Mandarin Friend: Free Vocabulary and Grammar Blog Aimed at Intermediate Level Students

[J_HF]

Hello!

 

I’ve been living in China for the past three years, and I’ve been learning Mandarin (on and off) since 2007. I’ve started writing a blog focusing on Chinese grammar and vocabulary.

 

Here it is: http://mandarinfriend.wordpress.com

 

The main purpose of the blog will be for me to personally review study notes from a range of sources, in order to organise them systematically in one place. However, since this information may be of interest to other learners I thought I’d share it online.

 

My purpose isn’t to write a comprehensive grammar guide - there are plenty of those already, including the excellent Chinese Grammar Wiki. Instead I’ll mostly focus on intermediate and upper intermediate word usage, especially HSK 5 and HSK 6 vocabulary.

 

These are some of my recent posts:

 

What are 形容词? Are They ‘Adjectives’ or ‘Adjectival Stative Verbs’?

“Separable Verbs” – A Misleading and Unnecessary Concept

Expressing Duration using Time Duration Phrases

What is the difference between 怕，害怕，恐怕，可怕，恐怖 and 恐惧?

What is the difference between 胡说，乱说，废话 and 瞎说?

What is the difference between 附近 and 就近?

 

Let me know if this kind of thing is interesting or useful to you. If you have any ideas for posts - especially if the topic is quite specific (i.e. can’t already be found online) - then let me know. Please join the mailing list to receive further posts to your inbox.

 

http://mandarinfriend.wordpress.com

 

Thanks!

[xiaokaka]

Seems like an interesting idea and suitable for my level. Unfortunately I live in China and do not us a VPN, could it be possible for you to change to a more China-friendly platform?

[J_HF]

Hmmm that's strange. I'm in a China and it's loading fine for me without a VPN. Try https:// on the link. For example, https://mandarinfriend.wordpress.com

 

Let me know if that works.

[xiaokaka]

That didn't work either, strange indeed. I've always had trouble with Wordpress in China as far as I can remember.

[J_HF]

That is peculiar. The website stats show visitors from China.

 

Well, I'm not really sure what to suggest. Try using a different device? Alternatively, PM me your email address or email me at mandarinfriend@outlook.com and I'll make it so new posts will be sent directly to your inbox. Currently about one post a week.

 

I'm sorry that the Chinese internet overlords have seen fit to stop you from visiting this site.

[James3]

Who knows how reliable this list is, but wordpress.com is listed in this Wikipedia list of "most notable" sites blocked in China:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Websites_blocked_in_mainland_China

[J_HF]

And yet this website to test whether a site is blocked in China says that their 5 servers all can access the site. Oh well.

 

http://www.blockedinchina.net/?siteurl=http%3A%2F%2Fmandarinfriend.wordpress.com

[grawrt]

I'm in China too, wordpress is usually insta-blocked for me but strangely this site loads. Although just because it 'loads' I wouldn't say it was the best platform. First, the loading time took quite a long time. Second, by the time the page loaded it looks like a mess because it's not loaded properly.

If it's not too much trouble I would also suggest using a different platform.