chinesespeaking

Build upon the basic elements that people already taught you. Almost everything can be understood as a combination of elements. 林 – two trees = forest 森 – forest with another tree on top blocking the sunlight = forest, gloomy 休 – person leaning against a tree = to rest 仔 – person and child … Read more

The answer is yes. Chinese, unlike many other language, doesn’t have some names so you can choose. When parents in China named the babies, they will consider the meaning of the name. For example, one of my roommates(a girl) called 胜男. The character ‘胜’ means ‘win’ or ‘exceed’. The character ‘男’ means ‘male’. Her name … Read more

In my experience, no. At least, not compared to learning other languages as a second or other language. Mandarin has no gender, no case, no articles, no inflection, no conjugation or tense, no voice or mood. The grammar is remarkably easy, especially for speakers of English or Romance languages, who will recognize the core subject-verb-object … Read more

Well, Mandarin is the standard spoken Chinese language. And when Chinese people from different regions talk together, they could use Mandarin as the bridge of communication. I mean, for instance, for instance, when a Chinese from Ningbo, a city in Zhejiang, an eastern province in China, talks to a Chinese from Shantou, a city in … Read more

I started learning Mandarin few years ago myself and have found these resources to be quite helpful: Learning Chinese Online Page – a great website with lots of free online resources; http://www.nciku.com/Online English Chinese Dictionary, Learn Chinese Mandarin Online – a website with Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionary with Chinese handwriting recognition, pinyin translation, audio pronunciation, personalized vocab lists, picture etc. Free … Read more

打酱油, which literally translates to “buy soy sauce” can be used in two context. Context 1, which is perhaps the most common one. It means “it has nothing to do with me, I’m just passing by”. The term originated from an interview during Edison Chen photo scandal. A reporter was interviewing random citizens on the streets … Read more

I see you are using simplified Chinese. If you use traditional Chinese, you wouldn’t get confused, because they are two different characters: 幹 (bad word) and 乾 (dry). Anyway, “gan” is a swear word in Taiwanese, so people who use “gan” will always be using traditional Chinese characters. Anyway, “gan” is a swear word in … Read more

I felt that learning any language is useful. If nothing else, learning a new language keeps your mind sharp, opens you up to new cultures and ideas, allows you to experience the world from a different perspective. As for learning Chinese, well, I’m not aware that there is hype for learning Chinese. I don’t recommend … Read more