ChineseClass101.com Blog

The focus of this lesson was to teach about Chinese cuisine
Basics of Chinese Cuisine

• Many people are surprised on their arrival in China to find that what they thought was Chinese food is nowhere to be found.

• Another challenge is that the names of Chinese dishes, even in Chinese, can be very cryptic, making ordering a challenge, even if you find a menu with English translations. Chinese dish names are generally completely irrelevant to the ingredients.

• Rice is generally a staple of the south, with noodles featuring in as well.

• Northern China features dishes made with wheat flour, such as noodles, dumplings, steamed buns, and thin pancakes.

• Where meat is often the focal point of many western meals, it is the starch-rice or noodle-that is the starting point and palette for Chinese meals.

Regional Cuisines

• There are 8 main regional cuisines in China; the flavors vary from hot and spicy, to sweet and oily, even pungent and sour.

• The main cooking methods employed are stir-frying, deep-frying, steaming and stewing.

• Chinese kitchens rarely have an oven, though there are various specialties that are roasted.

Famous Seasonal Dishes

• The Hairy Crab of Shanghai comes into season in October/November. A local delicacy that is exported around the country and beyond. One of the most savored parts of the hairy crab are the sperm in the males, and the eggs in the females.

• Hot pot is a warming food that is popular in the winter. A large pot of broth is set to boil, and the diners cook their own meats, vegetables and seafood by boiling them in the soup.

• In mid-to-late September, the mid-autumn festival is celebrated. Mooncakes are ubiquitous at this time of year, and are gifted and re-gifted amongst friends, relatives and from employers to employees.

• • Mooncakes are round, like the moon, and have a pastry-like crust with a flavored filling; from lotus paste to sweet red bean; even salty egg yolks.

Table Etiquette

• Chinese food is generally prepared in bite-sized pieces that can easily be picked up with chopsticks. A knife at the table is considered barbaric.

• It is a demonstration of utmost hospitality and respect for the host to dish food onto his guest’s plate. Often, this will be done repeatedly, despite futile pleads on the eater’s part to being full.

• It is fine to leave some food in one’s plate, as if one cleans the plate, it is a signal to the host to put more food onto it!

• In China, dishes are served communally, and there are no serving spoons. The diners all use their own chopsticks to dip into the dishes.

• Never stab your chopsticks into your rice bowl and leave them there. This is the worst of all Chinese dining faux pas, as it is related to a funeral tradition.

Food as Medicine

• From bird’s nest soup to deer antlers, Chinese food therapy dates back as early as 2000 BC.

Well thats all we have for today! What is the most unique Chinese food you have ever eaten? Please leave us a comment and let us know!

The focus of this lesson is to test your knowledge about China. This lesson will build your basic knowledge of China by quizzing you on 5 areas of Knowledge: Geography, Pop Culture, Travel, Economics and Myth Busting!! Are you ready?

1)What percentage of China’s 1.3 billion people live in urban areas?
A) 10% 
B) 40%
C) 50%
D) 90%

2)China has the following number of provinces:
A)22
B)23
C)34

3)Following are three famous Chinese people. One is a famous singer, one a politician, and one a sports star. Match the person with their profession:
王菲 刘翔 胡锦涛
(Liú Xiáng)(Wáng Fēi) (athlete) 
(Hú Jǐntāo) (politician) (singer)

4) Rank in correct order the most popular travel destination in China:
Shanghai Beijing Xi’an 

5) What year did the economic reforms that transformed China’s economy into a market-oriented economy take place in?

6) Fortune cookies originated in China. True or False? Read the rest of this entry »

The following are 6 essential phrases guaranteed to be the best thing you ever learned in Chinese!

1. 谢谢 (xièxie) 　“Thanks.” The Chinese aren’t big on ‘please’, but they love thank you so much that they’ll often hit you with a barrage of it, ‘xiexiexiexiexiexiexiexie’.
2. 听不懂 (tīngbùdǒng) “I don’t understand what you are saying.” This phrase is going to be your best friend, go-to and solace. 
3. 你好 (nǐhǎo) “hello” If you don’t know it yet, we don’t know where you’ve been.
4. 不知道 (bù zhīdào) “I don’t know.” You may hear this phrase more than use it, however learn from the Chinese how to bu zhidao every situation you wish to evade, play dumb about, or avoid.
5. 不好意思 (bùhǎoyìsi) “Sorry.”  Buhaoyisi literally means ‘bad feeling’, and can be used to apologize to all the dainty toes your oversized foreign feet will step on in the crowded subway, to repent over some cultural faux pas you likely don’t know you’ve committed, or to just curry favor, in general.
6. 让一下 (ràng yīxià) “Let me through.”  Buhaoyisi’s slightly stronger cousin. Use this when you’re trapped in a subway car and can’t get out, or stymied in your efforts to crowd-worm through a city of 18 million people.

There you go.  Just don’t blame us if #4 doesn’t work

Dear Chinese Students,

Today we’re pleased to announce the launch of ChineseClass101.com. This is a joint project between Popup Chinese and the folks at Innovative Language Learning.

If you’re familiar with the Innovative Language approach to teaching, you’ll know the strength of their materials has always been tight, step-by-step progressive lessons for beginners. At Popup Chinese, we’ve historically geared our materials towards more advanced students, so when we had the chance to cooperate with the Innovative team and work together to build something that could take advantage of the powerful system they’ve already built we leapt at the chance, and began work designing a focused and stepwise program for Mandarin instruction.

Although a few hints leaked out (*ahem*), for the past few months we’ve worked somewhat stealthily to build the best team possible for the task. You’ll find our progressive beginner lessons hosted by none other than the famous Frank Fradella. Other big names on our roster are Amber Scorah and of course everyone on our existing team like Echo Yao and Brendan O’Kane. This is a great team and I can say with confidence I’ve never worked with a stronger one. With more than 100 lessons on the new site, our content is off to a good start too. As Frank said once after a marathon recording session, “our first twenty lessons here teach more than I learned in a whole year studying elsewhere.”

We think this is a great step forward and look forward to hearing your feedback and thoughts as well. It is definitely a major step forward for Chinese language education online. There’s never been a better time to learn Chinese, or a better way to learn it online. Regardless of whether you’re an advanced independent learner or a total newbie, we hope you’ll enjoy the work we’ll be doing both here and at ChineseClass101. Thanks for your support, and 加油 everyone!

Best from Beijing,

David Lancashire

Best from New York,

Amber Scorah