Things changed quickly. The growing concerns about the travel and the recommended social distancing amid the novel coronavirus crisis prompted the College Board and Asia Society, the organisers of the National Chinese Language Conference, to cancel the coming NCLC 2020, scheduled in May in Orlando, Florida.

The current coronavirus pandemic has put the entire Hong Kong Education system online, a move nobody had ever anticipated till now. An unprecedented number of students use online classrooms to learn everyday. Did it work?

There are three jobs I will never finish, washing dishes, doing laundry, and revising Chinese textbooks. And I am always glad that I did these jobs. What’s worth of mentioning today is that I just finished updating Mandarin Express Intro and Basic levels. For Chinese teachers and students who need these textbooks, you will receive the updated version 2020. 

The current coronavirus outbreak has taken its toll on us. The evening news has been talking non-stop about the death tolls, the latest border controls in various countries, the infections, the unlucky cruise ships, and many different opinions offered by many experts. We are perplexed, we are in pain, and we are in a crisis.

National Chinese Language Conference (NCLC) 2020 will be hosted in Orlando, Florida, this May, and I am going to conduct a workshop this time. Happen to be in the neighbourhood? Stop by!

Gong xi fa cai, everyone! 

Chinese New Year is coming. Here is a little bit of cultural interest for all Chinese learners. There will be 384 days in the year of rat, starting from the first day Jan 25, 2020 and ending on Feb 11, 2021.

The first animated video lesson was just officially released. If you have never learned anything about reading and writing Chinese characters, you can watch this video and learn strokes and stroke orders. 

Sometimes I have my breakfast in a restaurant which is right next to my office building. This is a typical Hong Kong restaurant where you see locals most of the time. The menu is usually placed underneath the glass top of the table. You sit down, you read the menu, and you order your food. In this restaurant, most of the service staff look quite senior in age. And Cantonese is the default language in this restaurant.

Sharp eyed readers have noticed that a new and handsome logo have replaced the old one on MSL Master’s website. That’s right. A new logo was launched on Oct 10, 2019. Hello, new logo!

This September and October, for people who are interested in learning Mandarin Chinese, two great introductory Chinese courses are starting soon. Don’t miss it!

Learning popular songs is a great way to learn Mandarin Chinese. We like beautiful songs. They are part of Chinese culture, and can help students practice pronunciations and learn new words. 

I recently had a trip to Okinawa. One day, I got caught in the rain and had to spend a couple of hours in a coffee house, where other tourists suffered the same fate. There was a nice couple from Germany. It was their first trip to Japan and they found it really hard to get around or to order food, because they did not speak Japanese. I do not speak Japanese either, yet for me Japan is not a hard place to get around. The reason is simply because I can read Chinese characters.

This April, MSL Master entered its 17th year. 

In April 2003, when MSL was first started, I only had one goal, which was to provide the best Mandarin Chinese courses for non-Chinese speakers in Hong Kong. My criteria was simple, that students are able to speak Mandarin quickly and fluently on topics related to daily life and work. 

One of the hardest working students at MSL Master, Mr Hui, recently completed the entire MSL Master Mandarin courses. He started from Mandarin Express Intro Level A years ago and finished at Intermediate Level B.

Upon “graduation”, he had some thoughts on learning Mandarin, especially on learning the last textbook, Mandarin Express Intermediate Level B. He wrote a long review “Learning Mandarin through appreciation of Chinese classics”.

Chinese New Year is here. Every part of the city is once again basked in a Chinese deco, the background Chinese music keeps the spirit up, and shops and restaurants are busy promoting special offers. All promise that the year of pig is going to be a prosperous one. 

This is a time when food occupies a center part of people’s mind. What to eat and what good fortune one is going to have are issues dealt by many. It is quite a common knowledge, possibly worldwide, that at Chinese New Year food is highly correlated with auspicious meanings. Fish signifies surplus. Chicken is for good luck, and rice cake represents progress year on year. And those finger licking sugar coated lotus roots carry a meaning of plenitude.

Knowing which food carries what fortune is a partial understanding of food culture at Chinese New Year. What food really does is to bring people together, to reproduce an harmonious political and social environment, a belief deeply ingrained in Chinese mainstream culture and tradition.