Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
In my experience, no. At least, not compared to learning other languages as a second or other language. Mandarin has no gender, no case, no articles, no inflection, no conjugation or tense, no voice or mood. The grammar is remarkably easy, especially for speakers of English or Romance languages, who will recognize the core subject-verb-object … Read more
Well, Mandarin is the standard spoken Chinese language. And when Chinese people from different regions talk together, they could use Mandarin as the bridge of communication. I mean, for instance, for instance, when a Chinese from Ningbo, a city in Zhejiang, an eastern province in China, talks to a Chinese from Shantou, a city in … Read more
I started learning Mandarin few years ago myself and have found these resources to be quite helpful: Learning Chinese Online Page – a great website with lots of free online resources; http://www.nciku.com/Online English Chinese Dictionary, Learn Chinese Mandarin Online – a website with Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionary with Chinese handwriting recognition, pinyin translation, audio pronunciation, personalized vocab lists, picture etc. Free … Read more
Well, since you didn’t mention your full name, I just view this Chinese name that your Chinese teacher gave to you. With regard to Huang Zhenai, or 黄珍爱 in Chinese, in my humble opinion, I suggest you reverse the order of the generational name 珍, which is written in alphabet letters as zhen, and the … Read more
打酱油, which literally translates to “buy soy sauce” can be used in two context. Context 1, which is perhaps the most common one. It means “it has nothing to do with me, I’m just passing by”. The term originated from an interview during Edison Chen photo scandal. A reporter was interviewing random citizens on the streets … Read more
I see you are using simplified Chinese. If you use traditional Chinese, you wouldn’t get confused, because they are two different characters: 幹 (bad word) and 乾 (dry). Anyway, “gan” is a swear word in Taiwanese, so people who use “gan” will always be using traditional Chinese characters. Anyway, “gan” is a swear word in … Read more
Row 1: Characters + Bopomofo* (Ruby text). Row 2: GR Tonal Spelling* (Gwoyeu Romatzyh, Bopomofo’s romanized companion; ), with Hanyu Pinyin** below. Row 3: English uses Latin (PETR “rock” + OLEUM “oil”) or Greek (CHAOS → GAS), roots that clearly indicate what’s what. Bote: OLine and OLeum are variants of the same root = “oil” … Read more
I felt that learning any language is useful. If nothing else, learning a new language keeps your mind sharp, opens you up to new cultures and ideas, allows you to experience the world from a different perspective. As for learning Chinese, well, I’m not aware that there is hype for learning Chinese. I don’t recommend … Read more
It’s not completely awful. If I can read it, then it’s good enough for me. My handwriting when I started learning the language, about two years ago: Big, clunky characters, unevenly spaced out. Too much use of the correction fluid because I made a lot of mistakes. English words littered here and there to indicate … Read more
I took the liberty and checked out your profile. Looks like you live in the US, and work in the hospitality industry. You are providing face-to-face services to a lot of customers, many of those you’ll not meet again or have any personal relationship beyond being your customers. Here’s what I learned living in the … Read more