As your Mandarin skills increase, you will inevitably receive compliments from Chinese friends. Chinese people appreciate modesty, so learning how to respond is a good idea. The phrase nálǐ nálǐ? literally means “Where? where?”. It implies that you feel that the praise is unwarranted. It also gives your friend an opportunity to heap mor...

Continue reading »

As I write this, we are now almost 4 months into the pandemic. Our only hope is to keep the virus from spreading. In addition to wearing a face mask, and keeping 6 feet from others, one of our most effective defenses at this point is washing our hands thoroughly and often. So this may be a good time to learn how to encourage others to do just that. S...

Continue reading »

By now everyone is aware of the Coronavirus spreading rapidly across China and several other countries. In the last few days it seems to have reached the west coast of the US. It is still too early to know the extent of the epidemic. Thankfully, at this point, it has not reached pandemic proportions. But, wearing a face mask (if you can find one) in cro...

Continue reading »

Valentines day is coming soon. Don’t be caught off guard without an appropriate Chinese greeting. If this phrase sounds inverted … it is. In English, we say “Happy Valentines Day”, but the Chinese prefer to say “Valentines Day Happy”. This is true for all holiday greetings. But, it is not hard to get used to. Use th...

Continue reading »

Chinese people celebrate the new year on the second new moon following the Winter Solstice. They have many traditions to follow during the Spring Festival. (Yes, even in the dead of winter, they still call it Spring Festival). Probably the most important tradition is eating. There are many different foods that are eaten during Spring Festival. Spring ...

Continue reading »