reading mandarin Archives - Pandanese Blog

How to Read in Chinese

April 5, 2022 May 24, 2022 / 4 minutes of reading

The word read in Chinese is 读 (dú) or 阅读 (yuèdú). However, most of us would like to know how to read Chinese and not rely on the dictionary. We can always look up a single word in the dictionary. But when it comes to reading paragraphs and sentences, using the dictionary will take too much work. The only way to read in Chinese fluently is through learning. Our brain can be the best dictionary there is for us. With the right approach, you too can make your brain a powerful Chinese dictionary. Before starting to learn Chinese You should …

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5 Most Common Last Names in Chinese and Their Meaning (Bonus: Chart Of Top 100 Surnames)

December 27, 2021 February 15, 2022 / 10 minutes of reading

There are approximately 6000 surnames used in China today. However, the top 100 most common Chinese last names make up 85.9% of 1.4 billion population. What’s more, 30.8% of China’s registered population bears one of the top 5 surnames. In today’s article, we’ll give you a brief introduction to the top 5 most popular last names and their meanings. Also, we’ll bring you a chart of the top 100 most common Chinese last names. A glance at the top 5 most popular Chinese surnames 1. Wang (王) This is the most common surname in Mainland China with 101.5 million bearers. …

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How To Memorize Chinese Characters: 5 Fast and Effective Methods

December 22, 2021 December 21, 2021 / 9 minutes of reading

Learning how to memorize Chinese characters may look like a daunting task for Chinese learners. But it doesn’t have to be. This article will demonstrate five fast and effective methods that can improve your memorization and recall of characters. 1. Break Down Chinese Characters Focus on the radicals and components When learning Chinese, you may already know that Chinese characters are built up of radicals and components. Radicals are components that indicate a broad category. For instance, any word related to plants or grass has a specific radical. This radical locates at the top of a character, composing one horizontal …

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How To Learn Chinese Vocabulary Fast For Beginners (5 Popular Methods)

November 9, 2021 January 11, 2022 / 7 minutes of reading

Spoken by 921 million native speakers and nearly 200 million second-language speakers, Chinese is the second most spoken language in the world to English. As China’s economy is growing fast, learning Chinese can open doors of opportunities for foreigners. Chinese, as many people know, is not an easy language to learn and master. The major difference between Chinese and English is that Chinese uses characters while English words use the alphabet. This results in learning Chinese vocabulary being an uphill battle for any Roman-alphabet language user. The rise of technology has become a lifesaver for beginners who wish to learn …

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Strategies for Reading Mandarin at Any Learning Level

October 6, 2021 January 7, 2022 / 9 minutes of reading

Reading Mandarin is undeniably hard. If you ask a native Chinese speaker, most of them will admit that their mother tongue could be the hardest language in the world. Even a Mandarin speaker has to take at least seven or eight years to read 3000 Chinese characters, which is just enough to be considered “literate.” If we compare this to French, Spanish or Vietnamese, we notice that learners of these languages only need to memorize about 30 letters and spend only 3 to 4 years to grasp comparable levels of writing. As a Chinese learner, what are you thinking right …

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