Real You Mandarin: The Podcast

For many of us in our 30s and beyond, while we've been finding out more about ourselves as adults, another aspect of getting older is coming to terms with the fact that our own parents are also getting older. With that comes the inevitability of discussions around medical decisions, potential changes in living arrangements, financial/estate planning, and more. Do you feel prepared to have those conversations in Mandarin? We certainly didn't before creating our most recently released module for our Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression Course... Module 4: Caring For Aging Parents. In fact, while making the content for this module, Angela coincidentally had to make use of some of her newly learned vocab to assist with her own family circumstances. Much like our entire course, while we cannot anticipate every conversation or situation you may encounter, we truly hope that what you do learn through our course gives you a solid toolkit to tackle some of these difficult life conversations so that you can feel more confident when approaching these topics.To learn more about the newly released module and to join the full Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression course during its last stretch of discounted pricing before the full course release, head over to https://www.realyoumandarin.com ... if you haven't already, preview the free lesson to see if the course is right for you!In this episode, you'll learn vocab like 年邁的父母 / 年迈的父母 / nián mài de fù mǔ ("elderly/aging parents"), 口譯 / 口译 / kǒu yì ("to interpret/oral interpretation"), and 主要照顧者 / 主要照顾者 / zhǔ yào zhào gù zhě ("primary caregiver"). Follow us on Instagram at @realyoumandarin and on TikTok at @realyoumandarin.

In a not often spoken about topic in Mandarin, we're joined again by Zhifei from Xiaogua Chinese, where we discuss our respective experiences with psychedelics.What started as a conversation broadly about our mutual interest in self-growth quickly pivoted to this topic where Angela shares how therapeutic MDMA was her initial gateway into this world, and Zhifei shares her deeply profound experience with psilocybin (magic mushrooms) in Bali. In this episode, you'll learn vocab like 觸發點 / 触发点 / chù fā diǎn ("trigger/trigger point"), 靈修 / 灵修 / líng xiū ("spiritual practice / spiritual cultivation"), and 薩滿 / 萨满 / sà mǎn ("shaman").If you like Zhifei, follow her YouTube channel at  ⁨@xiaoguachinese⁩  to watch other intermediate/advanced Mandarin level conversational videos!If you like improving your Mandarin through this conversational-style format, make sure to subscribe to us here at Real You Mandarin: The Podcast to stay up-to-date with the latest episodes, and check out all of our resources at ⁠https://www.realyoumandarin.com⁠Follow us on Instagram at ⁠@realyoumandarin⁠ and on TikTok at ⁠@realyoumandarin⁠

Frequent guest and Real You Mandarin: Beginnings partner teacher Jane Liu is back again, and this time to talk about one of her favorite pastimes... camping!We talk about how camping in Taiwan is unique compared to in the West. Jane goes camping often throughout Taiwan's beaches and forests, has camped in the U.S. before, and has previously lived in a camper van traveling across Europe and Australia. In this episode, you'll learn vocab like 露營 / 露营 / lù yíng (camping / to camp), 隨意 / 随意 / suí yì (casually / freely / as you like), and 生火 / shēng huǒ (to light/make a fire). Camping also happens to be one of the main topics covered in Jane's upcoming vlog-style course on fun places to go in Taiwan! To learn more, follow her on Instagram at @janesmandarin and join her waitlist in her link in bio.Learn more about Real You Mandarin at https://www.realyoumandarin.comFollow us on Instagram at @realyoumandarin and on TikTok at @realyoumandarin

I moved to Japan y'all! Sorry for the delay in episodes recently... it's been a lot prepping for this new major life chapter.In this solo episode, I reflect on the experience of deciding to immigrate to Asia as an Asian-American, comparing/contrasting with my parents' own immigration 30+ years ago from Taiwan to the U.S., and what major differences I've already experienced culturally/societally this time moving here pursuing permanent residency compared to my previous time spent in Japan as a digital nomad on tourist visas.Even though there is no native speaking guest this episode, I looked up key vocab prior to recording so we could all still learn new vocab together. In this episode, you'll learn vocab like 近況更新 / jìn kuàng gēng xīn (TW) or 最新動態 / 最新动态 / zuì xīn dòng tài (CH) ("life update/latest update"), 生活品質 / 生活品质 / shēng huó pǐn zhí ("quality of life"), and 驚喜 / 惊喜 / jīng xǐ ("to be pleasantly surprised"). If you like improving your Mandarin through this conversational-style format, make sure to subscribe to us here and on YouTube to stay up-to-date with the latest podcast episodes, and check out all of our resources at https://www.realyoumandarin.comFollow us on Instagram at @realyoumandarin and on TikTok at @realyoumandarin

Zhifei is the Creator of Xiaogua Chinese, popular Mandarin teaching platform that focuses on comprehensible input and practical/real life Mandarin. As a polyglot herself (speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, English, Portuguese, and is learning French!), she fully understands the struggles that language learners face, especially in achieving a level of fluency that feels "real" to well...real life! With the similarities between Real You Mandarin's philosophy of empowering you to feel confident speaking immediately useful, practical, "real life" Mandarin only, it's no wonder we gravitated towards Zhifei and her platform.Beyond her teaching experience, we discuss the many things we have in common between our respective experiences as digital nomads, being multilingual, our mutual connection to Spain, and more -- we loved getting to know Zhifei and think you will too.In this episode, you'll learn new vocab like "digital nomad": (CH) 電子遊民 / 电子游民 / diàn zǐ yóu mín vs. (TW) 數位遊牧 / 数位游牧 / shù wèi yóu mù, 定居 / dìng jū ("to settle down" / "to make one's home"), and 幸虧 / 幸亏 / xìng kuī ("fortunately" / "luckily" / "thanks to").To learn more about Zhifei and Xiaogua Chinese, you can find her on YouTube and Instagram at @xiaoguachineseIf you like learning Mandarin through this conversational format, try a free lesson from our newest course Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression, lock in early bird pricing for huge savings, and review the full syllabus at ⁠https://www.realyoumandarin.com.And if you're interested in transcripts from this podcast episode to deepen your learning, you can unlock full transcripts in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Pinyin, and English by joining our Podcast Transcript Membership at https://transcripts.realyoumandarin.com - download the first episode's full transcript for free to try it out before you join. AND, if you end up joining our course Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression, you have the option to add on the Transcript Membership at a huge discount at checkout.Follow us on Instagram at @realyoumandarin and on TikTok at @realyoumandarin