Mandarin From the Ground Up

After listening to Season 3, Lesson 08, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking six minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress. How to practice This episode's daily practice session doesn't include spoken instructions, but the process is the same as previous episodes of this season: In the first part, you'll hear a short snippet of the dialogu...

Show notes: Here is a link to my conversation with Mischa Wilmers on his I'm Learning Mandarin podcast.  Taipei Shorts , an annual theater event that showcases multilingual theater written, directed, and performed by local artists in Taipei.  Lesson Outline: [00:21] Intro / updates / announcements  [03:53] Magic Phrase: 櫃台負責配合客人 [05:56] A ramble on tones, context, and imitation [11:52] Dia...

After listening to Season 3, Lesson 07, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking six minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress. How to practice This episode's daily practice session doesn't include spoken instructions, but the process is the same as previous episodes of this season: In the first part, you'll hear a short snippet of the dialogu...

Lesson Outline: [00:21] Review of tone pairs from lessons one through six.  [02:30] Magic Phrase: 帥哥上班，外公退休 [08:20] Dialogue [11:40] Translation [23:07] Dialogue, one more time at normal speed Magic Phrase (4-1) This phrase is composed entirely of words that use the 4-1 tone pair. We use it to practice identifying and then pronouncing the tones, hearing how they interact with each other i...

SLOW SPEED VERSION After listening to Season 3, Lesson 06, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking ten minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress. How to practice This episode's daily practice session doesn't include spoken instructions, but the process is the same as previous episodes of this season: In the first part, you'll hear a short sni...

After listening to Season 3, Lesson 06, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking ten minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress. How to practice This episode's daily practice session doesn't include spoken instructions, but the process is the same as previous episodes of this season: In the first part, you'll hear a short snippet of the dialogu...

The long-awaited episode 06 is finally here! This lesson's dialogue is longer than usual, so let's get right to it.  Lesson Outline: [00:21] Introduction [04:21] Magic Phrase: 下午下雨，地鐵漏水！ [07:22] Dialogue [11:00] Translation [25:09] Dialogue, slowed down Magic Phrase (4-3) This phrase is composed entirely of words that use the 4-3 tone pair. We use it to practice identifying and then pron...

SLOW VERSION After listening to Season 3, Lesson 05, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking eight minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress. How to practice This episode's daily practice session doesn't include spoken instructions, but the process is the same as previous episodes of this season: In the first part, you'll hear a short snippet...

After listening to Season 3, Lesson 05, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking five minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress. How to practice This episode's daily practice session doesn't include spoken instructions, but the process is the same as previous episodes of this season: In the first part, you'll hear a short snippet of the dialog...

We can't understand a language outside the context of the people who live it and speak it. A human language cannot be contained in an artifact like a dictionary or even a database, because it is a living thing, which exists through the people who live by it. From the standpoint of learning a language, this point is essential. Not incidentally, rare cases notwithstanding, the human brain is not par...

After listening to Season 3, Lesson 04, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking a few minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress. Magic Phrase (1-2) This phrase is composed entirely of words that use the 1-2 tone pair. We use it to practice identifying and then pronouncing the tones, hearing how they interact with each other in context.  雖然...

After listening to Season 3, Lesson 04, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking five minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress. Magic Phrase (1-2) This phrase is composed entirely of words that use the 1-2 tone pair. We use it to practice identifying and then pronouncing the tones, hearing how they interact with each other in context.  雖然公...

Be mindful of how you're feeling when you practice these lessons. Are you feeling excited and energized? Tired and doubtful? Distracted? Focused? Without passing any judgment on how you feel, observing your feelings or state of mind can offer clues about how and whether you might want to adjust your practice. For example, about a month ago I noticed that my language practice was starting to bore m...

After listening to Season 3, Lesson 03, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking five minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress. Magic Phrase (2-3) This phrase is composed entirely of words that use the 2-3 tone pair. We use it to practice identifying and then pronouncing the tones, hearing how they interact with each other in context. 還好男...

Today's tone pair, 2-3, is easily confused with the one we learned in episode one, 3-2. Today we'll spend some time practicing differentiating between them. Then we'll hear another fun (slightly absurd) dialogue to practice our listening skills, and absorb some new words.  Lesson Outline: [00:21] Magic Phrase [04:27] Practice repeating the Magic Phrase [05:43] Practice phrases using tone pairs we'...

After listening to Season 3, Lesson 02, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking five minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes progress. Magic Phrase (1-4) This phrase is composed entirely of words that use the 1-4 tone pair. In this lesson, we use it to practice identifying and then pronouncing the tones, hearing how they interact with each other in...

Let's learn another tone pair! Can you hear which one it is? Learning the pronunciation of a foreign language can sometimes feel strange, even scary. Pronunciation is such a personal thing -- it's part of who we are, and how we express ourselves. When we start to imitate another language, it's easy to start feeling like "this isn't me." If you find yourself feeling that way, try to just observe th...

After listening to Season 3, Lesson 01, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking five minutes a day to practice listening and imitating the material. Repetition makes it stick. Part 1: Magic Phrase (3-2) This phrase is composed entirely of words that use the 3-2 tone pair. In this lesson, we use it to practice identifying and then pronouncing the tones, hearing how they interact with each o...

Welcome back for Season 3! In this series, we are going to do a deep dive on the tones in Mandarin. We covered tones briefly in Season 1, Episode 07 , but there is still a lot more to talk about. Tones are one of those subjects that some people love and many people hate... or at least find unpleasant, and possibly somewhat frightening. It's my mission in Season 3 to dispel all your fears about ton...

Let's hear a line-by-line translation of the dialogue from lesson 16. This is the final lesson of Season 2 -- a milestone for both of us. Congratulations! Every minute you spent listening is a minute you invested in yourself and your Mandarin learning. Learning a language is challenging, it takes time, and there are bound to have been moments when you felt frustrated or felt that you had hit a pla...

After listening to Season 2, Lesson 16, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking five minutes a day to practice listening to and imitating the dialogue. Repetition makes it stick. README: How to use this recording You'll hear the dialogue from Lesson 16 twice. The first time , there will be a short pause after each line. During the pause, try to repeat aloud exactly what you just heard. Rep...

In this lesson, we get to hear the last dialogue in Season 2! Mrs. Kang (康太太) goes to get dinner ready, leaving Xiao Li, A-Ming, and Lili to talk. What do they talk about?  Request for support I started this podcast three years ago to share my passion for learning languages. I wanted to share the ways that I found most effective for learning a difficult language like Mandarin, and to talk about...

Let's hear a line-by-line translation of the dialogue from lesson 14, and then practice with a Q&A. At the end of the lesson, I suggest that you can practice answering the questions yourself, and can even send me your answers -- either written (pinyin or Chinese characters) or, better yet, as a recording of yourself speaking! Don't be afraid of making mistakes, and if you want to copy part or...

After listening to Season 2, Lesson 14, start reinforcing what you've learned by taking five minutes a day to practice listening to and imitating the dialogue. Repetition makes it stick. README: How to use this recording You'll hear the dialogue from Lesson 14 twice. The first time , there will be a short pause after each line. During the pause, try to repeat aloud exactly what you just heard. Rep...

新年快樂！Happy Lunar New Year! In honor of the new year, this dialogue involves lots and lots and lots of food, prepared by Mrs. Kang (康太太). Can you guess what else is happening? Lesson Outline: [00:21] Introduction [01:26] Dialogue [03:08] Useful vocabulary and phrases from the dialogue [14:28] Dialogue again Words and phrases from the dialogue, with examples (Chinese characters only): (scrol...