Chinese reading exercises might not have the sexy swagger of, say, watching a hip Chinese sitcom or meeting up with your language buddy for a drink. But—did you know that they can improve your language learning acquisition leaps and bounds? Read...
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It’s always an exciting endeavor to work on ideas for new books. When John and I conceptualized a lower level that used only 150 characters, we didn’t realize the challenges that lay ahead of us. Now that we are announcing the release of the 5th...
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“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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