Five Mandarin phrases I've learned navigating daily life in Taiwan

Links: My blog: https://imlearningmandarin.com/Mandarin Retreats: https://imlearningmandarin.com/uk-mandarin-immersion-retreats/--New vocabulary learned:1. 甜筒Pinyin: tián tǒngEnglish: Ice cream cone甜 = sweet筒 = tube/cone (refers to the cone shape)Together, this means an ice cream cone. 2. 中焙 / 中深焙 (used in the context of coffee roasting)中焙Pinyin: zhōng bèiEnglish: Medium roast中 = middle / medium焙 = to roast (especially coffee or tea)This is a medium roast — a balanced roast level often used for drip coffee.3. 原路折返Pinyin: yuán lù zhé fǎnEnglish: To return by the original route / retrace one’s steps原路 = original path / the same road折返 = to turn back / go backOften used in navigation, or metaphorically in life to mean going back the way you came.4. 知难而退Pinyin: zhī nán ér tuìEnglish: To retreat in the face of difficulties / to back off when realizing something is too hard知 = to know难 = difficulty而 = and / yet / but (classical-style connector)退 = to retreat / withdrawRefers to making a wise decision to step back after recognizing a challenge is too tough to overcome. Sometimes used to describe prudence, sometimes cowardice, depending on context.5. 隐眼 (shortened form of 隐形眼镜)Pinyin: yǐn yǎnEnglish: Contact lenses隐 = hidden眼 = eyeShort for 隐形眼镜 (yǐn xíng yǎn jìng) = invisible (contact) lensesColloquial and very commonly used in Taiwan and among young people.

Today, I'm going to talk through a really simple method that you can use to use AI to generate your very own Mandarin tongue twisters .Recently, I started using a method with my students where we would create our own tongue twisters centered around their specific pronunciation problems. Today, I'm going to explain in three simple stages how I've been creating these tongue twisters with my students and how they use them to improve their pronunciation.

On today's episode, I'm going to play my speech which I recently made at the Asiaglot conference in Taipei. The speech is called The Inconvenient Truth About Mandarin Learning. And in it, I talk about my own Mandarin Learning Journey and some of the methods that I initially followed, which were a combination of traditional methods and also comprehensible input methods. I go into how these methods worked to varying degrees, but there were certain obstacles that I came up against which I wasn't able to find any solutions to when turning to traditional education or comprehensible input. And I go on to talk about what the solutions that I did find involved, and how that really helped me on my Mandarin learning journey. The audio recording quality of this speech that I gave at Asiaglot was not the best, but I've tried to salvage it a little bit through some editing. So hopefully it's good enough that you can hear it pretty clearly.2

Links: Discord server: https://discord.gg/b9PAyKwT9pMy Asiaglot experience: https://imlearningmandarin.com/2025/03/30/my-experience-at-asiaglot-asias-hottest-multilingual-conference/--This week on the I'm Learning Mandarin podcast, I discuss how you can use Deepseek as a game-changing tool to become fluent in Chinese. As we've previously covered, while tools like ChatGPT are helpful for various aspects of Mandarin learning, they often fall short when it comes to generating truly natural, colloquial speech. This is because their training data seems to be heavily weighted towards more formal, sometimes translated sources. Native speakers often point out that while ChatGPT's Mandarin is usually grammatically correct, it just doesn't sound like how real people talk.That's where Deepseek, the Chinese version of ChatGPT, really excels. Despite some of its limitations, such political censorship and data concerns, there is no doubt that it excels at generating authentic spoken Mandarin, which is exactly what we Mandarin learners need when it comes to improving our conversational skills.So, how can you effectively use Deepseek to level up your spoken Mandarin? Listen to the episode to find out!

Join the I'm Learning Mandarin Gym: imlearningmandarin.com/gymAs an ILM podcast listener, you can get 50% off your ILM Gym subscription when you use this discount code at checkout (offer ends April 9th): IMLEARNINGMANDARINPOD --

Want to transform your Chinese from mediocre to excellent within months? Join the I'm Learning Mandarin Gym and hire me as your one-to-one Personal Trainer: imlearningmandarin.com.gymAs an ILM podcast listener, you can get 50% off your ILM Gym subscription when you use this discount code at checkout (offer ends April 9th): IMLEARNINGMANDARINPOD

Join the I'm Learning Mandarin gym here: imlearningmandarin.com/gymAs an ILM podcast listener, you can get 50% off your ILM Gym subscription when you use this discount code at checkout (offer ends April 9th): IMLEARNINGMANDARINPOD --On today’s episode I interview my student Lewys entirely in Mandarin Chinese.Lewys is a 31 year-old accountant from wales who lives in the UK with his Chinese wife and young daughter. You may remember him from an interview I recorded with him last summer in which we discussed the difficulties he’d faced learning the language. At that point, Lewys had been learning Mandarin for around two years in order to communicate with his Chinese mother-in-law and extended family. He’d tried most of the apps and classes everyone tries. But nothing really worked. Here’s a clip of what he sounded like at that time. He was close to giving up. But instead, last year he contacted me for help after coming across the I'm Learning Mandarin blog. And in today's episode I document his progress over 6 months on my coaching programme, supporting him to transform his spoken Mandarin. If you’re impressed with the results that Lewys was able to achieve on my coaching programme while holding a full-time job and having a young child, then listen on. Because today I’m announcing the launch of the I’m Learning Mandarin gym, enabling you to transform your spoken Mandarin from mediocrity to excellence within months, with me as your Personal Trainer. When you sign up to the gym, you’ll benefit from an in-depth, structured study plan, one-to-one coaching sessions with me, homework exercises, regular feedback on your performance via voice recordings, and continuous support, ensuring you’re virtually guaranteed to exceed your Mandarin speaking goals. Interested in finding out more? Go to imlearningmandarin.com/gym for all details and information about the programme or click the link in the description.

Links: My blog: imlearningmandarin.comClare's page: https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/languages/staff/1258/prof-clare-wright--On today’s episode, I interview a long-time member of the I’m Learning Mandarin community who also happens to be a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Leeds. Professor Clare Wright has pioneered research into second language pedagogy, with a particular focus on Mandarin. She is particularly interested in discovering why some learners on Mandarin courses seem to do so well at reaching communicative levels quickly while others lag behind. I first met Clare in 2018 when she interviewed me for her research into what motivates Mandarin learners to study the language. We’ve kept in touch ever since, and in this interview, we discussed what Mandarin learners and educators can learn from her research to improve their outcomes and reach their goals.

Asiaglot will take place on March 22-23 in Taipei. To get a third off tickets go to asiaglot.com and select the 'Early Bird Weekend Ticket' option. The use the following code at checkout:IMLEARNINGMANDARIN800

My blog: imlearningmandarin.com--Mandarin involves a lot of hard work and sometimes we can start to question whether it's worth the struggle. But staying the course and persevering through the hard times has enabled me to have all sorts of life experiences that I would otherwise never have had. Today I'm going to talk about four of the coolest experieces I've had that made it all feel worthwhile. These might not mean much to anyone else, but they felt cool to me:1. Studying at NTU2. Leading Mandarin Retreats3. Being mistaken for a native speaker4. Giving Keynote SpeechesCheck out the episode to hear more. And don't forget to subscribe on your favourite podcast provider!