Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
Conversational scenarios, expression techniques, and pronunciation correction exercises—focused on practical Chinese speaking skills
There are many reasons why English is the lingua franca today. It’s widespread around the world. The British Empire was pretty effective at spreading it till the middle of the 20th century, making it official language for a huge part of the world population. Since the fall of the empire an other English speaking country, … Read more
Modern day brides in China make use of red as well as white depending on the ethnicity of the Chinese group. A hundred couples from all over China attended a mass wedding ceremony at Fenghuang ancient town, in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, central China’s Hunan Province. Red is a common auspicious colour in … Read more
The radicals 部首 are not just Mandarin Chinese, they are for all Chinese characters. They are the bases of the characters. Take, for example, the radical 木 tree/wood, a pictograph (not obvious in modern characters. The limbs and the roots on the trunk). Put two of them together, and you get 林 forest, three are … Read more
It depends. If you wear white on festive days, like the Chinese Spring Festival and a wedding, you will offend all the Chinese people. Well, this is how Sydney celebrated the 2022 Chinese New Year. Of course, I prefer to think that is because of Sydney Council’s ignorance of Chinese tradition. On the other hand, … Read more
It depends on what your native language is. People who speak Indo-European languages find the vocabulary alien and especially people from structured languages like German and Russian, find the free form disconcerting. There are no tenses, no conjunctions, no plurals, and so forth. You have to learn quite a different way of expressing yourself. Take … Read more
Although I’m a science guy, I’ve always been fascinated by language and writing. The symbol “~” is called a “波浪号” (bōlàng hào) in Chinese, which literally means “wave mark.” Its official name is “浪纹” (làng wén), or “wave pattern.” As you can see, Chinese is indeed a pictographic language—this symbol really does resemble waves on … Read more
On the first day of the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, the moon is a crescent, and on the fifteenth day, it is a full moon. The specific month that is the first month of the calendar depends on the sun. The Winter and Summer solstices are determined by the longest and shortest duration of sunlight … Read more
I do not see strong-enough evidence that it was the contributor, or even the dominant contributor. Supporters of the “character simplification raised literacy rates” theory usually point to the timeline of China’s literacy levels rising in tandem with the implementation of Simplified Characters as the standard form. What they conveniently choose to ignore are the larger factors that led … Read more
The culture of China that I like and admire the most is “Action speaks louder than words” Chinese people love a cheery talk but when they judge someone, they tend to believe what he or she does, instead of what he or she says. You can say one thing, but if your action is against … Read more
Halloween is not an official holiday in China, but it is quickly gaining popularity among the younger generations. We celebrate it more or less the same way you do in the west – by indulging in one or more of the seven deadly sins (especially gluttony). But with a Chinese twist, naturally. The Chinese civilisation … Read more