After yesterday’s list of must-read China books, here are some tips for beginner Mandarin learners. I originally put this FAQ together for my old Chinese tutor’s blog, and it got me thinking about the motley methods I’ve used since beginning to learn the language in 2008 – including which ones weren’t worth it. Sorry to bore those of you with good Chinese, narrative posts will resume next week, and do post your own thoughts below.

I've always been a fan of palindromes, but never expected to run into translations of Napolean's supposed quote "Able was I ere I saw Elba" as palindromes in Chinese.

The above note, written by a friend, gives two palindromic translations: 若非孤岛孤非若 (ruòfēigūdǎogūfēiruò), which translates word-for-word as "were it not for isolated island, lonely would not be"; and 落败孤岛孤败落 (luòbàigūdǎogūbàiluò), literally "leaving behind isolated island, loneliness declines".

Ed: You've likely seen these North Korean posters before, but here's an illuminating comparison courtesy of our friends at The Wang Post

When the abbots at a Buddhist temple asked an artist to draw an elephant, he was at a loss, because he had never seen an elephant. How do you draw something you’ve never seen?

If you’ve heard the story of the Buddhist artist, then you can understand what happened here. These rosy coloured portraits are the latest propaganda to come out of North Korea, from an artist who has never visited Beijing or personally seen the buildings depicted.

In search of a story – fiction by Aaron Fox-Lerner

Among the hordes of Indian and Pakistani men pushing for you to buy hashish, hostels and rolexes you hear a voice offering metaphors for cheap. You only realise it after you've stepped out of Chungking Mansions into the dense Hong Kong night air, and by that time the voice has disappeared into the dozens of milling figures, now mobbing some poor Asian tourist dumb enough to stop for them.

Via Reddit, here's a collection of Pleco snapshots, "Funny/interesting entries from my dictionary app". It's a reminder of the versatility of characters, where one pictograph can have many, seemingly opposing, meanings – such as 哇 (wā), which most will know as the sound a baby makes, but also can mean both surprised delight, and vomming.