If you look at two-character words (and most Chinese words are two characters), there are 16 possible tonal pairs. Or rather 20, since we have 4 main tones + neutral fifth tone. (If you pronounce individual tones well, that doesn’t count. For beginners, two tones together are somehow harder than those two tones individually. That […]
The writing system used throughout mainland China is known as “Simplified Chinese characters.” On the other hand, “Traditional Chinese characters” are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. It’s fascinating how one language can have two different writing systems, isn’t it? China’s land area is approximately 25 times that of Japan, and even within China, […]
Here are the 2023 HSK exam times if you’re looking to test your Chinese language skills, or need to obtain an HSK certificate for your visa, company, or university. The below dates are published by the official organization, Chinese Testing International Co., Ltd (CTI). But be aware, there is a disclaimer that these dates may […]
TikTok can be whatever you make of it — a black hole of wasting time watching entertaining videos, but you can also engage with educational videos to let the algorithm know you like learning Mandarin! You can also search hashtags such as #learnmandarin or #learnchineseforbeginners — or even your HSK level, such as #HSK3 — […]
Chinese is often seen as one of the most difficult languages to learn. While it does take a longer-than-average time (compared to other languages) to learn, it is not as difficult as many people think it is. Here we answer the question ‘How long does it take to learn Chinese’ in two ways? A not […]
Since 1992, HSK (汉语水平考试 Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì, translated as the Chinese Proficiency Test) is the official standardized test for Mandarin — and in 2020 it was announced it would get its second big overhaul. On March 31, 2021, China’s Ministry of Education announced the new HSK levels details, which (from 260 pages in Chinese) we […]
All you need to know to pronounce like a pro. Here’s GoEast Mandarin taking you through the Chinese language pronunciation: Initials, finals & accents, and even some tongue-twisters at the end. Scroll down for the video. Chinese language accents If you’ve been an English teacher in China, especially in mainland China, then you will know […]
Correct pronunciation is one of the hardest parts of the Chinese language. There are not just the tones, but some of these sounds you need to pronounce are absent in many Western languages, so you’ll have to train your mouth and tongue on how to speak them. If you haven’t, first read our guide on […]
A common question about the ‘Chinese alphabet’ we get from students is: “I heard Chinese is a box-like ‘character language’, does it have an alphabet?” And yes, opposite to the English language, the Chinese language is an ideographic language. However, Chinese people have always been working on different methods to show how the characters are […]
Hanzi, or Chinese characters, are easier to learn with the right study material and learning tips. Aside from learning them with GoEast’s Hanzi course, that is… Scroll down for the history, how to memorize and write Chinese characters. How many Chinese characters are there? Here’s a graph with some important numbers. >50,000 Hanzi characters is […]