Learn to talk about hobbies in Chinese Hobby is one of the first topics covered in beginner Mandarin textbooks. It’s a nice entry lesson, but it’s arguably rather too formal and stiff for daily conversation in any language. Can you remember the last time you asked a fellow English speaker their hobbies?! I know I can’t. It turns out that it’s not so common in Mandarin either. According to the Chinese teachers at Lingo Bus, for native speakers, it’s too formal to ask others the following, unless perhaps in an interview or on a blind date. Nǐ de àihào shì shénme?
你的爱好是什么 ? (“What are your hobbies?”)
Below are a few alternative questions and answers that sound more natural to native-speaking ears:
QUESTIONS Nǐ píngshí xǐhuan zuò shénme？
你平时喜欢做什么？
What do you like to do in your free time? Nǐ zhōumò yìbān zuò shénme？
你周末一般做什么？
What do you usually do on the weekends?
ANSWERS Wǒ xǐhuan [xué zhōngwén]
我喜欢 [学中文 ]。
I like [to study Chinese].
Wǒ píngshí xǐhuan [qù jiànshēn].
我平时喜欢 [去健身 ]。
I normally like [to go workout or see friends]. Wǒ yǒukòng shí jiù [qù tī qiú ]。 我有空时就 [去踢球 ]。 I go to play soccer once I have time. Of course, when talking about hobbies, you can always add adverbs expressing degrees, like “非常” , “特别” , “不太” , etc., to specify how much you like to do a certain thing. It will almost always be helpful to the conversation by showing interest in other’s hobbies. You can use “也” to achieve this: Wǒ yě hěn xǐhuan xué zhōngwén. 我也很喜欢 [学中文 ]。 I like to learn Chinese too.