What are your thoughts on having a foreigner name as your Chinese last name?
No, I don’t find it embarrassing or bothersome. I mean, when I look at various ways of romanizations of names of people from the Chinese-speaking …
What is the best thing to know when starting to learn Chinese?
It’s a different ballgame. You didn’t mention your native language, so I don’t know your starting point. But first, with Chinese, there are no verb …
What is the longest word in Mandarin Language?
Unfortunately, we don’t have the ” longest” word in China, because all our characters are individual. However, we have the most complex word. This one …
Why is there no “V” in Chinese?
There is a V sound in some Chinese dialects, such as Hakka. If you listen to northern Chinese speak, sometimes they use a V sound. …
Why does it seem that Mandarin Chinese grammar isn’t well-researched?
Grammar is useful for Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and other highly structured languages, but isn’t really that necessary for Chinese. There are no verb conjugations. A …
Why do ancient Chinese 1-yuan bills have “壹” and not ”一”?
The character “壹” is how the number 1 is written in financial numerals. The financial numerals are still being used today in both China and …
What is the meaning of “傻逼” in Mandarin Chinese?
傻逼 contains two Chinese characters, 傻（Sha）: stupid 逼（Bi）: an insulting word ，that contains female genitalia and the meaning of bastard Exact Translation: stupid bastard. This …
Why did China switch from traditional to simplified characters?
You have to know a little known history. Today’s China was established in 1949, and its founders were Mao Zedong and the Communist Party of …
I wish to be fluent enough in Chinese to be able to speak in professional gatherings. Where do I start and how?
Live in a coercive language environment where only standard putonghua or Mandarin is spoken. You will need at least 2 years to get up to …
Is 慧莲 a bad Chinese name?
No, it’s not a bad name. However, in my humble opinion, when people look at this name Huilian, or 慧莲 in Chinese, they would associate …