4:52
三十年，每个月一封信
Thirty Years, One Letter Every Month
This is an HSK 2 Chinese listening episode that runs about 5 minutes. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 12 key vocabulary words such as 电影、朋友、写 and walks through 4 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
Film. Used to describe the recently popular Chinese movie 《给阿嬷的情书》.
Friend. The story turns on the question: can a 朋友 of thirty years actually be 家人 (family)?
To write. The whole story is about 写信 — writing letters that travel between China and Thailand for thirty years.
Money. The husband supposedly sends 钱 home from Thailand; in reality, Nanzhi is the one funding the family.
Husband. The story centers on grandma's 丈夫 — who, unbeknownst to her, has been dead for thirty years.
To tell (someone something). Construction: 告诉 + person + content. Nanzhi 告诉 Xiaowei the truth.
A letter (written correspondence). In the film, hundreds of 信 cross the ocean over thirty years.
Standard Mandarin for paternal grandmother. The film uses the Teochew word 阿嬷 throughout, but the narrator uses 奶奶 to help learners.
To decide. Nanzhi 决定 — she makes a quiet, life-changing decision to write in the dead man's name for thirty years.
To send through the mail. 寄信 = send a letter; 寄钱 = send money. Different from 送 (to deliver in person).
To do something in someone else's place. 我替他写 = 'I'll write in his place.' This is the structural heart of the story.
Family member. Grandma's final line — '南枝也是我的家人' (Nanzhi is also my family) — is what makes the film land.
* beyond level超纲词
替 + X + Verb
替 marks doing something for someone else, often when that person can't do it themselves. In the film, Nanzhi 替木生写信 — writes letters on Musheng's behalf, because Musheng is dead.
我替他写。
南枝替木生寄钱。
以为 + clause
以为 is 'to think' — but with the implication that the thought turned out to be wrong. Grandma 以为 her husband was still writing. She was wrong. Use 觉得 for neutral 'I think'; 以为 for 'I thought (but I was wrong).'
奶奶以为是丈夫写的。
我以为他会来。
S + 不在了
Literally 'no longer here.' The standard polite, indirect way to say someone has died in Chinese. The episode uses 不在了 (and not the blunter 死) — matching how families really speak.
他不在了。
他到了泰国不久就不在了。
不一定 + clause
不一定 softens an absolute statement: 'not necessarily true.' The closing line — '真的家人，不一定是一家人' — uses it to make the film's whole thesis: real family isn't always blood family.
真的家人，不一定是一家人。
他不一定会来。