons and much more. I won't get into the weeds here, but CI Lessons for beginners are lessons designed to be understandable through visuals, and then for intermediate learners they're designed to be understandable based on the words you know and visuals - so like Graded Readers but audio-visual. DS Method is based on learning from CI Lessons until you can extensively watch/read/listen to materials for native speakers and then continuing to learn with those). You can use vidioma and CI Lessons on youtube in any way you want though! They're great extensive listening practice, to use alongside other study resources!

Other resources I recommend:

Mandarin Input Media spreadsheet I made! Looking for lessons and learner podcasts? Check the first sheet. Looking for other media in Chinese understandable at various levels? Check the other sheets. For those unfamiliar with the Levels Dreaming Spanish Method uses, Level 2=HSK 2, Level 3=HSK3-4, Level 4=HSK4-5, Level 5=HSK5-6, Level 6=HSK6+, Level 7=HSK7-9. If you are also unfamiliar with HSK levels, then just start at Level 1 and know that the stuff in further levels is going to have more unique words and be generally more 'difficult.' If you are Upper Beginner/Lower Intermediate, around HSK4 and feel you can start to engage with media made in Mandarin, I recommend checking out Level 3 and 4 stuff.

Heavenly Path Comprehensible Reading Guide - start with this to learn how to read. Heavenly Path general site has lots of webnovel recommendations labelled by difficulty. If you are HSK4/Lower Intermediate/Level 3-4 (Dreaming Spanish method), then start with the Webnovels and Books for Newcomers recommendations.

r/ALGMandarin Resources page. (Includes the spreadsheet I made, and many of the youtubers linked here are also on vidioma.com)

r/ALGhub Beginner Aural Resources Chinese - Mandarin page. Note that if you ever want to try out Automatic Language Growth, these resources were linked because they're the best fit for ALG (which has stricter requirements).

Comprehensible Input Wiki - Chinese page. This is the main page I look for resources on, as youtubers who make CI Lessons tend to be added here. Please add resources you find, if you know how to edit a Wiki.

Recommended Path for Beginners:

I recommend starting with vidioma.com for starting to learn words/grammar and building listening skills, and Heavenly Path Comprehensive Reading Guide when you're ready to start learning to read.

Apps to get started: I suggest downloading Pleco app for a Dictionary (free), and using the Clip Reader tool to paste in Chinese text when you want to read a lot. You can eventually purchase Graded Readers inside Pleco, or other tools, as you continue studying. I suggest downloading Readibu app (free) when you start reading more. I suggest downloading Google Translate or another translation app you like, for when you want to quickly look something up and need to handwrite the hanzi or use OCR, because you do not know the pinyin yet.

Use whatever you like to learn 1000-3000 common words and basic grammar. (Want to copy what I did? For words: I studied 2000 words from this Spoonfed Chinese anki deck, I read Tuttle's Learning Chinese Characters (HSK 1-3) book to study hanzi, then a hanzi mnemonics anki deck until I felt I didn't need it. For grammar: I read the all of the Grammar Exercises linked on this HSK Course page, and referenced AllSet Learning Chinese Grammar Wiki when I wanted to read more about certain grammar points. For pronunciation: I used Pinyin Pronunciation Guide, YoYo Chinese's Pinyin Chart, and Tone Pair Chart. For hanzi: I read these 4 Hacking Chinese articles to learn about hanzi -  part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4. I read Tuttle's Learning Chinese Characters (HSK 1-3) book to study hanzi, then a hanzi mnemonics anki deck. For tones: I watched this video, and watched the other stuff linked in my tones tag on this blog.)

Next: Then use Mandarin Input Media spreadsheet when you need to find more learner resources, or start trying to watch shows/cartoons and read novels. After learning the basics (1000-3000 common words, basic grammar) you should be around HSK 4/Level3-4 and can start using learner resources recommended for that level (intermediate), and can start trying to watch/read easier media for native speakers (cartoons, daily life shows, stories for children, daily life manhua, easier webnovels).

[bngrc]

crafting a plane launcher with chopsticks by 小小折纸手工

[bngrc]

China's 14 most terrifying places, off-limits to tourists (do not venture lightly)

[bngrc]

Great video on listening comprehension. The first portion of the video focuses on recognizing lexical features like measure words and chengyu that help add context to a sentence and make it more comprehensible, but then starting at 19:10 this youtuber goes into how pronunciation varies between different Mandarin dialects/accents in mainland China.

There are a ton of guides explaining tones, but relatively few explaining Mandarin vowels, dipthongs and consonants. 

Pīnyīn vowel pronunciations vary depending on what which consonants they follow, in ways that most pronunciation guides don’t bother to explain in detail. 密 mì rhymes with 皮 pí but not 次 cì.  全 quán rhymes with 选 xuǎn but not 换 huàn.

The rules for how they vary are actually pretty consistent, though.

So. I decided to make a comprehensive Mandarin pronunciation chart, with IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols, and example words.

You can just copy-paste the words into google translate and listen to the google TTS if you can’t make sense of the IPA symbols

[bngrc]

OP: The difference of the nine tones in cantonese ....Can you actually tell 

[bngrc]

上班别急

午饭可别迟到了

agreed.

[bngrc]

🍳🥪😋

[bngrc]

OP: so this is the ‘intense regional downpour’ on the weather forecast

[bngrc]

"you are gay and chinese" continues to be such a profound and emotionally impactful work to me which is rly funny