Mandarin Monkey Podcast

This is a mailbag episode of the Mandarin Monkey Podcast.We answer listener questions about a deceptively common Mandarin mistake:why you can’t use “ask” the way you do in English.Ula explains why 問 i...

30 Jan 49min

This episode is a fully bilingual English–Mandarin conversation. Tom speaks in English. Ula responds entirely in Mandarin.We talk about:Extreme risk and a climber scaling Taipei 101Whether dangerous s...

28 Jan 42min

Why does Mandarin feel easy when you’re listening…but impossible the moment a real person speaks?In this mailbag episode, we answer real listener questions about learning Mandarin in the real world.Te...

23 Jan 45min

We’re back. We both got hit with a nasty illness for a few weeks and lost our voices, so this one is low-energy and coughy. We talk about why we disappeared, why this Christmas felt “off”, a New Year’...

16 Jan 57min

It’s our Christmas Special Mailbag.We answer listener questions about real Chinese greetings, why “Ni Hao Ma” sounds unnatural, fear of flying explained by a pilot, and how to type pinyin with tone ma...

19 Des 20251h 10min

Ula explains why some dictionary and app translations feel unnatural, and shares a new Mandarin dictionary app recommendation. Then we mess around with a sound-guessing game, chat about school plays, ...

17 Des 202548min

Why doesn’t “How are you?” really exist in Chinese?In this episode, we talk about how Chinese people show care without asking about feelings. Food, warmth, sleep, and daily life matter more than emoti...

12 Des 20251h 1min

Friday mailbag time. Chinese and English together, as always.Today you get listener stories about:• Stress gestures that looked like a love confession • Soft Mandarin that sounded like poetry underwat...

5 Des 202551min