Lucky now has a new video – promoting her recently released book. Learn all about it!

I just got an e-mail from Felecia, one of my students who has now received my book, HowToChinese.com: A Practical Mandarin Chinese Course.

Hi Lucky,
I just received my copy of your new book. I love it!The font is clear, good for seeing the Chinese characters. I really like how there is a Chinese proverb before each lesson. You have included extra facts about China and Chinese culture that my teacher doesn’t have that much time to answer or I forget to ask. I’m starting the book tonight, and I’m hoping to set up lessons with you soon. This book is so student friendly, for the first time I didn’t feel intimidated when I read through the pages.

Thank you Lucky,
Thank you Jon,
From a very happy Mandarin Chinese student

I’m happy to be able to help others along their journey to learn Mandarin Chinese! I really enjoy hearing from my students!

In this HowToChinese.com video, Lucky focuses her attention on how to properly state rhetorical Mandarin Chinese questions.

Rhetorical Mandarin Chinese Questions: Video #35 Transcript

Dajia hao. Today our focus is on rhetorical questions which are very different from the normal questions we learnt before.

(break)

We learned questions before, but rhetorical questions are very different because they are used to show emphasis or refute certain cases sometimes. Rhetorical questions have two patterns:

Pattern 1:
Expressing negative meaning: subject + nǎr 哪儿+…(This pattern doesn’t have any negative word bù 不 / méi 没. So it looks positive, but in fact it’s used to emphasize a negative meaning)

Tā nǎr shì xuésheng a! He is NOT a student.
他哪儿是学生啊!

Wǒ nǎr shuō guo a! I HAVEN’T said that.
我哪儿说过啊!

Expressing positive meaning: subject + nǎr 哪儿 + bù 不 / méi 没 +…( This pattern has negative word bù 不 / méi 没I, so t looks negative, but used to emphasize a positive meaning)

Wǒ nǎr bú duì a! Everything is RIGHT on me.
我哪儿不对啊!

Wǒ nǎr méi dǎsǎo fángjiān a! I Cleaned the room.
我哪儿没打扫房间啊！

Pattern 2:
b) Another pattern for expressing negative meaning:
subject + bú shì 不是 + …(To emphasize that the subject hasn’t done anything yet)

bú shì 不是 can be moved to the front:
bú shì 不是 + subject + …(To emphasize that the subject hasn’t done anything yet)

For example:

Nǐ bú shì qù guo Běijīng ma. You haven’t BEEN to Beijing.
你不是去过北京吗。

Bú shì nǐmen ná le ma. You HAVEN’T taken it away yet.
不是你们拿了吗。

I guess that’s a little confusing now for you. Let ‘s clear them up. There are two patterns of rhetorical questions. The first one is with nǎr 哪儿 in the pattern:subject + nǎr 哪儿+… and subject + nǎr 哪儿 + bù 不 / méi 没 +…
We leaned before bù 不 and méi 没 are negative word. So if we have bù 不 , méi 没 in the sentences, the sentences always express negative meaning, right? But in the questions,the pattern subject + nǎr 哪儿 + bù 不 / méi 没 +… is used to emphasize positive meaning LIKE

Wǒ nǎr bú duì a! Everything is RIGHT on me.
我哪儿不对啊!

Wǒ nǎr méi dǎsǎo fángjiān a! I Cleaned the room.
我哪儿没打扫房间啊！

While the pattern: subject + nǎr 哪儿+… is used to emphasize negative meaning like:

Tā nǎr shì xuésheng a! He is NOT a student.
他哪儿是学生啊!

Wǒ nǎr shuō guo a! I HAVEN’T said that.
我哪儿说过啊!

The second pattern is with bú shì 不是 in it:

subject + bú shì 不是 + …
bú shì 不是 can be moved to the front:
bú shì 不是 + subject + ..

(Both are to emphasize that the subject hasn’t done anything yet)

Nǐ bú shì qù guo Běijīng ma. You haven’t BEEN to Beijing yet.
你不是去过北京吗。
We can also say:
Bú shì nǐ qù guo Běijīng ma. You haven’t BEEN to Beijing yet.
不是你去过北京吗。

Let’s do a quick test. Tā nǎr piaoliang a! 她哪儿漂亮啊！
What does it mean in English?
She is not beautiful!

To emphasize: I haven’t been to China.
What can you say in Mandarin Chinese? Wǒ nǎr qùguo Zhōngguó a!
我哪儿去过中国啊!

Chinese Fact

Fortune cookies aren’t actually a Chinese traditional food, they were invented by a Chinese noodle restaurant worker trying to attract customers in 1920 in San Francisco.

Compare the rhetorical questions with other normal questions, and practice as much as possible!Be sure to subscribe to my channel and visit how to Chinese.come. Bye.

You can now track HowToChinese.com on our Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/howtochinese

Drop in and let me know what you think of my lessons and videos! Of course… feedback on my book is good too!

Lucky’s book teaching you Mandarin Chinese is now available on Amazon.com – we’ve also added the link to the book on the right hand side of the main HowToChinese.com website. This is the book’s description.

Learning a new language is fun — and having a book guiding you every step of the way, written from a student’s point of view, is a great start!

Experience Lucky’s passion for teaching Mandarin Chinese to students around the world through her comprehensive and professionally produced online video series to help you build fluency in record time!

A fantastic book for both beginners and advanced students!

• Step by step learning process with each chapter building onto the next
• Multiple in-chapter exercises to reinforce new learnings along with real-life conversation dialogs
• Pinyin and Simplified Chinese characters throughout
• In-book Chinese English mini-dictionaries
• Comprehensive video series tie-ins to help with your pronunciation and fluency
• Chinese history and modern cultural notes
• Over 170 photographs taken across China!

Although Chinese is made up of a variety of dialects, the Chinese in this book is called Putonghua, which uses the Beijing speech sounds as its standard pronounciation. The Northern dialect is now the standard across mainland China.

This book is specifically written from the perspective of a new learner. This means it uses extensive testing, imagery and practical conversations to help you become familiar with Mandarin Chinese in an intensive manner. There are also plenty of bonus materials to help you gain cultural insights, further helping you to understand the way Chinese citizens think.

The goal of this book, written by both Lucky and Jon, is to help you gain a deep, intensive understanding of this amazing language that has remained mostly unchanged for thousands of years.

This book is only the beginning, though–there is also an extensive library of videos to take things even further. This is not yet another “Learn Mandarin Chinese in x days” kind of book; this is part of a full multimedia experience that you will want to keep even after you become completely fluent! This is why we have also included the Chinese Simplified characters, not just the Pinyin you typically see in a book of this kind. If your goal is to learn the Chinese characters at a later date, this book will help you tremendously!

Although nothing replaces physically going to China for a vacation and experiencing Chinese culture firsthand, hopefully these photographs will give you a taste of what is there waiting for you to explore it.

Get Lucky’s 400+ page book right now!

HowToChinese.com: A Practical Mandarin Chinese Course (Volume 1)

If you want to learn Chinese, this is the one and only book you’ll need (until we make the second volume). It took over a year to write and edit this book… this is Lucky’s first book and my first book that is over 400 pages! It’s massive… full of pictures, has both pinyin and characters as well as a host of other features.

You can buy it right now at CreateSpace and in a few days it will be made available on Amazon.com as well but if you want to get your hands on it before the official launch… get it here first!

https://www.createspace.com/3582251

In this Mandarin Chinese lesson, Lucky will teach you how to be polite!

Mandarine Chinese Politeness: Video #34 Transcript

Dajia hao. Hello everyone. Westerners like to say excuse me, thanks and please to show politeness. Chinese people also have their way of showing politeness as well, one of them is a very colloquial term máfan麻烦‘trouble’.

Máfan 麻烦 has the basic meaning of ‘trouble’ which is generally used after some verbs
Here are some common used words with máfan麻烦.

yǒu máfan有麻烦‘have trouble’
yùdào máfan遇到麻烦’meet some trouble’
zhǎo máfan 找麻烦 want trouble
shěng de máfan 省得麻烦 save the trouble

Máfan 麻烦 is also commonly used to politely ask for help with something. Of course asking for some help always brings people some trouble. For example.

Blackboard:

Máfan nǐ lái yíxià.
麻烦你来一下。
Please come here.
yíxià. 一下 is the measure word used after verbs to express for a while.

Máfan nǐ le.
麻烦你了。
Thanks for your help.

Máfan ràngrang.
麻烦让让。
Excuse me.

Let’s have a simple test.

If you want people help you to push something. What can you say?

Máfan nǐ tuī yíxià. 麻烦你推一下。 Please help me to push it. （tuī‘push’）

You want people to repeat something, what can you say?

Máfan nǐ chóngfù yíxià.麻烦你重复一下。（chóngfù‘repeat’)

You got it?

Chinese Fact

In China, most high school classes have over 50 students and many of them sleep in the school dorms.

Good class. Your homework today is to use mafan to show your politeness in the comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel and visit how to chinese.com. Bye.

In this lesson you’ll learn how to properly express “by” in a Mandarin Chinese sentence.

Proper use of “by” in Mandarin Chinese: Video #33 Transcript

Dajiahao. Hello everyone. Today we will learn a very USEFUL AND IMPORTANT sentence pattern using the word “by”.

Before we learned by is chéngzuò 乘坐 but you can also use chéng 乘 or zuò 坐 separately before a mode of transportation.

For example：
chéng chuán乘船/zuò chuán坐船‘ by ship’
chéng fēijī 乘飞机/zuò fēijī坐飞机‘by plane’
chéng huǒchē乘火车/zuò huǒchē坐火车‘by train’

When ‘by’ is used in the passive tense, then it should be translated into bèi 被 in Mandarin Chinese. To help you, let’s look at the blackboard to compare the difference between Chinese and English sentence patterns for expressing the same meaning.

In English: A + be + done + by + B In Chinese: A + bèi + *(B) + done

* if there is no need to express who did the thing or it’s not known that who did the thing, B can be deleted in Mandarin Chinese. For example:

Tā bèi jǐngchá zhuā le. （zhuā ‘arrest’）（ jǐngchá ‘police’）
他被警察抓了.
He was arrested by the police.

Cài bèi wǒmen dōu chī le. （cài‘food’)
菜被我们都吃了。
Food has been eaten up by us.

Nǐ yǐjīng bèi gōngsī kāichú le. gōngsī.(gōngsī’company’) (kāichú’fire’)
你已经被公司开除了。
You have already been fired by the company.

Remember the sentence pattern:
In English: A + be + done + by + B In Chinese: A + bèi + *(B) + done

Let’s do a quick quiz.
Translate it into Chinese
The table was moved out by my mother. . (bān’move ‘)(chūqu’out’)
zhuōzi’table’ bān chūqu’move out’ wǒde māma’my mother’
Zhuōzi bèi wǒde māma bān chūqu le.桌子被我的妈妈搬出去了。

again

The vase is broken. (huāpíng’vase’)(dǎhuài’ broken’)
Huāpíng bèi dǎhuài le.花瓶被打坏了。

Good!

Chinese Fact
The Chinese are thought to have been the first people to invent paper, the compass, gunpowder, and the printing press, far earlier than Europeans.

As always, try to practice as much as possible. Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel and visit how to Chinese.come. Bye.

In this lesson, Lucky will teach you how to express periods of time in Mandarin Chinese!

Mandarin Chinese Sentence Pattern: Over a Period of Time: Video #32 Transcript

Dajia hao. Hello, everyone. I am so happy to have students watching my Chinese videos around the world! I’ve been making videos for one year.So I can say Wǒ zuò le yìnián de shìpín. Today our focus is on how to express doing something for a period of time in Mandarin Chinese.

When things happen over a period or for a duration of time, in Mandarin Chinese we can use the pattern:

subject + verb + (le) + duration of time + (de + noun).

We mentioned before le is used after the verbs to express something has happened. While if we express the present tense, le is not needed.

For example:

I read a book for two hours on the plane.

In this sentence, verb:read( kàn) noun: a book (shū) duration of time: two hours( liǎng xiǎoshí )
According to the sentence pattern we know the duration of time should be inserted between the verb read and the noun book
So in Mandarin Chinese, it comes as:
Wǒ zài fēijīshang kàn le liǎng xiǎoshí de shū.
我在飞机上看了两小时的书。

They rode the bike for two days.
In this sentence, verb: ride(qí) noun: a bike(zìxíngchē) duration of time: two days(liǎngtiān)
So in Mandarin Chinese, the sentence comes as:
Tāmen qí le liǎngtiān de zìxíngchē.
他们骑了两天的自行车。

He played games for one night.
In this sentence, verb: play (dǎ) noun: games(yóuxì) duration of time: one night(yì wǎnshang)
The sentence should be in Mandarin Chinese:
Tā dǎ le yì wǎnshang de yóuxì. .
他打了一晚上的游戏。

Firstly you need to remmember the sentence pattern. Let’s review it again:
subject + verb + (le) + duration of time + (de + noun).

Let’s have a short test. Translate
He listens to the music for one hour every day.

This is a simple present tense sentence, so le should be omited in the pattern.

Let’s find out the pieces for the pattern first.

Subject: (tā ‘he’) verb:(tīng’listen’） duration of time:(yì xiǎoshí ‘one hour’)
noun:(yīnyuè’ music’)

Tā měitiān tīng yì xiǎoshí de yīnyuè.
他每天听一小时的音乐。

Example 2: He slept for the whole day yesterday.

Subject: (tā ‘he’) verb:(shuì’sleep’) durating of time:(yìzhěngtiān’the whole day’)

Tā zuótiān shuì le yìzhěngtiān.
他昨天睡了一天。

Fact
China has only one timezone eventhough it covers three, this was done to simplify trade and make sure everything is run on Beijing time.

Tell me how much time you spend in learning Chinese every day? in the comments below. Don’t forget to subscrbe to my channel and visit how to Chinese.come . Bye.

Lucky is teaching a new sentence pattern in this Mandarin Chinese video… from A to B which is very useful in daily conversations!

Dajia hao. Hello, everyone, today we will learn a very useful phrase From A to B

From is cóng从, to is dào到, from A to B is cóng A dào B 从A到B.

A and B can stand for time and place words.

Give you some examples:

From Monday to Saturday… Cóng xīngqīyī dào xīngqīliù 从星期一到星期六

From two years ago to now… Cóng liǎngnián qián dào xiànzài 从两年前到现在

From Beijing to Shanghai… Cóng Běijīng dào Shànghǎi从北京到上海

From America to Canada… Cóng Měiguó dào Jiānádà 从美国到加拿大

There are also other phrases related with from:

From now on cóng xiànzài qǐ / cóng xiànzài kāishǐ 从现在起 / 从现在开始
from then on cóng nàshí qǐ / cóng nàshí kāishǐ 从那时起 / 从那时开始

So ‘from… on’ is cóng… qǐ / cóng… kāishǐ 从… 起/从… 开始.

Today we learnt From is cóng从 , to is dào到, from A to B is 从A到B , from …on is 从… 起/从… 开始.

Let’s do a quick test:

Translate the following sentences：

It’s not far away from America to Canada. (yuǎn ‘far away’)
Cóng Měiguó dào Jiānádà bù yuǎn.
从美国到加拿大不远。

From now on, he will cook himself. (zuò fàn ‘cook’)
Cóng xiànzài kāishǐ, tā zìjǐ zuò fàn.
从现在开始，他自己做饭。

Fact
92% of China’s population speak Chinese and there are seven major dialects including Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Hakka, Gan, Xiang, and Min.

Your homework, make some phrases with cóng… qǐ / cóng… kāishǐ 从… 起/从… 开始 and cóng A dào B. Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel and visit how to Chinese.come. Bye.