In this article, we’ll explore the top 5 ways to kickstart your Mandarin journey, offering a diverse range of tools and tricks you can utilize to make your Chinese learning journey enjoyable and painless, based on my own personal experience.

If you’re already an advanced learner, this article may help you in developing your Chinese fluency

1. Follow a Structure

When it comes to language learning I often think about the road that I would recommend people to take and I compare it to driving a car. If you have a sat-nav, you’re likely to get to your destination much faster than if you just try to figure it out as you go along. Studying Chinese is exactly the same, so I’d recommend any new beginner to pick a structured learning method if they’re interested in learning beyond a few basic phrases.

The benefit of these structured approaches to learning is that they allow you to follow the path that an expert has set out, often saving time in the long run. It also allows you to measure progress along the way, so you can see the improvements you’re making.

I’d recommend trying a few out and finding which one fits you. There are a number of different structures you can pick depending on what your goals are. For example, the HSK exams are great if you love the academic side of language learning, whereas Ninchanese is excellent if you enjoy a well-structured, gamified approach to language learning.

2. Have Fun

This is perhaps one of the most underrated tips I have seen in the language-learning community, have fun!

The biggest tip is to find what aspect of the Chinese language you enjoy and try to immerse yourself in that area. For me personally, I love reading, so reading Chinese novels is my preferred way of practicing my reading skills. If you’re interested in films or TV series, then watching shows may be the best way for you to practice your skills. There may be a lot of other possible motivations for you, for example learning to cook Chinese food, eating at Chinese restaurants, learning about the history
or culture, chatting with people, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Just make sure you don’t rely on a textbook, as it’s a perfect method to get bored. Fun and interactive methods will go a long way over the course of your study to keep you interested, engaged, and motivated to keep going.

3. Join the Community

There are a lot of Chinese language learners out there and there are some excellent platforms out there for you to connect with them. The benefit of this is being able to learn from the experience of others to make your learning journey as smooth as possible. I recommend checking out this Chinese learning blog as it contains a lot of useful information about learning Chinese and gives a personal

View on the reality of learning Chinese

Connecting with other learners as well as language learning partners can be a great motivation, as well as sharing resources, hints, and tips for the most effective ways to learn Chinese.

You can also check out Chinese-forums.com as a great place to make friends and learn more about learning Chinese.

4. Use the Resources Available

There are a lot of really good resources available for Chinese learners in the modern world. The best advice I can give is not to rely on just a single tool or resource.

My experience as a Chinese learner is that all the tools are effective ways to learn, but never cover the whole spectrum of what you need to learn the Chinese language effectively. So the best solution is to utilize multiple different tools to take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of them. For example, Pleco is a wonderful app for helping you with learning Chinese
characters and practicing reading, but it won’t help you with developing your speaking skills.

There are some platforms that over a pretty comprehensive coverage of all the major skills you will need, Ninchanese being one of them.

5. Pick a Goal, Find your Motivation

Relating to point 1 and point 2 is to pick your goal based on what you are interested in and what will motivate you to study. It will also help you to direct your learning in a way that suits you.

You should study all aspects of the language to get the full benefit, but that doesn’t mean you can’t focus more on one aspect that you particularly enjoy. When you build your study plan, think about what is motivating you to learn to speak Chinese. Many things might motivate you, for example, if you’re planning a trip to China, you might want to focus your study on speaking and listening, and focusing your learning on specific areas that you will find useful.

Ninchanese has an excellent selection of different lessons targeted at these which I particularly like. For example, they have a course dedicated to the Chinese language relevant to video games as well as many other interesting areas. If you have a particular area of interest, learning the words for that area and using them often is a great idea.

Check out this blog post if you’re interested in learning more about Chinese graphic novels

The post Top 5 Ways to Get Started Learning Chinese appeared first on Ninchanese.

We know that learning Chinese can sometimes feel like a cat-astrophe, especially when it comes to mastering its grammar. But fear not. Ninchanese is here to save the day with our new, AI Chinese learning feature that will revolutionize your language learning experience!

Introducing our latest addition to the Ninchanese family: an AI Chinese grammar feature. Easily pinpoint and correct errors in your Chinese sentence structure and grammar, so you can learn Chinese smarter and faster! And guess what? This groundbreaking technology is powered by GPT, a popular AI language model developed by OpenAI, like the pretty popular now ChatGPT. This ensures you receive accurate, reliable feedback on your learning.

Easily spot and understand the mistakes you make when building sentences in Chinese

With our new AI-driven grammar tool, you can expect:

1. Instant feedback: Submit your sentence and watch our AI, powered by GPT, get to work! It will analyze it and provide you with immediate feedback on your grammar and sentence structure when it’s wrong. You’ll get a clear explanation of the mistake you made. No more waiting for a teacher or a native speaker to correct your work. You’ll get the guidance you need right away!
2. Clear explanations: Not only will our AI tell you what’s wrong, but it’ll also give you clear explanations of why it’s a mistake, and guidance on how to improve. By offering detailed insights and examples, you’ll gain a better understanding of Chinese grammar rules and be able to apply them more effectively in your future sentences.
3. Adaptive learning: Our AI feature, backed by GPT, constantly learns and adapts to your language progress, offering personalized feedback and guidance tailored to your needs. This ensures you’re always challenged and engaged, making the most of your language-learning journey.
4. A fun, gamified experience: Our AI-powered feature is seamlessly integrated into the Ninchanese app. You can enjoy all the fun, feline-filled adventures while learning Chinese like a pro.

As a member of the Ninchanese community, you now have the purr-fect opportunity to put our new AI tool to the test and watch your Chinese language skills soar. Remember, practice makes purrfect!

Making our approach to Chinese grammar even more meowvelous

At Ninchanese, we have always been committed to making Chinese language learning meaningful and engaging. Over the past few years, we’ve been working diligently on our Chinese grammar lessons. Each lesson is regularly reviewed to ensure it is interesting, accurate, and easily digestible for language learners. As a result, we’re proud to have our Chinese grammar app ranked first on Android. We’re thrilled by the overwhelmingly positive feedback we receive from our users and readers on our comprehensive grammar lessons.

However, we understand that learning a language isn’t just about completing exercises; it’s also about understanding why we make mistakes and how to improve. While our users have been able to access our grammar lessons for free during their exercises, it was often challenging for them to determine the reasons behind their errors without direct guidance.
introduce our new AI-powered feature, which complements our handcrafted grammar lessons and exercises. This advanced technology allows us to provide targeted, insightful explanations for each mistake, helping you learners grasp the nuances of the Chinese language more effectively. We believe this AI-enhanced approach will not only elevate your learning experience but also solidify our position as leaders in the field of Chinese language education.
Give this new Premium AI Chinese grammar feature a try now

Join us in celebrating the launch of our meowtastic AI Chinese grammar feature! We’re offering a special 10% discount on your first subscription with the coupon code NINCHAI10. So don’t wait any longer – sign up now and let the learning begin! [Offer valid on new subscriptions and upgrades. Offer expires on April 4th, 11:59 pm CET.]

Stay pawsitive and happy learning,

The Nincha Team

P.S. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for even more language learning tips, tricks, and furr-ocious puns!

The post New AI Chinese Grammar Powered by ChatGPT: Unleash Your Inner Language Purrfectionist appeared first on Ninchanese.

Worlds 1 and 2 (HSK 1 and 2) are perfect for beginners just starting their Chinese learning journey.

These worlds introduce a limited number of vocabulary words, focusing on the most essential words and phrases you’ll need to communicate about basic topics. In addition, you’ll learn how to introduce yourself, ask for directions, order food, and more – all of which are essential for getting around and interacting with people in China.

In addition to introducing essential vocabulary, these worlds also provide a solid foundation for the next worlds, helping you get a feel for the structure and grammar of the language. You’ll learn basic sentence structures and how to conjugate verbs in Chinese (you’ll see it is different than other languages), which will set you up for success as you move on to more advanced topics.

Worlds 1 and 2 are great starting points for anyone looking to learn Chinese and get a feel for the language. With time and regular practice, you’ll be able to communicate about basic topics and build a strong foundation for your Chinese learning journey.

World 3 (HSK3): An important milestone in your Chinese learning journey

World 3 (HSK3) is an intermediate-level world that builds on the foundation you’ve established in Worlds 1 and 2. In this world, you’ll learn more vocabulary words and encounter more complex grammar structures, which will help you express yourself more accurately and fluently in Chinese. In addition, you’ll learn how to use different times, form complex questions, and use more advanced sentence structures, all of which will help you express yourself more accurately and fluently in Chinese.

By completing World 3, you’ll have a much richer understanding of the Chinese language and be able to read (somewhat) easy Chinese newspaper articles. In addition, you’ll be able to understand more complex sentences and ideas and express your thoughts and opinions more clearly. This is an important milestone in your Chinese learning journey, as it marks the point at which you’re able to engage with more advanced texts and materials in Chinese.

Overall, World 3 is an important step in your Chinese learning journey, as it helps you build a more advanced foundation for the language and prepares you for more advanced topics. With time and regular practice, you’ll be able to progress through this world and continue to build your Chinese skills.

World 4 (HSK4): A high level of Chinese proficiency 

World 4 (HSK4) is an intermediate and advanced-level world that builds on the skills you’ve developed in previous worlds. In this world, you’ll be able to discuss a wide range of subjects and confidently use all essential grammar points and structures. In addition, you’ll learn how to express your thoughts and opinions more effectively, ask for and give advice, and use more advanced vocabulary and grammar structures to convey more complex ideas.

By the time you complete World 4, you’ll have a high level of Chinese proficiency and be able to understand most of a Chinese show. You’ll be able to engage in more advanced conversations with Chinese speakers and express yourself fluently and accurately. Chinese people will consider your Chinese excellent if you can complete this world, and you’ll be able to communicate about a wide range of topics with ease.

Overall, World 4 is an essential milestone in your Chinese learning journey, as it marks the point at which you’ve developed a high proficiency in the language. With time and regular practice, you’ll be able to progress through this world and continue to build your Chinese skills, eventually reaching fluency.

World 5 (HSK5): Encounter a wide range of topics and situations

World 5 (HSK5) is an advanced-level world that builds on the skills you’ve developed in previous worlds. This world includes more challenging vocabulary and will help you understand everything in a show or difficult newspaper article. You’ll learn to use more advanced grammar structures and idiomatic expressions and encounter a wide range of challenging vocabulary words that will help you express yourself more accurately and fluently in Chinese.

By the time you complete World 5, you’ll have reached a high level of Chinese proficiency and be able to understand most spoken and written Chinese. You’ll be able to engage in advanced conversations with Chinese speakers and understand more complex texts and materials. If you can complete this world, you can consider yourself fluent in Chinese – meow!

Overall, World 5 is an important step in your Chinese learning journey, as it helps you develop a high level of proficiency in the language and prepares you for more advanced topics. With time and regular practice, you’ll be able to progress through this world and continue to build your Chinese skills, eventually reaching fluency.

World 6 (HSK6): A great way to further refine your skills and take your Chinese to an even higher level

World 6 (HSK6) is the last world being developed and will focus on high-level vocabulary and idioms, with fewer grammar points but more cultural elements in the dialogues. This world is designed for advanced learners who want to take their Chinese to the next level and become proficient in the more complex and idiomatic language.

In this world, you’ll encounter a wide range of challenging vocabulary words and idiomatic expressions that will help you express yourself more accurately and fluently in Chinese. You’ll also learn more about Chinese culture and customs, which will help you better understand and communicate with Chinese speakers.

While World 6 is more challenging than the previous worlds, it will take your Chinese to an even higher level and help you develop a high level of proficiency in the language. 

Overall, World 6 is an exciting new addition to the Ninchanese curriculum and is an excellent way for advanced learners to take their Chinese to the next level.

The other courses: get specific

But that’s not all – Ninchanese also has unique worlds that cater to specific interests or needs. The Chinese Phrasebook, for example, is an excellent resource for anyone traveling to China, as it covers essential phrases and real-life situations. Here’s the stand-alone app.  And the Chinese Character Universe world is a fun and interactive way to learn Chinese characters.

So whether you’re a beginner or an advanced learner, there’s something for everyone on Ninchanese. With time and regular practice, you’ll be able to learn all the characters, grammar, and tones and have fun doing it. Just remember to stay motivated (as we say in Chinese: 加油!), and don’t be afraid to explore different worlds and see what interests you.

We hope you find this information helpful and encourage you to check out our curriculum at https://ninchanese.com/chinese-curriculum-hsk1-beginner-basic-speaker/ to learn more. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us – we’re here to help you on your Chinese learning journey!

Wishing you all the best, 

Jean-Rémi

 Ninchanese co-founder

The post A Guide to the Chinese Learning Levels Courses on Ninchanese appeared first on Ninchanese.

Early last year, in 2021, the Chinese Testing Center sent the Chinese learning world into a frenzy.

They announced there would be a new HSK 3.0. 9 new HSK levels instead of the 6 existing ones, a full revamp of the content in each level, and a whopping addition of 3,000 words to learn. The new HSK 3.0 promised to bring with it a lot of changes for Chinese learners everywhere.

Related: Read all about the rumors and facts surrounding the new HSK 3.0

A key date in the introduction of the new HSK 3.0 was: March 2022.

What was supposed to happen to the HSK in March 2022?

In March 2022, as we wrote here, testing for the higher levels (HSK 7, HSK 8, and HSK 9) would officially start.

But… April 1st went by, and this was no April fool’s joke: there was nothing new regarding the new HSK 3.0. Higher-level tests had definitely not started. The most advanced HSK level was still HSK 6.

Related: Learn HSK 6 with the complete HSK 6 Course on Ninchanese.

Granted, Covid and the pandemic have put a foil on everyone’s plans and delayed many things. So, quite understandably, March 2022 was a deadline that wasn’t met.

Fast forward to now (November 2022), and the situation is pretty much the same. Almost. Things are slowly changing. Finally!

Update on HSK 3.0 November 2022: Mostly nothing new for HSK 1-6 BUT some news

So far, there has been no news on a possible new release date for HSK 3.0 for levels 1 through 6.

No official testing material, no official lists aside from what was released last year as part of the “Standard” for learning.

So don’t believe all the sites that say they have an update: there’s none. Or, actually, that’s the update. HSK 1 to 6 will remain exactly the same as they are now.

I repeat: no changes to come in the next 2 to 3 years regarding the HSK 1-6. They will remain exactly the same.

What does that mean?

This means the HSK 2.0 is still the most up-to-date system of Chinese proficiency tests. HSK 1 through HSK 6  tests won’t be changing, and HSK 1-6 learning content won’t be modified.

Your test results are still valid. Phew!  Plus, purrfect news: you can prepare for all HSK levels on Ninchanese! From HSK 1 to HSK 6, we’ve got you for all your Chinese learning needs.

That’s the official word: no HSK 3.0 in sight, for now, for levels HSK1 to 6. In 2 to 3 years, there’ll be a “gradual adaptation of the HSK 1-6 levels to meet the new “Standards”. No deadline has been given for that, either. Wait and see, people, wait and see.

Of course, we’ll keep monitoring the situation. So in the meantime, relax. Keep on studying as you have been.

We will be the first to let you know if anything changes on that HSK 3.0 front. In a couple of years.

HOWEVER.

Drumroll please….

Testing begins for HSK 7, HSK 8 and HSK 9

There’s finally news regarding the new advanced HSK 7 to 9 levels.

The very first HSK 7-9 “test” test is said to have taken place! On November 26th, 2022, to be precise.

Yes, test singular, since it’s one single test for all three new levels. Then, based on your results, you’re told which new HSK level you belong to.

Here’s an official description of the HSK 7 to 9 test’s goals (link in Mandarin Chinese), and more info about the test format.

That’s all we know so far.

What else is new HSK? (April 2022 update)

That doesn’t mean, though, that nothing else is new in the HSK World!

What’s new (since the end of 2021) is that you can take your HSK test at home, from the comfort of your own living room. That’s, of course, if you don’t have an HSK testing center nearby. For details and calendar dates of upcoming HSK Tests, read this.

When taking the home version of the HSK, what’s also new is there’s an HSK Speaking test now to take. Not to worry, Ninchanese also prepares you to speak Chinese, so you’re covered.

Lastly, we’re also very proud to announce that you can now prepare for the complete HSK 6 on NInchanese! Wet finished adding the very last HSK 6 content, and it’s all there for you to study!

The Nincha Team

Stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Try the best way to learn Chinese today.
Ninchanese is free to use!

Sign up now

The post HSK 3.0 November 2022 Update: Did the new HSK 3.0 come out? appeared first on Ninchanese.

Reader apps provide graded Chinese texts and tools to help you decipher a text quickly. Today we’re reviewing Du Chinese, one of the most popular Graded Chinese readers.

What is Du Chinese?

Du Chinese is an online and mobile text reader.

Available on iOS and Android, it helps you read Chinese texts with a few well-done tools.

Du Chinese is excellent for improving your reading skills and understanding Chinese stories. It’s purfect for Chinese learners who want to be able to read Chinese texts and reinforce what they already know.

读 Du means to read in Chinese, so even the name shows you how much it wants to help you read in Chinese.

Content of Du Chinese app

What kind of content does Du Chinese offer? You have lots to choose from! You can browse over 1,900 texts on the app, which is impressive.

There’s plenty of text categorized into New Lessons and Top Stories. There are also a few Series of Novels in Chinese, which are stories in multiple chapters. In addition, you have some categories like Business in China, Everyday Life, Language, and Funny Stories. You can extend each type of category with the see more button.

The Du Chinese team or other Chinese schools like Go East Mandarin, LTL, or Excel Mandarin write these stories, which says a lot about the quality of the content.

Stories, organized by level

Any Chinese learner that’s attempted to read in Chinese knows that it can be hard to find a text that suits them well.

Du Chinese thought of that and made it easy for you.

With their graded system, there’s content available at every level, whether you’re a newbie or an advanced Chinese learner.

Moreover, all their texts, from the single-page stories to the multi-chapter longer ones, are carefully tagged by level, so you always know what you’re diving into.

Some story recommendations to start with Du Chinese

Wondering where to start? There are quite a few recommendations when you open the app and have indicated your reading level, and I recommend trying one that looks interesting.

Here are also a few series that I like to get you going. “Ben’s life in China” is a fantastic series to read, full of helpful content to know at the intermediate level. It’s perfect if you are living in the country. You could consider it a great addition to our course “the Chinese Phrasebook” on Ninchanese.

If you’re a beginner, you can read the “story of a cat” (obviously, considering you’re learning with cats on Ninchanese!). The series is elementary and goes slow, with quite a lot of repetition of accessible characters. It’s maybe even a little too easy, but it’s an excellent start for beginners looking to ease into reading Chinese texts.

You can also try the “funny story” section with a very Chinese humor style. I’ll let you explore that one; I’m sure you’ll find one story amusing.

How do you use Du Chinese?

A pleasant reading experience

If you just want to get reading, it’s pretty straightforward. Select a story, and you are presented with the text to read.

The text itself is well presented, without any fuss. There are three parts to the screen on the mobile app:

• first, a translation tool part, where the translation of a word or sentence is,
• then, the middle, the most prominent part, is the Chinese text you are reading,
• and finally, the last part at the bottom is the menu. You access different customization options from there.

Easy tools to help you understand what you’re reading

Imagine you start reading the text and find a sentence you don’t understand. You can touch it and be presented with its complete translation at the top, above the text.

Or there’s a word you don’t understand. Touch it longer or hover over it; you can see a brief definition. Overall, it’s pretty easy to look up words you don’t know, thanks to a well-done text segmentation.

It’s also nice to have the translation available with your reading, all in one place.

Generally, the translation is good but sometimes a little short. Don’t worry; you can also long press on a word to get more info, which will take you to another page to see more definitions.

The definitions are from a free dictionary called CEDict, which is pretty good. We also used it in Ninchanese as a basis and then improved. So that’s an excellent point for them.

Sometimes, words are missing sentence examples, but you can always go to an external dictionary to see more info on that word.

Listen to the story as you read along, or turn it into a Chinese podcast

When reading, you can also press the play button at the sentence and hear the whole text read to you, with a nice little cursor, karaoke-style, to help you follow along. That makes it simple to follow while the voice reads it.

You can also easily pause the reading whenever you want or go back to a specific part of the text by simply touching the word or sentence you want to hear again.

Want to take a break from reading? You can also listen to the story being read with no text. I can imagine that being handy while on the go, jogging, for instance.

Customization options galore

Once you’re familiar with the app and know how you want your reading experience, you can customize how you want to read the text, to how you like it.

Change the reading speed

By default, the speed is set at 1x, which, in my experience, is actually quite slowed down. But it’s a good starting speed.

You can slow it down even more or go up to 1.5x speed, which sounds more like a normal speaker’s speed. So, at higher levels, that feels like a more natural speed.

Also, from what I have experienced, some texts are faster, so maybe they change the average speed depending on the difficulty of the text.

Show the pinyin (or don’t)

There’s a button directly on the text screen you can toggle on or off to choose whether you want the pinyin shown above the Chinese characters. That’s helpful because sometimes you know what it means but not the pinyin.

Turn off full translations

You can decide whether you want the app to show sentence translations or not. This is nice if you only want to see the translation of a word and not the whole sentence.

Plenty of visual options

If you go further into the submenu, you’ll find the rest of the customization options. Visually, your options are:

• You can choose simplified or traditional characters.
• You can select the font size for Chinese characters and pinyin.
• You can choose different types of fonts, which is helpful to get used to reading Chinese in various fonts, or if you prefer a different font to see the strokes more.
• You can underline the HSK level on each character. It’s cool, but I don’t recommend using it since it makes the text harder to read. But, you do as you like.
• You can customize how you want your character readings. Here, Du Chinese goes further than other reading apps. You can decideif you wisht to show pinyin for every character or only for some problematic words, such as words from higher HSK levels or names.
• Lastly, you can choose the transliteration model: the app can show you pinyin, tone marks only, or the Bopomofo system used in Taiwan instead.

The one thing I would have liked to see is an option to preset the sound speed I wanted. By default, as mentioned, the sound is at 1x, which I found too slow. I have to manually set it back to 1,5x at the beginning of each text. No biggie, but it definitely could be an option.

Simple navigation

Once you start reading a text and returning to the app later, the last story you read will be waiting for you on your homepage. You’ll find a shortcut to continue reading and studying the text, which is pretty nice. You can jump to the text from the homepage, and it is pretty straightforward to return to the lessons.

I would have liked to have more than one story in my home if I had started two or three texts simultaneously. For example, I expected that my favorite story would be there, but it wasn’t. Why can you star a story (presumably to favorite it), if you can’t find it again on the app’s home?

If you want to read something else, you need to use the nav bar and hit the discover button. There you’ll find all the content of Du Chinese.

Different approaches based on your level

All those ways to tailor your reading experience can be a little dizzying at first. But, not to worry, Du Chinese also adapts what it shows you based on the level of the text you’re reading.

Suppose you’re reading a newbie text. The sound is slowed down to make it easy for you when you’re starting. Then, gradually, as you go up in levels, the speed of the sound increases.

At higher levels, you also might not get translations automatically shown to you, and the app will only display pinyin for new or challenging words.

If you like how it’s presented, keep it that way. Or dive into the settings to make your reading time just the way you want it.

Does Du Chinese include flashcards?

Yes, Du Chinese has a built-in flashcard system. Admittedly, it’s a simple flashcard system, but it does the job.

What I like about it is when you’ve added a character to your learning stack, it shows you as an example the sentence where you first encountered that word. Sure, it’s not necessarily the most straightforward sentence that explains the word, but you understand the sentence better after a while. And finally, you can cram your words if you want to practice your Chinese a little more.

Can I learn Chinese with Du Chinese?

To answer this question fast, no, you won’t learn Chinese with Du Chinese. But you’ll improve your Chinese reading and listening skills if you use the option.

You won’t have clear Chinese grammar lessons or train yourself to make sentences or speak Chinese as Ninchanese does. There is no explicit curriculum on this graded reader; you are free to wander.

That’s what is great about it. It’s a great reader and will help significantly train your understanding of Chinese passively. So, in sum, it’s a great app in addition to your favorite learning app Ninchanese.

Is the Du Chinese web app or the mobile app better?

The web app is pretty pleasant; the interface is quite the same as the mobile app. It’s fast and easy to use. It’s easier to navigate between lessons on the web app, but reading a text on your mobile on the go is a plus for this kind of app.

Is Du Chinese free? The premium of the Du Chinese app

Some of the stories on Du Chinese are free so you can try Du Chinese out first.
But you’ll quickly realize that the more exciting stories are premium-only, which is entirely understandable.

Du Chinese uses a subscription-based model. Plans are priced at $15 per month.

On Du Chinese, they have three different types of “lessons.” First are stand-alone articles, there are also courses (articles connected within a single theme), and, lastly, multi-chapter stories, which all add up to thousands of lessons within Du Chinese. In addition, while I don’t have the exact number for you, they release about 5-7 free weekly lessons.

Is Du Chinese worth it? Is Du Chinese good?

Yes. It has a lot of content, and it is easy to use. You can use the web or mobile app, and you’ll improve your Chinese reading.

Du Chinese Discount

We discussed with the Du Chinese team to see if we could get you a nice discount on your subscription.
Peter, the cofounder of Du Chinese, was very kind and shared a great discount code that you can use on the app.

You’ll get a 20% discount with the code: NINCHANESE20.

The post Du Chinese Review of a great graded Reader appeared first on Ninchanese.

So cheer up and let’s keep learning!

1. China might be closed, but that doesn’t mean you can’t visit other Chinese-speaking places.

Yeah, waiting for China to reopen is taking a while. But, hey, there are plenty of Chinese-speaking places in the world. The great news is that some have reopened already!

The meowsome Gardens by the Bay in Singapore are another good reason to learn Chinese – Photo by Isaac Matthew 

Did you know Singapore, for instance, has the Chinese language as one of its official languages? Plus you can travel there again.
Taiwan is slowly reopening too. There’s still a quarantine, true, but it’s being regularly shortened. Here’s to hoping there’ll be none one day soon! With the fact you can now learn in Traditional Chinese on Ninchanese, you have everything you need to get ready to go!

Related: Simplified or Traditional Chinese: which should you learn?

2. China might be far but there are plenty of occasions to speak Chinese around you.

Next to English and Spanish, Chinese is the most spoken language in the world.
So, look around you. You’re bound to find occasions to speak Chinese. To hear Chinese.
Chinatowns. Stores. People.

DC’s Chinatown is one of the many places you can go to practice speaking Chinese – Photo by Richard Tao

Go talk! There are plenty of occasions, everywhere! Just the other day, I chatted a good hour with the salespeople in a Chinese tea shop in Bangkok’s Chinatown.

Finding occasions to speak in Chinese, when you’re learning, is essential. Otherwise, you get rusty! Believe me, from experience, getting a chance to speak in Mandarin, if anything, will act as a great motivation to review what you’ve learned in Chinese so far and practice some more in Chinese!

Did you know, for instance, that Richmond, Canada has a 74% Asian population? It has the highest concentration of Chinese nationals outside of China. Why not schedule a trip there?

And if there are no real occasions where you live, go online. Learn Chinese online. Find people to talk to online. Come chat in Chinese on our Discord chat. Game in Chinese with Chinese speakers. Find yourself an online pen pal. The options are endless, you just have to go looking for them!

Related: What is the Chinese language?

3. It’s good for you from an economic point of view

What’s the downside to knowing an additional language in the job market? None, really.
What’s the downside to knowing the language spoken by one of the biggest economic powers in the world? Even more non-existent. In fact, it’s another meowsome reason to learn Chinese!

China’s brand new skyscrapers – Photo by Road Trip with Raj

From working in China to working with China, to working with Chinese people, for Chinese people, in Chinese, you have plenty of options.
Do you want to do business with China? Have Chinese suppliers?
Do you want to do translations? Interpretation?
In all those fields and many others, knowing Mandarin Chinese, and Business Chinese is a huge plus. So get your learning on!

Related: Explore the Chinese Business course on Ninchanese and get ready to do business in Chinese! 

Liking these reasons to learn Chinese so far? Here’s more!

4. It allows you to see the world from a different perspective

By learning the Chinese language, you’re opening yourself up to a different way of seeing the world, of perceiving it.

See the world differently. Photo by Yiran Ding

Learning Mandarin Chinese helps you have a different world approach. Concepts and ideas are expressed differently in Chinese.

It can be small things, like the fact you don’t “take” medicine, for instance, you “eat” it in Chinese ((You 吃药). And bigger things. For example, the Chinese sentence order is wildly different from, say, the way sentences are shaped in English.
Or the fact that you and me, we might think “I” and point to ourselves. We’re used to thinking solo. A Chinese speaker, when tasked with drawing “I”, the self, might, on the contrary, draw themselves surrounded by others. The concept of “self” is a little different in the Middle Kingdom.

It’s the little details like that that give you insights into how the Chinese people think. Personally, I find that endlessly fascinating. It’s definitely one of the reasons I’ve never stopped learning Chinese.

Plus, if expanding your understanding of cultural differences wasn’t your cup of tea, seeing the world in a different way helps you grow your critical thinking skills. With all the fake news and conspiracy theories swirling around, you (and we all) seriously need that…

5. It’s good for your brain

Learning any language is wonderful for your brain. It develops new areas of your mind and, in particular, strengthens your natural ability to focus and process information.

Learn Chinese and fire up your brain connections! – Photo by Moritz Kindler

Mandarin Chinese, with its beautiful characters and lack of alphabet? It’s like acid for the brain. In a meowsome, wonderful way. It creates in your brain all those new connections. Purrfect to form and strengthen your brain. Go for it.

For instance, a 2003 study found that people who speak Mandarin Chinese use both temporal lobes of their brains to understand the language.  In contrast, English speakers only use the left temporal lobe. Unlock a whole new temporal lobe!

There are plenty of other reasons for learning Mandarin that are good for your brain:

• It keeps your brain healthy. No neural network degradation for you, good person!
• It helps form good thinking patterns in your brain.
• It develops new areas of your mind and utilizes other parts of your brain.
• Some studies say it even helps with math skills!

What’s not to like?

Related: Why learn Mandarin Chinese, the language of Confucius?

6. Chinese culture and history are still very cool

You can’t visit the huge country that is China at the moment, sure. But China still has an extremely interesting history and culture you can explore from afar and learn more about.

There’s a lot to love in Chinese culture aesthetically. Photo by Sahil Pandita

From a rich culture, which led to some amazing inventions for instance, to epic historical events, there’s a lot to discover. And why not do that in Chinese directly? That’s a great reason to learn Chinese!

Related: 10 amazing inventions you didn’t know were Chinese
All you need to know about Chinese dynasties

If you like the idea of learning more about Chinese history but aren’t into history books or museums, there are many many historical C-dramas, as well as youtubers you can check out! Also, check out Ninchanese where you’ll learn Chinese culture as you learn Chinese!

Related: 8 Vloggers to watch to learn more about Chinese culture

7. Reason to learn Chinese: You gain access to a whole new world of content and culture

There’s a large quantity of high-quality Chinese-language content out there, you just need to know how to find it!

From Music to Games, to Movies, to Art, to books… there are a lot of Chinese-speaking artists to discover.

Related: 30 Chinese celebrities to know about

On TV, Cdramas and Taiwanese dramas have a lot of fans, and rightly so!

Related: 10 popular TV shows to improve your Chinese

Romantic and historical C-dramas get their fair share of fans, and  Chinese Wuxia and XianXia are also two media genres that are very popular.

Related: Platforms to watch Chinese videos.
Films to watch

Music and books

In books, there’s a lot to discover too! From Chinese classics like the JingPing Mei, or… to science fiction novels, China and Chinese-language artists have a lot to offer. Take the time to explore!

If you’re more a fan of video games, lots of great offers there too.

 8. Beautiful language Chinese characters

Mandarin Chinese is an amazing language, and its Chinese characters are endlessly fascinating.

There’s the fact Chinese is the oldest written language in the world, dating back to over 4000 years ago.

There’s the fact there’s no alphabet, and that Chinese characters are usually logical. Most Chinese characters contain components and a phonetic component. There are also many opportunities for art with Chinese characters, especially Chinese calligraphy.

In short, Chinese characters are an excellent reason to learn the Chinese language. At the very least, explore the language!
Chinese characters also enable very intriguing poetry to exist. Ever heard of the poem composed only of the sound “shi”? It has a meaning, of course, and is written using many different characters!

9. [Insert your own reason to learn Chinese]

Here’s a secret. All that matters is that you find pleasure in knowing the language.

Truth be told, you don’t need a specific good reason to keep learning a language. You need yours. All you need is to want to learn it. If the language interests you, you’re golden. No need for a huge, lofty goal. It can be a very small goal. Or even, just the fact you derive pleasure from learning and knowing the language.
So find what motivates you and keep learning! Everyone has their own reason to learn Chinese.
Whatever your reason, we’re here to help you learn Mandarin Chinese! It’s all happening on Ninchanese.

And one more thing…

If you want to continue learning Chinese with authentic and entertaining content, then you’ll love Ninchanese.

With Ninchanese, you get a complete method to learn Chinese which has you speaking, reading, writing, and more in Chinese. What’s more, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced learner, there’s content your level on Ninchanese and plenty more!

Start using Ninchanese on the web, with your computer or tablet, or on your phone with the Android app.

The Nincha Team

Stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Try the best way to learn Chinese today.
Ninchanese is free to use!

Sign up now

The post 9 meowsome reasons to still learn Chinese even though China is CLOSED appeared first on Ninchanese.

What’s Wordle?

First things first, maybe you’re not familiar with Wordle yet, and that’s 100% okay.  If you are, keep scrolling, you’ll learn about Chinese Wordle faster that way.

Wordle is an English-language word game, where you need to guess a word.

Your clues: it’s a 5 letter word. You get 6 tries.

• Each try, you’re shown:
• GREEN: which letters are correct.
• YELLOW: which letters are in the word, but not in the right spot.
• GRAY: which of the letters you entered are NOT in the word you’re trying to find.

Then you get to try again.
If you run out of tries before having guessed the word, that’s it. You’re done.

And if you find the word before that, congrats!

Guessed the word, with one try to go! Woot

What makes Wordle fun and super popular is the fact you only get one word per day.
And everyone gets the same word to guess.
Ah, competition. The drive to do better than your counterparts.  It never gets old.

Anyways! As a Chinese language learner, perhaps you too were wondering: how can I play Wordle but in Chinese? So, we went searching for a Chinese version of Wordle. And we found one here!

Why play Wordle in Chinese?

Why go looking for a Chinese Wordle?  Well, why not?

First of all, It’s great language practice.
Trying to play a game in your target language, i.e. the langue you’re learning, is a wonderful idea. It makes you actually use the language you’re learning, which is an excellent way to strengthen your learning and maximize retention.

Second, it’s fun to try to guess things in Chinese. And to play in Chinese!

How do you play Wordle with Chinese Characters?

Before you start wondering how it would work with the thousands of Chinese characters out there, let’s set something straight. Pinyin is key here.  Just like in English, pinyin offers a set number of letters, which makes the entire game, well, easily playable.

You’re not guessing Chinese Character Strokes. You play Chinese Wordle with pinyin. UPDATE: for a Chinese character based Wordle, scroll down. 

How Wordle in Chinese works

Now that’s out of the way, how does Wordle in Chinese work?

Same basic principles:

• One game per day
• 6 tries
• GREEN for letters you get right (该字母在正确的位置)
• ORANGE for almost right ((该字母不在正确的位置)
• GREY for those that aren’t in what you’re trying to guess. (当前成语的拼音中没有该字母).
• Everyone gets the same (UPDATE: or so we thought. In the Ninchanese Discord Server, we discovered you don’t always get the same. It changes per region, perhaps?)

The rules for Chinese Wordle are the same

Speaking of which, perhaps you’re wondering: What do you guess? Is it a word like in English Wordle? Nope!

Guess the 成语

In Chinese Worlde, you’re trying to guess … 成语 Chengyus!
That’s right, 4 character Chinese idioms and sayings.

In fact, Wordle in Chinese is called 拼音猜成语 – which literally means Pinyin Guess Chengyu. It’s made by Limboy. Thanks for making this fun puzzle game!

So, in 拼音猜成语 (aka Chinese Wordle), you have to guess the pinyin for 4 Chinese characters, which compose the chengyu. The number of letters for each Chinese character ranges from 2 to 5.  It’s no easy feat, but that’s what makes it fun!

Knowing which letters aren’t in the chengyu and which you haven’t tried yet is very helpful

Gaaah, so close!

The goal of the puzzle game is to get it right before you run of tries!  In both cases, whether you win or lose, you get to see the chengyu in Chinese characters at the end.

Success!

What else is cool about this game?

It’s good pinyin practice. You work on how familiar you are with Chinese sounds, think about syllables in Chinese, common word endings, and common words. This game makes you think about the words you know and recall pinyin sounds you’ve heard before. Excellent training.

Fun fact: if you try to enter a sound that doesn’t exist in Chinese, you get told: this sound doesn’t exist in Chinese.

In addition, all the instructions and comments you get are in Chinese, which immerses you nicely in the Mandarin language, without making it daunting. In context, you always know what they’re telling you.

Lastly, by playing this game, you’re guessing and discovering new 成语, chengyus. 成语 are an essential part of speaking Chinese.

The higher you get in your Chinese learning, the more you realize how important knowing Chengyus is. They are what allows you to show off your intelligence and education, and more importantly, you hear them a lot. In Chinese Dramas, in everyday conversations, in books… They’re also an integral part of the HSK 5 and above exams!  So learn 成语!

Starting at the HSK 5 world on Ninchanese, you’ll be learning 成语 in context. You’ll also be learning stories about what 成语 mean and how they came to be. Sign up to start learning now!

Learn the Chengyus you discover for good

Once you’ve discovered a new Chengyu in the puzzle game, don’t just quit there!
You can…
Look it up on Ninchanese in the dictionary.

For instance, this is a chengyu discovered above:

Look up the chengyus in Ninchanese’s free dictionary!

Simplified Chinese: 方兴未艾 Traditional: 方興未艾
Pinyin: fāng xīng wèi ài

Then you can create a special deck of 成语s in the Nincha Decks

That way, you’re having fun and maximizing what you can learn from the game at the same time!

Happy Wordling and Chinese learning!

Come join the Discord and post your 拼音猜成语 results in the  #游戏-games channel! You’ll find other motivated players there!

Looking for a non-pinyin-based Chinese Wordle? We got you. Here are some based on Bopofomo and on Chinese characters!

New find! Wordle with Chinese Characters and more

Looking for a  Chinese character-based Chinese Wordle? The meowsome community on Discord got you and discovered this other Wordle-like game:  汉字Wordle

The basic principle is the same: guess the 成语. The Twist? Guess it using Chinese characters this time! Using an IME, each time you enter characters, you’re told whether:
– the Chinese character you entered is correct, and if it’s in the right place;
– there are correct letters in the pinyin of that Chinese character and if the’yre in the right spot;
– the tones are correct or not.

Needless to say, this is a more hardcore version of Chinese Wordle. It keeps you on your toes. It makes you think about the chengyus you know, the Chinese characters you’re familiar with, the tones… Give it a whirl, too!

Yeah, it’s not going too well…

This Chinese Wordle is available in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

The nice thing is they give hints!

Here are a few more Chinese Character-based Wordles to explore:

https://bryony.dev/chengyu/chengyu.html
https://allanchain.github.io/chinese-wordle/
https://cheeaun.github.io/chengyu-wordle/
http://samuello.io/jndle/

Chinese Wordle with Bopomofo

Bopomofo is used in Taiwan and is a lot more widespread there than pinyin. It comes therefore as no surprise that a Chinese Worlde using Bopofomo was invented!
Play it here: Bopofomo Chinese Wordle

Poems and Chinese Wordle?

That exists too: you can guess the poem line in Chinese with  https://peotik.com.

Have fun exploring! In my case: I think I’ll stick with pinyin Chinese Wordle though!

And one more thing…

If you want to continue learning Chinese with authentic and entertaining content, then you’ll love Ninchanese.

With Ninchanese, you get a complete method to learn Chinese which has you speaking, reading, writing, and more in Chinese. What’s more, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced learner, there’s content your level on Ninchanese and plenty more!

Start using Ninchanese on the web, with your computer or tablet,

The Nincha Team

Stay in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Try the best way to learn Chinese today.
Ninchanese is free to use!

Sign up now

The post Chinese Wordle: Play and Learn Chinese (chengyus)! appeared first on Ninchanese.

The benefits of learning Chinese are multiple!

More and more students are taking classes to learn Mandarin Chinese, one of the most practiced languages in the world! As you know, China is on the rise, so it’s an understandable trend. Not only because of its booming economy but also because the Chinese language has particularities that make it interesting to learn. Learning a language benefits everyone, you, the individual, the family if you have Chinese relatives and communities in a larger sense.

Now, let’s discover why you should start Mandarin Chinese lessons already!

The multiple and unexpected benefits of Learning Chinese:

Significant advantages for the brain

As you start to learn a new language, especially Chinese, it will benefit your brain in many ways. According to a survey by the Journal of Neuroscience in 2015, bilinguals have better cognitive flexibility. It’s easier for them to do a task than others who speak only their native language.

Specifically, the mandarin Chinese language is a miracle tool to make the brain do its work. The Chinese language helps to activate a specific zone in your brain that other languages do not. That is because characters are graphical in nature, so we need to use that zone in our brain more to recognize them. Need another medical reason? Scientists have discovered that Chinese speakers tend to be less affected by Alzheimer’s or are affected by it later in their life than those who don’t speak Chinese. You know, Chinese is composed of thousands of characters to learn. Practice those, and your memory won’t have a rest! You’ll train your muscle memory more than with other languages. 

Because Chinese characters develop imagination

As you learn to write Chinese, you’ll discover the beauty that hides in the traditional art of calligraphy. You’ll develop your art skills by drawing characters, and so you’ll end up both developing your creative mind and your mental faculty. The fine art of calligraphy helps to build your subtle artistic movement in a good sense! As you discover new characters, you’ll find many ancient cultural meanings hidden in them. It’s almost as appreciating prose poems. also, when you understand the Chinese components, it’s easy to make a story to understand how characters fuze to make new characters and meaning, up to you to make a little story about it.

Ninchanese is an incredible app for learning Chinese!

” I actually graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a MA in Chinese.
I’ve used Ninchanese daily, and it has helped me a lot!  “

 – Connor, Ninchanese User

Try Ninchanese, an award-winning method to learn Chinese today:

Start Learning Now

Discover a completely new language

The Chinese characters

Interestingly, when learning Chinese, you’re learning a diametrical opposite language compared to our familiar Germanic/Latin language. Contrary to French, Spanish, or Italian, where we can guess the meaning of an unknown word, it is almost impossible to guess a character’s definition at a glance.

You must study Mandarin Chinese characters and review them one by one, Ninchanese SRS is made especially to learn better the Chinese characters. Chinese characters are numerous, and even one character can have multiple meanings: these are called polyphonic characters. But no worry, there’s a way to learn them faster by knowing Chinese character components. You’ll find an excellent course on Ninchanese about radicals and components, that we recommend doing when you are learning Chinese. 

A tonal language

Contrary to English, Mandarin Chinese use tones in pronunciation. Tones are pretty powerful stuff that changes the meaning of a word. So you’ll have to know a Chinese word’s form in characters and also their tones. It’s an entirely different way to speak than what we are used to in English. Yes, it’s sometimes frustrating, but it’s also sometimes amusing!

So, take great care of how you pronounce your characters. Depending on your intonation, the meaning will change! Thankfully, pinyin facilitates the learning process and helps you know which pronunciation to use. Also, the ninchanese app has a speech recognition system that understands your tone and analyzes them for you.

Speak Chinese to Visit China

Who doesn’t want to walk on the great wall of China?

China is the 4th most visited country in the world. So, naturally, China has an essential role in tourism, and many people, from all over the world, come to see its beautiful ancient constructions like the Great Wall and temples. More modern constructions also attract a lot, like, high buildings. If you’re going to visit China, then you should absolutely download our Chinese phrasebook app made for Chinese, it will be really handy.

How about immersing yourself in Chinese society to learn their language?

Whether it is for a holiday, staying with a Chinese family, or only for studying Chinese, being in the country is a great way to learn Chinese. Chinese society’s manners matter and they are handy to know when dealing with Chinese people.

It’s not convenient to use a dictionary or a translating app when you’re speaking directly with someone, so speaking the Chinese language will allow you to make direct communication with natives. That way, you’ll make real connections with the people.

There are multiple benefits to understanding Chinese when you are in China. First, you’ll recognize the signs on the road since they are all in Chinese. And so, you’ll be able to visit Chinese cities without the need to ask and bother people to find your road. Then you’ll have access to hidden experiences that other tourists can’t have. A good thing to know is Chinese likes to bargain, and as you buy souvenirs, speaking Chinese will give you a real advantage by getting you the best price possible! 

China’s billion-strong population will likely shape the coming days of the world, and it is indeed a good move to learn to speak Chinese. It’s becoming more and more important to understand the Chinese people and their society.

Ninchanese is an incredible app for learning Chinese!

” I actually graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a MA in Chinese.
I’ve used Ninchanese daily, and it has helped me a lot!  “

 – Connor, Ninchanese User

Try Ninchanese, an award-winning method to learn Chinese today:

Start Learning Now

Knowing Chinese to work in China

Mandarin Chinese is the most widely-spoken spoken language globally and one of the largest marketplaces in one nation with 1.28 billion people. So, knowing Mandarin Chinese opens a learner to many career opportunities. The Chinese language is a bridge between an emerging China and the rest of the world.

More people speak Mandarin Chinese than they speak English! One out of seven people speaks Chinese on earth. Chinese speakers are everywhere nowadays, like China, Taiwan, Singapore, and other Asiatic countries. But Chinese speakers are also present in North America, Europe, and, more recently, Africa.

As you can see from the facts above, it’s no wonder that speaking and learning mandarin Chinese are necessary skills today. By learning Mandarin Chinese, you will be able to communicate with more and more people.

Learn Chinese & Discover an Ancient Culture

China is one of the universe’s oldest and richest continuous cultures, over 5000 months old.

Being skillful in mandarin Chinese allows you to know their society better. Old or recent, you’ll discover many other exciting tales, very different from what you’ve previously learned. You’ll also see films in Mandarin Chinese and play a mandarin Chinese video game. China is opening up and creating a lot of cultural content. Knowing how to speak Chinese is the best way to make sure you’re there to enjoy it.

PS: And on the side, learning Chinese characters will help understand their neighbors, the Japanese. As the Japanese language uses many Chinese characters, even if there are differences, it’s close enough to get some insight.

So all in all, China has a richer culture and a rich language that will benefit you in multiple ways. Have fun learning Chinese with Nincha!

The post Why learn Mandarin Chinese, the language of Confucius? appeared first on Ninchanese.

While Chinese radicals have interesting use, Chinese components bring more benefits to your learning. Let’s explore so we can prove that to you!

What are Chinese components?

First, a little refresher on what Chinese components are. Components are like atoms that form a chemical element, but instead, they make up a Chinese character. It’s a natural law, almost. Every Chinese character is made of components that are the building blocks of any character.

Three types of character components

Experts have identified three forms of components with different attributes. These attributes are where the magic truly happens. They give you clues about the whole character, the big picture.

The three categories of components are:

• Meaning component, which indicates the general meaning of a character. (形旁)
• The phonetic / Sound component shows the sound, but the tone can differ. (声旁)
• The graphic/empty component helps you visually recognize and write a character.

Spot a meaning component in a character? You’ll have a pretty good idea of what the character could mean, or at the very least, in what semantic field this character is. A sound component will help discover and remember character pronunciations. A graphic component is a powerful hint to writing a character. Excellent tools to approach a character, I’d say.

How many Chinese components?

Do you think every Chinese remembers all the Chinese characters that exist? Of course, they recognize many of them, but not all of them. They have other solutions, much more practical. For instance, they use character components to help them identify more characters than they know. No wonder. You’ll have trouble believing me if I tell you the sheer amount to learn to almost understand all Chinese characters.

There are only about 200 key components! From over 50,000 Chinese characters, that’s a tremendous narrowing down. However, I believe you understand now why Chinese components are essential to learn. You’ll save a huge amount of time in your character learning by learning these key components. Moreover, even the most complicated characters are easy to approach when you can break them down into components.

Transform the way you read Chinese characters

When you know these components well, you will read Chinese characters entirely differently. As a result, you’ll first see the big picture and the overall character and then look for components (almost immediately and unconsciously). As a result, you’ll have changed how you read Chinese characters. And from there, you’ll learn Chinese characters faster and will be able to identify their meaning or pronunciation or close.

Chinese components sound great! Where can you learn them?

Why, right here, of course!
Explore and learn more about Chinese components here: https://ninchanese.com/blog/2020/03/12/chinese-components-radicals-chinese-characters. In addition, you will find a list of the key Chinese components to know here.

Practice and Learn components: You’ll find an entire world dedicated to Chinese components on Ninchanese. It’ll exactly suit your Chinese character component needs.

Okay, I’m sold, but what about radicals? Aren’t those a great way to learn characters too? What’s the difference between Chinese components and Chinese radicals?

Radical VS Components

What are Chinese radicals?

Radicals are tremendously well-known. They started as a research project to categorize Chinese characters as early as the 2nd century AD. That was such a revolution that everyone in China then adopted them. Now, the use of radicals has evolved.

Use Chinese radicals to look up words in a dictionary.

Chinese radicals are still used to finding characters in the Chinese dictionary on paper. They are the graphical component you use to look up a Chinese character in a paper dictionary. That’s because radicals traditionally group characters in these dictionaries. It’s a great and practical invention.

But the radical list was made by hand, or I would say by mental force, so that’s too much to process. At the time, what they did was incredible and worked for a dictionary, but the list is also incomplete and not the best to learn the Chinese characters.

As we’ve seen, character components work differently. Nevertheless, they are essential to understand how characters are made, and now the list is well defined. We can definitively call radicals the grandfathers of the components.

If radicals are so limited, how come everyone seems to talk about them and use them to teach Chinese?

The answer is simple; in the ’80s and before, you needed to learn the radicals to use a Chinese dictionary. It was the only tool available at this time. So radicals are taught early in Chinese learning, as it is a great tool. Later, when we learn components, people are often confused. Because radicals share some similarities with components, they mix things up. They think components are radicals, and as sometimes radicals are components, all radicals are components. But components are not Chinese radicals.

Firstly, radicals were primarily selected for their visual aspect. They are only graphic components of Chinese characters, and that’s it. These graphic elements are used as the head of sections to categorize characters visually. Components are much more.  As you saw, they bring you information on a Chinese character’s meaning or pronunciation. They can also be graphic components.

Secondly, there can be more than one component in a Chinese character. There usually is. But not so with radicals. A great example is when you hear someone say, this character has two radicals! But that is impossible; radicals are unique in a character to categorize them. So they would have been correct if they said there’s two components and one radical.  That’s why focusing on Chinese components is a lot more effective.

So, as you can see, in the match Components vs. Radicals, Components win hands-down!

Are you excited to learn them? There’s a whole course dedicated to Chinese components awaiting you on Ninchanese! 

What about strokes? Mnemonics? How useful are they for learning Chinese?

Chinese Character Strokes vs. Components

When people start learning Chinese, they are often interested in learning how to write them. It’s a pretty nice way to get accustomed to characters. It also helps to see them differently and learn to decompose them. Characters are not scribbles anymore but start to make sense as you see all the strokes that compose a character. However, from a learning point of view, the details are too great. You can’t remember how many strokes all 50 000 Chinese characters have or the 5,000 to 8,000 you need to reach fluency. It’s nearly impossible.

If you’ve followed our logical demonstration, it makes sense to learn to write the strokes of the 200 key components. After that, it’s only a matter of building the character and drawing the components in the right place and in the correct size.
Curious to see the strokes in Chinese characters?
You can view stroke animations for every character on Ninchanese. Just look up a word in our dictionary. They’ll show you all the strokes and which stroke order you should write the Chinese character. You’ll also see the character broken down by components!

Mnemonics VS Component

Mnemonics are an excellent technique for remembering things. They work pretty well but require making a story with concrete things. These are great for simple characters, but it’s hard to make a story for each character as the strokes become more complicated.

But let’s suppose you know the components already (and soon, you will, thanks to this course on Ninchanese). Then, if you start making a story using components interacting with each other fused with the meaning of the character, it’s golden. You’ll never forget them.
One of my favorite mnemonics is remembering how to write the character cat: 猫. It contains three parts.
A cat is an animal, so on the left of the character 猫, you’ll find the meaning component for animals (犭).
Then comes storytime, as the other two on the right are empty components. Let’s imagine we’re talking about an outdoor cat. A cat needs grass 艹) and a field (田) in which to roam.  Meowsome way to remember how to write 猫.

As a result, the match can be considered null. That’s because combined, mnemonics and components are pretty helpful together! So use mnemonics if you want, and mainly use them to make up stories about character components! An excellent place to start building your mnemonics is this list of the key components. Click on any component, and you’ll get a detailed description of it, how it’s used and in which Chinese characters you can find it.

Components win the match!

So, in conclusion, we hope you now understand the difference between radicals and components more clearly. By now, you should see the benefits Chinese components can bring to your Chinese learning. They are hands-on and the best way to boost your Chinese characters. There are only about 200 to learn, and they bring you great clues to understand Chinese characters!

– They help you understand a character’s meaning.
– They help you determine a character’s pronunciation.
– They’re a great visual aid to recognize and handwrite a character.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn them with us. Our exclusive course has a complete list of components to learn. We categorize all the components based on their feature (phonetics, meanings…), and they are topologically sorted, so you know the most useful first. So what are you waiting for? It’s here already. Have fun :D!

The Nincha Team

The post Components vs Radicals: Which are best for your Chinese learning? appeared first on Ninchanese.

As you progress in your exploration of Chinese cooking, you’ll certainly want to tempt your stomach with new Chinese dishes and tastes. What better way to learn more about this topic than in Chinese, the language you’re learning? Chinese Food is a perfect topic to explore deeper in Chinese: the knowledge you’re learning will prove directly useful to you.  (We’re not responsible for the extra pounds you may put on scarfing down new Chinese dishes:)

Read on to learn more about Chinese cooking, from its 8 key styles to the spices you definitely want to stock your pantry with! Once you’re done reading, guess what? You can learn all this yummy new lingo, little by little, in our new course on Ninchanese: Chinese Food. It’s right here!

When you can’t go out and have to cook at home, it’s always fun to add some exotic dishes. And let’s imagine you want to do some tasty Chinese home-cooking? What if you wish to experiment with a variety of Chinese ingredients and want to talk about them? And what happens if you need to buy spices, herbs, or other things to spice up your meal but don’t know how to express yourself? That’s what this article is about.

Or imagine another situation. You are standing in a Chinese supermarket (or just a market) and want to buy some specific ingredients. Wouldn’t it be quite a struggle when you don’t know the right words to describe these ingredients in Chinese? It could be anything from just not being a fan of a specific ingredient to being allergic to a spice.

The 4 Tastes and 8 big Kitchens

Let’s first start with a quick overview of the common big 8 Chinese culinary traditions in Chinese. If you’ve started exploring Chinese food and cooking, and by this, we mean real Chinese cuisine, not the stuff they try to pass on as Chinese food in Chinese “buffets”, you’ll quickly notice that there are different types of cooking in China. 

Chinese cooking is divided into 8 big Kitchens, or schools, which were each named after the region they were developed in (e.g. 山东菜 – Shāndōng cài – Shandong cuisine). These styles were defined by the provinces in China and what each area could provide in terms of food. These schools also relate to each region’s history and economics. All these factors came together over time and refined the taste of the people and what they prefer for Chinese food. Of course, it doesn’t mean that you cannot get other food or only get this specific taste.  

If you are into Chinese food, you may think the best are the Chinese street food, right? So in this article, we’ve made, we ranked the best Chinese street food.

Chinese cooking is also all about the Four Tastes: Salty, Sour, Sweet, and Spicy. As you’ll see, the 8 big Kitchens of cooking in China all revolve around these Four tastes.  Also, Chinese dishes tend to be named very indescriptive, so sometimes, it‘s not quite clear what the ingredients are (e.g.  蚂蚁上树 – mǎ​yǐ​shàng​shù – Ants climbing a tree ). Like so:

Map of the 8 Chinese kitchen

This actually is the most common definition of the kitchens (and I would say more traditional). Of course, these 8 styles don’t cover all of China, so you may also find different maps which cover the whole of China and do a more detailed subdivision, possibly putting what I’m pointing out as the Southern kitchen, somewhere else. All that matters is that your stomach knows there are 8 different cooking styles in China to look forward to, and understands the differences between them!

The manifold ways of preparing Chinese food

The Chinese have a lot of different ways of preparing Chinese food and it’s good to know these techniques. True, when talking about preparing Chinese food, the most common thing to say it, whether in Chinese or in English, to make food rather than cook food ( 作饭 – ). So, why would you want to learn the words for them? The answer is simple, and it’ll make your tummy happy: a lot of Chinese dish names indicate the way the dish was prepared. So by learning how to say some of the most common cooking techniques, you’ll know a little more about what to expect when ordering Chinese food. Perfect for when you’re in the mood for a nice steamed bun (包子), or some 烤鸭 (kǎo yā – roast duck)!

As we saw, these are 8 major Cooking Styles (Kitchens) in China. So, depending on the region you’re in, you might see specific techniques all around you and others only quite rarely.  Out of experience, I can say that I see 红烧 (Braised in Soy sauce), 炒 (Chǎo – stir fry), and 炸 (Zhà) very frequently. It could also be that I’m not quite yet used to recognizing the other cooking-techniques immediately.  

Bonus-tip: Look for the fire component under ( 灬 ) or left ( 火 ) of a character to understand that it may is related to a cooking-technique. If you are not yet familiar with radicals and components, it’s an excellent opportunity to start with the Radical Component World in the Ninchanese App.

You see, it can be quite helpful when looking at a Chinese menu (it’s common that they don’t include pictures) to know these cooking techniques and to use them to decrypt dishes’ names!

Spice up your meal

Alright, so let’s continue with the essentials of a meal: spices, herbs, oils, and sauces. Without these, a meal can be pretty bland, and personally, I prefer a good combination of spices and intense flavors but it can still be a struggle to name something else than just salt and pepper (maybe chili) without taking a look in the dictionary first.

The average joe just recognizes something because of experience, so in a supermarket, it mostly went like this. “I know this because I used it before or because I know it from my hometown, but I don’t know how to call it in Chinese.” And the version for the more adventurous people: That looks interesting; I’ll just buy and try it, without knowing what it exactly is or how it’s called. (Assumed not looking in the dictionary first).

Spices 香辛料 (Xiāngxīnliào)

Herbs 香草 (Xiāngcǎo)

Sauces & Oils 调料 和 油 (Tiáoliào hé yóu)

The attentive reader would have figured out some basic structures here: If it’s a powder, just add a 粉 (fěn), for an oil a 油 (yóu) or if it’s a thick (soybean) sauce a 酱 (jiàng). Also, the word to add for grains is 粒 ( lì ) (and it’s also the classifier for those tiny grain/pill/pea-sized things). Still, in the case of the peppers, it’s not necessary to mention it, since that is the base form of them and don’t confuse it with seeds. These are called 籽 ( zǐ ).

It’s quite a big list, but no worries, just learn the things you want to know and use in your daily life. In my kitchen, I usually have the basic Soy Sauce, Rice vinegar, and 5-6 different spices from the list above, which is quite enough to make things more interesting. Adding a bit of this and that can even raise instant noodles to a king’s meal in case you are down for a quick snack and too lazy to heat up the kitchen.  As you can see in this picture below

My personal experience

I once wanted to buy some ingredients to bake bread, but I neither learned the words in my regular Chinese classes nor learned them before somewhere else. What I wanted to buy was the pretty basic bread-ingredients: flour (面粉 – Miànfěn ), yeast (酵母 – jiàomǔ) and some olive-oil (橄榄油 – gǎnlǎn yóu). So I went to an employee in the supermarket and asked where I can find the oil since I couldn’t find it in the oil-section of the supermarket. The reaction was very typical: Confused look (due to perhaps, wrong pronunciation), then leading me to the shelf with the imported foreign noodle-sauces. After involving 2 more employees in that whole situation, they finally figured out what I wanted after I showed it to them in the dictionary. They eventually lead me the way to the shelf with the olive-oil (which is not that common and therefore quite pricey). Finding the yeast and flour was thank god not very complicated, only getting the right type of flour was. But that’s a topic for a future article about Chinese food. Stay tuned for that.

Final Words

There are loads more topics to cover in the Chinese food corner, especially about other regional cuisines in China, but you know have the basics covered and I’ve shared with you what you need to get around and know what to expect when you are going out for a meal or traveling China for a culinary adventure.

As a home-cook, what we’ve seen today should already enhance your ability to have a bit more knowledge when it comes to speaking about making Chinese food. Especially about improving the taste and not getting lost in the wide variety of ingredients. Of course, there are a lot more spices and herbs you can learn, but the focus in this article is more on the basics and what you actually can buy in a common (super-)market in China. If you really love Chinese food and want to make your own, then I can’t stress enough to our Chinese Food course on Ninchanese.

Image-Sources: 

Spices: Pixabay Monicore, all other pictures and tables were taken or created by myself (Product images in tables: Baidu, background images in 做饭的办法-banner: Baidu) 

The post Chinese food: Learn to Cook and Spice your Chinese meal with complete vocabulary lists! appeared first on Ninchanese.