Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
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. But I would not hire a tutor and spend money to learn Cantonese, especially if it is for a nine-year old. The China of 2023 is not the China of … Read more
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 see someone named Trần, I figure they’re ethnic Chinese from Viet Nam. However, I just checked and 11% of the population of VN is named Trần, so it seems they’re … Read more
The same time I started learning English – as a young kid? For English, I remember my parents getting me a stack of Peter and Jane hardcover books. The ones that come with painted illustrations of the titular characters and go: Here is Peter. Here is Jane. Here is the horse. Peter and Jane like … Read more
It’s a beautiful name until you read it out loud. Because the word 邓思雅 sounds very similar to 等死呀 (waiting for death, ah). So, no, it’s not a good name. Try something else.
It is not a word frequently seen in names. If you don’t know, Chinese don’t have words specifically for names. We pick words (that are used for regular communication) to form names. So our names have very straightforward, easily recognizable meanings. The best way I can describe it is that our names are similar to … Read more
It’s 永. The kanji for “永(ei)”, which means long time, contains all eight techniques necessary for calligraphy. It’s called 永字八法(eiji happou). Eight Principles of Yong – Wikipedia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Demonstration of common strokes in Chinese characters The character 永 , yǒng , “forever”, “permanence” Stroke order animated (left) and in color gradation … Read more
They are victim to what we call “data imbalance.” Specifically, Cantonese is WAY less prevalent than Putonghua. You’re far more likely to meet somebody who speaks Putonghua but not Cantonese (1.32 billion people) as opposed to somebody who speaks Cantonese but not Putonghua (0.08 billion people). When Category A outnumbers Category B sixteen to one … Read more
Yes, it is. The Chinese language is capable of writing technical things. These technical terms, for instance, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, could be translated into Chinese. When people learn about these subjects at middle school, they read textbooks written in Chinese. Here are few pictures of a textbook in Physics used in the nineth grade … Read more
Well, the Chinese name you mentioned could be written as Hei Lizha in Pinyin. You could say that it sounds like Heliza. However, you rarely see people whose surname is 黒. And 利 could mean sharp, for instance, the sharp edge of a knife. 扎 could mean prick and stick into something. Since Heliza is … Read more
Usually broken or choppy family-use Chinese, of whatever dialect the parents speak in the house. Same holds true for most other ethnic backgrounds, such as Vietnamese or Peruvian. Chinese language schools used to suck really bad. They suck less now but you can’t really improve proficiency without practice and that is usually a function of … Read more