We skip the small talk and jump straight into chaos. One of us wears noise-cancelling headphones with brown noise blasting. The other says sentences in Mandarin and English. The goal is simple. Lip read the line. No clues. No questions.

The results are a mess. “You squeezed it before I was ready,” becomes cheesecake. 羊羹 becomes “some kind of rat.” Twice becomes twat. And a totally normal Chinese sentence turns into Argentina.

If you enjoy Mandarin learning mixed with confusion, misread lips, and unearned confidence, this game delivers.

Send your sentences or game ideas to chat@mandarinmonkey.com.

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Wrong day, wrong week, right podcast. Today’s mailbag episode starts with that weird moment when your brain swears Friday arrived, but the calendar says otherwise, then drifts into lottery fantasies, nannies who only speak Mandarin, and baldness fear. Standard Mandarin Monkey energy.

Then listener stories:

• Daniel in Manchester used Mandarin to survive lockdown loneliness and asks how to practice speaking when nerves block every sentence.

• John in Southern California listened to the whole podcast three times and still wants more. Respect.

• Debbie in Lagos started Mandarin because C-drama subtitles missed the point and now fights double audio and dodgy subs.

• Olivia fell in from the short clips, forgets new words in days, and wants to keep going without burnout.

• Vivi did “immersion” in Kaohsiung, made international friends, defaulted to English, and now only understands Mandarin with heavy context.

We talk about:

• Why tutors hear every mistake already and still support learners

• How mirroring and shadowing native speakers trains tones and rhythm

• Why motivation fades and discipline keeps progress alive

• How to use scripts, news, and audio to train listening without subtitles

• Single-channel brains, overwhelm, and why context helps more than people admit

Bilingual as always. Ula speaks Mandarin, Tom speaks English, you follow along.

Send your story or question to:

chat@mandarinmonkey.com

or DM on Instagram / Facebook.

Your email might show up in the next mailbag.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We put on noise-canceling headphones, blasted brown noise, and tried to read each other’s lips in Chinese.

Spoiler: “Are you the king of Mandarin Monkey?” turned into “Are you licking a mandarin monkey?”We also talk about Tom’s 3D-printed bust mini-movie, the “shi” tongue twister that broke him, and why bringing back the silly side of Mandarin Monkey might be the best idea yet.

Send your stories for Friday Mailbag: chat@mandarinmonkey.com

Lessons and more at mandarinmonkey.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.