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Why did the ancient Chinese create such a beautiful but difficult writing system?

May 20, 2023 by chinesespeaking

Chinese writing evolved. It started out as pictures. Sometimes they used images to represent ideas; even in today’s writing, you can see that 大 is …

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Categories ChineseSpeaking

Why do the Chinese use so many words with the letter “X” pronunciation?

May 17, 2023 by chinesespeaking

Because of Zhou Youguang and his team. Chinese, of course, has its own script distinct from the Roman alphabet. And like many languages, it uses …

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Categories ChineseSpeaking

Is Chinese language written one way, and read and spoken in two completely different ways?

May 17, 2023 by chinesespeaking

Linguists divide Chinese into about ten varieties that are not mutually intelligible, although some count with fewer and some with many more. They are not “dialects”, they …

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Categories ChineseSpeaking

Do you speak Cantonese? If so, when did you start speaking it and why?

May 11, 2023 by chinesespeaking

Unfortunately, I do not. I’ve had over three years of Mandarin lessons because I assumed it would enable me to better communicate with Chinese people. …

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What would a good Chinese girl name be that’s not too old fashioned that includes either the character 莲 or 雨?

May 10, 2023 by chinesespeaking

Well, in my humble opinion, these two Chinese characters don’t sound too old-fashioned. 莲 means lotus and its Pinyin is lián. And in a metaphorical …

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Why is the name “Confucius” unlike other Chinese names?

May 8, 2023 by chinesespeaking

The real name of Confucius is Kong Qiu (孔丘, kǒng qiū), with surname Kong (孔), and the given name (丘). In Chinese culture, it has …

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Why do Westerners in China create a Chinese name instead of transliterating their Western name into Chinese?

May 6, 2023 by chinesespeaking

Probably for the same reasons that when a fictional Mr. Xǔ Zhì Qiáng (許志強) settles down in beautiful America, he goes by the name “George”: …

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How hard will it be for a 9-year-old native English speaker to learn Mandarin fluently at junior high school if I first hire a private tutor to teach her Cantonese?

May 4, 2023 by chinesespeaking

Why learn Cantonese when Putonghua is used all over China? If you have a family connection for learning Cantonese then, by all means, learn Cantonese. …

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Categories ChineseSpeaking

Is Tran a Chinese name?

May 3, 2023 by chinesespeaking

As far as I know, Tran is the Viet Namese transliteration of 陳 Ch’en/Chen, a very common Chinese surname. It’s properly written Trần. When I …

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Categories ChineseSpeaking

When are you going to start learning Chinese?

May 2, 2023 by chinesespeaking

The same time I started learning English – as a young kid? For English, I remember my parents getting me a stack of Peter and …

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Categories ChineseSpeaking
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Recent Posts

  • Why is the Chinese word for Rome 罗马 instead of 肉马?
  • How do Mandarin speakers express concepts like “one in a million” using “wan” (万), and what cultural meanings do these expressions carry?
  • ‌Why does the hanzi for “autumn” (秋) contain the radicals for “grain stalk” (禾) and “fire” (火)?
  • How many alphabets does the Chinese language have?
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  • What is the meaning of the title “ 文魁” and how did one obtain it in ancient China?
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  • What is the original form of the Chinese character “世”?

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