It’s not unheard of to come to China for the first time, spend only a couple of weeks or months here, and get the Shanghai bug. This is personally the experience that I had, and many friends who came to Shanghai to study Mandarin Chinese  have similarly decided to extend the initial period of time  Read more »

You might not believe it, but Chinese has a very specific series of expressions to demonstrate particular exclamations that you may not be able to explain clearly the meaning of. When you’re fed up, and lost for words, you may not be able to control the kind of outburst that you make, but let this  Read more »

If you’ve already lived in Shanghai for a while with limited knowledge of Chinese, you may be wondering what changes it would make to your life if you were able to understand and respond to the Chinese that you hear around you every day. Is the woman staring at you on the metro saying you’re  Read more »

I was tickled pink when I first heard the Chinese translation of McDonalds, 麦当劳(màidāngláo); similar, but just not quite the same. I was with a good friend and fellow classmate at the time, studying Chinese in Beijing, and this became one of our favorite post-class pastimes, spotting Chinese translations of western brand names, and inferring  Read more »

Despite spending several years at good university learning Mandarin, I still now and again come across certain situations when I become a bumbling mess trying to explain the easiest of things. I’ve spent a decent enough amount of time (and, for the record, money) studying Chinese both in China and in England for these creases  Read more »

If you take a look at our testimonials pages, you’ll notice the students at TM go out of their way to mention the curriculum that teachers use over here.  There are a few pages that make mention of the “story method,” in which students learn Mandarin by telling stories, which they recount and elaborate on  Read more »

During my time at That’s Mandarin, I have taught 2 pregnant students. One of them was already 5 months pregnant when we began classes and took classes with me right up until she had her baby. We got on really well, and I enjoyed helping her to find maternity clothes, the right foods and other  Read more »

Two weeks ago, we were all very excited to welcome a 12-year-old Singaporean student to our Jingan Chinese School. He seemed quite shy when he first arrived and was very polite to everyone throughout his stay, but he did have a cheeky side, just like every other child! It was great fun having him around.  Read more »

It’s difficult to make generalizations about the lifestyle in Shanghai.  Any large metropolis with a diverse population and a growing economy cannot be accurately described by a few catchphrases.  Of course, stereotypes abound.  “Beijing for culture, Shanghai for business” is a common one.  Many Chinese people describe the Shanghainese as materialistic, even a bit ostentatious.   Read more »

Because I really like pandas, I changed my screensaver to a photo of pandas. One day, one of my students saw it and asked me whether it was because I was a fan of pandas. He told me that he also liked them and so I asked him a riddle: “What is pandas’ least favorite  Read more »