Learn Chinese with Beginner Stories

Acupuncture is a unique method of treating diseases in China and an important part of Traditional Chinese medicine. For many people, when they first see acupuncture, they would think it looks scary, with long needles sticking into people’s bodies. But the treatment isn't as painful as it looks, and it has a good therapeutic effect on pain. In today’s story, we are going to discuss the origins of a...

Although it is just the beginning of spring, the temperature is still a little cold, but people have been eager to go for spring outing after a long winter. In today’s story, we will see that our protagnoist has got ready for a spring outting event organoised by their faulty’s student union. Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journey with maayot. Receive a daily chinese reading...

Discussing the role of the Great Wall is a big topic, because the Great Wall has a profound and significant influence on Chinese history. The Great Wall is a fortification, most people believe that because China built the Great Wall, to ensure the continuity and development of Chinese civilization. That's true, however because of the Great Wall, there are other ways in which it has influenced the...

Chinese people have a unique way of seeing flowers and trees. The ancient Chinese endowed flowers and trees with the same life as human beings, and imaged some plants as their friends with some kinds of personality. In today’s story, we are going to introduce three particular plants, which have a name like people. They are called the three companions of winter.  Join other motivated learners on yo...

If we want to join a chorus, the basic quality we need to have is to sing well. But our protagonist of today’s story, Xiao Xing, although he doesn't have this qualification, he really wants to join the chorus. Let’s see if his wish came true? Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journey with maayot. Receive a daily chinese reading in Mandarin Chinese in your inbox. Full text in C...

Siheyuan is a kind of traditional Chinese residential building, which can be seen in both north and south China. However, Beijing is a city that retains the most Siheyuan, so the Siheyuan here is quite most famous. In today’s story, let's take a look at the Siheyuan in Beijing. What does it look like and some of the architectural features of Siheyuan. This architectural feature has significant inf...

There are many famous emperors in Chinese history, but there are three people, although they are not emperors, they have the same status as emperors, they are Yao, Shun and Yu-- three tribal alliance leaders in ancient times. In today's story, we are going to look at the characteristics of Yao, Shun and Yu. By understanding their characteristics, we can understand why Sima Qian used them as a mode...

From our previous story, we have learned that Edward has a girlfriend he’s been with for three months. He had told his friend Xiao Hua about her. In today’s story, he recounted how he and his girlfriend went from knowing each other to become boyfriend and girlfriend. We could see although they are not love at first sight, when they first met, there are something Edward was attracted to.  Join othe...

Speaking of Confucius, we believe there is no need to make too much introduction, we all know who he is. There are many titles in Confucius, such as “mater of all ages”, “the supreme master” etc. However, he received far less honor in his lifetime than he did after he passed away.  This is because his ideology had been gradually accepted many years after he passed away. In today’s story, we are go...

Sometimes, when we are in a bad mood, we may not feel like talking. But in our today’s story, the protagonist has implemented a plan for keeping silent for a week. We will see that she did so not because she was in a bad mood, but for some other reasons. Let’s take a look why did she come up with this plan and how did her plan work out.  Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journ...

The Chinese New Year is approaching, during this period of time, for many office staffs in China, this is a busy time. They need to be productive in order to finish all the tasks before Chinese New Year. In today’s story, we will see what a typical Chinese office staff’s day looks like.  Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journey with maayot. Receive a daily chinese reading in...

In Chinese history, we have heard of many famous emperors, such as Tang Taizong, Qin Shihuang, Kangxi and Qianlonge,etc. However, during the Warring States period, there was a king named king Zhao Wulingwang. Because he promoted a military reform, he was called "the first great man after the Yellow Emperor" by Mr. Liang Qichao, a modern Chinese thinker. The military reform he carried out was calle...

During our holiday, we all like to make some plans for our holiday. Some people have full schedules, but it's difficult to implement them. Some people have very implementable plans. In today’s story, our protagonist shared his winter holiday study plan with us. It looks like although his schedule is not very full, but it is very detail orientated, not that difficult to achieve. Join other motivate...

When we bought a new car, most people are reluctant to let others drive their car for fear that they might cause some damages to the car. But there are some exceptional cases. In today’s story, we will see that our protagonist Xiao Gao drove his new car to work, not long after he got his driving license. He is more than happy to let others to drive his car for an urgent issue. Let’s take a look wh...

Peking Opera is the quintessence of China. Everyone who knows Peking Opera knows Mr. Mei Lanfang, a famous Master of Peking Opera in China. He had created an art stream of Peking Opera -- Mei School. In today’s story, we are going to look at how did Mr. Mei created so many classic images of Peking Opera.  Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journey with maayot. Receive a daily c...

From next week, colleges and universities in China will start the winter holiday. Because of the Chinese New Year, some of the students will go home and celebrate the New Year with their families. But some of the students have different plans to spend their holiday. In today’s story, our protagnoist shared his plan and some of his class-mates’for their winter holiday. We will see that although he...

In Chinese, when we read the number “1”, many people are used to pronounce it as “yao”  instead of “yi”.  But for people who have been to China for not too long, they would easily get confused. In today’s story, our protagonist Roy had some misunderstanding about the pronunciation of the number “1” in Chinese when he visited a hospital. We will see that both he and the doctor got quite confused. ...

The giant panda is a unique animal of China. They looks quite adorable, and often visit other countries as "ambassadors of friendship" representing China. In today’s story, we are going to look at their physical characteristics, life habits and the origin of their name in Chinese.  Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journey with maayot. Receive a daily chinese reading in Mandar...

Now there are more and more foreign friends who speak Chinese very well. Some people speak Chinese as if they were Chinese. In today’s story, we are going to listen to a dialogue between Mary, Xiaoli and Lina Yu. Lina just met Xiaoli, and her Chinese really impressed Xiaoli. Let’s take a look why does she speak Chinese so well.  Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journey with m...

Yesterday was the New Year of 2022. Every New Year, there are always some people unconsciously feeling: "A year has passed, and we are one year older.” Along with that comes anxiety about getting older.  Today, we are going to discuss how could we feel comfortable with the fact of getting older and what kind of gifts does time bring as we grow older.  Join other motivated learners on your Chinese...

Crosstalk is a form of Chinese folk art that combines the artistic characteristics of language and performance. In many people's minds, crosstalk is unique to northern China, but this is not the case. In today’s story, we are going to look at the classification, artistic features and performance techniques of crosstalk.  Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journey with maayot. R...

“ Take it as it comes” is a line from the Analects of Confucius, a collection of Confucian classics. In addition to its original meaning, people have also come up with a few of different interpretations. In today’s story, let’s take a look what are the meanings of this phrase.  Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journey with maayot. Receive a daily chinese reading in Mandarin C...

In Chinese, the highest acknowledgement of a person's moral character and deeds is to call him "gentleman", which has been the ideal personality pursued by Chinese people for more than 2,000 years. Confucius was the first person to define the word "gentleman" in moral terms in China. In the Analects of Confucius, Confucius gave a detailed elaboration on the definition of a gentleman. In today’s st...

When it comes to cooking, some people think it's easy to improve their cooking skills by practicing. But some people believe that excellent cooking skills also requires talent and motivation. In today’s story, our protagonist recounted how his wife’s cooking skills improved over time.  Join other motivated learners on your Chinese learning journey with maayot. Receive a daily chinese reading in Ma...

The opening of Winter Olympics in Beijing is just over a month to go, and we will enjoy the highest level of ice and snow sports in the world. Compared with European and Northern American countries, ice and snow sports started relatively late in China. But speaking of ice activities, China has had ice skating, sledding and other ice activities since a very early time. However, these activities wer...