maayot | Learn Mandarin Chinese with Stories

When we are in our own country, we all have our favorite coffee brand or coffee shop. When we come to China, we can see some international coffee brands, such as Starbucks and Costa, but there may no…

In Chinese, when we point out someone hold a post without qualifications or make up a number without active work, we use the idiom “làn yú chōng shù”. The direct meaning of this idiom is that pretend…

In Chinese history, each dynasty generally only had one capital. However, there were a few of exceptional cases. During Ming Dynasty, there were two capitals, and they had the same function. The two …

There are many famous mountains in China, such as the Five Sacred Mountains and the four Famous Buddhist mountains. They all have their unique landscape and historical stories. In today’s story, we a…

In ancient China, there were four famous beauties. Xi Shi was one of them. There are several legendary stories about Xi Shi, and some idioms are also related to her. In today’s story, we are going to…

When we travel to other places, accommodation is a very important issue. We always want to pick a comfortable, convenient hotel with an affordable price. In today’s story, our protagonist Xiao Li tra…

It's winter time, and it's relatively warm when there's no wind. The temperature drops a lot when the wind blows. The power of wind can benefit many things, but it can also damage buildings and crops…

With the development of social media, many people are willing to share what they see and hear during their daily life. Some people also like to post what do they have for meal. In today’s story, our …

In Chinese, people using the word of “Bo Le”to describe the talent scout, and the word of “swift horse”to describe people who are talented and capable of doing things. In today’s story, we are going …

Today is the “Beginning of Winter”, which is one of the 24 solar terms in China. In each of the solar term, Chinese people have some traditional customs. Of course, these customs are differed in the …

Today is the “Beginning of Winter”, which is one of the twenty-four solar terms. It used to be an important festival for Chinese people because in the past, Chinese people believes that winter is the…

Today is the “Beginning of Winter”—one of the twenty-four solar terms in Chinese lunar calendar. In the north China, majority of the houses have turned on the heating because it is pretty cold alread…

Shopping is a very important activity in our life, and it also makes us feel happy when we bought something that we really like. A lot of people find it is difficult to control our enthusiasm towards…

The climate of China differs greatly from that of the north to the south. For people living in the south, snow in the north is something they envy. For those who live in the north, they also admire t…

Today is Halloween. For adults, the most interesting part of this festival is all kinds of costumes and theme parties. Attending these parties, having a unique makeup will make you the center of the …

In our yesterday’s story, we knew that our protagonist lost his bank card and needs to go to the bank and get a new one. In today’s story, we are going to hear a conversation between David and a bank…

When it comes to name a child, most of the Chinese parents would take many factors into consideration, such as how the name sounds, does the name contain good meanings, does it in line with the eight…

Gift-giving is an important part of social interaction. In China, there is a trend in recent years that people tend to give money to others directly instead of choosing a gift for them. Now both Wech…

Siheyuan is also known as Courtyard Houses, which is the traditional, typical residential building in Beijing. It is a tradition to plant trees in siheyuan, but not just any kind of tree can be plant…

Chinese people are very hospitable, and like to invite friends for dinner. Nowadays, Chinese people have gradually accepted the idea of sharing the bill with others, but in many cases, we find that p…