Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
chinesespeaking 
益 is your last name. It is an extremely rare last name, so I think you might be mistaken. It might be either 易 or 伊, both are more common last names with the same pronunciation (different tone). 瑞 means Lucky, fortunate. 萍 is a type of water grass. It doesn’t have a root and … Read more
Oh yes, and that is something I’m going to miss about Southeast Asia. Many Chinese people in Malaysia and Singapore do this. I’ve also heard that some Cantonese speakers in Southern China do as well. If that’s true, I assume that’s how the practice started in Southeast Asia because so many of the ancestors of … Read more
阮馨婕, which is read as Ruan Xinjie in Pinyin, is a great choice for a female name. Choosing the family name 阮 is a wonderful option. You will share this surname with famous people, such as, Ruan Ji, or 阮籍 in Chinese, and Ruan Lingyu, or 阮玲玉 in Chinese. The former was a renowed musician … Read more
Most understand Mandarin. Many speak it. Quite a few of them speak it badly. A Hong Kong guy who used to work for me thought he was a fluent Mandarin speaker. So he insisted on doing most of the talking whenever we had client meetings in China. The problem was that when he spoke Mandarin, … Read more
Yes, it could be. As a matter of the fact, lots of Chinese characters have multiple meanings. Here is an example. The Chinese character 云, or yún in Pinyin, has different meanings. When it is used as a noun, it could mean clouds. For instance, white clouds could be written as 白云 in Chinese. It … Read more
Well, since Chinese characters have been used for thousands of years, some aspects of the Chinese cultural heritage are embedded in the writings, which were comprised of Chinese characters. If people learn Classical Chinese, they could tap into a larger cultural treasure trove. I mean, you coud read these ancient writings in the original language … Read more
Pure ignorance by those who abuses position of power. A mimickery of another culture. Very childish, juvenile and idiotic. Very offensive. Even if an innocuous version of the phrase exists, it does not whitewash the intent of those who utter it out of ill-intent. So, aside from curiosity, it’s poor taste. It can come in … Read more
I don’t quite understand your question. First, let me explain my viewpoint: English is my native language, Mandarin has been my first language for most of my life. Here is what I know of pinyin. K sounds, such as in the English word kick, are spelled with K: 口扣寬 kou, kou, kuan, and so forth. Q … Read more
I speak Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Mandarin. I also did research in this matter and I will share with you some facts. Cantonese is considered an older dialect in Chinese branch, and Vietnamese have many Chinese loanwords, aka ‘Han Nom’. Those Chinese loanwords are somewhat pronounced exactly the same as Cantonese. Eg: 人 is ‘nhân’ (in … Read more
Chen Yu Luo Yan (沉鱼落雁) is a famous Chinese idiom. 沉鱼落雁 (chén yú luò yàn): Makes the fish sink and wild geese fall The idiom describes the magical beauty of women. In particular, the idiom is related to Xi Shi (西施), and Wang Zhaojun (王昭君), two of The Four Beauties of ancient China (四大美女). Chen … Read more