Mushy Chinese Song- SMART Mandarin

Mushy Chinese Song

Hey guys

Today we're going to share a MUSHY Chinese song which was very popular in 2013 (it's still one of the popular songs in Taiwan)

The reason I wanna share with you guys was that I got an inspiration one day from my English teacher (yes, I'm still learning English with my teacher! :P ) and I told my teacher that I always find Chinese songs are way way way too MUSHY which I don't really like........ :P

Then my teacher said that this is a good topic for the foreigners out there getting to know more about the style of our songs!

So here is the link to one of the mushy songs of Chinese

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWmVK8K2QhM

This is usually the melody and the lyrics are always about love love love !!! I have to say it's very cliche ~

Oh! Btw, the name of this song is called "命運“ Mìngyùn

It's means "fate" in Chinese.

Anyway! I've share more Chinese songs in our SMART Mandarin news letter in detail soon!

To receive our news letter about some great tips to learn Chinese.

Go to our website www.smartmandarinchinese.com

And sign up for free !

Thank you all for your patient to read this through!

SMART Mandarin

Katrina Lee

About Vegetarianism in Taiwan - Learn Chinese SMART Mandarin

About Vegetarianism in Taiwan

Since Buddhism is deeply rooted in Taiwanese culture, therefore vegetarianism isn't a new concept in Taiwan.

Today we're going to touch on some useful vocabulary about vegetarianism in Chinese.

1. Saying "I'm a vegetarian."

    我吃素。 wǒ chīsù

    This meaning " I eat vegetarian food" 
     The word "素 sù “ is a short form for "素食 sùshí”.

2. Saying " vegetarian restaurant"

    素食餐廳 sùshí cāntīng


3. Saying "I'm a vegan" 

   我吃全素。  wǒ chī quán sù

   The word 全quán  meaning "whole; entire" 


4. Some Buddhism vegetarian are not eating garlic, onion, or green onion. So if you happen     to be one of them, you might need to say  

    我的素食請不要加蔥蒜，謝謝。
    wǒ de sùshí qǐng bùyào jiā cōng suàn, xièxiè

    This means " My vegetarian food please don't add garlic and onions, thank you." literally.


5. If you are the kind of vegetarian do eat eggs and drink milk. Then you are eating  

   蛋奶素 dàn nǎi sù   （literary meaning egg, milk vegetarian food）
   You can tell people 
    我吃蛋奶素 wǒ chī dàn nǎi sù

   which means I'm a vegetarian that could have eggs and milk.

6. 鍋邊素  guō biān sù

     It means " pot side vegetarian" literally. 
     It's a kind of vegetarian that are more casual, who can share a pot of meat broth with         people but he/she only picks the vegetable out of a meat broth.

So what type of vegetarian are you?  ;)

We hope you find this interesting and helpful! 
Thanks for reading all the way through.

SMART Mandarin
Katrina Lee

www.smartmandarinchinese.com

    
    

Learn Chinese FAQ-SMART Mandarin

Learn Chinese FAQ

The most commonly asked
questions about learning Chinese!

In this video, we’re going
to share our answers to the most commonly asked questions regarding to learning
Chinese.

1.     Are tones matter? How to practice tones of Chinese?

2.     How to remember the new sounds of Chinese and stick to our brain?

3.     How to recognize and remember Chinese characters efficiently?

We’ve put all our answers
to this video, and hope it helps you with the journey of your Chinese study.

Keep up the good
work!

www.smartmandarinchinese.com

SMART Mandarin

Katrina Lee

Chinese Co-Verbs "用" (yòng) - SMART Mandarin

Chinese Co-Verbs "用" (yòng) 

In Chinese, there's something named "co-verb", meaning using it to cooperate with a verb (main verb) in a sentence.

There are several co-verbs in Chinese, and in this article, we're going to talk about one of them "用 (yòng) ".

"用 (yòng) " literally meaning "to use". Say if you want to express things like "I eat with chopsticks" but in Chinese, we are so very literal so we say "I use chopsticks to eat". 

In the sentence above, you clearly know that what we do which is to eat in this example, and we use chopsticks to eat. 

So using 用 (yòng), you can think of this way

someone + 用 (yòng) + something + to do something
    I               use             chopsticks         to eat

In this case you can see that Chinese is much more direct and literal than English. 

When speaking in Chinese, you have to think Chinglish!! Not to think in English or your mother tongue. 

So if you are interested in getting to know more, please check our video below to see more about "用" (yòng)  in detail. 

And if you would like to see more videos step-by-step learning Chinese, welcome to our website www.smartmandarinchinese.com 

加油 Jiāyóu

再見！ zàijiàn

SMART Mandarin 
Katrina Lee

TV Show Recommended - GREAT for Practicing Your Chinese

TV Show Recommended - GREAT for Practicing Your Chinese

Some of my foreign students ask me which TV program do i recommend for practicing Chinese.

Here is my recommendation!
This program invites foreigners to talk about different topics in Chinese, and those foreigners have really good Chinese!

Here are the reasons why I recommend this show

1. People can often related to the topics they discuss in the show. For example, the link I share today is the topic about learning Chinese.

2. The Chinese they speak is very natural which means, if you can understand what they say in the show, you can understand what people say on the street.

3. Seeing other foreigners speak decent Chinese in the show is a real inspiration to you! If they can speak Chinese so well, so can you!

The show i share today is about learning Chinese which is a topic that my students and I can totally relate to.
The most difficulties of learning Chinese are.

1. The tones- different tones can mean totally different words and meanings.

2. Chinese characters - too many strokes, especially traditional one.

Enjoy the show and keep up the good work!!

SMART Mandarin

Chinese calligraphy lesson 101- The Basics

Chinese calligraphy lesson 101

The basics

1. Before starting your first stroke, do think about the proportion of your character. Every stroke you make can make a big difference for the look of your word.

2. Start writing/practicing with easy characters, the basic stroke is the important foundation for calligraphy.
You cant rush!

3. Controlling the brush pen is crucial, knowing how to use different strengths to how you begin or end a stoke will make a huge difference!!
After all, using a brush pen to write isnt like using a pencil, there's no eraser! smile emoticon

https://www.facebook.com/smartmandarin/videos/994459243958108/

SMART Mandarin

www.smartmandarinchinese.com