Learn Mandarin: June 2008

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Getting to Know China: A Kaleidoscope of Chinese Culture

Users intended: Foreigners without any experience in Chinese learning and teachers of Chinese as a foreign language, Chinese elementary and middle school students and friends of Chinese minority group
Description

With the rapid development of its economy, China is getting more and more influential in the world. People all over the world are casting their eyes on this great old nation and their interest to learn more about China's past and present is growing. They want to find out what has been driving this nation to develop at such a great speed.

Being an old country with 5,000 years of history, China is an important birthplace of human civilization. The great inventions of China, such as paper, gunpowder, the compass, the technology of printing, along with china and silk, have spread to the world and enhanced the cultural exchange between China and other nations; the poems, painting, music, dance and drama created by Chinese people all express their love for nature and their emphasis on ethics and moral obligations, which constitute the essence of Chinese culture and art; the rich and colorful traditional Chinese festivals of various kinds show the passions and emotions of Chinese nation; the traditional architecture of China, such as ancient cities, palaces, temples, common residences and classical gardens, has reflected the Chinese culture and spirit of different eras in history; and the all-embracing attitude Chinese people take towards foreign cultures has further developed and promoted Chinese culture.

The world needs to know China, while China also needs to show the world the splendor of its culture. Based on these needs, Beijing Language and Culture University Press, along with Viewpoint Culture Communication Co., Ltd, has put great efforts of 3 years into this large-scale DVD product, A Kaleidoscope of Chinese Culture, which gives a comprehensive introduction on Chinese culture. This DVD series covers the quintessence of Chinese culture, including Chinese civilization and art, Chinese customs, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, different ethnic groups, and famous places of historic interest and scenic beauty. With brief and vivid commentary, and clear and beautiful pictures, it brings readers to the core of Chinese culture in a convenient and direct way. A Kaleidoscope of Chinese Culture can truly be called a solid multimedia encyclopedia of Chinese culture.

It is our sincere hope that this product will set you on an exciting journey of Chinese culture filled with pleasant surprises and help you to learn more about China.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Chinese School - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Search Results
User Name Remember Me?
Password

Home Forums Wikis FAQ Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Guide to Chinese
Living in China

Showing results 1 to 1 of 1
Search took 0.01 seconds; generated 4 minute(s) ago. Search: Posts Made By: adrianlondon

Forum: Bug Reports / Help 29th June 2007, 08:09 PM

Replies: 34

From Beijing Chinese School Wiki?

Many questions on here get asked over and over again because the answers keep changing!, so I'm
not sure that a links section or a wiki is that useful.

As soon as the content is tidied up and...

Showing results 1 to 1 of 1

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:05 PM.

-- Default Style ---- Larger Fonts -- vB3 Lite -- 简体中文 -- 繁體中文 -- English (US)
Contact Us - From Beijing Chinese School - Archive - Top

chinese language lessons, learn chinese language, learn to speak chinese, mandarin learn, study chinese, study chinese in china, studying chinese, china chinese in learning, chinese language class, chinese language exchange, chinese language in china, chinese language lesson, chinese language study, chinese language tutor, learn chinese beijing, learn chinese in beijing, learn chinese pinyin, learn to speak mandarin chinese, learning chinese online, learning the chinese language, mandarin learn online, study chinese china, studying chinese online

Chinese Class - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Search Results
User Name Remember Me?
Password

Home Forums Wikis FAQ Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Guide to Chinese
Living in China

Showing results 1 to 2 of 2
Search took 0.01 seconds; generated 3 minute(s) ago. Search: Posts Made By: imron

Forum: Bug Reports / Help 1st April 2008, 12:29 PM

Replies: 27

Database Error

Posted By imron

回复: Database Error

merged question with answer.

Forum: Bug Reports / Help 4th November 2007, 10:50 PM

Replies: 27

Database Error

Posted By imron

Re: Database Error

If you're using firefox, f5 does the same on a mac as it does on windows - it reloads the page. So
basically if you get a database error, don't sit there pressing refresh until everything works,
but...

Showing results 1 to 2 of 2

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:04 PM.

-- Default Style ---- Larger Fonts -- vB3 Lite -- 简体中文 -- 繁體中文 -- English (US)
Contact Us - From Beijing Chinese School - Archive - Top

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Chinese Course - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Search Results
User Name Remember Me?
Password

Home Forums Wikis FAQ Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Guide to Chinese
Living in China

Showing results 1 to 1 of 1
Search took 0.07 seconds; generated 3 minute(s) ago. Search: Posts Made By: Lu

Forum: Other cultures and language 13th May 2008, 03:53 PM

Replies: 4

'a language of xxx' generalizations

Posted By Lu

Re: 'a language of xxx' generalizations

This is the funniest:

Taiwanese is essentially Mandarin (though the letter 'H' was mortally wounded during the civil
war).
--Jonathan Walton
(provided that he means Taiwanese Guoyu)

Also...

Showing results 1 to 1 of 1

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:01 PM.

-- Default Style ---- Larger Fonts -- vB3 Lite -- 简体中文 -- 繁體中文 -- English (US)
Contact Us - From Beijing Chinese School - Archive - Top

Learn mandarin - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Search Results
User Name Remember Me?
Password

Home Forums Wikis FAQ Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Guide to Chinese
Living in China

Showing results 1 to 1 of 1
Search took 0.01 seconds; generated 3 minute(s) ago. Search: Posts Made By: zhenhui

Forum: Other cultures and language 23rd March 2006, 12:25 PM

Replies: 177

What other languages do we speak

Posted By zhenhui

Wow...many multilingual folks in this...

Wow...many multilingual folks in this forum!

English - since I was 5 years old
Mandarin Chinese - since I was 5 years old
Bahasa Indonesia - since birth (but loosing this skill, mom speaks in Bahasa...

Showing results 1 to 1 of 1

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:01 PM.

-- Default Style ---- Larger Fonts -- vB3 Lite -- 简体中文 -- 繁體中文 -- English (US)
Contact Us - From Beijing Chinese School - Archive - Top

chinese language, learning chinese china, HSK, learn chinese writing, learn chinese characters, HSK Exam, chinese school, teach chinese, chinese schools, learn mandarin, learning mandarin, learning chinese, study in chinese, learn chinese abroad, speak chinese, chinese studies, how to learn chinese, learn chinese china, learn chinese online, chinese language online, learn chinese in china, study chinese online, chinese language program, chinese language school, chinese language schools, chinese speaking, learn chinese, learn mandarin online, learn to write chinese, beijing chinese language school, chinese language china, chinese language classes, chinese language courses, chinese language learning,

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Chinese Class - Use of synonyms in Chinese - Page 2 - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Grammar and Vocabulary

Use of synonyms in Chinese
Home New Posts

Page 2 of 2 < 1 2

tooironic -

I don't think it's a case of Chinese having more synonyms than English (if such a thing could
indeed be measured!), but it's rather a case of textual cohesion. For example, in English, it's
considered uneducated and/or sloppy to use the same verb, adjective or even some nouns in the same
sentence or paragraph. Cohesion in the text is instead maintained by using a synonym. Chinese,
from what I can see, doesn't seem to mind if it repeats the same words in a sentence/paragraph.
And you can see this carry over to when Chinese learners of English write essays, sometimes they
tend to use the same word more than once a sentence, and it has to be corrected to make it sound
more 'natural'.

Pleco Software Learn Chinese with our Dictionaries for Palm and Pocket PC.
Learn Chinese in China Learn to speak Chinese 1MonthChinese.com -Mandarin School in China.
Chinese Textbooks Wide range, cheap, varied languages. Also Chinese cartoons, toys, gifts.
Study Chinese in Beijing Affordable Mandarin language courses at BLCU with ChinaUnipath.com.
HNHSoft Dictionary Learn Chinese on Smartphone and PDA with real person's voice.
XueXueXue IQChinese Get beyond the plateau.Take your Mandarin to a new level.
Chinese in Lijiang Short term Chinese study in a beautiful town with a focus on daily life.
MandarinTube Chinese Access to current everyday Chinese language and culture, 24/7.
Learn Chinese Homestay Chinese course, cultural activities & volunteer events in China.
Learn Chinese Online 1-on-1 instant tutoring, diverse courses, native teachers. FREE trial now!
Nihao Chinese Progam Free one-on-one Chinese lesson. Win 5-years of free lessons now!

About Ads (and how to hide them) -- Your message here

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 04:39 PM.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Speak Chinese - 许巍《两天》/ Xu, Wei ''Two Days" - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Chinese Culture > Music

许巍《两天》/ Xu, Wei ''Two Days"
Home New Posts

studentyoung -

歌曲：两天
Song: Two Days
歌手：许巍
Singer: Xu, Wei
专辑：在路上
Album: On The Way
(translated by studentyoung)
http://mp3.baidu.com/m?f=ms&rn=&tn=b...BD%CC%EC&lm=-1

我还是飞不起来
I still can’t fly up
依然需要等待
still need to wait.
你就这样离开
You’ve just gone,
带走所有伤害
carrying all the hurt away.
秋天还是秋天
Fall is still fall,
依然美丽凄凉
lovely but desolate
还是飘飘荡荡
still windy
依然充满幻想
yet full of fantasy.

我想飞
I wanna fly,
还是飞不起来
but still can’t
我想飞
I wanna fly
在每个想你的秋天
at each love-sick fall.
我想飞
I wanna fly,
在歌声响起的夜晚
at each song-spreading night

我看到我的身边
I look at my side
他们都比我美
they all look better than me
我看到我的身后
I look behind
时间都已枯萎
time has faded.

我想起昨天曾吻遍的身体
I think of the ever kiss-covered body
我想起从我身边再次出走的你
I think of you who once again fled from me

我只有两天
I only have two days
我从没有把握
which I’ve never seized
一天用来出生
One for birth
一天用来死亡
one for decease.

我只有两天
I only have two days
我从没有把握
which I’ve never seized
一天用来希望
One for hope
一天用来绝望
One for hopelessness.

我只有两天
I only have two days
每天都在幻想
Each day I’m in fantasy.
一天用来想你
One for thinking of you
一天用来想我
One for thinking of me.

我只有两天
I only have two days
我从没有把握
which I have never seized
一天用来路过
One for passing you by
另一天还是路过
The other still as I used to be.
哦……
Oh...

Cheers!

About Ads (and how to hide them) -- Your message here

العمري -

thanks >>>>>>>

peter7 -

不错不错
我也喜欢许巍

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 05:36 PM.

Learn Chinese, Chinese Course, Learn mandarin, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing

Friday, June 6, 2008

Chinese Course - American Spouse/Child Immigration from China Questions - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Chinese Culture > Society

American Spouse/Child Immigration from China Questions
Home New Posts

kdavid -

Hello all,

I'm an American and am planning to marry my Chinese fiance of 2 years. We have her parents
approval, but only if we get married soon!

When I proposed to her I made it a point to explain that if we got married in China, the process
of getting her green card could potentially be much lengthier than if we just applied for a K1
fiance visa and went to America to get married.

The K1 visa can take up to 18 months to procure, and once we land and get married in America, her
green card could take up to 18 months (on the average 12). She cannot leave the country (America)
until she gets her green card, but once she has it she can travel back and forth as she pleases.

Or so I've heard... What I just typed above is all conjecture based on hearsay.

My fiance has agreed to wait however long it takes for us to get back to America. Her parents,
however, have not. They want a wedding now, not in 5 years. I understand their position and would
like to honor their culture and customs by marrying sooner than we had originally planned.

What I'd like to know is if anyone has any personal experience with this specific situation
(American's marrying Chinese either in China or in America). If so, how long did it take before
your Chinese counterpart could go with you back to the States? Also, are there any sources (web,
pdf, books, etc) that outline this procedure?

Also, if we were to have a child born in China, would that child be American or Chinese? How would
we go about arranging papers for that child? Again, any official sources you could provide would
be greatly appreciated.

Lastly, please don't flame this post on the dangers of international, specifically
American-Chinese, marriages. I've read them all a thousand times and am quite certain that I know
what I've gotten myself in to.

Thanks in advance for the help!

About Ads (and how to hide them) -- Your message here

DrWatson -

My spouse in non an American and we went though the process last year. She is not Chinese so I I'm
not sure how USCIS and State Dept. will handle Chinese cases, but I doubt it is very different
from what we went though. Note that last year the laws changed twice and things were very crazy
for awhile. But the process has been streamlined and made more efficient with less waiting time.
You should be able to get a spousal visa in about five to six months now. First you will have to
go through a background and criminal record check that is performed by USCIS and once you are
cleared, the State Dept will check out both you and your spouse. Finally, your spouse will be
interviewed at an embassy/consulate in China. Be prepared to spend some money along the way,
probably around $1000 in application and processing fees.

It is my understanding that it takes about just slightly longer to get the visa after marriage. If
there is no immediate hurry to get back to the US, then I personally wouldn't bother with the K-1
visa. If the parents wish for a marriage and you want to honor that wish, then I don't think you
should worry too much about waiting. You both can wait in China until the visa process wraps up,
or you can go to the US ahead of her if you wish.

As for reading about the process, the situation for a Chinese spouse should be spelled out clearly
on the US Embassy's website in the American Citizen Services section. You can also read about the
rules at USCIS and State dept. websites as well. For reading about others experiences and advice,
check out. website called visajourney.com. It is full of people from different countries going
through the visa process.

If you have a child born in China, then s/he will have dual citizenship until a certain age. You
would have to take the baby to the US Embassy in China and apply for a passport for your child. It
is best to do this when they child is young so you can get a social security number and what not.
When the child grows up and gets to a certain age, around 20 I believe, s/he has to decided which
citizenship she wants to retain and which to let go.

ipsi() -

You might want to check out www.candleforlove.com, as that's a set of forums quite specifically
dedicated to this whole process.

Lu -

Or you could have a Chinese wedding, banquet and all, with parents relatives and friends, in
China, as soon as possible, and then go off to the US to get all the legal things done.
Is there a special reason the parents want their daughter to get married ASAP?

kdavid -

Quote:

Or you could have a Chinese wedding, banquet and all, with parents relatives and friends, in
China, as soon as possible, and then go off to the US to get all the legal things done.

That's what we had originally planned on doing.

Quote:

Is there a special reason the parents want their daughter to get married ASAP?

In her parents' mind, we've been together for quite awhile, and despite a rock on her finger,
there's no evidence that the "shady foreigner" intends to stay with their daughter forever.

As you may or may not know, the Chinese can be very suspicious of foreigners, especially those
that plan on taking their daughter to the other side of the planet. They feel that in order for me
to fully respect their daughter (even though their daughter seemingly cares less about having a
wedding or not) I need to marry her soon. Plus, I'm sure they aren't getting any 面子 when they
tell their friends that their daughter is living with a foreigner to which she's not married.

My situation here is a bit difficult to judge for the long term. I've opened a school in which I
have a fairly large stake. If the school continues to be successful, I plan to stay in China in
order to build up a nest egg. There's no way I could save as much nor live as flexibly in the
States as I am now.

Lastly, if the whole process of getting her from here to there will only take a couple years, I'm
fine with that as I plan on staying in China for at least another 2 - 3 years. How long we stay
after that depends on work.

tony1343 -

If you have a child, your child will probably be an American citizen period, and will never have
to choose. Once an American citizen, one pretty much can only lose it if one has the intent to
give up their American citizenship. Even if another country say, China, makes her or him choose,
she wouldn't lose it unless she had an intent to give up American citizenship. Supreme Court cases
have made it very difficult to lose American citizenship. The United States allows you to have
multiple citizenships as do most nations (this has been a change in recent decades). I believe
that China however does not recognize multiple citizenships. Whether you are a citizen of a
country is completely determined by that countries laws. I therefore cannot help you on whether
your child would be a Chinese citizen, since I know nothing about its laws.

If you child is born in China (and you are an American citizen and your wife is not), he or she
would automatically be an American citizen upon birth IF you (the American citizen) have 5 years
of prior physical presence in the United States, with at least 2 of those after you attained the
age of 14. This is from the Immigration and Naturalization Act, Section 301(g). This physical
presence requirement is the prevent the passage of American citizenship down the generations, even
when no one in the family has lived in the U.S. for many years. I believe some countries like
Italy use a pure jus sanguinis system in which there is no physical presence requirement. So I
believe because of this I am actually an Italian citizen under the Italian Nationality Act, though
to get a passport I'd have to find the proof which might be difficult.

Your child would automatically be a citizen, but I think you would want to go to the Consulate as
soon as possible to register a foreign birth abroad and get a passport (for evidentiary purposes
or whatnot).

I'm not a lawyer, so I definitely recommend that you get legal advice if possible (and so this is
just general information for everyone).

Now I guess, if China only recognizes one citizenship; they might possibly claim someone is only a
Chinese citizen and not an American citizen and refuse to grant certain rights such as reporting
to the Consulate or whatnot if in trouble, but I don't know how that plays out.

DrWatson -

Quote:

Be careful, you will need to plan your timing out then. Once you get the green card for your
spouse, you have to move to the US or you will lose it. So once your spouse passes her interview
at the embassy, you have 180 days to go to the US and activate the green card. After that you are
free to leave again, but if your spouse stays outside of the US for more than 365 days she
automatically relinquishes her visa and will have to start the process over from the beginning.

I have read about re-entry permits, but it seems like they are only available to US government
employees who can make the case for extended time outside of the US. By applying for a spousal
visa (green card), you are supposed to be trying to live your lives in the US and not abroad. If
you come and go every year you can still lose your visa if USCIS decides that you're not making
your residence in the US. It has happened to immigrants who did the half a year in the US, half a
year abroad lifestyle. Read very carefully about everything, the rules are amazingly gray and not
so clear until you dig further.

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 05:41 PM.

Learn Chinese online - Please help translate this words - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Chinese Tattoos, Chinese Names and Quick Translations

Please help translate this words
Home New Posts

Lexus_OK -

http://upload.com.ua/get/900177358

Help me translate this, whery need

About Ads (and how to hide them) -- Your message here

skylee -

The three Chinese characters are 柳博芙, which looks like a name.

The 1st character 柳 (pronunciation is "liu") means "willow" and is a surname.

The 2nd character 博 (pronunciation is "bo") means "extensive" / "plentiful" etc.

The 3rd character 芙 (pronunciation is "fu") means "lotus", and is commonly used in female names.

largerman -

yes,it should be a name.

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:04 PM.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Chinese Studies - Learning Characters/Taking exams in Chinese - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Reading and Writing

Learning Characters/Taking exams in Chinese
Home New Posts

Yudian -

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoroaster

I'm also new too. This is a great forum...people actually post stuff and have a lot of enthusiasm
for learning Chinese. I just started my college Chinese course. It's not that bad but the worst is
yet to come. We're supposed to learn 250 hanzi by the end of the semester. I hope I can memorize
all those characters....

I just finished a Chinese immersion program where we did a full academic year in 9 weeks (over 550
characters to learn). It was crazy. For the last final I changed how I memorized the characters
and my test score went way up. We had to learn pinyin and characters, so I learned all the pinyin
of the new vocabulary plus how to recognize the character first. I didn't worry about memorizing
how to write the characters until later. That way, if I didn't know the characters to respond to a
question on the test, at least I would understand the question and be able to respond in pinyin. I
got a lot of partial credit that way and the professor knew that I could read and speak, even if
my writing was lagging. Next I would memorize the easier characters and plug away at the harder
ones over the days. Also, if you haven,t bought this book you might take a look at it: "Reading
and Writing Chinese, a comprehensive guide to the Chinese writing system," William McNaughton and
Li Ying, Tuttle Language Library, Tuttle Publishing, Boston, 1999. ISBN 0-8048-3206-4. Good luck!

About Ads (and how to hide them) -- Your message here

Anonymous -

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yudian

I didn't worry about memorizing how to write the characters until later. That way, if I didn't
know the characters to respond to a question on the test, at least I would understand the question
and be able to respond in pinyin. I got a lot of partial credit that way and the professor knew
that I could read and speak, even if my writing was lagging.

That is a wonderful tip for beginners who don't have the luxury and sparetime to learn how to
write each character they are taught.

Even for native speakers or those who are fluent in the Chinese language, forgetting how to write
uncommon characters is quite common, just like how sometimes we forget how to spell certain words
that we don't use often. However, as computer Chinese input methods improve, it becomes easier and
faster to type Chinese rather than to write. The most popular method of inputting Chinese is with
Pinyin. As long as you can read the characters, you can select them from a list.

Keep in mind that I'm not saying knowing how to write Chinese isn't necessary or unimportant. It's
ideal to be able to write, read and speak fluently but when you simply don't have the luxury or
time, make sure at least you can speak and read. Besides it's much easier to be able to speak and
recognize characters than to memorize how to write all of them.

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 07:02 PM.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Learn Chinese online - I Hate Hanzi - Page 8 - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Reading and Writing

I Hate Hanzi
Home New Posts

Page 8 of 8 First < 67 8

renzhe -

Quote:

Chinese is very simple.
Now i am studying french. I think it is more difficult than Chinise

Asian people (those fluent in an East Asian language like Korean or Japanese) tend to feel this
way.

I've never heard a European claim this.

French is really easy for anyone who has studied Latin. Which is most of Europe.

I got far more in three weeks of studying German than a year of studying Chinese. At least it
feels that way.

About Ads (and how to hide them) -- Your message here

rezaf -

i like 汉字 because it is a challenge but you can never compare it with difficulties of other
languages. even the most educated people often make mistakes in writing hanzi, let alone poor
老外.

johnLi -

To fully understand Chinese, it is necessary to learn some traditional chinese culture and
philosophies. A good book may interest you is called shuo1 wen2 jie3 zi4 which aims to give an
explanation of many chinese characters and their origins. It was completed in Han dynasty, and
became the foundation of later chinese character study. For instance, wen2 zi4 (means chinese
characters), wen2 itself contains the meaning of drawing or painting, while zi4 contains the
meaning of sound, or pronounciation. So wen2 zi4 originally means drawing with pronounciation, and
it is fairly correct to say that almost every chinese character is a picture with sound.

85642043 -

I am a Chinese, I see you studying very hard, I hope you can successfully learn Chinese
characters. Do not hate it. In this gave him my blessing! Tell you a skill: difficult to learn
Chinese characters, people with no end in sight. You learned some words will always have
more生字stopped in front of the road leading to read. To overseas non-Chinese environment as an
example, the children learn 800-900 words is not difficult, but the reading is smooth, very few
left. So to the生字to learn and understand the characters have to learn to think. People most
common misconception is a Chinese and Bingyinwenzi against each other. As everyone knows, the
voice is the most basic elements of language, is reflected in the text, Bingyinwenzi. Chinese
characters commonly used in more than 85% for the formation of the word. Chinese development is
the main theme of voice, but by the way some special only. Chinese characters are not taking the
sounds of letters written Road. Chinese mainstream following the syllables of the phonetic
alphabet text line. The so-called phonetic alphabet, as the Japanese pseudonym, as is the
integrity of the syllables, and not consonant and vowel arbitrary form themselves into the number.
Phonography is only suitable for small syllable language. Chinese Table Italian unit is the basic
word, and little syllable (400 ~), the development of Chinese characters used two methods to
distinguish a homonym of the word, first fight vary, "ai", as an example, there are "love mourning
Yi Yi" and several different fight. Table 2 is intended also to the "ai", as an example, the same
pronunciation as "ai", the radical different in different words, pay Alas Egypt, and Italy form
part of the logic and meaning of Chinese characters to strengthen the capacity of expression.
Probably about 800 Chinese phonetic characters.

channamasala -

Other than having to learn lots of unfamiliar vocabulary (removing the crutch of being able to
guess the vocab from French to English) I also feel that Chinese is easier to learn to speak than
French for a native English speaker (American, studied Latin for a year, quit when I decided I
wanted to go to China). It's the minimalist grammar. I love it.

But writing it is insanely hard, and where I've been focusing my energy lately. I spent a year in
China and was familiar enough with a few hundred Chinese characters, but not really well enough to
read, but I learned basically how to speak. Now that I'm in Taiwan I do practice speaking to keep
up speed and fluency and to insert the occasional new vocabulary word, but my study sessions have
stopped being about spoken vocabulary and started to be about writing (traditional, though I'm
happy I got a grounding in Simplified in China...though I find Traditional to be a thoroughly
superior system unless one needs to dash off a quick note. For that, even Taiwanese often revert
to simplified forms of many characters).

As the great John DeFrancis said, speaking Chinese is only about 5% harder than speaking French
(for an English native speaker). Writing Chinese is about 500 times harder.

dougdu -

As it's known, the more you learn, the harder it gets. Correct! That's our memory cells working
the best!

过一天少一天~~~~~

geek_frappa -

Quote:

Same pronunciation, same tone
Same pronunciation, different tone
Similar pronunciation, same tone
Similar pronunciation, different tone
New pronunciation, same tone
New pronunciation, different tone.

learning Hanzi also frustrated at time, but this gave me insight into English. Imagine how an
English language learner feels.

dough ... that's d-oh
cough ... that's c-off
tough ... no, that's t-uff
though ... no, no, that's th-owe
thorough ... no no no no that is thu-ruh

this is what makes second language acquisition so fun.

dporter1465 -

What I find most frustrating is how difficult it is to measure my progress. When I go running, I
can time myself on my regular course. If I'm trying to lose weight, I can get on the scale each
morning. If I'm writing an article, I can count up the words I've added each day. But reading
Chinese started out being tough, it remains tough, and I expect it will always be tough, whatever
level I reach. I was motivated by this frustration to create a character test that can be used to
estimate how many characters you know. If you take it regularly using consistent parameters (the
72-item test is most accurate) it can be useful for establishing a benchmark and measuring
progress over time. It doesn't make learning the characters any less painful, but at least there's
some tangible sense of accomplishment when you first hit the 1000 or 2000 or 3000 character mark!
The link is http://www.clavisinica.com/resources.html .

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 07:06 PM.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Speak Chinese - Which books do Chinese use to learn Classical Chinese? - Page 2 - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Reading and Writing

Which books do Chinese use to learn Classical Chinese?
Home New Posts

Page 2 of 2 < 1 2

atitarev -

"Brighter Readings in Classical Chinese" by Zhong Qin (钟梫), "Everyday Chinese" (每日汉语)
series. Like other Zhong Qin's books, it's out of print but still available.

It features - Chinese, Pinyin, detailed vocabulary and English translation.

About Ads (and how to hide them) -- Your message here

wangleen -

Have you found the book轻松学习文言文?It can be bought on www.dangdang.com
Actually, it was written by my father
And recently, he has published another book which you might find
useful:中国高中生必读文言文， following are the books he has written and can be bought
on dangdang:
http://search.dangdang.com/search.as...key5=&catalog=

Hope it can make your study much easier!

gato -

Quote:

Have you found the book轻松学习文言文?It can be bought on www.dangdang.com
Actually, it was written by my father

Wow, tell your dad that I love his book, and that you should write another one using the same
format, but with more classical Chinese essays that are not in textbooks. See here for some
examples:
http://search.dangdang.com/search.as...key5=&catalog=
高中课外文言文精讲精练
高中卷-课外文言文导读与精练
中考文言文课外阅读训练100篇

Or maybe a version of 《古文观止》 using the same format as 《轻松学习文言文》, but
that would be a huge project. Maybe you can work with your dad. Haha.

wangleen -

Thank you for your appraisal! Do you think it is necessary to have pingying for the words?

gato -

You can add pinyin just for the more obscure characters. Are you really thinking about it?

wushijiao -

Another book that I would recommend: Classical Chinese Primer: 古文入门 by John C.Y. Wang,
Sue-mei Wu, Shaoyu Jiang, Frank F.S. Hsueh. The Chinese University Press.
Advantages of this book:

1) Good selection of passages, as far as usefulness to the CSL learner, intrinsic content
interest, brevity, and accessibility.

2) Clear grammatical explanations. I find that this is important because I often feel that I'm 90%
sure of the meaning of a word/character or grammatical point. But that 10% unknown part can be
very crucial, and easily-overlooked.

3) The English in the book is very good (not Chinglish-y).

4) They use traditional characters. Although, the back of the book has an additional appendix with
all of the book's passages in simplified. So, if you are used to simplified, you can probably get
by using this book by just looking at the back.

5) The book design and presentation is pretty good.

6) You can buy a workbook that comes with it. I have found, so far, that I end up understanding
the passage/grammar much better after doing the relatively simple exercises that come along in the
workbook.

The main downside of the book is that it is fairly expensive at 240 HKD, with another 90 for the
workbook.

Another book that I bought (and will hopefully start and finish sometime next year) is
中國歷史文選 by 張衍田, 北京大學出版社. That book compiles selections from Chinese
history, with pretty interesting forwards to the passages and good annotations. The main advantage
of the book, compared to others on the Mainland, is that it is written in traditional characters
and is written vertically, from right to left. That doesn’t seem like much of a big deal,
really. But I read in the book’s introduction:
“北大歷史系1987年招收碩士研究生的古代漢語考題，有一題是要考生用繁體
字獻寫一段自選的百字古文，結果，沒有一個考生得滿分，有的考卷此題竟�
��一片空白”。That’s obviously an extreme example. However, if you ever want to read
authentic original documents, understand what inscriptions say in temples and museums, (or just
read books from HK and Taiwan), then it seems to me that is important to learn to read things the
way they were originally presented.

So, this is book should be good in the sense that it fulfills the above requirements and can be
bought in the Mainland.

http://product.dangdang.com/product....uct_id=8742591

calibre2001 -

Interesting thread here-> http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/ind...howtopic=16608

20th century classical chinese apparently.

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:52 PM.

Chinese Class - Can someone work process this chinese phrase from this image? - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Chinese Tattoos, Chinese Names and Quick Translations

Can someone work process this chinese phrase from this image?
Home New Posts

ahuacatlan -

Hi,
Can anyone type out the chinese characters from the image below so I can have them in a text form?

Thanks!

Also,
can anyone come up with a better translation of the english phrase? Or is the one in that image a
good one?

About Ads (and how to hide them) -- Your message here

muyongshi -

Sorry it is 3am here so it won't be long but here is the quicky

hua4 xue2 gan3 guan1 zhong1 xin1 gan3 zhi1 pin3 pai2 yan2 tao3 hui4

The words mean (not saying this is a good translation)
Chemistry Sensory Organ Center Sensation Brand Seminar

skylee -

恒源祥 - MoneII 化学感官中心感知品牌研讨会

muyongshi -

Ha ha it said characters didn't it.....

That's why you don't try to help people out at 3 in the morning. I totally read that wrong. Sorry!

ahuacatlan -

thank you both!

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:11 PM.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Chinese Mandarin - From Beijing Chinese School - View Single Post - Guide to Nanjing (南京)

Thread: Guide to Nanjing (南京)
View Single Post

Guide to Nanjing (南京)

Contents

* Nanjing
o Orientation:
o Public transport:
o Shopping:
o Studying:
o Bars / cafes:
o Restaurants:

[top]Nanjing

[top]Orientation:

A medium sized city , 6 million people including suburbs, nanjing was the former capital of the
Kuomingtang government. It is located south of the Changjiang river with A large Xuan Wu lake and
Purple Mountain. The main universities Nanjing U, Nanjing Normal U, South East U, are located in
the Center of the city.

[top]Public transport:

The subway line 1 goes north from the train station south to Nanjing U and ends at the Olympic
stadium. Bus lines 9, 5 and Tourist 2 go to Purple mountain and Sun Yat Sen's Mauseleum.

[top]Shopping:

XinJiekou (Department stores), Fuzi Miao (Small retailers) and Hunan lu (boutiques ) are the major
shopping areas. The foreign language book store and two other book stores are located in Xinjiekou
and East of Xin Jie Kou.

[top]Studying:

Nanjing Normal Univerisity Chinese department is the most famous in Nanjing. But perhaps the most
difficult.
Nanjing University has an established program. Also at Nanda there is a Joint John Hopkins Nanjing
U Center for chinese. Other Universities with sizable foreign student populations are South East
University and Hohai Univeristy

[top]Bars / cafes:

The 1912 Bar district near the old Presidential Palace is the most popular bar area in Nanjing
with mostly disco bars. Foreign Student hang out also include Jimmy's Pizza Restaurant and Bar,
Behind the Wall bar, Castle Bar, and Scarlet's Luan Shi Jia Ren Jiu ba, Blue Sky expat Bar.

[top]Restaurants:

Jimmy's Pizza started by an ex-English Teacher has good food and the low down of where to go.
Skyways German Bakery near Nanjing Normal U gets you a big sandwich meal for 20 yuan. In the West
of Nanjing you can go to the Famous Wan Bu Liao (unforgetable) restuarant and order the specialty
Suan Cai Yu. There are some notable Musilim restaurants on qinghai lu near Nanjing U.

====================================================================================================

Contributors: gato
Created by muyongshi, 9th October 2007 at 06:25 PM
Last edited by gato, 10th October 2007 at 11:36 AM
0 Comments , 1066 Views

Discussion

Learn Chinese - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Search Results
User Name Remember Me?
Password

Home Forums Wikis FAQ Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Guide to Chinese
Living in China

Showing results 1 to 3 of 3
Search took 0.14 seconds; generated 3 minute(s) ago. Search: Posts Made By: muyongshi

Forum: Bug Reports / Help 13th March 2008, 12:26 PM

Replies: 13

How to reduce the list of threads with unread posts

Posted By muyongshi

回复: How to reduce the list of threads with unread posts

My suspicion was correct! Thanks for helping confirm Imron!

Forum: Bug Reports / Help 13th March 2008, 11:36 AM

Replies: 13

How to reduce the list of threads with unread posts

Posted By muyongshi

回复: How to reduce the list of threads with unread posts

I just did about 3 minutes ago (the same time as you wrote your post)

Forum: Bug Reports / Help 13th March 2008, 11:19 AM

Replies: 13

How to reduce the list of threads with unread posts

Posted By muyongshi

回复: How to reduce the list of threads with unread posts

One other disadvantage I have noticed to using it (I am pretty sure anyway and a confirmation from
the admins would be great) is that if there is an unposted response (ie it hasn't been confirmed
or...

Showing results 1 to 3 of 3

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:04 PM.

-- Default Style ---- Larger Fonts -- vB3 Lite -- 简体中文 -- 繁體中文 -- English (US)
Contact Us - From Beijing Chinese School - Archive - Top

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Learn Mandarin online - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Search Results
User Name Remember Me?
Password

Home Forums Wikis FAQ Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Guide to Chinese
Living in China

Showing results 1 to 1 of 1
Search took 0.07 seconds; generated 3 minute(s) ago. Search: Posts Made By: Lu

Forum: Other cultures and language 13th May 2008, 03:53 PM

Replies: 4

'a language of xxx' generalizations

Posted By Lu

Re: 'a language of xxx' generalizations

This is the funniest:

Taiwanese is essentially Mandarin (though the letter 'H' was mortally wounded during the civil
war).
--Jonathan Walton
(provided that he means Taiwanese Guoyu)

Also...

Showing results 1 to 1 of 1

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:01 PM.

-- Default Style ---- Larger Fonts -- vB3 Lite -- 简体中文 -- 繁體中文 -- English (US)
Contact Us - From Beijing Chinese School - Archive - Top

Chinese Lesson - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Search Results
User Name Remember Me?
Password

Home Forums Wikis FAQ Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Guide to Chinese
Living in China

Showing results 1 to 1 of 1
Search took 0.01 seconds; generated 3 minute(s) ago. Search: Posts Made By: zhenhui

Forum: Other cultures and language 23rd March 2006, 12:25 PM

Replies: 177

What other languages do we speak

Posted By zhenhui

Wow...many multilingual folks in this...

Wow...many multilingual folks in this forum!

English - since I was 5 years old
Mandarin Chinese - since I was 5 years old
Bahasa Indonesia - since birth (but loosing this skill, mom speaks in Bahasa...

Showing results 1 to 1 of 1

All times are GMT +8. The time now is 06:01 PM.

-- Default Style ---- Larger Fonts -- vB3 Lite -- 简体中文 -- 繁體中文 -- English (US)
Contact Us - From Beijing Chinese School - Archive - Top

Learn Mandarin

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Getting to Know China: A Kaleidoscope of Chinese Culture

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Chinese School - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Chinese Class - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Chinese Course - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Learn mandarin - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Chinese Class - Use of synonyms in Chinese - Page 2 - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Grammar and Vocabulary

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Speak Chinese - 许巍《两天》/ Xu, Wei ''Two Days" - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Chinese Culture > Music

Friday, June 6, 2008

Chinese Course - American Spouse/Child Immigration from China Questions - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Chinese Culture > Society

Learn Chinese online - Please help translate this words - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Chinese Tattoos, Chinese Names and Quick Translations

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Chinese Studies - Learning Characters/Taking exams in Chinese - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Reading and Writing

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Learn Chinese online - I Hate Hanzi - Page 8 - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Reading and Writing

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Speak Chinese - Which books do Chinese use to learn Classical Chinese? - Page 2 - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Reading and Writing

Chinese Class - Can someone work process this chinese phrase from this image? - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Learning Chinese > Chinese Tattoos, Chinese Names and Quick Translations

Monday, June 2, 2008

Chinese Mandarin - From Beijing Chinese School - View Single Post - Guide to Nanjing (南京)

Learn Chinese - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Learn Mandarin online - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Chinese Lesson - From Beijing Chinese School.com > Search Forums

Sponsor AD

Favorite

Labels

Blog Archive