“We can’t have any animals in any of the stories” John said as we sat down to discuss story ideas. “Not any animals at all? Why not?” I defiantly stated. “If you look at all the characters for animals, they all fall outside of the 150 characters...
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So, at one point or another, we’ve all had a really strange teacher, the kind you still tell stories about long after your school days have ended. This new original Mandarin Companion story follows two students who are convinced their...
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Steven Kaufmann is a world renown polyglot (a person who knows and is able to use several languages) who speaks 20 languages. I had the privilege to interview him for our podcast and talk about his story of learning Chinese and his perspectives...
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We are pleased to announce all of the Mandarin Companion Level 1 books are now available as audiobooks on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes! Over the years, we’ve had numerous emails from listeners asking for audio versions of the graded readers. We’ve...
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Since John and I started Mandarin Companion back in 2012, we have pursued a vision of a revolution in learning Chinese marked by the advent of easy-to-read and interesting (key word interesting) books in Chinese. Few things have the impact on any...
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Over a period of a couple of years, I was able to take my students studying Chinese from a 50% pass rate to a 100% pass rate on the AP Chinese exam. This is what I did.
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We are excited to share the inspiring story of Jonathan Coveney! His story is one of a kind. Drop us a note if you want to share your story! – Jared I grew up in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas…a stark contrast to my adult life. My father is a...
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We just launched a podcast! Here is how all of this started. While in Shanghai, I ride my electric scooter to my office nearly every day. I could take the metro, but between walking and riding, it was a 22 min commute compared to a 10 min scooter...
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To start off the new year right, we want to communicate with you on what we have been working on. Just to bring you up to speed, Mandarin Companion is largely a two-man operation consisting of John and myself. This is why at times it takes us...
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We’ve received many many emails asking when Emma, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Ransom of Red Chief were going to be available on Kindle. I am extremely pleased to announce that day has come! You can get each book in simplified or...
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The second installment of Stories form our Readers highlighting the experiences of learners like you on their quest to learn Chinese. If you would like to share your story, please reach out to us! I would have never imagined that one day I would...
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Guest post by Diane Neubauer You are learning Chinese and want to read too. Great! I am going to share some ideas to help you make your reading experience more pleasant and productive. Yes, even if you only know 100 or 50, or yes, dare I say as...
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