Mandarin From the Ground Up

Jun 25 2024 78 ep. 11 mins 149

Mandarin From the Ground Up Podcast artwork

Learn to speak Mandarin the same way you learned your native language: by imitating what you hear. No memorizing, no tedious grammar lessons, no superhuman willpower, just the sounds of Chinese, your ears, and you. Let's start speaking Chinese for real this time. Subscribe to start building your Mandarin from the ground up! Logo artwork by Alex Wang • 老汪

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Trailer: Learning Mandarin like a native speaker

Apr 16 2020 2 mins

What learning a language is really about, and how you can start building your Mandarin skills naturally from the ground up.

01 ~ Listen, can you speak Chinese?

Apr 29 2020 16 mins

In our very first lesson, we'll get you started speaking useful Mandarin right away. You'll learn how to say whether or not you can speak Chinese, and we'll start building a good foundation for your accent, copying exactly what you hear.~When you're listening to the sounds of Chinese or any other language, pay close attention to the intonation. This is the first thing that infants

Daily Practice Session - Lesson 01

Apr 30 2020 3 mins

After you've listened to Lesson 1, use this track to reinforce what you've learned with short, daily listening and speaking practice sessions.

02 ~ It's OK to feel tired.

May 06 2020 12 mins

It's OK to feel tired sometimes, and acknowledging it is part of staying motivated. In this episode, you'll learn how to ask and talk about feelings, especially that feeling of needing some rest.--- Learning a language is the project of a lifetime. There's usually a starting point -- that day you decide will be your first day learning Mandarin, say -- but there's never a stopping p

Daily Practice Session - Lesson 02

May 07 2020 2 mins

After you've listened to Lesson 2, use this track to reinforce what you've learned with short, daily listening and speaking practice sessions.

03 ~ Where are you again?

May 13 2020 14 mins

A big part of being able to speak naturally and fluently is being able to convince yourself on some level that you're actually from the same place as other native speakers. It’s one thing to learn a bunch of words and phrases. But to be able to use them like a native speaker requires being able to think like one. In this episode, you'll learn how to tell people where you are, and

Daily Practice Session - Lesson 03

May 14 2020 3 mins

After you've listened to Lesson 3, use this track to reinforce what you've learned with short, daily listening and speaking practice sessions.

04 ~ Who are you again?

May 20 2020 12 mins

The contents of this episode are pretty standard fare for a language learner, or anyone else for that matter: What's your name? Nice to meet you. Do you have an English name? But hidden in the sentences are a handful of other extremely useful expressions. A note about pronunciation: The vocabulary list below includes the Chinese characters and the pinyin romanization system. The ad

Daily Practice Session - Lesson 04

May 21 2020 3 mins

After you've listened to Lesson 4, use this track to reinforce what you've learned with short, daily listening and speaking practice sessions.

05 ~ Can you hear me?

May 27 2020 18 mins

In this lesson, you'll learn how to have a successful video call, and how to talk about what you're drinking, and what you like. It's tempting to focus on all the things you don't know how to say yet. But really, why do that? If you consider what you already do know how to say, even after just a handful of lessons, you might be surprised. It's all about combinatorics -- at this sta