REALLY useful Mandarin vocabulary!

I subscribe to a range of Mandarin blogs and websites which provide hints and tips on learning Chinese. Nciku (which has such a weird name I always mistype it resulting in me usually trying random combinations of the same letters until the page loads) is not just an excellent Chinese dictionary (which allows you to not only type in English or pinyin, but also lets you handwrite characters on-screen to search). It also has a fantastic set of vocabulary lists, community pages, Q&As and conversations. One of my favourite aspects of the site however, is their blog. Most Chinese language blogs will provide phrases they think are useful, such as telling the time, asking for directions etc. But the Nciku team provide you with stuff you REALLY need. The essentials.

Take their latest set of vocabulary and sentences: 10 ways to reject someone in Chinese. Ok, so some people may have more use for these sentences than others. But for pure entertainment value you should learn them anyway! The range from the polite to the downright blunt.

My personal favourite is:

那天我也很忙。事实上，你有空的时候我都会很忙。

Nà tiān wǒ yě hěn máng. Shìshí shàng, nǐ yǒukōng de shíhou wǒ dōuhuì hěnmáng。

I’m busy that day too. To be honest, any time you’re free, I’m busy.

Take a read of the rest. Nciku - thanks for making learning Mandarin fun!