Was Mandarin the language used in ancient China?
No, Mandarin is a northern dialect that has emerged only over the last five or six hundred years. If you transported a Mandarin speaker to …
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Is it true that some simplified Chinese characters are actually older and more ancient than their traditional counterparts?
In amongst the simplified characters, there are a few ancient forms, such as 无 where traditional generally uses 無. Now, 无 appears in Shuowen as …
Do Chinese people not get tired of writing all their characters in Chinese characters?
All languages in the world are priceless. Because it carries the culture of various ethnic groups. But when you expect to make a lot of …
Why are there some Chinese words under the Nikon logo in the camera box?
Well, if the Chinese characters you refer to are these two Chinese characters circled out in the red color in the following picture, then the …
Why is Chinese often ranked as the most difficult language in the world to learn in many rankings even though it has super simple morphology and grammar, even more so than English?
Well, in my humble opinion, for many foreigners whose native languages are quite different from the Chinese language, learning the Chinese language means undergoing a …
What are the first characters a Chinese language learner learns?
Well, let’s use the latest version of a textbook teaching the Chinese language to Chinese students who are in their first year at primary schools …
How hard is Mandarin Chinese?
In general, Mandarin Chinese is not as difficult or impossible as you might think, but not easy to become fluent in, either. Some reasons that …
Why do the Chinese call India “Yìndù” and not “Bhaarat” as it is designated by those from India?
Ancient India has many records in ancient Chinese documents There are also many names “Yindu” is the one that is used more often, so it …
If Chinese characters are so difficult, why do people still use them?
Chinese characters are basically a language of pictures, which contain within them subtle relationships, images, and memories that cannot be captured by alphabetic language. Imagine if all …
Why do Chinese use “筷” as the character for “chopsticks,” while Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese all use “箸”?
For most of ancient China, chopsticks were called “箸zhù”(Evidence can be found in a large number of ancient documents), and Chinese neighbors learned this name. …