You see them everywhere and every time you go into a shop, bar or restaurant.  But do you make a fool of yourself pulling instead of pushing?  No more, thanks to this simple Chinese lesson!

Door Signs: 入口 rùkǒu = Entrance, 出口 chūkǒu = Exit, 拉 lā = Pull, 推 tuī = Push

Among Chinese characters there are two characters which have only one stroke, they are “一”(one ) and “乙”(the second of the ten Celestial Stems)，the most complicated simplified character has 36 strokes, it is “齉”nàng (snuffling).
Majority of Chinese characters consist of 9-strokes, it is about 11,1%, (more…)

见到 你 很 高兴 jiàndào nǐ hěn gāoxìng = Very pleased to meet you.  This is always a very useful phrase to have under your belt.

好久不见 hǎo jiǔ bu jiàn is a commonly used expression meaning Long time no see.

Count to 10 in Chinese: 1 一 yī, 2 二 èr, 3 三 sān, 4 四 sì, 5 五 wǔ, 6 六 liù, 7 七 qī, 8 八 bā, 9 九 jiǔ, 10 十 shí. Counting beyond this point is as easy as saying 10 1 (11), 10 4 (14) 2 10 6 (26) etc.

Understanding Chinese radicals is a very important part of learning Chinese characters. Radicals give you a huge clue as to the meaning of a character.

A common radical is chuo (4) 辶

It represents ‘go’ or ‘walking’. (more…)

Chinese ladies will always address themselves as ‘Miss’ However, the words ‘Miss’ and ‘Prostitute’ have the same meaning. The Chinese for these is xiao jie 小姐, which literally means ‘Little Sister’. So, don’t call a lady ‘Miss’!

I mentioned in the article, Learning Chinese – The best approach that learning Hanzi 汉字 or characters is an absolute must. No time should be wasted learning pinyin because it is almost useless for everyday living. Whilst you’re learning a word and it’s pronunciation, learn to write the 汉字.

Rule #1: You must learn to write in the (more…)

I am constantly trying to improve my spoken and written Chinese and as I browse through my books, listen to conversation either on the street on on TV I often come across some bloody useful little phrases and expressions that really enhance sentences and make you sound like you know what you’re talking about. (more…)