Learn Chinese Online - Intermediate Lessons

Intermediate Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Toothache

You are trying to have a good time in our website, learning chinese, listening to our amazing podcasts, and spending hours trying our exercises. But only one thing is in your mind. Your tooth hurts like nothing you have experienced before. You want to try and forget it. But how can you pretend you don't hear a tooth yelling for attention? Do trust us, if one of your tooth feels neglected they will shout and demand attention.
But don't worry, we know a song that might make your tooth stop whining. Listen to this podcast and listen to the magic song.

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Intermediate Lesson - Chinese Podcast - What's QQ

QQ is the Chinese answer to IM services like MSN or ICQ. As of now there are now more than 350 million registered QQ users. This is more than the entire US population. So you never heard of QQ? And you say that you are learning chinese? Listen to this podcast and find out why QQ is so popular in China.

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Intermediate Lesson - Chinese Podcast - To skip or not to skip class

This podcast is about two girls who are not sure whether or not to go to class. They really want to sleep but if they do, they will miss class. In this dialog they discuss whether or not they should go. What would your advice be to them? Listen to this podcast and find out what was their decision.

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Intermediate Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Visiting a Park

He was lying on his bed when his girlfriend called him. She sounded quite excited that it was sunny because she wanted to go out to the park. He didn’t think it was proper to reject her request so he dragged himself out of bed. His girl whispered to him in her softest voice: I will buy you an ice cream if you come with me. Whatever resistance he had to go out, it was all gone. His sweet girlfriend promissed him an ice cream and that was too much temptation for him. “Then what should we see in the park?” He asked his girlfriend . “我们看看公园就可以了” answered the girl.

You can complete a sentence using this pattern: 主语+动词+副词+形容词，Subject + Verb + Adverb + Adjective . Some very commonly seen adverbs are 非常 fēi - cháng - very 比较 - bǐ jiào - relatively, 十分 - shí fēn - quite - 很 - hěn - very. Though they have similar English translations, it doesn’t mean that they apply to all adjectives. For example in the dialogue: 它看起来还真漂亮。真 literally translated is ’really’. 漂亮 is the adjective. It means ‘beautiful’. Similarly in english, the adverbs come before the adjectives.

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Intermediate Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Buying a Computer

Robert's demanding girlfriend wants him to buy a new laptop. But she doesn't want any vulgar laptop. She wants something that looks elegant and expensive. Of course the only laptop that can fulfil her needs is an Apple. But can Robert afford it? Listen to this podcast to find out.

Notes:In Chinese, when people want to express something that has happened ,they use 了 le, no tone at the end of a verb. For example: 花了我不少钱—cost me a lot of money. Also Chinese use a lot of interjections when they talk. The most common ones are: 啊 and 呢.

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Intermediate Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Chinese family

China is famous for the ‘One Child Policy’. Many people are curious about why the country has made such a principle to control child birth. Experts respond that it is because China has the largest population in the world and that is putting pressure in the resources available to feed the population. The Chinese government thinks that it is unsustainable and aims to curb population growth hence the one-child policy. Also, from the point of view of the typical chinese family, raising a child costs a lot. Parents need to provide them with good education, standard living conditions and food, all of which are more and more expensive and difficult to afford.

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In this lesson, we will discuss the question :"你家都有几口人"? Whenever you see the word 几, you can more or less define this sentence as a question, meaning ’how many’. 我家有几口人 - There are several people in my family. This sentence resembles the previous one, except that it doesn't include a question mark. More over, we talk about the tense:以前，现在, 将来. These words express the period of time. 以前 means ‘past’. So everything talked about in the sentence happens in the past. 现在 means ‘now’. Since Chinese verbs don’t have specific tenses changes, 现在 is important if you want to say something that is prevailing at this moment. 将来 means’ in the future’. But people don’t say that all the time if they want to express something that is going to happen in the coming days/months/years/centuries. To find out what we do with those words, please listen to this podcast.

Intermediate Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Measure words

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This intermediate lesson is about measure words. You certainly came across this topic before but it is always important to revisit. Especially if you are the type of person that always uses 个 for measure word because you can't think of anything better i.e. can't remember. Measure words are one of of the trickiest parts of learning chinese. This is because there is no single formula that allows us to choose the correct measure word. The best way is to memorise all the measure words and relate them to the context in which they are normally used. At the end of this lesson you will be able to choose the right measure words for the sentences below:

一( ) 哈里波特书
一( ) 小美女
一（）报名表
一（）勺子
一（）橙汁
一（）微波炉
一（）玫瑰

Intermediate Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Coming back from China

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When Daniel returned to the United States with a Master Degree from Zhong Shan University in Guangzhou, China, his parents were very proud. They told everyone that their son could speak very perfect Chinese and even completed his Master in chinese. That was true. Daniel had studied Chinese for 5 years and was even able to read ancient chinese and had no difficulty in communicating with people. His chinese also had no foreign accent.

In this lesson, we look at the use of the verb 看. The meaning of this word varies according to the context, for example:

1. 来看朋友
2. 看来你还很有方法
3. 我站在这里看不到那里

Furthermore, we talk about the verbs tense and we also look at why some chinese characters are repeated, such as, 常常,看看,瞧瞧,读读,走走 and so on. To learn how to use them, please listen to this podcast to find out.

Intermediate Lesson - Chinese Podcast - My life is simple

Last week Brad attended a student reunion; here he met a lot of old friends who he had not heard from for ages. They seemed to talk a lot about one guy. He used to be an all-can-bully type but now he already became a president of a large company. When he appeared, they were all amazed. He looked just like a plain man on the street. They couldn’t wait to ask where his luxurious car was, and why his beautiful lady was not around. He laughed and said, “Well, I admit that I earn a lot of money out of my business, but it doesn’t mean that I need to change my old way of living. I have a very simple life still. Look, I get up as early as 6, then go to work. I concentrate on my business and try to make it run very well. I hardly go to parties and I don’t want to spend so much time on other things apart from work. My life is very simple - I spend most of it in the office and the gym.
Brad invited his friends to visit his apartment and he acted so friendly to them that all of them hoped that they could ‘下次再来’. How do Chinese people show their warm welcome to their guests when they visit? We are going to listen to a dialogue that showcases a typical way of dealing with such a circumstance.

In this lesson, we covered topics like: the use of the word 一般, the different responses to "thank you" and the word 简单. Seeing 简单 this word doesn’t necessarily mean that you already understand what it is, since 简单 can mean two things. You can say someone is simple, like 她很简单 - she is simple. Or you can put something before it: 家很简单 - home is simple. However, 简单 can mean’ easy’ too, like :考试很简单 - the exam is easy. Listen to this lesson to learn more.

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Intermediate Lesson - Chinese Podcast - Introducing the special one

She looked distinct tonight, or you can say, she was gorgeous. When she stepped down along the stairs in that white, gauzy dress, everyone stopped drinking, their conversations or whatever they were doing and turned around to the glamorous lady that came forward. No one knew exactly who she was walking to and who was going to be selected as the lucky gentleman. The lady didn’t glance around. She was so calm and so indifferent to everyone else. She only forged ahead straight to one corner, where a neatly dressed man was pouring a cup of Whiskey into a glass and handed it directly to her. As she approached closer, he took out another hand from behind and wrapped her attractive waist and scooped her into his arms. That was a ball hosted by a rich family and the man was just about to introduce his girlfriend to his family members. Please listen to this dialogue to find out how to introduce that special one into your family.

In this lesson we discuss the use of the Retroflex tone - 儿. For example: 跟我来这边一下儿. Before 一下儿, the words may look familiar - follow me here. Actually, 一下儿 is a slang for ‘a little bit’. It always comes after the verbs. In a word, it usually sits at the end of a sentence.

我们一起过去行吗? Here we have another grammar point. In most cases, we separate 行吗 with a common, and the closest translation to English is: ”right?, ok?”. For example: 我们到时候见面，行吗? we will meet then, ok? So, to find out more about this grammar, please listen to the lesson, 行吗?
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