So your iron brother had a great girlfriend because he was the school grass, but they separated hands because he’s a little air ghost, and he couldn’t get her back even though he cooked telephone cereal trying.

Seem like nonsense? Not if you subscribe to “Learn a Chinese Phrase”, an instructional video series launched one year ago by the Confucius Institute at Wayne State University (WSU-CI). Through humorous, interactive skits, the online series has taught dozens of Chinese idioms — five of which appear in the opening sentence — to thousands of Chinese language learners.

Available on the WSU-CI website, Facebook page, YouTube channel and the Chinese video-sharing site YouKu, the one-to-two-minute videos present idiomatic expressions not likely to be found in standard Chinese language textbooks or course materials. These phrases, which relate to everyday situations concerning school, work, friendship and romance, are presented in skits written and performed by WSU-CI staff, Wayne State students and local Chinese language teachers. Each skit features an inquisitive language learner, a native speaker and plenty of playful banter to create context for the expression.

The videos, which have had nearly 22,000 views on YouTube alone, are intended for intermediate Chinese language learners who have attained a basic proficiency with grammar and vocabulary.  The series was conceived by WSU-CI Director John Brender, who kept a journal filled with the slang and idiomatic expressions he encountered while learning Spanish in college. To maximize phrase retention, he said, WSU-CI staff look for particularly amusing or quirky phrases. 

“If a phrase is fun or amusing, learners will be more motivated to remember it,” Brender said. “Once they do, they have learned more than just the expression — they’ve learned a set of new vocabulary words they can apply in other contexts and within other sentence structures. In terms of language acquisition, idioms give you great bang for your buck.”

Even better, the videos are designed to appeal to different types of language learners, said Brender, noting that learning can be visual, auditory and/or kinesthetic. As the actors present the phrase, it appears on the screen in Pinyin (a Romanized version of Chinese) and Chinese characters to help visually reinforce proper tones and pronunciation. The skit’s native speaker repeats the phrase twice to model the pronunciation and to reinforce auditory learning. To encourage participation, the actors invite learners to repeat the phrases on their own with the words and tones displayed on the screen.

Now entering its second year, “Learn a Chinese Phrase” has come a long way since its launch in December 2012, said Brender, who will present the “Learn a Chinese Phrase” series at the World Conference for Confucius Institutes in Beijing on Dec. 7.

“The first year was an interesting experience because we quickly realized how much we were improving every week in terms of writing, acting, directing, and editing,” Brender said. “The first videos are by no means as good or imaginative as the later ones, but they’re all still very usable and helpful for learning Chinese.” 

With 50 videos under its belt, WSU-CI has plans to make supplementary videos that clarify some words and build on vocabulary from the series. 

“Stay tuned,” said Brender, “and be sure to like us on Facebook and subscribe to us on YouTube or YouKu.”

By the way – are you curious to know what that opening sentence meant? Watch the video below to find out!