Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
chinesespeaking 
Well, the Chinese name you mentioned could be written as Hei Lizha in Pinyin. You could say that it sounds like Heliza. However, you rarely see people whose surname is 黒. And 利 could mean sharp, for instance, the sharp edge of a knife. 扎 could mean prick and stick into something. Since Heliza is … Read more
Usually broken or choppy family-use Chinese, of whatever dialect the parents speak in the house. Same holds true for most other ethnic backgrounds, such as Vietnamese or Peruvian. Chinese language schools used to suck really bad. They suck less now but you can’t really improve proficiency without practice and that is usually a function of … Read more
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