⭐️ How to avoid getting stuck in any Chinese language news article
Reminder: Only 10 hours left to sign up for the Chinese News Bootcamp!
Hello!
This is the last email about our new course which starts today at 7pm!
The Chinese News Bootcamp is a 5-week “crash course” in reading the news in Chinese.
It includes five modules delivered live over five weeks:
Module #1: WHY it’s important (but hard) to read the news in Chinese
Module #2: WHERE to find good quality Chinese language news content
Module #3: WHAT is Chinese newspeak
Module #4: HOW to read Chinese language news
Module #5: The system in action: Examples of real life news articles
Over the next month you’ll learn how to dramatically improve your reading skills, enhance your comprehension, and accelerate your reading speed in Chinese.
So if you want to start reading the news in Chinese, and you’re at an intermediate level (you know around 800 characters or more), this course is ideal for you!
Use code CHINESENEWS at checkout to get $100 dollars off if you join before it starts today, Tuesday 16 January!
Now, let’s get back to how this course can help you.
First, we talked about WHERE to find good quality Chinese language news.
Then we shared some tactical advice about WHAT Chinese newspeak is, and how it can help you avoid getting stuck in long sentences.
And finally, today, I’m going to share my favourite tactic we teach in the course.
It’s how the tiny “speech mark” can help you smash through any Chinese language news article without getting stuck.
Let’s dive in.
Tactic #3: How speech marks can help you get through even the most challenging news articles in Chinese
Another challenge of reading the news in Chinese is getting stuck on things you not only don’t know, but also might be completely new!
Like:
Slang
Neologisms
Internet words
Puns and plays on words
Sometimes these can be so confusing, even for native speakers.
Here are three examples we learned in this newsletter over the last year:
愚公还贷 yú gōng hái dài - “Indebted to death”
哪李贵了 nǎ lǐ guì le - “Austin Li is out of touch”
指鼠为鸭 zhǐ shǔ wèi yā - “Calling a rat a duck”
To understand them, you need to know the recent context, as well as original idioms and phrases to decipher these newly coined phrases.
We explained the background to these phrases in this post about our favourite phrases of last year.
Without this explanation, it’s impossible to know what these phrases mean!
So, you’re lost.
But, there’s good news…
Difficult phrases like these are normally highlighted with “speech marks!”
In fact, speech marks in a Chinese language news article often don’t highlight what someone is saying.
Instead, what’s inside them is usually a pun, neologism, slang, or a play on words.
Speech marks are clues, sign posts, pointing at the most important, but most difficult parts of an article.
So, you can get ahead of the game, by simply searching for “speech marks” in an article (use Ctrl or Command + F + “).
If the speech marks highlight single words or phrases it normally means these are key bits of information, but are hard to understand.
Look them up first, before you start reading.
Armed with that knowledge, you’ll find yourself getting through challenging news content much more efficiently!
That’s just one of the many tactics we’ll be sharing in the Chinese News Bootcamp: A 5-week “crash course” in reading the news in Chinese.
Today is your last chance to register!
Use code CHINESENEWS at checkout to get $100 dollars off!
Offer ends in 10 hours, tonight at 5pm UK time, just before our first live session at 7pm!
As always, hit reply if you have any questions.
Andrew
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In case you missed the earlier emails about the course: