r/ChineseLanguage

In my last Chinese class, my teacher told me about 餐厅 and 餐馆, and he said that 餐厅 is usually used for Western restaurants (such as 意大利餐厅), while 餐馆 might be more oriented towards the East (中餐厅). However, upon looking at it myself, I find that this isn't true.

Vietnamese restaurant is 越南餐厅 (Can ting)

Japanese restaurant is 日本料理店 (for some reason it's a whole different word, liàolǐ diàn??)

And then there's the topic of the word 饭店 for restaurant, which is what I had learned previously. So what do I use? What is correct? Why so many words???

My parents are chinese and i was born in france, i took chinese classes for a little while before pandemic and never really got back into it. So i know the basics i guess.
I'm looking for a reliable platform (not duolingo for example) to speak, read and write basic and everyday life chinese. I'm fine with a free app but i can pay up to 10 bucks a month if it's really worth it.

When you're just starting out learning Mandarin coming from English (or other non-tonal languages), tones are hard because they're so new/different. But at a certain point you get used to it and then it's not really a thing anymore. Tones aren't really an issue for me anymore ... except when the tone is WRONG! And by "wrong" I mean "the tone doesn't match the characters meaning/definition" (according to a random white guy who doesn't live in China and is only HSK4 so clearly knows everything).

Characters with the "wrong" tone:

• 低 (dī) low: Low is literally the description of the 3rd tone ... and yet it is 1st tone which is the opposite of low.
• 上 (shàng) up: The tone goes DOWN, but the character means up/above? Clearly it should be 1st tone (even 2nd tone would be fine because that goes up).
• 慢 (màn) slow: You know what tone is described as being slow? 3rd. What about the fastest? 4th tone. How is the word for slow, the fastest tone?
• 短 (duǎn) short: Again, what's the shortest tone? 4th. Is 3rd tone in any way short? No it isn't.
• 深 (shēn) deep: 1st tone is HIGH, it is not DEEP in any way! 深 clearly should be 3rd tone ... 1st tone is just wrong!
• 浅 (qiǎn) shallow: Exact opposite to 深, why be shallow but have a deep tone?
• 升 (shēng) rise: It means to rise, yet doesn't even rise at all! Obviously should be 2nd tone (or at least 3rd).

Why can't all these characters just be like 高 (gāo) where the high meaning perfectly matches the high tone?

If you know of any more post them and I'll update the list! Once complete I'm sure in no time at all the whole native Mandarin speaking population will catch up on fix these glaring errors in tone vs definition miss match to make my life easier :P

(/s in case it wasn't obvious lol)

Hey guys,

Just like the header of this post, I'm looking for some advice on how I can improve for section 1. I redid the HSKK Intermediate test, and I got the same result... 2 points under the passing mark.

This frustrates me because I've been going through practice tests and feel like I'm comfortable and confident that I can do the first section, but when I listen to the questions they felt 10 times harder than the past papers.

It's also not helpful when I'm in the same room as another test taker and hearing them copy a millisecond faster than me.

I've decided to shadow 30 sentences a day on the HSK 4 Mandarin Corner vocab collection, as well as trying to shadow the street interviews on the same YouTube account. I've also decided to refresh my grammar, but I'm honestly not sure where else I can work on.

I'm thinking of hiring a tutor on Italki, but I'm not sure if it's worth the money or hassle.

Advice is highly appreciated :)

I found myself struggling with consistency with some learning methods. Every time this happens, I look for alternative ways to go about it. But in this case I really don't know what to do.

For instance, I am using the chinese zero to hero courses and the hsk 1 books. I also paid for the basic pack of Pleco, which gives the flash cards on top of a few other useful features. I am focusing on learning to speak, to read and to hear, have been avoiding the writing aspect.

The issue is.. I struggle with retention. I am not consistent with the flash cards. And no matter how hard I try, I always fall back.

I try to do an hsk lesson once a week. But due to the lack of consistency in reviewing the content, I cannot retain the vocabulary as well as I would have hoped for. In my mind I feel like the flash cards aren't for me.. but everyone says they are essential.

I also do not have all the time in the word. Not in the week days at least.

I tried to look for alternative methods but I cannot find anything. Do you also struggle with consistency at times? What methods do you use to retain what you are learning?

I would love to have some guidance from anyone at different stages of language learning.

Am I missing something? I’ve seen websites and posts say that you can learn as many as 500 words for free with this app, and this hasn’t been my experience at all.

Hi, I am one of those people that at some point need to be forced to self-motivate. What I mean is that I was planning to do a HSK exam just to be forced to study regularly and be focused. I need an actual goal and deadline.

However it seems impossible in the US to take the test, I do not see even one single date for internet based (at home) and just a very minimimal selection of dates/locations for other test methodologies.

so the question is: what is another test I could register to (and pay ahah) to self-motivate and have an actual goal? (estimated level is shy of HSK3)

1. she is my sister.

她是我的妹妹 or 她是我妹妹 ?

2. how do I say "fruit"? (shuiguo)水果 or just (guo)果?

3. difference between (bīng)冰 and (lěng)冷

the pronunciation is written to help me remember when I come back :D

A bit of an odd question but I'm second generation Chinese and trying to name our son. I wanted to use 奇 for his third character, but wanted something more neutral in connotation while keeping the same sound (different tones ok). I saw 崎 in an online dictionary and really liked the idea of adding an earth radical to it, but I've only ever seen this character in Japanese Kanji names. I know we share a writing system, but some words I only really see in Japanese Kanji because they're so archaic in Chinese.

Is this word used in Chinese at all, and would it be out of place as a boy's name?

I heard that Chinese has no grammar or verbs conjugation so I got excited to study it, anyone who did give me your experiences and which resources are good?

By Taiwan standard, I mean these two sets: 常用國字標準字體表 for Mandarin and 臺灣台語推薦用字 for Hokkien.

And by Hong Kong standards, I mean 常用字字形表.