I’m planning to produce a series of podcasts introducing the various accents found in China and in other Chinese-speaking countries/areas. So if you are a native speaker and would like to be featured or if you know somebody (friends, tutors, co-workers, students, relatives…) with a distinct accent, please send me an email/ post a comment. [...]
Archive for July, 2008
Accents – Your help required!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged accent, podcast on July 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Bog-Standard Roadkill
Posted in China: Sunny Side Up, tagged anecdotes, culture shock, laowai on July 20, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Sometimes I’m not sure at all whether people coming to China actually know that the country they’re going to live in is neither some jungle outpost nor a squeaky clean western colony.
I get to hear the most mind-boggling remarks from the foreigners I meet, whether they are students of mine or mere acquaintances.
I don’t [...]
Characters 191 – 210 : Professions
Posted in Hanzi, tagged addressing, job, politeness, profession, titles on July 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Bad news: I somehow managed to lose my only pair of glasses. It might have been nicked while I was sleeping in the bus – but who in the world steals spectacles? Anyway, today you can indulge in a list of job-related expressions. If you should happen find a pair of horn-rimmed glasses with a [...]
Characters 171-190
Posted in Hanzi, tagged elementary, preposition, tense marker on July 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
见
jian4
APPEAR, SEE. It’s actually a picture of an eye with lashes. This was more obvious in the traditional form: 見
现
xian4
NOW, PRESENT, SHOW. Kings 王 like to SHOW off their wealth, PRESENTing it for everyone.
讯
xun4
INVESTIGATE; INTERROGATE; INFORMATION. Another character that contains the “speak”-radical. Apart from that, there’s also a cross, so we could think of the [...]
Characters 141-170 : Family Affairs Part 一
Posted in Hanzi, tagged children, family, family members, people on July 17, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Since I’m so elated that my husband finally got a week off to come and see me, I’ll provide you with some family-related vocab.
If you can think of more mnemonics or if you have anything else to share, feel free to comment or send me a mail: zhanglihua80 (at) ymail (dot) com .
In Chinese, there [...]
Character 112-140
Posted in Uncategorized on July 16, 2008 | 1 Comment »
To make up for yesterday’s absence, 28 new characters for today. They are among the more common ones.
去
qu4
WALK, GO. The earth 土(tu3) and two strokes that look like the tip of a foot, so you tread the floor, hence WALK.
罢
ba4
STOP, CEASE. When you’re entangled in a net 罒 (wang3), you’ll have to [...]
Let’s make friends
Posted in China: Sunny Side Up on July 14, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Reading the Xinhua-News, it becomes…let’s say, obvious…that this is a official press agency. What I’d like to comment on are the funny expressions sometimes used, especially when translated into English. Let me emphasise that I am talking about linguistic aspects, do not falsely read anything political into it.
The following extract if from an “Opinion”-article about [...]
Characters 101-111: “Comrades”
Posted in Hanzi, tagged attitude, love, relationship on July 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
As per request, some LGBT vocab for you. (I had no idea what that term stood for, so thanks for broadening my vocabulary). If you don’t care about this kind of stuff, please read on nevertheless, the characters are useful and common (and not queer at all)!
The formal term for homosexuality is 同性恋, and it’s [...]
How time flies by…
Posted in China: Sunny Side Up, tagged age, daily life, slang on July 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This morning, some neighbourhood kid greeted me with “老张你好!” Am I overreacting because I think that’s subtly disrespectful, make me aware of the fact that my 30th birthday is approaching? Does everyone (including my family) have to rub it in? 呵呵
肏! I’m 28, how can I be old?
These are the moments in life when I [...]
