However, walking around Shanghai, I did notice this CNY decoration and felt it was worth sharing:

This statue has been there on 延安西路 (W Yan’an Rd.) for years and years, but I’m pretty sure that it only gets decorated this way in the year of the horse. (Sorry, I don’t know if they did this 12 years ago… I’m not paying that much attention!)

The post Fancy Horsies appeared first on Sinosplice.

So today I thought I’d share a bit about what I’ve finished in 2025. I’ve done a lot of “quiet releases,” and in 2026 I’ll need to spend more efforts getting the word out.

2025 Releases

1. Nex Kids Press book 3. I haven’t said much about the English kids’ books I’ve been working on with my friend Kuan since 2023. They don’t fit in with my “Chinese learning” theme because they’re entirely in English. They evolved out of my own needs, raising bilingual children in Shanghai with minimal English in the environment. Now Kuan (the illustrator of the books) is reading them with his own son. The concept is phonics-based beginner readers with a superhero theme. They’re really fun! Anyway, we had planned to release book 3 in 2025, but it looks like we didn’t quite make it. Early 2026 it is!
   
   
2. ARC Plus subscription content. I’ve been doing Advanced Readings in Chinese (ARC) with my friend Pete for years already. It’s a free Substack newsletter. This past summer we released ARC plus, a paid subscriber add-on which includes audio to supplement the readings. It’s been a fun product to create, and we’ve been using AI as a big part of the process. (Free samples of ARC Plus were released in July and are still available online: #207, #208, #209.)
   
   
3. Learn Chinese Characters by Reading (a book). This one evolved out of the idea of stripping down learning to read characters to the very basics: recognizing individual characters as part of simple sentences. It emerged organically out of my decade of work with AllSet Learning clients and also benefited from my work with graded readers at Mandarin Companion. What if you spent only the minimum amount of time learning about character etymologies, semantic components, etc. and focused more on just reading? Well, this book is the result! It can be done. And if you want to see the core 200 characters you learn in the book, you can do so online for free.
   
   
4. AllSet GO: a beginner Chinese course in 10 video lessons. It’s a course designed to prepare beginners to do online lessons in Chinese. As such, the videos mimic video chats, and all of the vocabulary and interaction patterns you learn are focused on communication via online chat. It’s hard to believe that my friend Rob and I originally filmed this way back in 2020. We decided not to release it back then because of covid and a drop in interest in Chinese. Well, we’re done waiting! (Samples also available on Youtube.)
   
   
5. But what about Mandarin Companion Chinese graded readers?? One thing I unfortunately can’t announce for 2025 is the release of our latest Mandarin Companion book, Robin Hood (Level 2). Yes, this one has been a long time in the making, and it’s very nearly done, but technical issues have resulted in more delays than I’d care to write about. However, Jared and I have continued to release You Can Learn Chinese podcasts all year.
   

Back in the Classroom

Why have I been so busy in 2025? Well, I haven’t talked about it on Sinosplice, but in recent years I’ve become an IBDP (International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme) teacher here in Shanghai. AllSet Learning and Mandarin Companion are still going but are not quite as busy as they once were, so I’m finding new ways to keep me exploring the modern education space, especially as AI hogs the EdTech spotlight in recent years.

I’m learning so much from high school kids! I’ve realized that it’s been kind of a blind spot for me, as I continue to learn about my adopted country every day. And now with cell phone culture and AI everywhere, there’s never been a better time to learn more about it. I’ve already got one teenager (she just turned 14 this year) and will have two pretty soon. So it’s good to be more familiar with what they’re facing. They’re also doing IB (the Middle Years Programme) here in Shanghai.

Reflecting on AI

There’s a lot to say about AI, but there’s also a lot of backlash out there. (I’m relatively sheltered from that backlash here in Shanghai, but I read a lot about it.) I’d love to hear what my readers think. (For my thoughts on language learning in the age of AI, see the podcast linked to above.)

Personally, I am interested in AI and invested in it (my current favorites are Google AI Studio and Google Notebook LM), but also sympathetic to the problems it may bring and that it’s already bringing. Yeah, AI slop kinda sucks (especially Sora 2 video slop), but I am quite optimistic that something really good for humanity will emerge from all the slop. Maybe not from OpenAI, but I do think we’ll see a lot more good come out of AI in 2026. I’ve got two new projects I’m working on in 2026, both related to AI and one to Chinese language learning, and I’m really optimistic about the future.

Here’s wishing everyone an excellent 2026!

The post Reviewing 2025 appeared first on Sinosplice.

I’ve still got a year-end update post coming, but in the meantime, I need to share a great deal happening at AllSet Learning right now. If you’re learning Chinese online or thinking about it, there’s no cheaper way to give our top-notch services a try for a very low $33.

Yes, I liked the deal so much, I put myself in the ad.

Please share with anyone who might need it!

The post Best Deal for Learning Chinese in 2025 appeared first on Sinosplice.

The part I’m talking about is where Shakira sings “zoo ooh ooh.” As song lyrics it’s slightly clunky, because the Chinese word for “zoo” is 动物园 (dòngwùyuán), which doesn’t rhyme with “ooh.” Not a huge deal, obviously, but the translators realized they could do better.

So they rewrote the song lyrics a little bit so that where the English lyrics are “zoo,” the Chinese lyrics are 动物 (dòngwù), which actually does rhyme with “ooh”. In this onscreen translation, the “ooh ooh” was also “translated” (transliterated) as 呜 呜 (wū wū). Nice!

I went to YouTube and then Bilibili to try to find a video with this translation, but I actually couldn’t find it. Instead I found this literal translation of “zoo” (to 狂欢乐园 and 狂欢动物园):

Let me know if you find the better translation somewhere. I haven’t heard a Chinese version of the theme song yet, but I’ll be interested to see what translation they use (hopefully the one I saw in the theater subtitles).

Related: The Laziest Animated Movie Title Translations Ever

The post Zootopia 2 and “Zoo Ooh Ooh” in Chinese appeared first on Sinosplice.

(Yes, apparently I’m big in Guilin.)

So the amount of time I’ve lived in China has now significantly exceeded the amount of time I’ve lived in the US or anywhere else.

It’s a weird feeling.

I’ve written about my history with Chinese over on the ARC (Advanced Readings in Chinese) Substack if anyone is interested in taking a peek.

The post 25 Years! appeared first on Sinosplice.

A got AI to provide a nice little summary of what the video covers:

• Unique Characters: Unlike the Japanese system which largely uses phonetic borrowings, each element in Chinese has its own distinct character, which is unusual as most Chinese words are compounds of multiple characters [01:33].
• Rarely Used Characters: Many of these element-specific characters are very rare, and the discovery of new elements presents opportunities to coin new Chinese characters [01:54, 02:08].
• Phonsemantic Compounds: Almost all characters on the Chinese periodic table belong to the category of phonsemantic compounds [05:22, 06:29]. These characters combine a semantic radical, which hints at the element’s general category, and a phonetic element, which suggests its pronunciation [05:22, 05:52].
• Radical Categories: The semantic radicals used for elements are often based on their state at room temperature: the metal radical for solid metals, the stone radical for solid non-metals, the air radical for gases, and the water radical for liquids [06:56].
• Phonetic Elements: The phonetic component of the character is usually a simplified transliteration of the element’s international name (often English or Latin) [07:35]. However, some common elements have native Chinese names [07:52].
• Conjoined Meaning Elements: About ten elements also belong to the conjoined meaning category, where the character combines elements with related meanings, such as oxygen including the character for nourishment [06:38, 08:16]. These are also phonsemantic [08:41].
• Naming New Elements: Naming new elements involves assigning a radical based on predicted physical properties and a phonetic element based on the international name. Homophones with existing element names need to be avoided [08:49, 09:36].
• Pronunciation: Generally, the pronunciation of these modern element characters closely follows their phonetic components, even in tone, as sound changes haven’t significantly altered them yet [09:55, 10:03].
• Homophone Issues: While there are generally no homophones among element names, tin and selenium are both pronounced “C,” leading to an alternative reading for tin [10:17, 10:27].
• Lack of Disambiguation Suffix: Surprisingly, the suffix “su,” commonly used for disambiguation in Chinese, especially for monosyllabic words, is not typically used with element names [10:41, 11:05]. The speaker finds the Chinese system of naming elements to be interesting and well-designed, despite being a non-expert in chemistry [11:35].

The post The Periodic Table in Chinese has fun surprises appeared first on Sinosplice.

David writes:

This bilingual sign in the restroom of a Beijing hospital is interesting. The Chinese literally reads: “[If this is] a special day, [if] you need a feminine hygiene product, please contact someone at the front desk.” The English eschews such gentle euphemisms: “If you need a tampon during your period, please contact with the front desk [sic].” An interesting cultural difference?

Note that the translation of “tampon” in the sign isn’t quite accurate, and the picture doesn’t match.

There are definitely a lot of Chinese euphemisms regarding the topic of menstruation. The one I hear the most is also the simplest: 我老朋友来了 (wǒ lǎopéngyou lái le), literally, “my old friend is here.”

The post Feminine Product Euphemisms in Chinese appeared first on Sinosplice.

If you’re in Shanghai this January 1st (2025), come to the Children’s Charity Bazaar, which benefits the Heart to Heart Foundation, helping underprivileged children get the heart surgery they desperately need. You don’t even have to wake up early! 11am until 5pm at the 889 mall (889 Wanhangdu Rd.).

Some more info about Heart to Heart from its website:

Heart to Heart is a special fund of Ren De Foundation.  We are Shanghai based, but provide corrective surgery for Chinese children from all over China with congenital heart disease (CHD) whose parents are unable to afford the surgery.  To date H2H has sponsored over 3,410 children for heart surgery. The surgeries not only saved their lives, but transformed the lives of their families.

Heart to Heart is proud of the fact that we are and always have been a 100% volunteer organization. We have no paid employees. We also have a $0 operating budget which means that 100% of donations are spent for surgeries. Sponsors are given documentation on where their donations were spent and can also visit the children while the children are in the hospital for their surgery. Sponsoring a child is a truly moving experience.

The post Children’s Charity Bazaar appeared first on Sinosplice.

One thing that I’ve noticed about Italian is that plural forms require a lot more attention than I’ve ever given them in any of my language study to date. In Spanish plurals take an “s” like in English. Then in Japanese and Chinese, you don’t have a regular plural form, for the most part.

Suddenly in Italian you have “-o” and “-a” turning to “-i” and “-e” and no “s” in sight! So it requires more attention, but it’s interesting.

Meanwhile, studying Italian also brought to my attention another issue that Japanese and Chinese never did: how the word “pants” (e.g. “trousers” for you Brits) is plural. Why is it plural? It’s one piece of clothing like a shirt or a dress. Sure, there are two pant legs in a pair of pants, but there are also two sleeves in a shirt. Italian uses a plural word for “pants” just like English and Spanish.

This got me thinking… what about other languages in Europe? So my buddy ChatGPT helped me create this chart, which seems to be accurate:

So, only French, German, Dutch, Greek, and Hungarian have a singular take on “pants.” Interesting…

The post More Pants than Pant appeared first on Sinosplice.

The trip is a meeting with some European academics working on a multilingual, international platform for teaching Chinese. I’ve been contributing to the project through the Chinese Grammar Wiki, and this month I’ll finally be able to meet up with the other academics (from Poland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Germany) and discuss grammar pedagogy and resources. (I’m pretty sure AI is going to come up as well.)

It’s funny, about 16 years ago I was managing a number of “LanguagePod” teams while working at ChinesePod. One of them was ItalianPod, and while I loved that team and the energy and culture they brought to the company, I never really learned much Italian. “Ciao a tutti!” comes to mind.

Now, knowing for a while that I have this trip to Italy coming up, I’ve been studying Italian on Duolingo and using ChatGPT to tutor me in Italian with reference to Spanish (which I have still retained quite a bit of). I’ve been building my own phrasebook and using AI to create audio for that phrasebook. It’s all been a very fun and interesting way of learning Italian quite different from ItalianPod (which, unfortunately, is not so easy to find now). We’ll see how it goes…

If I have any friends in Napoli I’m not aware of, please get in touch!

The post Business Trip to Naples, Italy appeared first on Sinosplice.