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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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Categories ChineseSpeaking

“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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Categories ChineseSpeaking

“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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Categories ChineseSpeaking

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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Categories ChineseSpeaking

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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Categories ChineseSpeaking

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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Categories ChineseSpeaking

What are some Chinese words that sound similar but are very different?

December 14, 2022 by chinesespeaking

This is Fúzhōu (福州). Fúzhōu is a city in southeastern China, located in the province of Fujian. Fúzhōu is the capital of Fujian. This is Fǔzhōu (抚州). Fǔzhōu is …

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Is the Chinese education the best in the world?

December 9, 2022 by chinesespeaking

I’m not currently teaching but I hold a degree in education. I did teach for a few years about a decade ago. I taught for …

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Categories ChineseSpeaking

Why did the ancient Japanese pick the Chinese word “俺” instead of the Chinese word “我” for a person call itself?

August 17, 2022 by chinesespeaking

I have to disagree with Paul Denlinger. “我” is not a modern word, nor being the pronoun for oneself in 20th century. “我” first appeared …

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Categories ChineseSpeaking
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