Fans of Chinese and Mandarin
波蘭 (Traditional Chin. characters) / 波兰 (Simplified Chin. characters) bōlán / bolan is a syllable by syllable rendition of “Poland”. Nobody pays attention to the meaning of the individual characters: they are commonly used to stand for foreign syllables. Thus, 斯里蘭卡 Sīlǐlánkǎ / Syliilankaa stands for Sri Lanka, and 約翰·蘭波 Yuēhàn·Lán bō = John Rambo. (1) The “b” in bō / … Read more
Here are two screenshots of 奶奶 and 姥姥 from the dictionary, Dictionary of Modern Chinese, or 现代汉语词典 in Chinese, published by the Commercial Press, or 商务印书馆 in Chinese. As you can see, 奶奶 could mean the paternal grandmother. It could also refer to elder women whose ages could be those of the grandmothers. In the … Read more
I have a young daughter in Kindergarten. I speak English to her. My wife speaks Chinese to her. She speaks fluent Baby-Chinese, and completely understands my English. However, the only time that she uses English is when she is MAD. When she is angry, that is when she spouts off in English. And lordy, it’s … Read more
“1“ being pronounced as “yao” (幺) is a military number variant. It became popular and used by civilians. It is similar to the military alphabet for English and other languages and served a similar function. when using military codes, people often choose a word to pronounce a letter, so there’s no misunderstanding when the connection … Read more
Either “早上好” or “早安” is a translation of “good morning”. However, we rarely speak or write like that in daily life. If you would like to know something more “Chinese”, see next. “好” has many means as other Chinese words have. One of them is equal to “good” in English. Maybe you can use one’s … Read more
I have been learning Mandarin Chinese for 2 years, and although my speaking, reading and writing skills have developed well, my listening ability is still poor and very basic. How can I improve this? If you have learned Chinese for 2 years, you should be able to understand these sentences. What I want to say … Read more
It depends on the context 1.I will go somewhere. The tune like wǒ qù When someone asked : would you like to go to the park? Then if you want to go as well then you could say : 我去！(means I will go ) 2. Kinda of swear word (I suppose you are looking for … Read more
When you chat with your Chinese friends on Wechat, after he/she tells a joke or throws a trendy meme into the chats, how do you respond in Chinese? “lol”? Chinese don’t do the abbreviation of the phrase “laugh out loud”, instead, they use words that emulate the sound. “哈哈 haha” is the Chinese corresponding word … Read more
肏 has always stuck me as a bit disturbing. It means fuck. This is a compound ideograph. The top part 入 means to enter. The bottom part 肉 means flesh. It creates a disturbing image. I think a lot of people find the character a bit off putting as well. It isn’t used much. If you … Read more
As an exchange student in Beijing, I’m currently preparing for HSK 4 of Chinese proficiency test. I was writing my practice exam when came across this question. What I want to say is LEARNING CHINESE is not HARD, but EXTREMELY HARD. Like learning other languages, you need to practice making sentences and telling stories in … Read more