Dani meets Leo as he is booking flights online to go to America for his brother's wedding next year. Dani teaches him how to say this in Mandarin Chinese, and how to make other statements about what he plans to do in the future. Leo also learns how to say what he did this year and last year. Dani teaches him how to say any year, such as 2012, in Mandarin Chinese.
Dani asks when next year Leo's brother is getting married, and Leo is keen to learn how to answer in Mandarin Chinese. Dani teaches him to say all 12 months of the year in Chinese. Once again, Leo is delighted to learn that these follow a simple system based on numbers 1 to 12 in Chinese. With his new knowledge, Leo is now equipped to make any statement about any point in time in Mandarin.
The Chinese were aware that the lunar calendar didn't match up neatly with the solar calendar. That is to say that there is not exactly 12 lunar months in a year. The Chinese calendar has methods to handle these mismatches, but ultimately the Western calendar's solution came to be the international standard. The Western calendar simply ignores the lunar cycle, so that our current months don't match to lunar cycles anymore. The importance of the lunar cycles is kept alive with the traditional Chinese calendar used by many Chinese people for cultural events.
About our Lessons
Dani, a native Mandarin Chinese speaker from Beijing, guides you through your trip in China. Dani will help you learn Chinese words and phrases that you need to know as you encounter real life situations while in China. You will also learn interesting and useful lessons about Chinese culture and values along the way. Our lessons are designed to help you learn Chinese online without the need to download or install any software. You can start to learn Chinese free by availing of our 10 free lessons.