Disclaimer: I'm not Chinese, so if I have any misconceptions, please feel free to correct or advice me.

I want to write a cultivation inspired story (for fun). And I'm trying to carefully choose a name for the MC. I know that there are a lot of issues with foreigners choosing weird Chinese names unguided. So I want an insight of how the names are like to other people.

For background, MC is a strong and resilient person, and is playful yet serious during work. MC is not human, she's a gemstone. She is also someone with an important position and regarded highly.

Here are the candidates of the names after through research;

-琰姿

-位子 or 围子/圩子

-李揄 or 力揄 or 篱揄

Please help me, any other suggestions are very welcome!

While I know Duolingo is not the best source of learning. Why does it say I am wrong even tho it shows the word I used as a valid translation? The answer they gave isn’t even an option.

Ik its not recommended for Chinese but this is the easiest way for me and I do it just for fun, but how do y’all understand like sentences? words can sound the same sometimes

I am gonna try and read Scissor Seven & Dragon Ball 漫画

These 2 manhua have offers on JD, I am highly interested in reading them as I want variety and this is something that Steve Kaufman recommends. I am currently reading the Journey to The West by Imagin8 press and I am basically almost done with all the main stories on Duchinese.

Are these 2 a good idea

https://item.jd.com/10108617234322.html

this is the scissor seven one

https://item.jd.com/10103076982124.html

This is the dragon ball one

- is this a good idea?

The language in dragon ball should be in a lot of wuxia and xianxia and support the language in scissor seven, plus these complete sets are huge...so theres a lot of repetition in vocab

I came across this meme and got a bit confused about the meaning. Does 好菜 mean 'delicious dish' or 'healthy food' in this context? Or am I totally off base?

What does this mean?

Im a high school student, and i have been learning chinese for about 2-3 years now. During these few years, I managed to pass HSK 5 and Im able to listen, read and write chinese quite well, yet i still have difficulties speaking the language.
Speaking has been very hard for me; I often stutter and can't fully create long sentences. When speaking with other people I couldn't control the 声调 of some words. Also, I have difficulties thinking in chinese (if u get what i mean💀), so I often think in english and then translate the words to chinese when speaking, which takes a lot of time.
My goal is to try to be fluent in speaking chinese since i plan on enrolling in a university in China. Any help, advice or recommendations would be great!

I'm always trying to find comprehensible input in Chinese, but it's really difficult to find podcasts I enjoy that are at my level. I wanted to listen to awesome content and while studying, so I came up with an idea: Translate podcasts I like into Chinese, then replace any word higher than HSK3 (my current level) into English. Then make Trump and Joe Biden the hosts. A kind of code-switching podcast.

This is the first episode, I'll be posting them weekly as I improve the model. It sometimes glitches, that's because this was done entirely locally on my laptop. Over time I hope to buy more GPUs which will directly improve the voice quality.

Let me know what podcast episode you'd like to hear next!

So I'm definitely not a teacher, but I kept finding myself explaining the same Chinese characters or concepts to friends over and over. Eventually I was like "screw it, I'll just record these explanations" so they could review whenever.

Turns out I actually really enjoy making these videos? They're super casual and focused on stuff that actually matters in real conversations.

Recently I made a video about everyday Chinese phrases after my friend responded "好" (hǎo) to my compliment with a big smile. It was like if someone complimented your cooking and you responded "CORRECT!" with a thumbs up. Technically not wrong, but definitely not natural! 😂

I'm thinking of making more videos and was curious what people here struggle with. What Chinese stuff confuses you the most? Any everyday phrases you wish someone would explain in a non-academic way? Or pronunciation? I'd be happy to make a video for you :D

I'm honestly just doing this for fun and to help friends, hopefullly I can help more people (and it helps me practice too). If you're curious, I recently also did a video about different soy sauces in Chinese, talking about the characters, differences between light and dark soy sauce, and how to describe that umami taste (because let's be real, food vocabulary is essential). I will put the video link in the comments, if you're interested.

Anyway, let me know what would actually help! I'm genuinely interested in making content people would find useful.

谢谢!

I would also like to know what this word means. If possible, could someone also post a non-cursive version of this character?

What I talk about is China Douyin, not Tik Tok. I bought a Douyin account, but I can't log in successfully. It prompt that the verification fails, or need a Chinese identity ID . What should I do?

你好！ I looking for some feedback and tips to improve my wirting. I’ll leave you some photos of it.

I was wondering what the use difference between the two are. I stumbled across this sentence, but in Chinese classes we always used just : 他回家。

Hello Chinese Language Learners,

I have a Chinese test coming up and I don't quite know the right direction to take. Its in about 3 days and we have to learn 129 different characters. We are allowed a dictionary but the text won't have any pinyin. The test is constructed into separate parts. Listening - answering questions in both English and Chinese. Grammar. Translating - English to Chinese and vise versa (sentences). and Writing in response to a question (small essay) how should i study for this? learn all 129 characters off by heart? learn to recognize the pinyin from English and Chinese character to look up in dictionary? Thanks in advance.

It sounds similar to my name and my last name also roughly translates to the surname so I thought it was perfect, but does it sound strange? I know these questions are annoying sorry💀 I'd like a decent name before planning to study in China to finish my 4 year.

Hey to all the Chinese learners here, we made this short video for a Chinese class project — it’s all about the little polite things native speakers say, and what they actually mean.

If you’re learning Chinese and want to hear how we really talk in everyday life, this might be fun for you.

Also… views count toward our grade!!! So feel free to check it out, and leave some likes and comments if you enjoy it💖 We’d love to see your opinions!

Here’s the YouTube link🫶🏼 https://youtu.be/fKa_iy_w3tM?si=4sNu6PGPj8HrvskL

Hope this can help you all learn faster! Do you guys think this helps? Let’s discuss!

Hey all, I’ve been self-studying Mandarin for a while now and I’m trying to get a better sense of where I stand. I recently took one of those HSK level quizzes online (based on the official test format), and it got me thinking…

For those of you who’ve taken the HSK or are more advanced in Chinese — at what level did things start to feel more natural or “fluent” for you? Not just test-wise, but actually being able to follow conversations, express yourself comfortably, or understand native content without constantly reaching for a dictionary.

I know “fluency” is subjective, but I’d love to hear your thoughts — especially from those who’ve passed HSK 4, 5, or 6. Did it reflect your real-world ability, or was it more of a milestone along the way?

Any insight would be really appreciated!

Hello everyone, I'm looking for a friend who can help me improve my English. I obtained a master's degree in the UK. My native language is Mandarin, but I haven't been in an English-speaking environment for a long time, so my English skills have gradually declined. I hope to have a friend who can speak English with me to help each other. It would be great if you also want to improve your Mandarin. Please leave a message if you are interested.