Mei Blog
This blog is my stage outside the chat. I unpack the language the way I’d tell a smart friend: honestly, with real-life examples, and zero textbook boredom. Binge the posts or drop in before a lesson.
You can also argue with me in the comments. Ask, doubt, try your own phrasing — I reply myself. This blog is for people who want to sound human, not just “finish the unit”.
Every week a student asks me the same nervous question: "Mei, where is the list of Chinese irregular verbs?" I always smile, because the honest answer surprises them. Chinese has no conjugation tables like English does — no go/went/gone, no be/was/been. But Chinese is not "easy" here; it just hides its irregularity…
Read more →I've graded hundreds of business emails from English speakers writing in Chinese, and the same four mistakes show up almost every time. The grammar is fine. The vocabulary is fine. What gives people away is the register — the social temperature of the words. Chinese business writing lives and dies by small formulas,…
Read more →I've taught Chinese for eleven years, and the most painful moment in class is not when a student says something wrong. It's when they say something perfectly correct — and my face does that tiny polite freeze. The sentence passes every rule in the textbook, yet it lands in the ear like a piano falling down stairs.…
Read more →Every English speaker learns one Chinese word in week one: nǐ (你), meaning "you." Then, somewhere around lesson three, a textbook quietly drops nín (您) on you and mutters something about "formal you." And now you're stuck — do you say nǐ to your boss? Do you say nín to your friend's mom? Do you say nín to your own…
Read more →I still remember the first time a colleague told me this joke at a noodle shop in Chengdu. I laughed politely, understood maybe half of it, and spent the next twenty minutes asking her to explain why everyone at the table was wiping tears from their eyes. The punchline was just three characters: . That tiny phrase —…
Read more →Every semester, a student walks into my class convinced Chinese is "just tones." Then we hit and the room goes quiet. It means "to give," sure — but it also means "for," "to," "let," and it hides inside sentences where nothing seems to be given at all. English speakers trip on it constantly, because our own verb…
Read more →mǎ hǔ hǔ), your brain probably conjures an image of a horse, another horse, and a confused tiger. Logically, that phrase should be about a zoo escape, not a casual “so-so” response to “How are you?” This is the beautiful, maddening reality of untranslatable expressions. They don’t follow the rules of grammar or logic;…
Read more →Let’s be honest: the Chinese in your textbook is like a suit and tie—perfect for a job interview, but you’d look ridiculous wearing it to a house party. When I first moved to China, I had a flawless grasp of grammar and a vocabulary that could discuss the nuances of economic policy. Then a friend called me 小可爱 (xiǎo…
Read more →Let’s be honest: when you first open a Chinese textbook, the verbs look like a wall of bricks. But here’s the secret — you can survive a week in Shanghai with just four of them. Not “survive” like a caveman pointing at noodles. I mean actually chat, bargain, and make friends. These are 是 (to be), 有 (to have), 做 (to…
Read more →Let me paint a scene. You’re scrolling through WeChat, and a friend sends you a meme that’s supposed to be hilarious. But when you read the Chinese caption—这个梗我不懂了 (this meme, I don’t get it)—you feel nothing. Not a chuckle. Not even a smirk. The joke is dead on arrival. This is the curse of literal translation. When…
Read more →Hey, it’s Mei! If you’ve ever laughed at a clever meme in English, then tried to explain it to your Chinese friend and watched their face go completely blank, you already know the pain—and the comedy—of memes getting lost in translation. As a Chinese teacher, I collect these moments like rare Pokémon. They’re not just…
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