Chinese tips by FluentFlix, a fun way to learn Chinese through the web's best Chinese videos.
Want to know the most used Chinese phrases? It’s your lucky week - the hot topic on Weibo is “What’s your pet phrase?” (#你的口头禅是什么?#) 你(nǐ): you 口头禅(kǒu tóu chán): pet phrase 是(shì): to be 什么(shén me): what The top 10 Chinese pet phrases in all their glory, based on official stats: 10. 没意思(méi yì si): boring. Eg.: “how was [...]
On Feb 28, 楸楸 (qiū qiū) sent out a simple tweet. It went viral with over 12,700 retweets. It continues to be a hot topic (话题 – huà tí) on Weibo (#一句话证明你上过学#). The tweet? “用一句话证明你上过学” “yòng yī jù huà zhèng míng nǐ shàng guò xué” “Use One Phrase To Prove You’ve Been to School” In case you [...]
Eskimos have hundreds of words for “snow.” Actually, that’s a widespread misconception. But what about Chinese words for “fake”? Just off the top of our heads here, you have 7: 山寨 (shān zhài) 假冒 (jiǎ mào) 盗版 (dào bǎn) 高仿 (gāo fǎng) 仿制 (fǎng zhì) 仿造 (fǎng zào) 三无产品 (sān wú chǎn pǐn) Maybe you already know these, especially the [...]
A Valentines Day billboard has Shijiazhuang residents talking: “Don’t get off track on Valentines Day — Let love return home (不要出轨情人节，让爱回家 – bú yào chū guǐ qíng rén jié ，ràng ài huí jiā).” Apparently, Valentines Day is a special day for people in monogamous relationships, but not necessarily for the reason you would expect: many [...]
Have you ever been approached at a club by someone who seemed like a womanizer? There’s Chinese slang for that! The phrase 色狼 (sèláng) literally translates as “color wolf”. This has no real meaning in English but most closely means “womanizer” or “sex maniac”. There is also a female version of this – 色女 (sènǚ), [...]
Are you eating the same things all the time at Chinese restaurants? Are your Chinese friends not impressed anymore when you order Chinese food? If so, maybe it’s time you got out of your Chinese food ordering rut. To that end, we’ve put together this Chinese food vocabulary word list here for Shanghai cuisine. We’ve [...]
We all love people who are 厉害 (lì hai – awesome). China also has a long history of monarchic rulers. And so, some Chinese slang combines the two — along with three activities that take up a lot of time for young people: test-taking, interviewing, and karaoke. 1) 考霸 (kǎo bà): Test Master 考霸 (kǎo bà) refers [...]
Are you off to a strong start for 2012? Then don’t forget to keep pushing for a strong finish. Because otherwise you’d just end up with 虎头蛇尾 (hǔ tóu shé wěi). 虎头蛇尾 (hǔ tóu shé wěi) literally means a “tiger head” and “snake tail,” and means that you start off strong, but finish weak. A breakdown [...]
This is probably our most violent chengyu ever. But it’s also one of the most positive. Use this chengyu for close friends that you’d do anything for, including sticking knives in your ribs. It’s 两肋插刀 (liǎng lèi chā dāo). 两肋插刀 (liǎng lèi chā dāo) literally means “stick knives into both sides of your ribs,” and it’s [...]
Crowds are a fact of life in China. So what do you say if you’re in a hurry and have to get past people? Perhaps you’ve been silently bumping into and running past them… Just in case, here are 5 authentic ways to say “excuse me” in that context: 1) 借过 (jiè ɡuò): If you’re really in [...]
Loading ...© 2012 FluentFlix Chinese Learning Blog. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by WordPress. Designed by 
