Daily Chinese — Phrases, Conversation & Survival Mandarin
8 courses
Daily Chinese is the practical Mandarin you actually use: greeting people, ordering food, shopping, asking for directions, and talking about family and home. These courses teach practical Chinese phrases by typing them, so they are ready when you need them.
Browse the daily Chinese situations below and start with whatever you will use first. They pair perfectly with the HSK path — finish HSK 1 and these courses let you immediately put your new words to work.
Reading and typing build production; listening builds comprehension. Tune into our Chinese podcast episodes to hear daily Mandarin spoken naturally, then practice the phrases here.
Daily Chinese is the core set of practical phrases that get you through real situations in a Chinese-speaking environment — saying hello and goodbye, ordering in a restaurant, buying a ticket, asking how much something costs, and introducing your family. It is the language of daily life rather than the classroom.
These daily Chinese conversation courses are built around situations you will actually meet, so each phrase is anchored to a real moment. The same skill set overlaps with everyday Chinese, travel Chinese, and survival Chinese: language you can use immediately with Chinese-speaking friends, classmates, shopkeepers, or restaurant staff.
Why learn daily Chinese phrases by typing?
Knowing a word is not the same as being able to produce it under pressure. Typing each daily Chinese phrase from memory is active recall that rehearses the exact retrieval you need in a real conversation, so the words come faster when it counts.
Typing the lines the way you would say them also reinforces word order and tone, turning textbook vocabulary into daily Mandarin practice you can reach for instantly.
What you'll learn in these daily Chinese courses
Greetings and introductions — hello, goodbye, please, thank you, sorry, and meeting people politely.
Food and dining — ordering in restaurants, reading a menu, and talking about what you like to eat.
Shopping and money — asking prices, bargaining, numbers, and paying.
Getting around — directions, transport, and travel survival phrases.
Family, home, and small talk — the everyday topics that keep a conversation going.
How to use the daily Chinese courses
Start with the situation most relevant to you right now — greetings if you are about to meet Chinese speakers, food and shopping if you are travelling. Because each course is self-contained, you do not have to follow a fixed order; pick what you will use soonest.
For the best results, pair these daily Chinese courses with the HSK path. The HSK courses build your core vocabulary while these turn that vocabulary into real, usable conversation.
What is daily Chinese?
Daily Chinese is the Mandarin you use in ordinary real-life situations: greetings, numbers, ordering food, asking for directions, shopping, prices, family, and small talk. It prioritizes practical Chinese phrases over grammar theory, so you can communicate quickly.
Is daily Chinese useful for travel?
Very. Daily Chinese, travel Chinese, and survival Chinese overlap heavily: greetings, ordering in restaurants, shopping and bargaining, transport, and directions are exactly what a traveller needs. Learning these phrases by typing them from memory makes them easy to recall on the spot.
Do I need characters to learn daily Chinese conversation?
You can start speaking with pinyin alone, but recognizing common characters helps you read menus, signs, and prices. Our scenario courses show pinyin and characters together, so you build practical conversation and reading at the same time.
Should I learn HSK or daily Chinese first?
They work best together. HSK gives you a structured vocabulary base; daily Chinese courses turn that base into usable conversation. A common approach is to follow the HSK path while picking the daily Chinese scenarios most relevant to your life.
How many phrases do I need to get by in Chinese?
A few hundred well-chosen daily Chinese phrases cover most everyday situations — greetings, numbers, food, shopping, directions, and small talk. Mastering these high-frequency phrases by active recall gives you far more real-world ability than memorizing a long, passive word list.
How do these courses help me actually speak?
Each lesson has you type real phrases from memory, rehearsing the exact word order, tones, and vocabulary you will use aloud. That active production practice transfers directly to speaking, so the phrases surface faster in a live conversation.
