Chinese New Year Courtesy: Being a Polite Dragon

thebeijinger — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0800

So you've gone to all the Temple fairs and made enough lopsided dumplings to last you for a year, what next? Well, if you've got Chinese friends in town, consider paying them a visit – after all, that's technically what the holiday's for! The custom of visiting loved ones during Chunjie is a long and well-established one, known as 拜年 (bainian). If you'd like to do some of your own doorhopping, read on for a few simple guidelines.

Learning Chinese? Why Not Live The Language?

thebeijinger — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:00:00 +0800

It is the Catch-22 that faces every laowai that ever tried to learn Chinese. Until you learn enough Chinese, you can’t use it at work or make Chinese friends; and until you make Chinese friends and use it at work, you’ll never learn enough.

The solution to this ambition-sapping cycle, according to Andreas Laimboeck, the founder of Beijing’s LivetheLanguage Mandarin School, is “total immersion”: go somewhere where no-one speaks English and learn to survive.

Anticipating the usual excuses – I wish I had a year to study Chinese, but I have a family and my boss won’t give me the time off work – LivetheLanguage now offers full immersion language courses that last a week, or even just a long-weekend.

The Beijinger Blog - Culture

Chinese New Year Courtesy: Being a Polite Dragon

Learning Chinese? Why Not Live The Language?