Common Chinese Mistakes Made by Students 1

Our new video lesson " Common Chinese Mistakes Made by Student 1“ is finally here!!!

In this video lesson, you show you how students misunderstand the word "ask" (問wen4) in Chinese, and we're going to CORRECT it, teach you how to use it right!

Have fun in class!!

xoxo

Katrina Lee

Survival Chinese- Lesson Selection!

SMART Mandarin Video Lessons Selection-

For Survival in Chinese Speaking Countries!

你好 Nǐ hǎo

SMART Mandarin has abundant of information about China and Taiwan and of course along with common phrases and vocabulary in the videos.

We’ve got wide variety of topics for your study. And we especially chose some of the MOST survival video lessons for your EMERGENCY while living in a Chinese-speaking country.

So here is our list of selection for you!

1.   Survival Chinese Phrases 1 & Survival Chinese Phrases 2

Common phrases that you MUST KNOW to survive!

In the video lesson, we teach everything you have to know for your first phrase lesson!

Survival Chinese Phrases 1 

http://www.smartmandarinchinese.com/class_Detail.asp?id=45

Survival Chinese Phrases 2

http://www.smartmandarinchinese.com/class_Detail.asp?id=46

2.    Bargaining in Chinese

Shopping in Chinese could be a fun experience.

In this lesson, you’ll learn about shopping, negotiating, and bargaining in Chinese !!

Click to learn

http://www.smartmandarinchinese.com/class_Detail.asp?id=241

4.  How to Order a Cup of Coffee in Chinese

If you happened to be a coffee lover, then this video lesson will help you ordering coffee with NO PROBLEM!

You can also use the same structures in this video to order drinks in Chinese!

Click to learn

http://www.smartmandarinchinese.com/class_Detail.asp?id=242

5.  Giving Directions in Chinese

Getting lost in Taiwan/China? People in most rural areas in Taiwan and Chinese DO NOT speak English or any foreign languages- please be mentally prepared. Knowing some Chinese of directions makes your travel in Taiwan/China trouble-free!

Click here to learn

http://www.smartmandarinchinese.com/class_Detail.asp?id=175

We hope you’ll enjoy and find our lessons helpful !!

With love,

XOXO

Your teacher,

Katrina Lee

Meet the Asian Woman Part 2

Meet the Asian Woman Part 2

Clinginess (黏/黏Nián):

Most people have the impression(印象/印象yìnxiàng) that Asian woman (in this case, Chinese-speaking Asian women) are less independent(獨立/独立dúlì) than western women. This is partially true. But as we mentioned previously, the new generation of Asian women are more and more westernized and tend to be less clingy.

Compared to western woman, Asian women still hope to find a man to depend on(依靠/依靠yīkào) emotionally and financially in life.

As my mom always told me when I was young: “A woman’s happiness all depends on the man she marries.”(一個女人最大的幸福就是嫁給疼愛她的男人 / 一个女人最大的幸福就是嫁给疼爱她的男人yígè nǚrén zuìdà de xìngfú jiùshì jià gěi téng'ài tā de nánrén)

Wanna read more?

Please click the link below and get a free sign-up!
You get the whole post on 
"Meet the Asian Woman Part 2"
www.smartmandarinchinese.com

SMART Mandarin 
Katrina Lee

Meet the Asian Woman Part 1

Meet the Asian Woman Part 1

Ni hao:

Have you ever seen a mixed couple (異國情侶yìguó qínglǚ)?

Why all the fuss about western men and Asian women (亞洲女性yàzhōu nǚxìng)?

Have you seen all those dating sites (交友網站jiāoyǒu wǎngzhàn) for men to meet Asian women?

Let’s uncover the mystery of the Asian woman.

Most Asian women fail to fit the stereotype (刻板印象kèbǎn yìnxiàng)of the submissive Asian woman (順從的亞洲女性shùncóng de yàzhōu nǚrén).

Asian women have minds of their own and goals and dreams.

Asians in general do tend to be family-oriented, as the stereotype suggests, but there’s still a generation gap (代溝dàigōu). Younger Taiwanese women enjoy freedoms their mothers never had, such as jetting off to Provence alone. Yet the family still tugs on her heart: She’d never miss Chinese New Year (春節Chūnjié) or Tomb Sweeping Day (清明節qīngmíng jié) at home.

Body-consciousness: We strive to fit into the smallest pair of jeans (牛仔褲niúzǎikù) possible. We weigh ourselves every day and avoid that pineapple cake (鳳梨酥fènglí sū) at the office. We ruthlessly compare ourselves to others, sometimes even eyebullying overweight women.

Click here to listen the podcast of this post!

That’s all about Asian women? Of course NOT!

That’s just part of it. We’ll be sharing more about Asian women with you in our next post!

Cheers,

SMART Mandarin

Katrina Lee

Knowing lots of vocabulary in Chinese but still can't speak Chinese well?

Knowing lots of vocabulary in Chinese but still 

can't speak Chinese well?

When it comes to learn a new language, we'd rather our students

to know how to use a vocabulary in 5 different ways than to know 5 vocabulary but can't even make a single proper sentence in Chinese!!

This is a huge problem to most of the language learners- learning too many vocabulary but speaking/practicing too little!!

BUT!!!

Don't worry, we have EXACTLY what you need!!!

Bringing our classroom voc. activity to this video lesson.

We like to pick out words and vocabulary which students

have learned and teach them how to make good sentences

in Chinese!

Check out the link below and enjoy the lesson!

http://www.smartmandarinchinese.com/class_Detail.asp?id=316

SMART Mandarin

Katrina Lee

Expressing EVERYTHING, EVERYONE in Chinese.

Expressing EVERYTHING, EVERYONE in Chinese

We use a specific sentence structure when it comes to say those in Chinese

1. I want to eat EVERYTHING.
2. I know EVERYONE at the party.
3. I like EVERYONE

Check out the link below and enjoy the video lesson !
http://www.smartmandarinchinese.com/class_Detail.asp?id=315

SMART Mandarin

Good Taiwanese Movie Recommended for Learning Chinese

Good Taiwanese Movie Recommended for Learning Chinese

Calling all the Dog LOVERS (愛狗人士ài gǒu rénshì) there!!!

There's a Taiwanese nice movie that I accidentally found recently on YouTube called

 "只要一分鐘" (zhǐyào yī fēnzhōng)  -- Name of the movie in Taiwan

 "我的男友和狗" (wǒ de nányǒu hé gǒu) - Name of the movie in China

This is a story about a workaholic woman who adopted a golden retriever(黃金獵犬 huángjīn lièquǎn) and raises it with her boyfriend, and the story of their lives. 

The reason I recommended this movie is because that it has simple and commonly used conversation and structures of Chinese, and if you happen to be a dog lover, you can related to it so much! (at least I can! ;P)

Some of the lines in the movie are spoken in Taiwanese (a popular dialect in Taiwan), so if you find yourself not understand what they say, don’t worry!

We listed some vocabulary in simplified and traditional Chinese about this movie

1.      黃金獵犬 (traditional) / 黄金猎犬(simplified) huángjīn lièquǎn  ： 

        Golden Retriver

2.      愛狗人士 / 爱狗人士 ài gǒu rénshì ： dog lovers

3.      寵物 / 宠物chǒngwù : pet

Click the link below to watch the trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmATJjQEG5M

Hope you all like this movie and learn some Chinese!

SMART Mandarin 

Katrina Lee