Speechling's Official Chinese Blog

The Best Chinese Words to Practice as a Beginner: The Definitive List Part 1

When it comes to learning a new language, one thing always comes up almost immediately: vocabulary. Students often wonder which words they should learn and how they can learn them in the best (read: the fastest) way possible. What Chinese words are the easiest? What Chinese words are the most

Mandarin

The Three Levels of Chinese Reading Materials for Learners

So you’re ready to give Mandarin Chinese writing and reading a go. It's a hard path you've set yourself on, but once you've made it, you'll really feel like you've accomplished something great. This article is all about helping you get there. We're going to introduce the 3 levels

Mandarin

Using Chinglish to Learn Mandarin Chinese: The Power of Literal Translation

Big family good! That right there is the literal translation of a Mandarin Chinese sentence into English. Some might know this as Chinglish. What am I saying? I'm saying Hello Everybody, or 大家好 (dàjiā hǎo). At this point, you might be asking why I am starting an article in such

Mandarin

6 of the Most Common Mandarin Chinese Words Influenced by Dialect

Dialect can be the bane of any language learner’s existence. Sometimes it feels like the language you’re learning just isn’t what’s in the textbook. It’s as though what you think is correct, is actually only correct in the classroom, or on a whiteboard, or during

Mandarin

Chinese Internet Slang 101

Whoever said technology doesn’t affect language? It wasn't us, that's for sure! The fact is that technology and language are about as linked as a painter's canvas is to any artwork he creates. Just because the artist might remain the same, doesn’t mean their canvas always will. It's

Mandarin

How to Speak Chinese - The Ultimate Guide to Chinese Pronunciation

Regardless of whether you have or haven’t started learning Chinese, you’ve probably heard that it’s one of the (if not THE) hardest languages in the world to learn. This is especially true when it comes to speaking. However, despite what you may have heard about how it

Mandarin

5 Different Techniques to Indicate Time and Tense in Chinese

When we speak, we tend to communicate differently than when we write. This is true in any language, right? I mean, it’s unlikely you’re going to start your finest piece of prose with an ‘alright mate?’ or a ‘so, like, it all, like, started like this’. There are

Mandarin

5 Tips and Tricks for Omitting Words from Chinese Sentences

No, we’re not talking about forgetting how to say something properly We’re talking about situations where it’s perfectly ok to omit certain words from sentences and phrases. These are situations where one or two words just aren't needed and it can actually be better to omit them.

Mandarin

Why Learning Chinese Sentence Structure Can Be More Important Than Chinese Tones

Almost every Chinese learner has, at one time or another, been at a point where the frustration is just too much. Where they can't even think about Chinese sentence structure or communication because, no matter how hard they try, they just can’t seem to get their Chinese tones right.