Learning Chinese through Stories

Welcome to 听故事说中文, the podcast where stories come alive to help you improve your Chinese language proficiency and cultural competency. Today's story is about Cai Lei, a man who was diagnosed with ALS — known in Chinese as 渐冻症(jiàn dòng zhèng), literally "the freezing disease" — and chose not to quietly disappear. Before his diagnosis, he was a successful businessman. Afterward, he became something harder to define: a patient who threw himself into funding research, building platforms, pushing policy, and demanding that the world pay attention to a disease it had largely ignored. It's a story about what it looks like to face the unfaceable — not with grace, but with grit. - Rui & Simeng ************************************************************ Support Our Podcast Support Our Podcast → https://www.patreon.com/learningchinesethroughstories If our podcast brings value to your life and you'd like to help us keep creating great content, consider becoming a patron for as little as $9 a month. As a patron, you'll enjoy: * ✨ Ad-free episodes for an uninterrupted listening experience * 📜 Access to all story and story walkthrough transcripts * 📚 Comprehensive vocabulary lists * 📖 Our LCTS Favorites ebook + RealLife Chinese for Beginners podcast * 💬 Our members' Discord community + a monthly study challenge * 🎥 Monthly live meetup with us (一份火锅 tier) Not ready to join? Our free Discord is open to every listener — come say hi! 💬 Join our free community on Discord → https://discord.gg/km3GgzCe3J Your support means the world to us and lets us keep delivering the content you love. Thank you for being part of our community! 💖 — LCTS ************************************************************ Check out our playlists on Spotify Chinese for Intermediate-Playlist Chinese for Intermediate High-Playlist Chinese for Advanced-Playlist Chinese for Superior- Playlist Chinese for Beginners-Playlist

Welcome to 听故事说中文, the podcast where stories come alive to help you improve your Chinese language proficiency and cultural competency. Today's story is about a word that's been quietly spreading across the Chinese internet — 登. It's a slang term that's hard to translate directly, but you'll recognize the type of person it describes: someone who leans on their experience or status to tell others what to do, who'd rather lecture than listen, and who turns a conversation into a one-way street. It's not really about age. Plenty of young people get teased for having 登味 too — those moments when we catch ourselves being a little too rigid, or judging others by our own standards without realizing it. At its heart, this story is about how people communicate — and what it looks like when respect and curiosity replace authority and judgment. Swap "I want" for "what do you think," and "let me test you" for "teach me something" — and the world, as the author puts it, becomes a little bit better. - Rui & Simeng ************************************************************ Support Our Podcast Support Our Podcast → https://www.patreon.com/learningchinesethroughstories If our podcast brings value to your life and you'd like to help us keep creating great content, consider becoming a patron for as little as $9 a month. As a patron, you'll enjoy: * ✨ Ad-free episodes for an uninterrupted listening experience * 📜 Access to all story and story walkthrough transcripts * 📚 Comprehensive vocabulary lists * 📖 Our LCTS Favorites ebook + RealLife Chinese for Beginners podcast * 💬 Our members' Discord community + a monthly study challenge * 🎥 Monthly live meetup with us (一份火锅 tier) Not ready to join? Our free Discord is open to every listener — come say hi! 💬 Join our free community on Discord → https://discord.gg/km3GgzCe3J Your support means the world to us and lets us keep delivering the content you love. Thank you for being part of our community! 💖 — LCTS ************************************************************ Check out our playlists on Spotify Chinese for Intermediate-Playlist Chinese for Intermediate High-Playlist Chinese for Advanced-Playlist Chinese for Superior- Playlist Chinese for Beginners-Playlist

Welcome to 听故事说中文, the podcast where stories come alive to help you improve your Chinese language proficiency and cultural competency. This week, we've got a powerful, satirical story about a young man who is, quite literally, a "testing genius." He did everything right: top student every single year, culminating in scoring the highest in the province on the college entrance exam—the Zhuangyuan. But his success came at a cost. His life was completely mapped out by his high-achieving parents, treating him more like a project than a person. The heart-wrenching twist comes after the final exam. When his mother finally offers him freedom—TV, games, going out—he can only stare blankly and reply: "没意思" (méi yìsi), "It's boring." Join us as we explore this story about an exam-obsessed culture and the devastating moment a mind brilliant at tests loses the ability to live. Comment below and share with us your thoughts. Btw, did you tell the difference on the sound quality ? 😊 Simeng ************************************************************ Support Our Podcast → https://www.patreon.com/learningchinesethroughstories If our podcast brings value to your life and you'd like to help us keep creating great content, consider becoming a patron for as little as $9 a month. As a patron, you'll enjoy: * ✨ Ad-free episodes for an uninterrupted listening experience * 📜 Access to all story and story walkthrough transcripts * 📚 Comprehensive vocabulary lists * 📖 Our LCTS Favorites ebook + RealLife Chinese for Beginners podcast * 💬 Our members' Discord community + a monthly study challenge * 🎥 Monthly live meetup with us (一份火锅 tier) Not ready to join? Our free Discord is open to every listener — come say hi! 💬 Join our free community on Discord → https://discord.gg/km3GgzCe3J Your support means the world to us and lets us keep delivering the content you love. Thank you for being part of our community! 💖 — LCTS ************************************************************ Check out our playlists on Spotify Chinese for Intermediate-Playlist Chinese for Intermediate High-Playlist Chinese for Advanced-Playlist Chinese for Superior- Playlist Chinese for Beginners-Playlist

Welcome to 听故事说中文, the podcast where stories come alive to help you improve your Chinese language proficiency and cultural competency. In today's episode, we're sharing a deeply moving and personal account from a factory in Kunshan, Jiangsu in 2014, focusing on the lives of migrant women workers—who are also mothers. down her face as she writes. What she wrote was a heartbreaking, tightly-packed letter explaining one thing: "Why does mom have to go out to work?" And as always, we'd love to hear your thoughts! Share your comments, questions, or favorite parts of the episode with us. -LCTS ************************************************************ Support Our Podcast → https://www.patreon.com/learningchinesethroughstories If our podcast brings value to your life and you'd like to help us keep creating great content, consider becoming a patron for as little as $9 a month. As a patron, you'll enjoy: * ✨ Ad-free episodes for an uninterrupted listening experience * 📜 Access to all story and story walkthrough transcripts * 📚 Comprehensive vocabulary lists * 📖 Our LCTS Favorites ebook + RealLife Chinese for Beginners podcast * 💬 Our members' Discord community + a monthly study challenge * 🎥 Monthly live meetup with us (一份火锅 tier) Not ready to join? Our free Discord is open to every listener — come say hi! 💬 Join our free community on Discord → https://discord.gg/km3GgzCe3J Your support means the world to us and lets us keep delivering the content you love. Thank you for being part of our community! 💖 — LCTS ************************************************************ Check out our playlists on Spotify Chinese for Intermediate-Playlist Chinese for Intermediate High-Playlist Chinese for Advanced-Playlist Chinese for Superior- Playlist Chinese for Beginners-Playlist

Welcome to 听故事说中文, the podcast where stories come alive to help you improve your Chinese language proficiency and cultural competency. Today, we're sharing the incredible true story of a young man named Tong Haoran. At just 24, he's a photographer who, along with his friends, customized a Ford Mustang race car from scratch and became the first team from mainland China to ever complete the world-famous Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. He even documented the entire journey in a film. But this isn't just a story about success. It's about a young man who, at 14, dropped out of middle school after a difficult period of feeling lost and isolated. He found his way back to himself through his passion for mechanics and photography, all with the unwavering support of his mother. Join us as we explore Tong Haoran's inspiring journey and learn some useful Chinese vocabulary along the way. -LCTS ************************************************************ Support Our Podcast → https://www.patreon.com/learningchinesethroughstories If our podcast brings value to your life and you'd like to help us keep creating great content, consider becoming a patron for as little as $9 a month. As a patron, you'll enjoy: * ✨ Ad-free episodes for an uninterrupted listening experience * 📜 Access to all story and story walkthrough transcripts * 📚 Comprehensive vocabulary lists * 📖 Our LCTS Favorites ebook + RealLife Chinese for Beginners podcast * 💬 Our members' Discord community + a monthly study challenge * 🎥 Monthly live meetup with us (一份火锅 tier) Not ready to join? Our free Discord is open to every listener — come say hi! 💬 Join our free community on Discord → https://discord.gg/km3GgzCe3J Your support means the world to us and lets us keep delivering the content you love. Thank you for being part of our community! 💖 — LCTS ************************************************************ Check out our playlists on Spotify Chinese for Intermediate-Playlist Chinese for Intermediate High-Playlist Chinese for Advanced-Playlist Chinese for Superior- Playlist Chinese for Beginners-Playlist

Welcome to 听故事说中文, the podcast where stories come alive to help you improve your Chinese language proficiency and cultural competency. Today's episode takes us on a journey that starts with a simple metro station drop-off and spirals into an unexpected encounter with the world of beauty salons. Our storyteller shares a vivid and relatable experience of being drawn into a sales pitch, navigating the fine line between politeness and personal boundaries, and reflecting on the subtle ways external opinions can shape our self-perception. Along the way, we'll explore themes of societal beauty standards, consumer psychology, and the art of saying "no" in a culture that values harmony. As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts! Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? Share your experiences and leave your comments. -LCTS ************************************************************ Support Our Podcast → https://www.patreon.com/learningchinesethroughstories If our podcast brings value to your life and you'd like to help us keep creating great content, consider becoming a patron for as little as $9 a month. As a patron, you'll enjoy: * ✨ Ad-free episodes for an uninterrupted listening experience * 📜 Access to all story and story walkthrough transcripts * 📚 Comprehensive vocabulary lists * 📖 Our LCTS Favorites ebook + RealLife Chinese for Beginners podcast * 💬 Our members' Discord community + a monthly study challenge * 🎥 Monthly live meetup with us (一份火锅 tier) Not ready to join? Our free Discord is open to every listener — come say hi! 💬 Join our free community on Discord → https://discord.gg/km3GgzCe3J Your support means the world to us and lets us keep delivering the content you love. Thank you for being part of our community! 💖 — LCTS ************************************************************ Check out our playlists on Spotify Chinese for Intermediate-Playlist Chinese for Intermediate High-Playlist Chinese for Advanced-Playlist Chinese for Superior- Playlist Chinese for Beginners-Playlist

Welcome to 听故事说中文, the podcast where stories come alive to help you improve your Chinese language proficiency and cultural competency. Today, we bring you the timeless tale of 阿诗玛, a story of love, resilience, and sacrifice set in the breathtaking landscapes of Yunnan. 阿诗玛, a beautiful and talented young woman, grows up in a humble family, her voice and spirit captivating all who meet her. Her love story with the brave and skilled 阿黑 blossoms amidst challenges, but their happiness is short-lived. When a powerful landlord's son sets his sights on 阿诗玛, her life takes a dramatic turn. What follows is a tale of courage, loyalty, and the unyielding fight for love and justice. Join us as we explore the beauty and tragedy of 阿诗玛's journey, and discover why her voice still echoes in the stone forests of Yunnan. Special thanks to 杜雁子老师, our wonderful cohost for this episode, whose insights and storytelling bring this tale to life. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode! Share your comments and let us know how this story resonates with you. Happy listening! - LCTS ************************************************************ Support Our Podcast → https://www.patreon.com/learningchinesethroughstories If our podcast brings value to your life and you'd like to help us keep creating great content, consider becoming a patron for as little as $9 a month. As a patron, you'll enjoy: * ✨ Ad-free episodes for an uninterrupted listening experience * 📜 Access to all story and story walkthrough transcripts * 📚 Comprehensive vocabulary lists * 📖 Our LCTS Favorites ebook + RealLife Chinese for Beginners podcast * 💬 Our members' Discord community + a monthly study challenge * 🎥 Monthly live meetup with us (一份火锅 tier) Not ready to join? Our free Discord is open to every listener — come say hi! 💬 Join our free community on Discord → https://discord.gg/km3GgzCe3J Your support means the world to us and lets us keep delivering the content you love. Thank you for being part of our community! 💖 — LCTS ************************************************************ Check out our playlists on Spotify Chinese for Intermediate-Playlist Chinese for Intermediate High-Playlist Chinese for Advanced-Playlist Chinese for Superior- Playlist Chinese for Beginners-Playlist