Episode 06 is finally here! This is a longer dialogue than usual, so let’s just start practicing.

We can't understand a language outside the context of the people who live it and speak it. A human language cannot be contained in an artifact like a dictionary or even a database, because it is a living thing, which exists through the people who live by it.

Let’s learn another tone pair, using a magic phrase and a silly dialogue full of everyday expressions. In today’s lesson, we slow down the magic phrase practice, to make it easier to keep up with all the new words.

Today's tone pair, 2-3, is easily confused with the one we learned in episode one, 3-2. Today we'll spend some time practicing differentiating between them. Then we'll hear another fun (slightly absurd) dialogue to practice our listening skills, and absorb some new words.

Let’s learn another tone pair. Can you identify the tones? In this lesson, we’ll use a dialogue to practice listening for this tone pattern, and learn a lot of useful words and phrases in the bargain.

Welcome back for Season 3! In this series, we are going to do a deep dive on the tones in Mandarin. This lesson, I’ll start by explaining the importance of tones, and the best way to approach learning them. Then, we’ll dive right into learning the first of 16 tone pairs.

Let's hear a line-by-line translation of the dialogue from lesson 16.

In this lesson, we get to hear the last dialogue in Season 2! Mrs. Kang (康太太) goes to get dinner ready, leaving Xiao Li, A-Ming, and Lili to talk. What do they talk about?

Let's hear a line-by-line translation of the dialogue from lesson 14, and then practice with a Q&A.

新年快樂！Happy Lunar New Year! In honor of the new year, this dialogue involves lots and lots and lots of food, prepared by Mrs. Kang (康太太). Can you guess what else is happening?