Chinese learning tips

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Big Numbers in Chinese – The struggle with the zeros and other characteristics

Numbers are everywhere and when learning Chinese you will very soon get to know the basic numbers and count using Chinese. Right after that, there’s the big numbers, you will count even higher: at first up to 100 (一百), then 1000 (一千) and finally 10000 (一万). These are the basics to know, but what if you want to use the really big numbers and the amount of zeros is getting out of control? Find it out how by continuing reading.

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NinchaneseBig Numbers in Chinese – The struggle with the zeros and other characteristics
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Chinese components & Chinese radicals World: Up, close and personal with Chinese characters

Introducing a whole new world on Ninchanese: The Rad Way to Learn Chinese Characters! It’s chock-full of rad Chinese components to discover. What’s so rad about those? Easy: they’re your key to understanding Chinese characters a LOT better. Let’s dive in.

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NinchaneseChinese components & Chinese radicals World: Up, close and personal with Chinese characters
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Writing Chinese characters: The purpose

I think at one point everyone who starts learning Chinese asks themselves the same questions about writing Chinese:

  • Do I need to learn to write Chinese characters?
  • When is the best time to begin with them?
  • Where do you start?
  • How do you write Chinese characters? Are there any rules?

With this article, I want to share a bit of my experience in writing characters and maybe a helpful additional way of learning Chinese. To be clear, I’m not talking about the art of Chinese Calligraphy but just casual hand-writing. Handwritten Chinese with a pen a piece of paper.

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NinchaneseWriting Chinese characters: The purpose
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How to review words on Ninchanese when the number is too high

When you want to learn Chinese, you need to go for it and work on it every day. Everyone will tell you that. It’s true for every language you are learning. Regularity is the key. As is reviewing words you’ve just learned, so they go from your short-term to your long-term memory. We know, however, that it’s not always easy to stay focused and to review daily. It’s even more complicated when you’re a beginner to intermediate learner since you can’t enjoy Chinese content from TV (for example) passively yet. So, you may skip one or two days. That’s alright! But what happens when you skip learning for weeks? Or even a month? Your words to review start to pile up. Is there any way to start learning Chinese again? To handle your word reviews? The short answer is YES.

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NinchaneseHow to review words on Ninchanese when the number is too high
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The super hidden (and insanely useful) tone trick no one tells you about

An easy way to memorize and pronounce tones! The first time you hear a Chinese speaking a sentence, were you like “wow, I understand nothing and why do they sound like they’re going on a rollercoaster”?  No wonder, you’re hearing tones for the first time! They may seem daunting, but I have a secret to tell you. There’s a super easy tone trick to know: you’re actually already using tones in English, so all you need to do is apply that knowledge to your Chinese! Read on so I can explain more.

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NinchaneseThe super hidden (and insanely useful) tone trick no one tells you about
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A-ya! 20 Chinese interjections to absolutely know!

The more you listen to Chinese speakers, the more you start noticing the little sounds that pepper their discourse. It’s what we call Chinese exclamative particles or interjections 语气词 yǔ-qì-cí.

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NinchaneseA-ya! 20 Chinese interjections to absolutely know!
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Simplified or Traditional Chinese: which should you learn?

A very common question beginners in Chinese have is: should I learn Simplified or Traditional Chinese? To get to the bottom of that, you need to know: what’s the difference between the two? Why are there two forms? Which should you pick?

So, let’s see the difference between Traditional and Simplified Chinese characters. And, let’s find out which Chinese character form is for you!

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NinchaneseSimplified or Traditional Chinese: which should you learn?
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What to do when you can’t find the word you’re looking for with an IME?

Sometimes you think you know a Chinese word, but when you try to type it in your Chinese IME, you can’t find it. I’m sure this has happened multiple times to you. It could be for various reasons, maybe you don’t have the right pinyin. Or maybe there’s a spelling mistake in what you’re typing. How do you know?

How do you find the Chinese character you are looking for?

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NinchaneseWhat to do when you can’t find the word you’re looking for with an IME?
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World HSK 5: An Epic world for Epic Chinese learning

The HSK 5 world is now complete! The Nincha Team has been working tremendously to create and offer you a complete and interactive course to learn Chinese at an advanced level.

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NinchaneseWorld HSK 5: An Epic world for Epic Chinese learning