Howto.Zhongwen好土中文

Happy Birthday! How do you usually celebrate your birthday? Have a birthday party? Eat birthday cake or meal? Choose a birthday gift for yourself? In this episode, we will talk about how Taiwanese people celebrate birthdays. How to express your birthday blessing to someone in Chinese?

生日快樂！在你的國家，生日的時候通常會吃什麼呢？你看過紅色的蛋嗎？為什麼生日要吃紅蛋呢？豬腳麵線有什麼意義？幾歲的生日對我們來說特別重要？誰可能不想過生日？台灣的蛋糕上常有一種特別的蠟燭，可以幫我們隱瞞自己的年紀，你看過嗎？

Recommend Level: CEFR A2 (and above).

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In this episode, we are going to introduce another interesting activity in the Yuan Xiao festival----solving lantern riddles. Free your Chinese knowledge and imagination; see if you can find the answer to the riddles.

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This episode will talk about the temperature metaphor from an interesting perspective. How do the Chinese use the adjectives 'warm' and ‘cold', ‘raw’ and ‘cooked’ to represent the relations between people? How do the Chinese use temperature feelings to say a person's attitude and personality? Listen to this episode and learn some interesting phrases.

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The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Yuan Xiao Festival (lantern festival). Chinese people make 'lantern' and 'yuan xiao' to celebrate this day. Eating 'yuan xiao' symbolizes a family reunion like a full moon and expresses people's good wishes for future life. This episode will introduce the material and the steps of making 'yuan xiao.' Also, we will tell you how to distinguish the difference between 'yuan xiao' and 'tang yuan,' another traditional festival food similar to yuan xiao.

元宵節要做什麼？看完花燈，還可以吃元宵～看起來差不多的湯圓跟元宵，竟然是不一樣的東西？到底哪裡不同呢？聽完這集節目，你就能告訴別人這兩樣東西的差別了！

Recommend Level: CEFR A2 (and above). 

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Chinese New Year is the most important festival in our culture. The atmosphere of the spring festival is a combination of different features and activities of the Chinese new year. In this episode, we will analyze the sources of the new year atmosphere, from the visual, auditory input, and the activities we usually do in preparing to welcome the Chinese new year. We will also debate whether the festival atmosphere is fading and getting weak.

If you happen to have a chance to visit your Taiwanese friend's house, what will make you become a thoughtful and welcomed guest? This episode will provide you with some tips about being a good guest. Also, we will introduce the proper sentences to show your politeness and respect. Let's practice these sentences and build good relationships with your friends.

A cup of tea is a cup of peace. Oolong tea is known as one of  the most representative tea in Taiwan. You probably had received Taiwanese oolong tea as a gift from your friends. However, do you know how to brew it and let the oolong tea release its aromatic taste? In this episode, we will introduce the proper method of making a cup of tasty oolong tea.

 Do you sense the cold winter in Taiwan? The average winter temperature in Taiwan is around 16 degrees Celsius. It seems that winter does not exist in Taiwan for people from cold places. However, for most Taiwanese, winter cold exists. When the temperature is under 20 degrees, we call it 'chilly'; when it is around 10 degrees, we call it 'freezing.' In this episode, we will invite our audiences from Vietnam and Ukraine, to talk about their feelings about winter in Taiwan. We will also talk about the ways to stay warm in winter, especially some tips that Taiwanese like to use to warm up the body (and mind) in our COLD winter.

Say ‘Hi’ to the New Year.

There are only a few days to the fresh new year. It is time to look back on the past year and plan for the new year. What's your achievement in 2021? What goal do you want to accomplish in 2022? In this episode, we will talk about what activities people participate in to celebrate the new year in Taiwan and the often-seen words/phrases during the new year. Let's listen to 好土中文 and say hi to the new year together! Happy New Year~

Language is like a cultural salad bowl, you can always find words or usages which kept the feature of other cultures. In this episode, we will show you some examples of foreign words in Chinese. You will see the method by which the Chinese language borrowed concepts from the outer areas. Also, we will have a short conversation to demonstrate how people switch their languages to exchange information quicker in the office.