Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
Yes, Qin Ruisi, or 秦蕊丝 is a good female name. However, if you want a great Chinese female name that sounds natural to ears of native speakers of Chinese, then I will suggest you use another given name 诗. So, this new name is Qin Ruishi, or 秦蕊诗 in Chinese. There are other people whose … Read more
Yes, there are two Chinese surnames which could mean heaven and lotus, respectively. The Chinese surname Qian, or 乾 in Chinese, could refer to Heaven, since this Chinese character represents a hexagram, ䷀, in the Book of Changes, or I Ching, or 易经 in Chinese. As you may know, an unbroken line symbolises Yang energy. … Read more
The thing about Chinese is that you never stop learning the language. I started learning Chinese when I was young. I would say I am just an average Joe when it comes to the Chinese language. I am able to read any Chinese news media generally which meant I would have at least a basic … Read more
It’s not hard. If you went back two years and told me this would be my opinion of the language now I’d laugh at how ridiculous that sounds. My notebook around the time I first began learning: Large, clear characters, spaced out. English words describing meanings are littered here and there. My notebook a few … Read more
This question is either supremely ignorant or downright malicious. Okay, everybody likes to make themselves feel superior by sneering at China, yes, yes, you are amazing, now do you feel less miserable? Oh, Chinese has many words with double meanings. I wonder if there are any languages on earth that do not have words with … Read more
Well, in my humble opinion, I would suggest Gui Jingmiao, or 桂京淼 in Chinese. The surname 桂, in a metaphorical way, could refer to the Moon, since it’s said in an ancient Chinese legend that there is a cinnamon tree on the Moon. And cinnamon is written as 肉桂 in Chinese. There are other people … Read more
The Foreign Service Institute of the US Department of State expects you will reach “General Professional Proficiency” in Chinese (either Mandarin or Cantonese) in 88 weeks, or 2200 class-hours. Both are classified as Category IV languages, along with Arabic, Korean, and Japanese. Category III languages (Thai, Ukrainian, Icelandic, etc.) are expected to take 1100 hours … Read more
One positive is that modern Chinese people can read and understand Chinese text from practically every dynasty in history. One misconception of non-Chinese speakers is that older forms of Chinese script such as oracle bone script, seal script, clerical script, and regular script are different writing systems that evolved from one another. That’s not the … Read more
This Chinese charater 月 could mean moon, moonlight and month. In the Chinese culture, moon could symbolize reunion, longing, purity and beauty. People usually use an adjective 皎洁 to describe the moonlight. 皎洁 could be translated as bright. And you could find that there are males and females whose first name, I mean, their given … Read more
I’ll break it down: Chinese characters seem very complex to write. Indeed, the Chinese characters are generally complicated, for example, some characters require over 40 stokes (龘). Fortunately, such characters are not that many. Further, the stroke order is unique for specific characters. The order can be applied to the new characters as well. Can … Read more