分类存档：Quick tips

Tips Miniseries (2/9): 嗯

If you want to truly sound like a CHINESE Chinese, there’s no getting around it, sooner or later you are going to have to learn to grunt. The truth is, rather than using 是, 对 or the verb of the question, one of the most common ways to respond to a statement or question is to simply say (though I think ‘say’ is pushing it) 嗯 ng or 啊 a (the latter with varying intonations, depending upon the circumstance). To Anglos, this can feel a little too ‘primitive’ or ‘impolite’,…

Tips Miniseries (1/9): Rude Politeness

Less of the 请, less of the 谢谢, less of the 您贵姓 – please! A really ‘foreign’-sounding feature of English-speakers’ Chinese is the excessive politeness – it tends to be over-seasoned with ‘polite’ expressions like please and thank you. Whilst, to the English palate, this seasoning – whether used with friends, strangers, superiors, or even our own family – is pleasant to the taste, to the Chinese palate, it’s taste is somewhat vapid.

Tips Miniseries: 9 More Tips to Make Your Chinese More Authentic

Hey all! In a previous post, I gave you 5 fairly simple ways in which you can make your Chinese sound more natural and less ‘foreign’. In this miniseries of posts, I’m continuing with this theme and giving you another 9 tips, each with some more in-depth discussion. Some of them have intermediate learners in mind, but no matter what your level – either higher or lower, there’s still a lot of useful stuff here. Enjoy 🙂