Happy Chinese, Episode 1, The Guest from Afar (Learning Chinese Series)

An entertaining Chinese TV series, with English and Chinese subtitles, aimed at advanced learners of the language. However, beginners and those with limited knowledge of Chinese will also be able to pick up a lot from the show, not least because of the subtitles, but because there are regular fun and engaging vocabulary, phrasal and grammar review points which cover all the basics that even the complete beginner would be learning in the first few chapters of a study book. This series has something for everyone.
第1集 - 远方来客 Episode 1 - The Guest from Afar
除夕当天，大伟告诉父母他定了一个蛋糕，一会有人会送货上门。李父李母发现来送蛋糕的居然是个外国人，而且这个外国人送完蛋糕后还要求参观家里，让两位老人一头雾水。不一会，又有一个送蛋糕的人来到家里，那这个外国人是谁，难道是小伟悄悄交的女朋友吗？

[@nohox9444]

This video is my learning progress meter. A year ago I didn't understand a single word. It was far to fast... Now I get what they are talking about and unless special words I can understand what they say. For all who think it's too tough, do not give up. I do not study everyday, my progress is really small every week, but it's there...

[@teo5146]

David Strohmaier Same here.

[@peterfireflylund]

Mine, too.

[@sabrina3138]

Inspriring....

[@KareemMorris]

Mine too 😁. I'm glad I'm not the only one using this video as my progress meter.

[@rominnafernandez4204]

David Strohmaier how are you learning? By yourself?

[@user-pd3cf1bg2n]

As a native Chinese and originally from Beijing, where the series are shot, I would say it's extremely helpful for foreigners to learn Chinese, especially the way people communicate. Also lots of fun:)

[@shereenahmed4215]

can you please write the lyrics of the song at the beginning..? thank you in advance

[@Silver23399]

@@shereenahmed4215 大家跟我学，学说中国话。学说中国话呀，朋友遍天下……

[@thedragonshoard9130]

@@Silver23399 i thought it was 学习中国话(xue xi zhong guo hua)， not 学说中国话(xue shuo zhong guo hua).

[@hyperhippyhippohopper]

If you're just dropping into this series, keep watching. It gets more and more hilarious.

[@strongeronplants]

Oh my god I used to watch this every day in 2012 to pick up the accent and new words, and never dreamed I could ever go to China..... I´ve been living in China for 6 years now. For everyone studying Chinese: YOU CAN DO IT!

[@malika6238]

Fortunately the earth is round she'll come back later or sooner 04:14 😂

[@jayandbutton]

this is really useful to differentiate textbook Chinese from normal conversations among native speakers. I try listen carefully for these differences, trying not to sound like a Chinese textbook. hilarious how a pretty fluent lao wai begins by practicing the most common ni hao greetings as if that were the full extent of her vocabulary...LOL.

[@1deseret]

I teach dual-immersion Mandarin in a public elementary in the US. I show my 2nd grade (8 years old) American dual-immersion Mandarin students these episodes almost every day. At the beginning of the year I told them to try and recognize at least 1 or 2 words and then we discussed what they heard. They loved it. Now they can pick out whole sentences and we discuss (in simple Mandarin) what that particular episode's plot is. It has really helped them get used to the normal speed of spoken Mandarin! I noticed today that the 117 playlist has been blocked. Anyone else have the same issue?

[@TedEhioghae]

A tip! You should reduce the speed to 0.75x 😊

[@Lypno]

Holy shit that's a genius idea for this video and the rest of Chinese KZbin ones.

[@MoMo-qm9ig]

Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for this tip 🙏🏿🙏🏿

[@thomaslippert3364]

TBH, you're probably better off just watching it repeatedly.

[@hamzaalaudi1184]

wow that's awesome. Now I can actually catch a word or two, Thank you!

[@dmw2618]

Hello,Everyone.I come from China and surely i'm a Chinese native speaker.I think this program is very helpful to you if you want to learn Chinese.And i'm willing to help you to enhance your Chinese skill.

[@iHEARTt0kyo16]

Ni hao, I think I would need your help. I plan to come to china next spring festival. :) I wonder if you have qq international?.. xie xie

[@dmw2618]

+iHEARTt0kyo16 i have qq.but i dont know.whether it's international version. my qq is 570579960 and you can also email me at [e-mail]

[@iHEARTt0kyo16]

thanks! I think it doesn't matter whatever version you have, as the purpose of qq is to eliminate language barrier with the help of the translator, so you ca just chat with everyone in the world without knowing their language. :)

[@thunguyen-de2zv]

水澄茗 请问你有微信吗？

[@dixienormous9211]

I would really love some help

[@iHEARTt0kyo16]

Great show but I wish there is a pinyin subtitle that Chinese subs :) then this will be the perfect show for Chinese learner, well it's still a great show!

[@kleek2217]

agree. that plus slowing it down with the youtube settings would help me a lot. But I'll continue to study elsewhere and then come back to check on my progress. :)

[@theunitedway2805]

That right.

[@sohailalmani5514]

Any body here he help me in job matter

[@kaussartortay3417]

Sohail Almani what kind of job do u need help with?

[@sohailalmani5514]

@@kaussartortay3417 I need good job official or company job in other countrie just like China and London

[@slamdunk406]

This is a really good video for Mandarin learners. Sort of in between beginner conversation and intermediate. I watch this over and over again. Very helpful!

[@yyl2109]

We are ladies Are you sure? No, I'm a donut

[@doodperfekt1992]

YY L lmfao

[@steved.1091]

Lol 😂

[@crosieog1774]

this made me laugh more than it shouldve

[@domdenazareth5542]

It was perfectly in time with the transgender toilets of America.

[@HannahTopangah]

What a gem for learning Mandarin! Thanks for uploading!!

[@badboy95ca]

teaching people ni hao in advance chinese is too ironic lol

[@nickreeder2979]

KeepItLit definitely very odd! Why give an explanation that a beginner wouldn’t understand also?! 😅

[@muhammadsayed9190]

So you teach?

[@smileyg2]

LOL. I thought I was gonna learn a few phrases for the first 44 seconds. Then my two months of Chinese study were blown away at :45. This series is pretty awesome!

[@Normalcloud124]

U first

[@bodon2306]

I would agree with last comment. I could not believe how many extra words I was able to understand when I went back to it too! Thanks for tip on reducing speed - it made things even better!

[@jackbombay1423]

This is a reminder to my future self: I started learning 1/1/2024. Let´s see how far I can go.

[@xuangiangtrinh6937]

Susan was so adorable. Love to see her smile.

[@abuzinnar]

I love the Chinese language and culture! Thanks for uploading these great lessons.

[@aycaramba9540]

I love the oncle (older man), his acting is funny : )

[@markuswiesmann2744]

+Ay Caramba absolutely! :)

[@hannes8991]

Wow amazing, Susan's Chinese is so good！I hope to learn fast so that I can one day become as proficient as Susan 师父。

[@F4ybell]

I sill think she is stupid 😒🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️

[@ritasabri6789]

So ?

[@ritasabri6789]

4 years after

[@melissadurr8756]

没错，你从不会放弃。。不放弃。 ,,right,never give up,never..

[@happyjessus]

acting is as good as it could be in such series and the dialogues are pretty clever; thanks for doing this, it's kind of helpful and fun to watch :)

[@natokbuzz965]

I still remember when I first watched the video and just were looking at the subtitles. Now I understood 100%, need to guess 20%. Awesome

[@rryase]

LOVE IT. so Chinese, so much great dialogue for beginners, but then only those two examples LOL this is for someone studying IN China. Without having ever been, I think it would be hard to grasp how good the dialogue is and the examples are way too simple.

[@raginbakin1430]

Love this show! I didn't expect it to, but it actually made me laugh pretty hard

[@fear_less_2020]

Thank you thank you Thank you sooooo much. I am watching this in 2022 It is gold that I stumbled upon by chance. And boy, I am so grateful for this. Xiexie ni.

[@brutis1520]

Da wei knows Daewae

[@kidwithacamera_]

Im da wei

[@carloscardoso9171]

Excellent ,lots of practical ,useful exchanges and well done.

[@PierreDaGriot]

Love it guys! really enjoyed it. One tip if you could make the Hanzi a bit bigger :D

[@groverchiri4031]

很有趣謝謝您，我愛漢語。

[@vio3366]

I know this is just a serie, and nothing is perfect, but I find Chinese so warm I love Chinese culture, and I am studying Chinese now, I hope I can learn a lot and then come back to this video and tell myself "Oh it was worth it " I also hope I can go to China later

[@vio3366]

OMGGG It was worth it guys!!! I understand about 70-80% of what they're saying

[@benoitpetry7864]

Thank you for sharing!

[@slashorysk]

Beijing dialect/ accent is very Interesting. this drama included a lot of spoken Chinese. I'm a Chinese person who speak Mandarin & Cantonese.

[@yazi3muffin]

This is so great for learning! xiè xiè for posting this! ((:

[@Amqzong]

THIS IS HILARIOUS

[@sophia18132]

Susan說得真好!

[@sarac4773]

Thank you so much!! 谢谢。

[@lamusiquefanatique]

I'm glad I found this. This is so helpful. I want to continue learning Chinese.

[@melissadurr8756]

对， 你还在学习汉语吗？？？ 我也很想在学习，学习。。不放弃。。我是德国人，请问，你呢？？ 我36 岁

[@TheIngPin]

It's trippy seeing the white girl speak chinese so well. But it's not only the way she speaks, she actually mastered all of the expressions of a chinese person. I wonder if this actor was born in china

[@xihangyang]

she is from romania.

[@peterk3145]

xihang yang how did she learn to speak Mandarin so well?

[@Lilithly]

+MilkQuiee you learn it like any other language, Her skin colour in fact really has nothing to with how well she can speak chinese. (There are many white chinese native speakers ...)

[@steamboatsongs1437]

This show is really useful for studying I think. Also on Youku which is pretty handy when you're in China.

[@margaritadelcarmenalvarezd6790]

I am in love with this Happy Chinese. Zie Zie

[@learnchineselanguage6103]

这个世界很美好，因为中国人民住在这儿。电影很好看。我最喜欢。我六个月学习中文，自己学习，因为我没有学校，没有老师。

[@hoteldeltaone]

Thanks for the upload! Helps me alot :)

[@dontusethesamenicknameonthenet]

its actually amusing in a good way 😭😭

[@Ceipher001]

I am planning to learn Mandarin later this year and even though I can't understand 99% of what is being said, I do see the value in watching this. Especially since the foreign woman speaks, it makes you realize that while difficult, foreigners CAN learn to speak it. (I have no idea if this is Mandarin or not but still worth watching).

[@user-qr5xp9vp5n]

It is been 8 years. Did you succeed in learning mandarin?

[@amirhaynes6016]

你好，你现在可以说中文吗。 我每天练习。

[@allies7184]

English speakers seem to have an easier time learning Mandarin than other people because both languages follow a SVO word order. Subject-verb- object ex., He goes home. There are also many words in English that are the same yet change when the stress is placed on a different letter. Ex., Bow like bow tie, and bow -like bending from the waist.

[@StephenKane]

Perfect for learning 汉语。”I Love Lucy” in Mandarin 😂👍💪

[@nguyentrang3382]

OMG, I can all understand. Thank you so much

[@chi-chimonroe3661]

I like it so far :)

[@patniemeyer]

@Sara Busquets Sanz - I don't know why I can't reply to you directly but I just wanted to say thank you for the transcript! It makes this program so much more valuable for study since many of the characters are barely legible in the low def format CCTV made available. I hope you'll do many more of the shows! Thanks!

[@adrew3796]

I am a beginner so this is a little difficult for me, but this show is very interesting and funny. Surprisingly I have picked up on a lot more than I thought.

[@dk2373]

The screaming at 3:03---close your eyes while listening and you'd think he had his gouged out.

[@fuckblackpink3674]

D K not funny. But I don't know why I laughed so hard

[@figgywee]

This is definitely what would be considered intermediate level spoken Mandarin by US standards, and yes, it's hard to follow if you haven't spent much time in actual contemporary conversation. I agree with comments here that it seems silly that the learning points emphasized are "ni/nin hao" and "ni shi mei guo ren ma", when are only demonstrated a few times, and the remainder of the dialogue goes in many other directions. And how is a beginning learner supposed to follow the grammar explanations in Mandarin? This is very useful for learning the rhythms of standard (Northern) spoken Mandarin in "realistic" discourse, but would be a much better tool if the dialogue focused on a more distinct set of at-level learning objectives, and specifically introduced new vocabulary in context. PS, I was last in China in the early 90's as an English teacher: wow, look how rich everyone is!

[@QuizmasterLaw]

I'm a US polyglot. US standards for foreign languages are weaksauce, even worse than Britain or France. Mon-o-ling-gual.

[@QuizmasterLaw]

"Ultra advanced level, for US people" ....aka the makers of FOREST GUMP.

[@feng7691]

Nice video, a fun and good learning material. And it's rich with Chinese.

[@kinggimped]

This was pretty good in terms of practical exchanges, but I have no idea why you guys introduced such basic stuff like 你好 or 你是美国人吗 when the actual conversation is fairly advanced. I think if you made it that far into the show it's a given that you already know how to say hello and ask where somebody is from... That 老外 has such hilariously Chinese mannerisms!

[@Maya-rg3bm]

I was also questioning that

[@alexandrechatty5439]

It's an immersive method : you're not supposed to understand everything you hear ; just like if you were in China. It's probably the most efficient method when it's well conducted.

[@alemedinaa]

I'm practicing my reading English with this.

[@melissadurr8756]

大家好，我也学习中文，我也非常想去中国， 我是德国人， 我11 岁的时候开始自己学中文，我以前自己学中文。 还有别的芋圆， 但是平时普通话

[@abidvu2472]

Been looking for this....long time

[@KareemMorris]

It helps a lot to watch this on 0.75x playback speed if anyone thinks it's super fast.

[@ZOA360]

I love this show

[@umargul5644]

Great 👍 thanks

[@MsHeatofthemoment]

She didn't take her shoes off :(((

[@jeanp.5929]

MsHeatofthemoment I think that's japan or atleast they do it in japan.

[@numuves]

+Jean-Eider Pierre-Louis Chinese do it too.. like many things in the East it probably started in China :)

[@xihangyang]

you need to offer the slipper first before she take it off.

[@jeanp.5929]

I'm not gonna lie, the culture is getting to me. I'm learning chinese and I know nothing of chinese culture.

[@mariatrentacoste3968]

Jean-Eider Pierre-Louis me too I losten to cinese songs just because I love the sound of it and little by little I hope to learn more and more

[@robertoantomarulanda]

非常感谢你。这是一个非常专业的工作

[@pragyan17inductions19]

india >>>>>china

[@bongface3080]

太好了

[@MrandMrsYAO]

身體健康。

[@QuizmasterLaw]

first ten minutes are slow/tough BUT -- Give It A Chance! It DOES have great learning content BUT you have to get to it through the stuff you don't understand. Teaching style is similar to Growing up with Chinese. CUWC is a bit easier. This is all just HSK4 and the teaching materials are 1-3. They producers method is to give you more than you can handle in the skit, then to show you what you can get in the teaching intermissions. PLUS ITS HILARIOUS but yeah firs ten minutes are slow. So glad I stuck with it!

[@strongindependentblackwoma1887]

where can i find a beginner version? :) i mean like this kind of "show".

[@openmind2681]

Nice comedy show with information of Chinese culture.

[@shawnmccullen1578]

I need a second season of this show

[@MiSt3300]

It's so nice!

[@ClaysCollectibles]

this show isn't half bad. I enjoyed it

[@easychineselearning2176]

awesome！

[@AnOriginalYouTuber]

Great video! Its so corny but so endearing.

[@11kwright]

I'm a beginner but thank heavens I have at least 60 Hanyu characters under my belt (I've learnt). So I can understand some words and phrases and I can actually learn some others. But if I were a beginner from scratch then it might be difficult as one would need to decipher the learning at a slower level. If only there was a beginner series as you seem to have the conversation right and an interesting way to learn. Do you do befinner series?

[@user-st4sk2cz9x]

use simple characters to communicate with Chinese. At first you can just use three or four characters as a sentence to communicate with others, then use more,five ,six ,or even more.

[@11kwright]

Thanks, this is very good advice. I will find some people on WeeChat and hopefully practice as am a little further on now.

[@snjsilvan]

Love the show. It would help to have the Pinyin. It's hard to look up specific Chinese words due to differences in grammar between English and Chinese. And Google doesn't give the same translations (or probably the correct ones)

[@spinningincirclezzz]

Holy shlit, that intro was my childhooood.

[@03e-210a]

That feeling when you were learning mandarin for nearly 10 months and you can barely write any 汉子 (but I can recognize many 😄)

[@catherinezy1971]

You mean ‘汉字“？”汉子“ means man in Chinese.

[@alomaa85]

Thanks so much @Sara Busquets Sanz for the transcript!

[@chinesespeakwelsh]

As a Beijinger this is purely Beijing Chinese and even Chinese people may have difficulties understanding some words if they are not familiar with the way we talk hahaha but I'd love to see foreigners speak Chinese with a lot of Beijing slangs. :DDDD

[@kikujirofromkyoto]

Lol.I have spent years learning Japanese. Grammar (particles,etc), kanjis (Chinese characters) for some reason following a common belief at the time that Japanese was way easier than Chinese. I started learning Chinese (only yesterday) and after 2 lessons I can already say a few words or common phrases and I can read what I can say too. I wish someone had told me earlier! Lol.

[@geekmanifesto]

Am I the only one who finds it baffling that this show on "advanced Chinese" is wasting time teaching people what "你好“ means? Seriously? That's like the VERY first word you learn.

[@holzdamolz]

Well seeing as you can't even spell 'first', starting with the basics doesn't look too bad of a start for you actually.

[@moebius4352]

Holly sun Grammar NAZI alert!

[@QwertQwert-qo3le]

Mr. MePhisto's Geek Manifesto hue

[@QuizmasterLaw]

it's episode 1 and they have to reach all levels of learners.

[@QuizmasterLaw]

plus you have to learn the hanzi so

[@saladhersi4704]

it was too nice really.....

[@Dalegribbleexperience]

我会手一点普通话. 这个视频对我有帮助. Thank you!

[@emiistudy6678]

This will be good if i have some basic. Now need to learn basic to make this video useful to me

[@amirhaynes6016]

你好，我很高兴 找到这个。 我是美国人。 谢谢你 再见。

[@melissadurr8756]

你好，我也觉得，我是德国人，我去也很想学习去中文， 你写的很好。。你也自己学汉语吗？ 我是。。你去过中国吗？ 我还没去过中国，我很想去中国

[@Judyssma]

i like this

[@user-cd9uv4xl9b]

Guys! I want more! What is this? Only 7 series? Need more!

[@johnsarkissian5519]

Евгений Григорьев Actually there are probably 100 episodes. I watched many of them on KZbin. They must still be there somewhere!

[@breezyfr100]

My chinese teacher made me watch this

[@casiokiller999]

lot of people think this series is not helpful because the speech too fast, i started learning one year ago on my own and at the beginning i thought the same, but it will gradually improve, and for those who are willing to put the extra effort there is pinyin subtitle in cctv website, just google it

[@SorenToKeiran-Murasaki]

I started studying chinese last year at university but i found these videos extremely useful. Just one question: is the pronunciation we hear the right Beijing pronunciation? Because i find some words sound weird, like: 多少 spelled as "duo rao", 现在 spelled as xi(e)nzai (with a very short "e") and some others. 你们问我的问题我很高兴 (hope the sentence is correct ;) ).

[@Ahseyi]

they said "beijie" (north street) not beijing 多少 is duoshao not duorao and your sentence..what were you trying to say? lol

[@adeefm9736]

i think there is not like a standard mandarin. people from Beijing talk with like an "r" accent.

[@jeffreyparker1178]

请问一下，从哪儿可能受短片的笔录？ 。pdf 太好了，谢谢。

[@sugarkats21]

lol I'm watching this eve though I'm pretty fluent... but only in normal day to day conversing, since that's all I was taught growing up in Canada with a Chinese family

[@anthonycamacho5029]

11:44 It sounds like "Ao bo de lala".

[@MagikGimp]

Oh, this has resurfaced in my feed somehow. I did wonder what it was and where it was from all those years ago.

[@fengweiguo4229]

Chinese new year and Chinese traditional culture. China represents for Top east civilization

[@muhammadnaseemhaiderjafri4554]

Mind blowing video. Very nice video. Thanks a lot for making this video . I have subscribed your Chanel. Im learning Chinese to KZbin. Love from Pakistan Lahore Changa Manga Waan Khara.

[@amyx231]

I need to recognize more words. The subtitles are a bit blurry.... funny show though, lol. And easy to understand phrasing, including some awkward phrases from the foreigner, very nice.

[@veganphilosopher1975]

this was actually really funny

[@emilyh8819]

真的谢谢！！ 这是非常好对我还有这个段子非常有用的。 Wo只要问你们， 有段子PDF吗？如果我可以有，所以我可以好好儿歇息新的词汇。 谢谢你们！！！