Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Some Popular Chinese Buzzwords

1. 潮人 cháo rén

Trendsetter













e.g. 他是个潮人,每天出门都要精心打扮一番。

tā shì gè cháo rén ,měi tiān chū mén dōu yào jīng xīn dǎ bàn yī fān 。 

He is a trendsetter, he will dress up before going out everyday.


2. 剩女 shèng nǚ

Single Woman










e.g. 大城市里,剩女越来越多了。
dà chéng shì lǐ ,shèng nǚ yuè lái yuè duō le 。

There are more and more single women in some big morden cities.


3. 土豪 tǔ háo


Someone who is very wealthy but uncultured.

 










e.g. 那个土豪买了七个金色的iPhone 5s.
nà gè tǔ háo mǎi le qī gè jīn sè de iPhone 5s.

That rich, trashy guy bought seven gold iPhone 5s.


Monday, October 28, 2013

Why to learn Chinese characters


With the increasing amount of Chinese learners, more people choose to learn Chinese with Pinyin, not characters. The main reasons are:

   1 Pinyin is easier and similar to English letters, people don’t need to worry about memorizing a lot.
   2 Most people want to acquire Chinese language at a fast way, like the fast food ,they don’t want to be bothered by the slow pace of writing with  strokes .
   3 The majority people learn Chinese for the purpose of communicating, they think it useless for the character study.
   
Are they right?
   No.
   For beginners, it might be easy and effect to learn with Pinyin only. But for those who would like to improve their oral speaking at a intermediate level, they will have a hard time. CLE used to have many students who want to learn oral speaking only. They think they can finish everything with Pinyin. But when seeing the characters in their advanced textbooks, they seemed totally lost. Even if their teachers helped with Pinyin, they couldn’t tell the difference between “ bao zhi “ and “ bao yuan “,they have to memorize this syllable, therefore it is very difficult for them to learn and improve more and higher.

The reason is the spirit of Chinese language exists in the character part. If you understand the radicals, you will find it easy to remember the related character, e.g. 饱 抱. They share the same pronunciation radicals, but the differences exist with the meaning radicals. The Pinyin bao 3 and bao 4 doesn’t make any sense at all. The two radicals and tell people that they are related with food and hand action. This will help student know about more characters.

So it is clear the Chinese learners will try to understand the Chinese characters. People have the fear of learning to write characters, but you need to at least understand each character and know to read it without Pinyin. Only in this way, can you understand the structure of the character and know the differences between similar characters.

Friday, October 25, 2013

What is your Chinese zodiac animal?

中国的十二生肖  Chinese Zodiac

What is your Chinese zodiac animal?

Animals
Name
The   Year
(shǔ)
()(zhī)(shǔ)

1984  1996  2008
(niú)
()(tóu)(niú)

1985  1997  2009
()
()(zhī)()

1986  1998  2010
()
()(zhī)()()

1987  1999  2011
(lóng)
()(tiáo)(lóng)

1988  2000  2012
(shé)
()(tiáo)(shé)

1989  2001  2013
()
()()()

1990  2002  2014
(yáng)
()(tóu)(yáng)

1991  2003  2015
(hóu)
()(zhī)(hóu)(zi)

1992  2004  2016
()
()(zhī)()

1993  2005  2017
(gǒu)
()(tiáo)(gǒu)

1994  2006  2018
(zhū)
()(tóu)(zhū)

1995  2007  2019

How Many Basic Strokes in Chinese?


Basic strokes



Writing rules of Chinese character strokes



Do You Know How Many Tones in Chinese?


声调:汉语的每一个字都有一个声调;声调在汉语中起着非常重要的作用;汉语有四个基本声调。
TonesTones play a very important role in Chinese. Each Chinese character has one tone. There are four tones in Chinese plus a neutral tone.

(1)     一声调值高而平(55)。
The first tone is high and flat.
(2)     二声从中调值起,升至最高值(35)。
The second tone rises from the middle to the top.
(3)     三声从中低调值开始降低,然后稍有升高到中高调(214)。
The third tone dips from low to lower and then rises slightly.
(4)     四声从调值最高开始,直降到底(51)
The fourth tone falls from the top to the bottom.

声调音高示意图 Illustration of Tones