What is (yànyǔ) in Chinese?
諺語 諺：(形声。从言, 彦声。本义:谚语) 同本义 [aphorism; proverb; saying; adage] 谚, 传言也。字亦作喭。——《说文》 There is 諺語，成語 and there is 箴言，these are all “sayings” but there are those which …
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What does this Chinese expression mean, “这是什么鬼”?
It means “What the hell is this?” “这是什么鬼” can be regarded as a short form of “这是什么鬼东西”. The “鬼”, literally means ghost or monster, is …
Is there a reason why Chinese characters are written vertically?
I am not a scholar, but on this question I am 100% certain that I am correct. First of all, I am Chinese, deeply familiar …
What language was used in China during the Shang and Han dynasties?
When someone asks what language Chinese people speak? The locals will answer: I speak Beijing (Mandarin_Jurzhen) or Cantonese-Cantonese, Hakka (Hakka-He), Hokkien (Fujian)… Give them a …
How do I understand Chinese culture?
Fascinating question. Having lived in China for several years, and being married to a Chinese wife, I think my first impulse is to say, “don’t …
Why did the Chinese never adopt word spacing?
Because there is no reason to. Believe it or not, youcanactuallyreadEnglishsentenceswithoutspacesaswell. Ittakessomepractice, butyoushouldbeabletoreadthesesentenceswithoutmuchfussatall. Spaces are not strictly necessary even for alphabet-based languages – for logographic characters …
Why do people claim that the Chinese grammar is easy?
Because it is? I studied Russian for three years in high school (Pasadena High, CA), and spent all my time learning declensions and conjugations and …
What is the most difficult part of learning Mandarin Chinese as an adult beginner from scratch, and what can be done about it?
Coming from speaking English, it’s tough that there’s almost no vocabulary overlap. When I learned Spanish as a teenager, most of my vocabulary learning was via making …
Do the Chinese still make new characters today?
As far as I know, very few. But they do exist. For example, the character “砼” refers to concrete. It consists of the parts “人” …
How does the Pinyin system in Chinese benefit from using a Latin-based alphabet?
In my opinion, it’s useless. Chinese is fundamentally not a phonetic language. What’s called “Hanyu Pinyin,” to me, is a scam. I see Chinese as …