Learn Chinese at a Public Market 🇨🇦 | Real Life in Chinese

Let’s learn practical Mandarin at a real public market in Vancouver, Canada!

In this Real Life in Chinese lesson, we walk through Granville Island Public Market and learn useful Chinese for shopping, asking about prices, and talking about food.

市场 shìchǎng — market

买 mǎi — to buy

甜 tián — sweet

多少钱 duōshao qián — how much

好吃 hǎochī — delicious / tasty

便宜 piányi — inexpensive / cheap

Useful Chinese:

这里是一个市场。

Zhèlǐ shì yí ge shìchǎng.

This is a market.

我想买这个。

Wǒ xiǎng mǎi zhège.

I want to buy this.

这个很甜。

Zhège hěn tián.

This is very sweet.

这个多少钱？

Zhège duōshao qián?

How much is this?

这个很好吃！

Zhège hěn hǎochī!

This is delicious!

这个很便宜。

Zhège hěn piányi.

This is inexpensive.

Learn Mandarin through real places and real situations. Listen to the Chinese, repeat the sentences, and practice using the same vocabulary when you shop or talk about food.

This lesson is part of the Real Life in Chinese series — practical Mandarin you can actually use.

#LearnChinese #RealLifeInChinese #ChineseForBeginners #MandarinChinese #ChineseVocabulary #ChineseListening #LearnMandarin #TravelChinese #Vancouver #GranvilleIsland

Hello All,
I wanted to post this regarding CANTOTOMANDO program if anyone else was interested since Ive seen other reddit post but they varied in prices and had such a huge range it was very confusing when I was trying to find an exact break down of cost.

All these packages are sold in 6 months set except for the Package 1. But keep in mind everything else is based on 6months

Background I speak Canto and wanted to learn Mandarin so I have the foundation of Cantonese.

What the package includes

Part 1 - Self taught modules. These modules I admit were very well thought out and made. In the decks there would be a women speaking it goes over the same sentence in English, Cantonese and Mandarin and then explain to you how to use/leverage your Cantonese to help you speak Mandarin quickly. After each module you would record yourself saying the sentence/words and then you would get feedback on your recording within 24-48hrs.

Part 2 - 1 on 1 w/teacher 1/2hr a week (I've done 1hr italki classes and I personally feel that 1hr is perfect, because sometimes you're in the thick of the lesson and all of a sudden its been 50 mins, so 30 mins is very short in my opinion)

Part 3 - Custom built courses for your needs (for working professions who needs very specific vocabs/verbiage)

Part 4 - Discord and access to their community

Part 5 and optional - Group calls - 8 calls available every week for 1hr and on average 6-10 students attend.

This price breakdown is as of 08/31/2026

Package 1 - 12 months access to all Parts and you have access to a teacher every day = $25,000 (yes you read that correctly)

Package 2 - 6 months access to all Parts and guarantees you will be conversationally fluent in mandarin in 6months ( IF you attend all classes, if you miss 1 you forfeit the guarantee) = $6,000

Package 3 - 6 months access to all Parts BUT no guarantee within 6 months = $5,000

Package 4 - 6 months No custom built course but access to everything else = $4,000

Package 5 - 6 months ONLY ACCESS TO PART 1. Nothing else = $2750

1 Month Trial - Access to all Parts = $1,000

What is your feedback? Would you pay for these prices to learn Mandarin within 6 months?

First of all, sorry for the TMI/rant.

I have started learning Mandarin since July to study to Taiwan next year. By my previous agent, I was directed to learn HSK first to take TOCFL test since I'm a beginner in mandarin. So I eventually learned simplified characters and I probably could read HSK 1 (2.0) vocabularies and more, though still slow since my studying was inconsistent.

Some things happened, and I eventually ended up with a new agent with their own associated tutoring, where they teach traditional characters. When they told me to register for the exam, they told me to pick band A with traditional characters. But since I felt like I can't read or learn traditional characters fast enough for the exam, I chose the simplified characters, thinking that I will study the conversion after the exam. I was thinking that I need to get A1 first since I felt pressured that I had to go next year before my age passed the age limit.

But after I chose it and paid, I regretted it since I realized that traditional one is definitely more useful long term, and I will have to study traditional ones with my new agent tutoring center anyway. I feel like I kept making the wrong choices now. There's many thoughts running through my mind, but I know that it's too late now since I already registered using simplified and I should at least pass it first to not waste money.

To take my mind off things, is it common to learn both writing system? What's your experience when trying to learn both of them? Any tips to recognize a character in their other form? And honestly if you guys want to tell me what you guys think I should've done that's fine too. I realized at this point that I probably have some wrong ways of thinking because of my lack of knowledge.

Edit: Thank you for your answers everyone! It's helpful for me to plan more clearly on what I should do in the future.

They seemed old and I just thought they were interesting

Am learning Chinese just as a casual hobby but the hanzi is a little too much i mean it's fun to write and understand but I want to be able to speak as soon as possible. So it okay to leave the hanzi for now and come back later

I feel like learning Chinese through actual videos are alway more engaging and efficient than learning from a textbook, so I recently added video learning into Dumpling Chinese.

You can watch youtube videos like vlogs, cartoons with High quality AI bilingual subtitles, tap words for meaning, and native pronunciation, or save them to review later. And you can browse videos based on your HSK level. Still optimizing this feature and so far you can watch a few videos for free each week.

Does anyone have a PDF with HSK flashcards, ideally covering HSK 1–3 (or beyond)? I remember a teacher once sent me a PDF like this that I could print and cut out, but I can’t find it anymore. Thanks!

I’m trying to post monthly to keep myself accountable. It’s more of a pain in the ass than getting in the time to study chinese daily. I’m still trying to post even though I have no inspiration and anything interesting to talk about, so it’s quite hard not to post junk, or just post some random “hi guys, i shat this post out because I have no clue what to talk about this month, remember to comment encouraging things and give me upvotes! <3 <3 <3”

I don’t know if I’m doing something horribly wrong, or it’s just that I’ve been bad at writing since ever, but most of the response of this “chinese learning” comunitiy has been negative, and that’s 不好

Hey guys ik learning methods vary from person to person but please tell which routine is better and answer another question

Routine 1:

a lesson covering new hsk book on yt ( each lesson vary from 30 min to 45 and covers half of each chapter (total 15 chpt)) one day and 30 min of the hsk 3.0 workbook currently hsk 2 the other

doing hanly flashcards daily

15 min hellochinese (new one)

one story from duchinese first listen then read and listen

write on a specific topic

Routine 2:

doing hanly flashcards daily

1 hour hellochinese (new one)

one story from duchinese first listen then read and listen

write on a specific topic

ANOTHER QUESTION: (NOT TRYNA SHOUT BTW)

Any good way to improve listening and start listening practice also turn new words into like active vocabularly than i never forget/

ANOTHER:

I WANT TO START WRITING CHRACTERS AS THEY ARE FUN (LEARNING MANDARIN IS MY HOBBY I DONT ANY PLANS ON GOING TO CHINA FOR COLLEGE ANYTHING MOST PROBABLY) HOW DO I START AND ANY TIPS

The university I go to has a scholarship to pay an amount to study/work in another country. I would like to go to China to take a one-month-course to learn Chinese because I'm about to graduate and I couldn't study abroad because I couldn't afford it. I'm in a HSK 3-4 level btw.

Does anyone know any schools, universities where I could study Chinese for one month in January?

So let's talk about colors. I never though that colors are nouns but apparently they are in Chinese. 白色 alone means the Color White or white as a noun and only with a 的 it is the adjective we all know. 白色的 is white. So after some going around in the dictionary I found out that white is not just the color white but also something of a symbol. A symbol of political reaction. Today the phrases are more centered around some political stuff and one thing I made up. I always use the dictionary so my mistakes don't get to you.

So what is that white symbol thing? But before you continue to read this is can be triggering for some of you. The white terror is a time placed around 1920. It is where China was splitted. One communist party and one nationalist party. Both better known as China and Taiwan. They fought a bloody war and lots of humans had to pay blood toll. The war or the terror was not something like just everyday occurrences. The nationalistic party killed many and almost wiped out the CCP or the Chinese Party while they were fighting in Shanghai. Many died and among them also students died. Just because they want the influences of CCP go extinct.

Instead of remembering it in an arbitrary way, we take real events.

If you hadn't read the last post click this! Found this helpful? Feel free to share it with your study companion or just comment below! Just make sure to tag me, so I and my buddies can say hi!

example from news

OpenAI首席执行官奥特曼因建议ChatGPT的新用途，了解您的孩子，而遭到网友的冷嘲热讽

pretty useful when reading Chinese media.

I had a weird experience on the Chinese app 小紅書 (Red Note). A few days ago, I posted a picture for the first time on my feed about some food I ordered from a restaurant. (Just to clarify, I put the post in simplified Chinese) The post received about ten or twenty views and likes. A few minutes later, I had Chinese users in my DMs asking if I am a foreigner and if they can chat with me. (I know most of them want to practice their English skills) So, I replied in Chinese to one guy, "好，我们可以聊聊.“

In the conversation, he was asking why I was learning Chinese. I told him my reason, expecting him to either ask how long I have been learning Chinese or something, but he surprised me by commenting: "你为什么还使用繁体字?"

I was a little confused by the comment. Usually I type in traditional and simplified, and it was one of those times I forgot to change the keyboard. I didn't think it was a big deal typing in traditional since I have seen many HK and TW citizens on the app. I don't know if he was a little annoyed by the fact that I was using traditional Chinese characters. I told him I am learning both traditional and simplified. He then left me on read lol.

This encounter made me remember seeing a video a month or two ago about how a small online group of Chinese speakers outside of HK and TW, find typing in traditional/learning traditional Chinese outdated since most Chinese apps that are made and are popular around Asia, are from Mainland China. And in Mainland China, they use simplified Chinese.

In the video, it interviewed some people from HK and TW who said they had to learn or they were exposed more to the simplified characters because of the apps. However, on the other side, with Mainland users, some of them had to learn certain traditional characters that looked different. From what I remember, they interviewed a woman from Mainland China who complained that her kids had to learn traditional characters when she visited/moved to HK. To her, traditional Chinese was outdated and did not need to be learned anymore. (This is just her opinion, ofc; I doubt all Chinese natives think the same way.)

So, if maybe someone could tell me, is there some weird stigma to traditional characters? Or was it just this one person I ran into?

(I do want to mention, the guy I talked to was an older gentleman in his thirties. The woman in the video did seem around the same age too. So I am not sure if age has to do with any of this mindset or not.)

I can not currently find the video I saw on the traditional Chinese thing, but when I do, I will post it.

/s

I randomly saw this post and it's really funny and easily makes you remember 声东击西 shēngdōng-jīxī (make a feint to the east and attack in the west/to create a diversion). The context is in the og post, apparently walking across the bride is like some superstition old people do

An opossum photographed standing at a window with its paws folded behind its back. Chinese users caption it, and every caption works the same way: take a phrase everyone already knows, break one character of it, and let the meaning drain out. What comes through is not protest. It is a small, rueful admission about yourself, made before anyone else can make it.

Syntactic Modification Patterns

The humor relies on breaking common Chinese phrases. Users take a proverb, a piece of managerial reassurance, or a school text, change exactly one character, and drain the phrase of its original meaning:

• 慢慢急 / 不要来 (Mànmàn jí / bú yào lái — Panic slowly. And don't come over).
  • The Wordplay: The original comforting phrase is 慢慢来，不要急 (Mànmàn lái, bú yào jí — Take your time, don't panic). Swapping the last character of each half turns comfort into two useless instructions.
• 我的靠山应该被愚公移走了 (Wǒ de kàoshān yīnggāi bèi Yúgōng yízǒu le — The mountain I was leaning on got moved. By an old man with a basket).
  • The Wordplay: 靠山 (kào shān) means a patron or protector, literally "a mountain to lean on". 愚公移山 (Yúgōng yí shān) is the classic schoolbook parable about perseverance, featuring an old man who moves a mountain. The meme combines them to explain why the speaker has no support.
• 不急 / 死到临头再说 (Bù jí / sǐ dào lín tóu zài shuō — No rush. I'll deal with it once it's fatal).
  • The Wordplay: 死到临头 (sǐ dào lín tóu) is usually a severe accusation meaning "death is already at the door", thrown at someone too stubborn to see danger. Here, the speaker reassigns the accusation into a terrible procrastination schedule.

How is this different from 躺平 (Lying Flat)?

The possum meme is not a protest slogan, nor does it share the gloom of a "doomer". "Lying flat" (躺平 tǎng píng) is an argument and a position you take. The possum, on the other hand, just apologizes faintly and does nothing—it is still at the desk and will still answer the message, possibly tomorrow. It is the register of someone taking the blame cheerfully and inaccurately to get the moment over with.

What's your favorite broken proverb or pun in Chinese? Have you ever tried using this kind of self-deprecating humor (自嘲) with native speakers?

Credit & full dictionary entry shared with permission from Resou Report [ https://resou.report/dictionary/006-fu-shu/ ].

According to a dictionary compilation of about 4,600 Chinese idioms (成语 chéngyǔ) with identifiable sources, the approximate origins are:

Ancient China → Qin & Han (before 220 AD) 68%

Wei, Jin & Northern/Southern Dynasties (220–589) 15%

Sui & Tang (581–907) 9%

Song Dynasty (960–1279) 6%

Yuan, Ming & Qing (1271–1912) 2%

Even as a native Chinese speaker, I was surprised to learn that nearly two-thirds of these idioms can be traced back to more than 2,000 years ago. I had originally thought there would be more Chiense idioms from the Tang and Song dynasties, but in fact, they account for only 15 percent.

Hanyu Pinyin, well, is practical, can be sometimes a bit misleading if you didn't know how does it really work yet. It use letter like b and p for differentiating the aspiration (puff of air) but speaker from another language might read it as not a puff of air and instead voicing (like the vibration)

For example, b in PY, is actually pronounced more like p and the p in PY is more like ph ([pʰ]) with a puff of air.

This also apply to letters like d in PY, which is actually more like t and t in PY, which is actually more like th ([tʰ]). z vs c, zh vs ch, j vs q. The differences in these letter are just puff of air.

Hanyu pinyin was made specifically for Chinese, so that means it would be misleading if you didn't know how it work fully..

Has anyone had good experience/ results with using LLM's for learning Chinese Mandarin? I'm wondering what the state of the art with learning languages (particularly Chinese) is.

Hi everyone!

So, I'm just starting to learn chinese, and I already have some questions.

First of all, I saw an exercise where, in response to Ni Hao, the second person say Ni hao! Ni hao ma.

I was wondering if it is a real thing? To say two times in a row Ni hao just to say Hi, how are you?

And second, I seem to find contrary informations about sentence structures. Is it really Subject - Verb - Place ?

On laoba.app It’s not perfect but it’s free and you have complete control over your cards and decks. You can also add cards from their stories

Hello im currently making a AI project that need zh,ch,sh,z,c,s pronounciation audio dataset to make a model for classifying which of the 6 zh,ch,sh,z,c,s consonant a person is pronouncing, i make this for a thesis project. the only dataset that i found is :

- https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php (female)

- http://lost-theory.org/chinese/phonetics/ (male)

i already make a model for it, but the generalization is so bad resulting in a bad AI model that is unusable outside of the 2 voice above.

im trying to find more audio dataset but i cant seem to find it... so i need help to find more especially the male speaker. also it really appreciated if you find a downloadable pinyin table like the examples above. for people that give me links to the dataset thank you so much.

also i can read chinese but really at a basic level so please tell me how to download the dataset as well if the website is full chinese. thank you in advance!

edit for clarity on my problem

the two website contain 412 audio file with 1 male speaker and 436 audio file with 1 female speaker. each sylable like zhi have 4 audio files each with different tone. so its actually a lot. im trying to find more but stuck on those 2.

like i have more female speaker dataset at this github site https://github.com/zispace/hanyu-pinyin-audio but the problem is that its only female voice. all male voice on that github is the same 1 speaker so i cant use the female voice because if i use the other female voice as well then it cause data imbalance because imagine my dataset have 3 female speaker and only 1 male speaker. its not even funny how imbalance the speaker gender is. so thats why i need help to find more.

to bypass this i make approximately 3000+ augmentation by increasing and decreasing the pitch on the same speaker and put it all on training. the validation and testing only use the original voice. so its 70% (original voice) + augmentation, 10% validation (original voice), 20% testing (original voice) so its like this

- Original training images : 591

- Augmented training images : 3380

- Total training images : 3971

- Validation images : 85

- Testing images : 169

resulting in 82% model accuracy. then i try on a new type of speaker which is me and failed. it cant classify the right consonant using my voice. but if i use the dataset voice it can do it amazingly. so that means the generalization is so bad! that means i need more male speaker dataset.

about the copyright i only insert these 2 websites as reference on my thesis so i think there is no problem on that as well.

the budget i have is 0 because its only a dataset like why i need to pay if i can have it for free...

It is 肉, meat. The two were flattened into the same shape when clerical script came in and they have looked identical since.

So 肝 liver, 肺 lung, 胃 stomach, 腦 brain, 腿 leg. Meat, not moon. 有 as well, which was a hand holding a piece of it.

It is not only 肉. 朕 has a boat in it, from a graph of two hands mending one. 朋 was two strings of cowrie shells.

Kangxi still kept them apart in print. In the moon ones the two inner strokes do not touch the right side of the frame. In the meat ones they do. Japanese and simplified dropped it, Hong Kong and Taiwan changed the meat one to a dot and a rising stroke instead.

If a character is about the body, do not go looking for the moon in it.

Is somone willing to look at a video of me speaking Mandarin and telling me if u can understand me?