Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
Conversational scenarios, expression techniques, and pronunciation correction exercises—focused on practical Chinese speaking skills
Because in Chinese culture love is expressed through action. It’s a very difficult concept for us as Westerners to grasp at times. We are used to words expressing love. Years ago I dated a Chinese gentleman and he suddenly (or it seemed sudden to me) began talking to me about planning an engagement dinner for … Read more
There are many unique surnames in China. Let me recommend you a few unique types – double surnames. Chinese surnames are usually one character. For example, Chen（陈）, Wang（王）, Zhao（赵）. But some people have double surnames consisting of two characters. China’s Hundred Family Surnames（百家姓） includes 81 double surnames, which are used by relatively few people. They … Read more
万里长城永不倒，千里黄河水滔滔。 (The Great Wall will never fall, and the Yellow River for thousands of miles is surging.) I choose this particular one because the symbology of the people of China being that Great Wall that will never fall and that River that flows with such strength. Nothing can stop them. They are an indomitable people.
Yes, it is. I mean, since your own name is Mary Shipp, Shi Limei, or 石丽梅 in Chinese, is a good Chinese name for you. The Chinese surname 石, which means stone, is a commonly seen Chinese surname. There are many people sharing this surname, for instance, Shi Jieru, or 石洁茹 in Chinese, an actress … Read more
“沉鱼落雁” is a Chinese idiom that describes a woman’s extremely beautiful appearance. In fact, “沉鱼落雁” is a highly poetic and expressive idiom in Chinese, used to praise a woman’s unparalleled beauty. Literally, “沉鱼” (chén yú) means “fish sink” and refers to the scenario where fish forget to swim and sink to the bottom of the … Read more
It is extremely difficult, its not a matter of just what you put into it like with other languages. Somewhere, I read an article from a linguistics major student, saying how he felt that with the same time of 5 years, He compared his 5 years learning Arabic, French, and Chinese. He concluded that you’d … Read more
My English teacher, was an American from Oregon, named Susan Grant. She was a retired lawyer who likes to hike. She taught me that when she was young she had mild dyslexia, she couldn’t tell if it is “deb” or “bed”. Her Elementary School English teacher said, imagine a bed. what it looks like, and … Read more
Three thousand years ago, a lot of characters looked like what they mean, but over the course of three thousand years, some things are bound to change. In those days, most people lived their whole lives without seeing any writing; many of them probably didn’t even know writing existed, just as most people today probably … Read more
The reason is that sound changes reduces the complex consonant clusters of Old Chinese and deleted final consonants over time. Old Chinese typically had short monosyllabic words with coda consonants, much like most of the native Germanic vocabulary of English (e.g., words like pink, strike, screw, sleep, dream, wink, wing, back, bend, first, sixth). In most Chinese … Read more
Actually I’ve never seen this phrase before, and a little googling gave no result either. I guess it’s a confusion of two unrelated phrase/idioms: 倚老卖老： Use your age and seniority as an advantage, for example, to treat young and junior people rudely. 执子之手，与子偕老： Hold your hands and get old together. Always used to describe the … Read more