Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
chinesespeaking As Xie Wei mentioned, the term “measure word” / 量词 is actually obscuring a bit of complexity here. The quick and dirty version is that there are 量词 that are “count-classifiers” — say something like 条 in 一条鱼 or 一条狗, 只 In 一只貓, 一只狗, etc., or whatever. These tell you what category of thing the … Read more
This is difficult to translate, mainly because modern Vietnamese uses a phonetic writing system based on the Latin alphabet. I suggest you go back and look through your ancestors’ genealogical records. Otherwise, if “Cao” is translated as “曹” or “操,” it could be embarrassing. If you can find your great-grandfather’s tombstone, you should be able … Read more
Yes, I think so. I mean, there are Chinese characters or expressions sharing same spellings in alphabet letters, but their tones are different. Let’s use two examples to illustrate this point. 围棋 is more known in the English language as Go, a board game invented in ancient China. And it’s pronounced in Pinyin as wéi … Read more
Know someone who is a ballerina? Doesn’t she looks like 女？ The description is in the hands of the word for girl. She is the “nv” of those who know that “nv” is Pìnyīn for 女nv where v sounds like ü. 妹 is girl too, your little sister whom you thought will be the last … Read more
No, it’s not really hard. Here’s how: (1) Ignore the characters (at least until you can speak fluently). 2) Get a grounding in applied linguistics, which will help you truly understand your own language and how you learned it. Skip to lessons 4, 5 and 6. Then, pay special attention to the phonetics and phonology … Read more
There are multiple dialects in South China. Strictly speaking, Mandarin is not a dialect. It is a language with multiple dialects. The national language of China, called Putonghua, is based on the Mandarin dialect of Beijing. Mandarin dialects are roughly distributed over the northern, central and southwestern parts of China, corresponding more or less to the … Read more
The official standardized simplified word now appeared in 1955 and was implemented in 1956. The purpose is to increase the rate of literacy. Simplified characters actually simplify the most commonly used words. In fact, simplified characters appeared in ancient China; In ancient times, simplified characters were called “俗体” or “通体”. This is written by Chu … Read more
Yes, you should. Why? There are a lot of reasons that apply generally to English speakers. Learning a language like Mandarin represents a significant cognitive enhancement. We know that learning a second language improves cognitive powers like attention and task-switching, as well as decreased cognitive decline.[1][2] It’s reasonable to imagine that these benefits would be increased … Read more
First of all, be patient, and let’s clarify some THINGS. This will help us to understand why there are so many categories, names, or branches about Chinese characters ONLINE(or on Quora), making it seems like to understand Chinese characters is much more complicated than to achieve controlled nuclear fusion in engineering. #1. All the Chinese characters … Read more
When I was a kid, I associated Chinese with sounds like bing, tong, ting, ching, chung; a bit like playing golf in a room full of saucepans. I think at that time I may have been exposed mostly to Cantonese, through the staff at Chinese restaurants in Ireland and Hong Kong martial arts films. It’s … Read more