chinesespeaking

Are the Chinese names for certain countries meant to be complimented?

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Actualy, NO. Or more accurately: not intentionally to be complimentary at all. For example, USA is not intentionally meant to be called “beautiful”. We will tell this story by including the Hán Việt version (Sino Vietnamese). You will understand why shortly. Nowadays in Chinese, United States of America is called Mỹ Lợi Kiên hợp chúng … Read more

What would my Chinese name be if my name is Mary?

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Mary is usually written as 玛丽 in Chinese. Sometimes, it could be written as 玛莉 in Chinese. There are well-known people who share this name with you, such as, Mary Pickford, or 玛丽·碧克馥 in Chinese, a legendary figure in the cinema world. Mary-Louise Parker, or 玛丽-露易丝·帕克 in Chinese, another actress in the entertainment industry.

Does Mandarin pronounce its ‘R’s the same as English?

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They are very similar and sometimes overlap. The most common pronunciation of English /r/ is as a labialized postalveolar approximant, [ɹ̠ʷ]. Some North American, Irish, and West Country varieties have a labialized retroflex approximant, [ɻʷ]. The syllable-initial Mandarin sound transcribed as <r> in Pinyin is most commonly somewhere between a retroflex approximant, [ɻ], and a … Read more

What does “对牛弹琴” mean?

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Dui Niu Tan Qin (对牛弹琴) is a well-known Chinese idiom/Chengyu. The idiom is very easy to understand, provided you know the corresponding 4 simple Chinese characters. 对 (duì): Face to face; opposite; opposing 牛 (niú): Cattle; ox 弹 (tán): Play; pluck 琴 (qín): Qin, a seven-stringed plucked instrument 弹琴 (tán qín): play the Qin instrument … Read more

Why is “Nintendo” in Chinese called “任天堂“ (Ren tian tang) and not “宁天多” (Ning tian duo)?

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In Chinese language, if Japanese have original name or brand written in kanji/Chinese characters, usually Chinese no need to change their name based on Chinese pronunciation. Unless if it’s very hard or weird to pronounce by many Chinese people or Japanese themselves allowed Chinese to make their name to pronounce and written based on Chinese … Read more

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

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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 Ministry Statistics, or almost 1 in 5 students. The enrolment of non-Chinese students particularly Malays and Indians actually rose by over 20% between 2010 and 2014. Compared to more than … Read more

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

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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” that gained impetus from the success of the Phoenician alphabet has spread worldwide. In considering the question we must ask both why the phonetic system took over, and why the … Read more