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10 unusual language learning tips !

i see a lot of the same (sometimes unhelpful) tips being thrown around, so here’s my two cents:

1. write shopping lists/to do lists in your target language - often you don’t learn this vocab but it’s conversational & v useful! also writing yourself notes (lil pep talks on the bathroom mirror, for example) can work.

2. buy a small whiteboard and practice verb conjugation (esp. romantic languages) or script writing 

3. talk to pets in target language if possible!

4. look for quotes in your target language - often the turns of phrase are  more colloquial, and is a good opportunity to see how things are translated from your native language 

5. find a fairly easy news headline (in target lang) and try to re-write it w/ vocab you already have. you’ll quickly find gaps - this is a good thing! (if you’re feeling extra spicy, try writing a small subheading or description about the article).

6. create an imaginary friend who you speak with on the shower, or on the train, doing the laundry etc. talk w/ them in your target lang (in your head, obvs) about your day, future plans, etc etc.

~for more advanced learners~

7. when you’re more advanced, and have some grasp of past/future tenses, buy a children’s/tween’s/YA book that you’ve already read. highlight and annotate the shit out of it. you’ll know the general gist already, which makes context clues easier to find.

8. change wikipedia settings into target language - same goes for any social media site. this can be a mega challenge, but is so good for vocab, plus you’re more likely to remember the info since you worked so hard for it.

9. write a review for a book/film/record/whatever you’ve most recently consumed. maybe start a diary of them, or just have an ongoing word doc.

10. find a bilingual edition of poetry/literature if possible. you might find you can spot translation differences, but you’re sure to find some new vocab.

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Probably a stupid question but how many different ways are there to say "fuck" in Chinese?

There’s really just one main way to say “fuck” as both the verb and the exclamation : cào. There a multiple characters, though, because it’s more polite to use homophones.

肏 —the original cào, the verb. It composed of the components 入 (“to enter”) and 肉 (“flesh”/“meat”). “入肉” also means “to fuck”. I guess you could say this is the vulgar form of the word.

操/槽/草/曹 — popular stand-in homophones, basically used for the exclamation and more polite to use.

我操/我曹/卧槽/我艹/喔草/etc - wǒ cào — “fuck!”/“fuck me!”/“what the fuck!”; this is another way to say “fuck” (exclamation only, not the verb) in different scenarios. Although it’s written with homophones, I wouldn’t say that it’s equivalent to “frick” or “fudge” or a similar polite form because there’s an even tamer version of it, “我去”/wǒ qù, which is basically like “shoot!” and “dang!”.

靠/我靠/靠北 - kào/wǒ kào/kào běi — same as above basically. This is more popular in Taiwan. 我靠 is also a bit more tame, like “shoot!”, I think.

Other ways to say fuck mostly have to do with the verb which I feel like is not what you’re asking so I won’t go into it.

I’ll just give a special mention to:

干 — gàn — “to do”. This is just funny to me personally because depending on the context it also means “to kill”. It amuses me whenever I’m watching a show or movie where someone goes “I’m gonna kill you” and they use 干/干死 (or 弄 / 整, other ways to say “to do” which also mean “to fuck” and “to kill” depending on context).

I guess there are also other curse words that have approximately the same meaning as “fuck!“— 他妈的 (“motherfucker!”), for example—but you didn’t ask about those :P

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Chinese Time of Day Vocabulary

I’ve been keeping a list of words/characters related to times of day since last year. You probably know basic words like 早上, 上午, 晚上, etc. But there are so many other words and characters you may encounter in your language journey! Note: this list isn’t meant to be complete.

Sunset (I think) by Tian’anmen Square about 3 years ago.

Dawn/early morning

天亮 tiānliàng - dawn / daybreak

日出 rìchū - sunrise

早 zǎo - early / morning / Good morning! / long ago / prematurely 一大早 yīdàzǎo - at dawn / at first light / first thing in the morning 早上 zǎoshang - early morning

旭 xù - dawn / rising sun

昕 xīn - dawn

晓 xiǎo - dawn / daybreak / to know / to let sb know / to make explicit 破晓 pòxiǎo - daybreak / dawn

晗 hán - before daybreak / dawn about to break

晞 xī - dawn / to dry in the sun

晨 chén - morning / dawn / daybreak 凌晨 língchén - very early in the morning / in the wee hours 早晨 zǎochén - early morning 晨曦 chénxī - first rays of morning sun / first glimmer of dawn 清晨 qīngchén - early morning

朝 zhāo - morning 朝阳 zhāoyáng - the morning sun

黎明 límíng - dawn / daybreak

The single characters above can be found in Chinese names. Some are quite common.

Keep reading

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TIL you can just greet someone in the morning by just saying the word 早 zǎo, by itself. This can be both a noun meaning "morning" and an adjective meaning "early."

There is just something so hilarious to me about the idea of greeting someone in the morning by just groaning the word "Early!" at them.

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Friendship ended with DuoLingo, now HelloChinese is my best friend.

The posts are right, the new update sucks.

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微信 WeChat

(I'm finally past the food levels, now we're learning how to pay the bill using WeChat!)

微信 / wēi xìn / WeChat (literally: small + text/info)

转（轉）/ zhuǎn / to transfer or turn

转发（轉發）/ zhuǎn fā / to forward (an email)

微软（-軟）/ wēi ruǎn / Microsoft company (literally: small + soft)

兴趣群（興--）/ xìng qù qún / interest group (chat)

功能 / gōng néng / function (e.g. app functions)

平台（-臺）/ píng tái / platform (e.g. social media)

Examples 例子：

我们一会儿用微信把钱转给你。In a bit, we'll use WeChat to send you money.

钱转好了吗？Did the money transfer?

你可不可以把这个信息转发给我？Could you froward this information to me?

微信功能超级多。WeChat has a ton of functions.

你可以加入兴趣群，群里聊天。You can join interest groups and group chats.

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我今天学喜习了中文很好。 我听了播客。我参了Discord 交流!

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silver + gold 

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我今天写汉语。我已经很久没有学习了。T_T

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Learn Chinese with Yixi: China's TED talks

Yixi is a great resource for upper intermediate/advanced Chinese learners who are looking to learn more specialized or sophisticated vocabulary and language. Yixi has over 800 talks, each of which is 20-40 minutes long. They are split into the following categories:

- all

- science and technology

- culture

- architecture

- documentary

- natural science

- movies

- entreprenuership

- more

Under "more", there is:

- art

- history

- design

- environment

- life

- lifestyle

- exercise

- society

Check them out! The talk I watched was more challenging in theme and vocabulary than a lot of what I consume in Chinese, but the speaker spoke slowly and all talks are subtitled. I think anyone could find something here that they're interested in.

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Some common chinese counters. Source is at the bottom of the images.

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1. Word of Honor/山河令 // 2. Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities // 3. 胡夏 , 覆水 // 4. Richard Jackson, Basic Algebra // 5. Salma Deera, Letters from Medea // 6. 周深, 大魚 // 7. Dusty Springfield, You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me // 8. 肖战, 踩影子 // 9. Mary Oliver, Summer Story // 10. Word of Honor/山河令

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我的 丈夫 读 西游记（英语）。 他昨天问了我 “中文“Monkey King” 是什么？”。 我今天学，“齐天大圣”！

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你在写什么？

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有人说中文马？

我的中文不好，我会尝试。

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猫！！猫咪！！！！我爱他！！