Learning Mandarin isn't nearly as difficult as many people think. But there are a few mistakes that almost every learner makes—including me. The good news is that once you know what they are, you can avoid months of frustration. I Made Most of These Mistakes Too When I first started learning Mandarin, I thought I knew what I was doing. I bought textbooks. I downloaded apps. I memorised vocabulary lists. I spent hours looking at Chinese characters. Yet when a real Chinese pe

If you've been learning Mandarin for a while, you've almost certainly asked yourself this question: Should I use 不 (bù) or 没 (méi)? I know I did. When I first started learning Chinese, this was one of the grammar points that confused me the most. I could understand what native speakers were saying, but when it was my turn to speak, I'd suddenly stop and wonder which word was correct. The problem is that English only has one simple idea: "not." Mandarin doesn't work that way.