Learning Chinese blog

        Our oral  English Teacher Steven who comes from America has great interest in Chinese.He often learn Chinese from us on classes.

        Once we talked about the titles of families.He said in America there are various of intimate ways to call their wives.Like:Honey,Sweety,Sweetheart and so on.He was totally superised when we mationed that in China men used to call their wives ”Lao Po” to express their intimate. He thought its quite disrespect and rude because there is no different from just calling their wives wife directly.

       Actually here is a misunderstanding of Chinese and Eglish translation that caused by different cultures.Although both ”Qi Zi”  and “Lao Po” can translate into “wife”,”Lao Po” is not exactly equal to “wife”.”Qi Zi” and “wife” are  formal titles but “Lao Po” is more daily.

       An approproate example here to help you have a thorough understanding.English`s “mother” equal to “Mu Qin” and “Mum” equal to “Ma Ma”,just like ”wife” equal to “Qi Zi”.As for “Lao Po” there is no such a corresponding word like “Mum” to “Ma Ma”.We can translate it into “Honey” accroding todifferent situation.

      Therefore,it is kind difficult for foreigners to understand Chinese even they know the meaning of characters some times.Culture is also play an important role in language learning.

Popular Words About Film （2）

  零点首映（líng diăn shŏu yìng）

midnight premiere

  票房冠军（piào fáng guàn jūn）

top-grossing movie

  立体眼镜（lì tĭ yăn jìng）

3D/stereo glasses

  三维效果（sān wéi xiào guŏ）

3D digital effects

  预告片（yù gào piān）

film trailer

  动作片（dòng zuò piān）

action film/movie

  试映（shì yìng）

preview, test screening

  票房（piào fáng）

box office
    

China Interesting Proverbs（1）

Chinese allegories is two-part allegorical saying (of which the first part, always stated, is descriptive, while the second part, often unstated, carries the message).

  当一天和尚撞一天钟（dāng yī tiān hé shang zhuàng yī tiān zhōng）—得过且过
（dé guò qiĕ guò）
  
Go on tolling the bell as long as one is a monk – drift or muddle along; do the least that is expected of one; take a passive attitude towards one’s work.

  八字没一撇 （bā zì méi yī piĕ ）—早着呢（zăo zhe ne）

Not even the first stroke of the character “八” (”eight”) has been written – nothing tangible is in sight; there’s no sign of anything happening yet.

  出笼的鸟儿（chū lóng de niăo er ）—有去无回（yŏu qù wú huí）

A bird out of its cage will never come back – gone never to return.

  刀子嘴，豆腐心（dāo zi zuĭ dòu fu xīn）— 嘴硬心软（zuĭ yìng xīn ruăn）

Have a mouth as sharp as a dagger, but a heart as soft as tofu – have a sharp tongue but a soft heart

  断了线的风筝（duàn le xiàn de fēng zhēng ）—不知去向（bù zhī qù xiàng）

The flying kite has broken away from its string – it’s unknown where somebody or something has gone.

                
  飞蛾扑火（fēi é pū huŏ）—自取灭亡（zì qŭ miè wáng）

A moth darting into a flame – bringing destruction upon oneself; courting one’s own doom.

  醉翁之意不在酒（zuì wēng zhī yì bù zài jiŭ）—另有所图（lìng yŏu suŏ tú）

The drinker’s heart is not in the cup – have other things in mind; have ulterior motives; many kiss the baby for the nurse’s sake……view more

Do you think learning Chinese is difficult or easy?

When you are interested in Chinese language and began to learn Chinese when, in this learning process, do you think learning Chinese is difficult or easy?
                      
No matter how long you’ve studied Chinese, there are efficient and not so efficient ways of tackling the language. Since you are already on such a tough journey, why not take the path with the biggest pot of gold at the end?

Some things are much more important to focus on than others when learning Chinese for use in the real world. Why? Because they are help make learning Chinese faster and more efficient, at least in the long run. Let’s take a look:Three things you must focus on to get better in Chinese.

◆ Tones

◆ Individual Characters

◆ Sentence Order

Let’s go through these one at a time:

1. Tones

Learning tones well is the key to speaking any dialect of Chinese, and Mandarin is no exception. Drill them into your head. When you are unsure or have temporarily forgotten of how to produce certain tones, practice until you have gotten them right again. Whenever you learn a new word or character, make sure you know the tones that go with it. Relentlessly learn the tones for all new Chinese words and all the tones for old words that you have forgotten.

It is easier for a Chinese learner to guess what you are saying than a Chinese person

To a beginner or even intermediate learner of Chinese, tones seem less important than they actually are. We figure, “if I get everything else right but the tones wrong, Chinese people will understand what I am saying”. If this is what you think, though, you are wrong. To the typical Chinese person, tones are a more fundamental part of language than non-tonal phonemic elements (sounds). Chinese people often understand each other perfectly well even when the non-tonal sounds are wrong but the tones are right. The opposite is not true. Making significant mistakes with tones totally throws off most Chinese people.

This is hard for a speaker of a non-tonal language to really understand. But it’s true. If you want to learn Chinese well, you must focus on tones - whether you are learning Mandarin, Cantonese, or any of the hundreds (thousands?) of ‘dialects’ (other languages) in China.

2. Individual Characters

Is it better for you to learn (including their multiple possible meanings and sometimes pronunciations) individual characters than vocabulary? While in the short run, learning words (most words in Chinese are of the two character variety) will speed up your Chinese learning, in the long run, knowing cold the 3000 or so most commonly used characters will allow you to learn new vocabulary at a much faster rate - and you can often guess the meaning of new words instead of looking them up in the dictionary when you already know the various meanings of the individual component characters.

This is something that I am not too good at - I rarely learn individual characters, preferring to learn words instead. Yet experience has shown that if you want to learn written Chinese well, focusing more on learning characters individually is the best way to go.

And to those who believe that it is more efficient to only study speaking and listening to improve your spoken Chinese - you are right, in the short run. In the long run your speaking ability will trail far behind those who started on the path of becoming literate in Chinese.

3. Sentence Order

The last thing to focus on when learning Chinese is the easiest to get right initially, but perhaps one of the hardest to keep straight in your head.

Unlike English (which, thanks largely to its many permutations and non-native speakers, can usually be understood no matter how badly one messes up sentence order & grammar), Chinese is a language where sentence order, just like tones, must be correct to be quickly and easily understood. The fact is, most speakers of Chinese are Chinese, and so they are used to hearing people who have spoken Chinese since they were little speak Chinese =) Two things that almost all Chinese people get right most of the time when speaking Chinese are tones and sentence order.

So when you mix up the sentence order (usually by putting time in the wrong place), Chinese people get confused. Try not to do this. Chinese grammar is quite simple overall. But it’s not very flexible, especially when it comes to sentence order.

What do you think?……view more

 Why to learn Chinese Language now?

                    
Asia Society, a US nonprofit organization summarized the answers to this question the best: the rise of China presents new economic, political and social realities that demand greater U.S. engagement at every level. As the foundation of that engagement, we urgently need to raise the number of Americans who can demonstrate a functional proficiency in Chinese language.

China´s tremendous economic growth creates new opportunities and challenges for U.S. businesses. Between 1978 and 2002, China’s annual GDP growth reached 9.4%, three times the world’s average, and in recent years (2001-2004) China accounted for one third of global economic growth.

China is an immense market for American goods and services, and a vital supplier to American manufacturers and consumers. U.S. trade with China exceeded $245 billion in 2004 (second only to trade with Canada and Mexico).

China´s political importance in the Asia-Pacific region is broadly acknowledged and, particularly since 9/11, its help has been sought on difficult issues like North Korea and terrorism. Collaboration with China is increasingly deemed essential for solving a range of global issues, from nuclear proliferation to the environment, from currency exchange to trade laws……view more