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Is it difficult for a native Malay speaker to learn Mandarin Chinese?

January 2, 2023 by chinesespeaking

1 in 5 Chinese school kids in Malaysia aren’t even Chinese Non-Chinese students comprised 18% of Chinese-language primary schools in 2016, according to Malaysia Education …

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Why are Chinese characters the only extant example of a logographic writing system?

January 2, 2023 by chinesespeaking

While there have been notably successful logographic writing systems, there are specific reasons why the non-phonetic Chinese characters have survived while overall the “phonetic revolution” …

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What’s the difference between a modern day Chinese name and an ancient Chinese name?

December 31, 2022 by chinesespeaking

The wife of the Guangwu Emperor (5 bce – 57 ce) of the Eastern Han was named 陰麗華 Yin Lihua (family name Yin, Lihua, beautiful …

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How come China did not evolve to use phonetic writing systems like most other languages?

December 30, 2022 by chinesespeaking

Mistaken* premise. Chinese writing *IS* phonetic (mostly), but on a syllabic level: each character simultaneously stands for an entire syllable and a complete morpheme (minimal unit of …

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“She has gone to New York many times.” Is this a correct sentence?

December 28, 2022 by chinesespeaking

Correct in grammar but not in phraseology. The more authentic English phraseology is:— She has been to New York many times. — (For having visited there) She has gone to …

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“She is too cute”, is this sentence correct?

December 26, 2022 by chinesespeaking

Most of us use these kinds of sentences “It’s too hot”, “ It’s too rough”, “It’s too high”. We don’t realize that the proper grammatical …

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Is the last name “Jin” more of a Chinese family name or of Korean family name?

December 25, 2022 by chinesespeaking

Both. I’ll only be answering primarily from the Korean POV. It’s more complicated than simply being “more” Chinese or Korean, even though there are many …

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Why don’t clocks in China have Chinese characters?

December 24, 2022 by chinesespeaking

Well, in the old days, the clocks indeed had Chinese characters on them. Back then, they were called sundial instruments, or 日晷 in Chinese. Here …

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Why do the Chinese call themselves Zhongguo while in every other language it’s called China?

December 17, 2022 by chinesespeaking

It’s only China/Chine/Cina/Kina and variations of this in most European languages, South Asian and SE Asian languages The word China was thought to have derived …

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How reasonable is it to say that Mandarin is the hardest language in the world?

December 15, 2022 by chinesespeaking

Back in my dim and distant university days, I recall the professor in one of my linguistics classes discussing this. It’s difficult to decide what …

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Recent Posts

  • What is the most difficult part of learning Mandarin Chinese as an adult beginner from scratch, and what can be done about it?
  • Do the Chinese still make new characters today?
  • How does the Pinyin system in Chinese benefit from using a Latin-based alphabet?
  • What are some of the easiest and hardest Chinese characters to write?
  • What is the most effective way to learn Chinese characters?
  • In Mandarin, when is zero, one and two pronounced as “dòng”, “yaō”, “liǎng” instead of “yī”, “èr”, “sān”?
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  • Are new Chinese characters still being invented?

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