Author Archive | Alan

Learning Chinese is tough for a lot of reasons.

Pinyin doesn’t sound the way you expect it to.

Failure to use accurate tones can …

So you want to learn Chinese.

You’re probably using most of the tools that people use to improve their listening. and you might …

Chinese fluency is about more than just chengyu, grammar, or even pinyin and tones.

It’s also about learning Chinese culture.

After …

Learning Chinese can feel like climbing up a cliff.

You’ve got to learn pinyin and Chinese tones, not to mention Chinese characters.

But …

The conventional wisdom is that Mandarin Chinese grammar is easy.

After all, the hard parts are Chinese tones, characters, and chengyu, right?

If …

They’re the most notoriously difficult part of learning to speak Chinese.

They stop many would-be Chinese learners dead in their tracks.

They’re the bane …

Do you know that awkward moment that every Chinese learner experiences?

When you realize that “nǐ hǎo” is actually not how Chinese people say …