Online Chinese Lessons

Chinese Peacock Dance 中国孔雀舞 Zhōngguó kǒngquè wǔ

tomriddle — Sat, 19 May 2012 03:06:33 +0000

an artist’s illustration of a peacock dance

Peacock dance is prevalent in the Dai（傣族 Dǎizú） and Jingpo （景颇族 jǐngpō） minority autonomous prefectures and it is the most famous traditional folk dance of the Dai Minority in China.

“Legend has it that more than a thousand years ago, Zhaomali Jieshu, the head of the Dai minority, learned dance through imitating the elegant gestures of the peacock”- as introduced by numerous websites.

Peacock is Dai minority’s sacred bird and symbolic of happiness and auspicious. They rear peacocks at their home compounds and see the peacocks as representations of kind-hearted, intelligent, and beautiful.

let’s learn some words in chinese:

peacock: (n.) [Kǒngquè] 孔雀
prevalent: (adj.) [Shèngxíng] 盛行
famous: (adj.) [Zhùmíng] 著名
traditional: (adj.) [Chuántǒng] 传统
sacred: (adj.) [Shénshèng de] 神圣的
auspicious: (adj.) [Jíxiáng, jílì] 吉祥，吉利。

Here is video of a 54 years old very famous dance artist in China, 杨丽萍 (Yánglìpíng) showcasing the Peacock dance. Enjoy!

if you cannot watch the video, click the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yoXNG2n3GiY

How to say Mother’s Day in Mandarin Chinese & the origin of the carnation flower name

tomriddle — Sun, 13 May 2012 03:20:17 +0000

What is the perfect flower for Mother’s Day? Carnations!

To celebrate this special holiday, don’t forget to buy your mom a bouquet of carnations; if the cost is too great, then, draw her a card full of carnations then

(photo credit davedehetre)

On Mother’s Day, I am going to buy my mom a bouquet of bright red carnations.

母亲节当天，我要买一束鲜红的康乃馨送给我妈妈。

Mǔqīnjié dàngtiān , Wǒ yào mǎi yī shù xiānhóng de kāng nǎi xīn sòng gěi Wǒ māma.

Mǔqīnjié (母亲节 Mǔqīn mother, jié holiday; Mǔqīnjié means Mother’s Day) dàngtiān (当天 that day) , Wǒ (我pronoun, I) yào (要 verb, want or would like) mǎi (买 verb, to buy) yī (一 number, one) shù (束 noun, bouquet) xiān (鲜 adjective, bright or fresh) hóng (红 adjective, red) de ( 的 a particle to put after attributive and before the noun it modifies) kāngnǎixīn (康乃馨 carnation) sòng (送 verb, to give or to send) gěi (给 preposition, to) Wǒ (我 Wǒ de 我的 for short, my) māma (妈妈 noun, mom).

The botanical (植物学的 [zhíwùxué de] ) name for the Carnation flower is Dianthus. The name Dianthus is from the Greek （希腊文的 [Xīlà wén de] ） words dios (god) and anthos (flower), and was named by the Greek botanist ( 植物学家 [zhíwùxué jiā] ) Theophrastus.

Thus, carnation flowers have Greek origin which means divine （神的 [shén de] ）flowers or the flowers of Zeus, the Greek god of the sky and king of the gods. In Greek mythology （神话 [shénhuà] ）, it says goddess （女神 [nŭshén] ） Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt as well as of childbirth （分娩 [fēnmiăn] ）, once was in extreme anger, and she tore out the eyes of a shepherd （牧羊人 [mùyángrén] ） when he startled her when she was in hunting. Later, Artemis regretted her own rash actions, so she replaced his eyes with two bright red carnations.

Listen to my audio recording and learn more about carnations and its different colors and meanings and much more, check it out at http://www.chinesetolearn.com/?p=4095

How to ask, "How was the movie?" in Chinese – 20 Questions to Basic Fluency #19

tomriddle — Sat, 12 May 2012 03:05:12 +0000

Last time we took a look at how to say, “What is she like?” in Chinese. If you missed that discussion, take some time to go back and check it out.

Today we are catching up with a friend about what we did over the weekend and we are asking, “How was the movie?” Here is the question and answer:

(photo credit maveric2003)

Question

这部电影怎么样？

Zhè bù diànyǐng zěnmeyàng?

How was the movie?

Answer

我觉得很有意思.

Wǒ juéde hěn yǒu yìsi.

I thought it was very interesting.

We’ve come a long way in only 19 question. When we started out we could only ask and tell our names, and now we are about to give our opinions on films. It feels very civilized, doesn’t it? And you’ll be glad to know that 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) is back again so there is very little new stuff to learn in this lesson. So let’s take a look.

The character 这(zhè) means, “this.” Chinese doesn’t have a word for “the” so you’ll always need to use words like “this” and “that” in contexts where English might use “the.” The next word 部(bù) is a measure word for movies. Measure words are used when you are pointing out an object (this pen, that pen) or when you are counting objects (1 pen, 2 pens, 3 pens). We have measure words in English too: a pair of pants, a flock of geese, a cup of coffee. But there are lots more in Chinese and they are used more often.

To be honest, this is kind of a pain when you are first learning the language. The best thing to do is just try to remember the measure words with their objects when they come up in context. Trying to memorize all the measure words and the categories of things they measure, or count, isn’t really a good use of your time at this point. Okay, enough about measure words.

The next word is 电影(diànyǐng). This is a fantastic translation. At this point you may not know that Chinese doesn’t create new characters for new words. Instead they just recycle characters that already exist. So when new inventions pop up, Chinese has no choice but to dig through thousands of characters to match the symbols with the object.

The character 电(diàn) means “electric.” The character 影(yǐng) means, “shadow.” So together we get “electric shadow.” That’s genuine poetry right there! Finally we come to 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) which means, “how.” The rough literal translation is one that’s likely to stick with you, “This electric shadow how?” Okay, let’s take a look at the answer.

This answer starts out differently from the other answers in this mini-怎么样(zěnmeyàng) series. We are giving our opinion here so instead of starting out with a word for “it” we say 我(wǒ) which means, “I.” The character 觉(jué) means “sense” or “feel.”

The character 得(de) is a particle that could translate as “ability” but it doesn’t really add much meaning in this context. So you might want to think of 觉得(juéde) as “feel ability” just for the purpose of remembering the two characters. We don’t need to use a word for “it” in the answer.

The next word is 很(hěn) which means “very.” (Chinese does not use 是(shì) to describe objects with adjectives. Check out question #16 for details). Finally we have 有意思(yǒu yìsi). The character 有(yǒu) means, “to have.” The character 意(yì) means “meaning” and 思(si) means “thinking” or “thought.”

So if something “has meaning thought” then it’s logical that it is interesting. The rough translation to get you thinking in this Chinese sentence pattern is “I think very interesting.”

More Info

You can replace 部电影(bù diànyǐng) in the question with other diversions to ask questions about all kinds of entertainment. Remember, each of the first characters is the measure word for each form of entertainment.

本书－ Běn shū – a book

本杂志－ Běn zázhì – a magazine

个视频－ Gè shìpín – a video

场游戏－ Chǎng yóuxì – a game (general word for game)

个网络游戏－ Gè wǎngluò yóuxì – an online game

个应用程序－ Gè yìngyòng chéngxù – an app

个电视节目－ Gè diànshì jiémù – a TV program

场音乐会－ Chǎng yīnyuè huì – a concert

场演出－ Chǎng yǎnchū – a performance (concert, show, play)

场球赛－ Chǎng qiúsài – a ball game

You can replace 有意思(yǒu yìsi) in the answer with any of the adjectives below.

好看－Hǎokàn – great, excellent

棒－Bàng – great

好玩－Hǎowán – fun

好笑－Hǎoxiào – funny

带劲儿－Dàijìn er – exciting

好美－Hǎoměi – beautiful

还行－Hái xíng – okay

不好玩－Bù hǎowán – not fun

美意思－Méiyìsi – not interesting

无聊－Wúliáo – boring

长－Chǎng – long

奇怪－Qíguài – strange

差劲－Chàjìn – horrible

Places to go in China -Part 2

tomriddle — Thu, 10 May 2012 03:03:57 +0000

Ok we saw the video from 九寨沟’s sceneries last week. Aren’t they breathtaking?

If you haven’t, you can check in out by clicking here!

Now if you’re ready, let’s go and take a look at another must-see-place!

You’ve most probably heard this place but it’s spectacular so I must mention it again!

Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses 秦始皇兵马俑

It is Chinese Qin Dynasty Emperor Qin Shi Huang‘s tomb situated at Xi’an (known as Chang’an before Ming dynasty) and it’s one of the oldest city in Shaanxi province in China.

Qin Shu Huang ascended the throne when he’s 13years old, and he started to build his own tomb right after.

Total mausoleum area of the Qin Shi Huang is of 50 square kilometers, including the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses and the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.

The figures vary in height according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots and horses. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits. Other terracotta non-military figures were also found in other pits and they include officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians.

Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses is listed as World Heritage Site （世界遗产名录） in 1987 and it’s also labeled as one of the Eighth Wonder of the World （世界第八大奇迹）!

Let’s look at the video! Enjoy!

go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RYysyDurJ0&feature=related if the link is not working for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RYysyDurJ0&feature=related

Chinese Fan Dance 扇子舞 shanzi wu – video

tomriddle — Tue, 08 May 2012 03:15:57 +0000

There are indeed a lot of endless frangments to show you guys about Chinese Cultures.

In this blog, Iet me introduce this Chinese traditional dance, 扇子舞 shànzi wǔ Fan Dance.

It’s very hard to get the video with good quality but I came across this video with contempory Chinese Fan Dance along to the song 茉莉花 mòlìhuā “Jasmine”. It’s combined with a little bit of ballet but it is so beautiful and graceful!

The dancers are from Atlanta Professional Dance Academy and it’s a dance performance for spring show.

Enjoy!

If the video embed of the dance below does not work, watch on youtube here.

The key to memorize Chinese idioms – good understanding of the analogy

tomriddle — Sun, 06 May 2012 03:03:35 +0000

Chinese idioms are full of analogies. If you are struggling with memorizing them, why not slow down first and see if there’s any analogy in the idiom. Just like in English and any other languages, using analogy can help people to vividly picture the concept in their mind without too much explanation.

Today I’ll use an example to show you how to build the connection in your mind through the analogy in the idiom to enforce your memory on Chinese idioms.

(photo credit benet2006)

We all know a snake (蛇) in the grass (草) is a hiding danger. If we spot one and want to have a closer look (a brave soul you have), we need to be very still. Any slight disturbance to the grass could scare the snake away or startle it to bite you (Ouch!).

Now, let’s describe in Chinese what gonna happen if a naughty boy jumps out from nowhere and smacks the grass with a stick…

Hit the grass - 打草. See the “hand radical” in 打 and “grass radical” in 草? Startle the snake - 惊蛇. Notice the “heart radical” in 惊 and “bug radical” in 蛇? OK, here you go, if you hit the grass, the snake will be startled, which you don’t want to see. And this is how we got Chinese idiom – 打草惊蛇 (dǎ cǎo jīng shé) created.

Basically, it means “premature actions that put enemy on guard.”

You can read and listen to example sentences that are using this idiom in the following link:

Chinese idiom 打草惊蛇

How to ask, "What is she like?" in Chinese – 20 Questions to Basic Fluency #18

tomriddle — Sun, 06 May 2012 03:03:26 +0000

Last time we took a look at how to say, “What does she look like?” in Chinese. If you missed that discussion, take some time to go back and check it out.

(see all “20 Questions to Basic Fluency.”)

We know from question #17 that she is pretty. But now we want to know about her personality and we’re asking, “What is she like?” Here is the question and answer:

(photo credit Adri H)

Question

她的性格怎么样？

Tā de xìnggé zěnmeyàng?

What is she like?

Answer

她很友好.

Tā hěn yóuhǎo.

She is very friendly.

We first saw the phrase 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) back in question #16, “How are you doing?” As you can see now, we’re getting a lot of mileage out of it. It’s useful because it works in a lot of basic patterns. But perhaps more importantly, it gives your language ability some depth. You no longer have to simply spell out the details of your life in objects (nouns) and actions (verbs). Now you can use 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) get to the details about those objects and actions. You can also express your thoughts and opinions. That’s deep stuff. This lesson gets you to that next level. Let’s take a look.

The character 她(tā) means, “she.” The particle 的(de) has no meaning by itself. When you combine 的(de) with a person’s name or a pronoun it makes that noun or pronoun possessive. So 她的(tāde) means, “her.” Next is the word 性格(xìnggé). The character 性(xìng) means “character” “disposition” or “temperament.” The character 格(gé) means “standard” or “style.” So you can see that together 性格(xìnggé) is pretty close to the English, “personality” “disposition” or “temperament.” Finally we come back to 怎么样(zěnmeyàng). We took a detailed look at 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) back in question #16 so you can go back and check it out if you are curious about the individual characters. But in this context it is easiest to just translate 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) as “how.” All together the literal translation is, “Her personality how?” Now let’s check out the answer.

The answer gives the information you’d expect (a subject and an adjective to describe it) but Chinese is unique when it comes to adjectives. We start out with 她(tā) which means “she.” The next word is 很(hěn) which means “very.” But what makes Chinese different is that it doesn’t use a form of the word “to be” with adjectives. For example, in English you might say, “She is friendly” so you would expect the Chinese translation to be 她是友好(Tā shì yóuhǎo). THIS IS NOT CORRECT. Chinese doesn’t use the verb 是(shì) with adjectives in this grammar pattern. The final word is 友好(yóuhǎo). The character 友(yóu) means, “friend” or “friendly”and the character 好(hǎo) means, “good” so it is easy to see how 友好(yóuhǎo) matches up with “friendly” in English.

More Info

You can replace 友好(yóuhǎo)in the answer with anyone of the adjectives below to describe a person’s physical traits.

和气－Héqì – nice, kind

吝啬－Lìnsè – mean

外向－Wàixiàng – outgoing

害羞－Hàixiū – shy

矜持－Jīnchí – reserved

平静－Píngjìng – calm

懒惰－Lǎnduò – lazy

勤奋－Qínfèn – hardworking

聪明－Cōngmíng – smart, clever

笨－Bèn – stupid

严－Yán – strict

随和－Suíhe – easy going

Why Sounding Like an Idiot is a Good Thing (When Learning Mandarin)

tomriddle — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:29:24 +0000

Yesterday I had a conference call with the father of a thirteen year-old student to discuss the progress his daughter has made since she started studying Mandarin at our online Chinese school three months ago.

Overall, the feedback was very positive – Mary’s a smart, precocious girl who listens attentively and thoroughly reviews her notes before each class; a typical ‘good’ student.

Some mistakes are more serious than others
(photo credit w.marsh)

When it came time to share areas for improvement, however, one of Mary’s teacher’s comments struck me: “Mary is afraid to make mistakes – she’s afraid to ask questions for fear of looking stupid.”

As anyone who has studied Mandarin knows, making mistakes is a rite of passage when it comes to studying this (or any) language. In fact, if you’re not making mistakes – be they grammatical, tonal, or otherwise – every single time you open your mouth to speak, you’re either not trying very hard or you already knew Chinese in a previous life!

As someone who spent years studying Chinese the ‘wrong’ way (more on that later) before finally figuring out a better, more efficient way to learn the language, I would argue that making mistakes is not only a good thing, but that it’s only by making mistakes (often and necessarily the same ones over and over again,) that a student can ever begin to work towards true conversational fluency.

Of course, no Mandarin student relishes the idea of making mistakes that are the exclusive purview of three and four year-old native speakers – remember how many times you said wén (to kiss) when what you really wanted to say was wèn (to ask)? – but when learning a second language as an adult, we are all the linguistic equivalent of a two year-old and need to embrace the fact that those kind of ‘stupid’ mistakes are an integral part of the learning process without which we don’t make any progress.

I would argue that the only critical difference between a child and an adult learning a language is that an adult is aware – and often acutely self-conscious – of the myriad mistakes they make (or might make) when attempting to speak. It is this embarrassed self-consciousness that leads many of us to try and learn Chinese the ‘wrong’ but easy way: out of a book, instead of the ‘right’ but harder way: by forcing yourself to have conversations with native speakers in which they correct your Mandarin. It can be frustrating and potentially embarrassing to learn this way, but it’s only by saying something incorrectly, being corrected, and saying it again, the right way, that you start to get a natural sense for the language （语感）and, in time, the ability to know the correct way to express your thoughts with confidence.

So the next time you sit down at Starbucks with a tall, non-fat latte, your Mandarin textbook, and a Chinese-English dictionary, think about what you’re about to do and whether it will actually do anything to improve your spoken Chinese – which I think should be every beginner and intermediate learner’s main priority.

Sitting silently and memorizing obscure grammar rules is a safe, risk-free way to pass two hours, give yourself false assurance that you’re learning Chinese, and avoid exposing yourself to the potential humiliation of saying something incorrectly in conversation.

Working with a professional language instructor for two hours at the same Starbucks or online and learning that when a Chinese person can’t access the wireless they say “Wǒ shàng bù liǎo wǎng,” and not “Wǒ bù néng shàng wǎng,” is actually a productive use of your time.

Your ego may not thank you in the short term, but in the long term you’ll be getting too many compliments on your authentic, colloquial Mandarin to care. So get out there and start making mistakes – just make sure you’re open to being corrected!

Corinne Dillon is the founder of Discover Mandarin, an online Chinese language school which offers 1-on-1 classes with teachers live from Beijing.

How to ask, "What does she look like?" in Chinese – 20 Questions to Basic Fluency #17

tomriddle — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:29:20 +0000

Last time we took a look at how to say, “How are you doing?” in Chinese. If you missed that discussion, take some time to go back and check it out.

(see all “20 Questions to Basic Fluency.”)

Today our friend is telling us about someone else and we are asking, “What does she look like?” Here is the question and answer:

(photo credit Chovee)

Question

她长得怎么样？

Tā zhǎng de zěnmeyàng?

What does she look like?

Answer

她很漂亮.

Tā hěn piàoliang.

She is very pretty.

Asking what someone looks like in Chinese isn’t too hard despite the fact that the question doesn’t resemble the English at all. This is one of those cases where the Chinese makes more sense than the English. The English question, “What does she look like?” is obscured a bit. If you were trying to learn English, you might expect to hear an answer comparing the person with a noun, not an adjective:

Q: What does she look like?

A: She looks like a model.

In comparison, the Chinese question is a lot more logical. Let’s take a look.

The word 她(tā) means “she.” (Note: the masculine “he” has the same pronunciation but uses a different character, 他) The next word, 长 (zhǎng) has a few meanings, but here it would literally mean “grow.” The character 得(de) is a particle and it has no meaning here. In the question it is used to connect the verb with the adjective to tell how the “growing” is done (in this case, the growing is pretty.)

That’s the detailed explanation of the two characters but it might be more practical to just remember that when 长(zhǎng) combines with 得(de) the meaning is “looks like” or “appears.” We looked at 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) in detail in question #16, so there is no need to go over each character again individually.

But if you are interested go back and check it out. The word 怎么样(zěnmeyàng) just means “how” in our question. When you put it all together you get something like, “She grows how?” or “She looks/appears how?” Now let’s go on to the answer.

But what makes Chinese different is that it doesn’t use a form of the word “to be” with adjectives. For example, in English you might say, “She is pretty” so you would expect the Chinese translation to be 她是漂亮(Tā shì piàoliang). THIS IS NOT CORRECT. Chinese doesn’t use the verb 是(shì) with adjectives in this grammar pattern.

The final word is 漂亮(piàoliang) which means, “pretty.” The definitions of the individual characters don’t help out much here, so it’s best to just remember them together as “pretty.” So all together we get, “She very pretty.” Now you might be asking yourself, can I use the 长得(zhǎng de) in the answer? Sure. Your answer would look like this, 她长得很漂亮(Tā zhǎng de hěn piàoliang.)

More Info

You can replace 漂亮(piàoliang)in the answer with any one of the adjectives below to describe a person’s physical traits.

好看－ Hǎokàn – good looking

难看－Nánkàn – ungly (lit. hard look)

可爱－ Kě’ài – cute

老－Lǎo – old

年轻－Niánqīng – young

高－Gāo – tall

矮－Ǎi – short

胖－Pàng – fat

瘦－Shòu – thin

Research: Expats Living in a Mandarin Speaking Country

tomriddle — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:07:29 +0000

大家好！

More research again, this time for my Educational Research Methodology Class here inTaiwan. I’m focusing my research expats living in Mandarin speaking environments and confidence in their Chinese ability, and I need your help!

For those of you living in Taiwan or China, I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind filling out this 10 minute questionnaire and perhaps passing it along to a few of your friends. All individual responses will be kept 100% confidential and used for academic purposes only.

For those that have already filled out the survey, thank you so much!

If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.

Again, thanks for your help and support.

Jake Gill
高健

Link for those in Taiwan

Link for those in Mainland China