Mandarin Song: head, shoulder, knees and toe

头，肩膀，膝盖和脚趾

Introduction to Chinese Yu Opera

The most popluar art form in the most populated Province Henan is Yu opera (Henan Yuju 河南豫剧). There is a TV show called Liyuanchun (梨园春）。In the vidio above is the most famous player of Yu opera. Her name is Ma jinfeng and is over 80 years old.

Useful Mandarin Chinese phrases while you are in China!

1. Nǐ zhēn niú！

你真牛！

“You’re outstanding!”

In China, you can actually compare someone to a cow (niú) to compliment his outstanding character. Yao Ming is definitely niú, and so is anyone who scores you train tickets after they’re “sold out” or tries the baijiu liquor sold in plastic squeeze bottles in grocery stores.

2. Yìqǐ chīfàn, wǒ qǐngkè.

一起吃饭，我请客。

“Let’s go out to eat, my treat.”

In China, eating together is how people build and maintain good relationships. So if you want to make a new friend, ask a favor, or thank someone, do it as the Chinese do — over a lunch or dinner on your Chinese yuan.

3. Méi bànfǎ, rén tàiduō.

没办法，人太多。

“There’s nothing you can do, too many people.”

In a country of 1.3 billion people, it only takes a small percentage of them to wreck your trip. When my Chinese husband and I traveled to Beijing during the national holiday in October, we spent half the day slogging through a mob that stretched across Tian’anmen Square just to get into the Forbidden City. I’ve also had to stand on crowded trains because I couldn’t get a seat and, while living in Shanghai, experienced my share of being sandwiched between anonymous butts and groins on rush-hour subway cars.

4. Nǎlǐ, nǎlǐ!

哪里，哪里！

“Not me!” (lit. “where, where!” — for deflecting compliments)

Confucian values — such as modesty — still run strong in China, so people don’t say “thank you” when praised about anything. The Chinese, however, assume foreigners like you do the opposite. This phrase is guaranteed to surprise your new Chinese friends and get a good smile out of them.

5. Yǒu yuán qiānlǐ lái xiānghuì.

有缘千里来相会。

“We have the destiny to meet across a thousand miles.”

Chinese people believe love and destiny go hand in hand – which is why my Chinese husband loves describing our relationship with this phrase. It’s best for romantic situations, and could even be a poetic pickup line.

6. Wā! Zhōngguó de biànhuà hǎo dà! Zhēnshì fāntiān fùdì。

哇，中国的变化好大！真是翻天覆地。

“Whoa! China is changing so much! It’s as if heaven and earth changed places!”

Shanghai’s Pudong District, with a skyline straight out of a science-fiction flick, used to be rural farmland before the 1990s. Until the 1980s, the high-rise miracle of Shenzhen was just another tiny village on the South China Sea known for fresh fish and oysters.

Every year, China races to build more bridges, buildings, high-speed train lines and subway routes, changing the landscape faster than a speeding Beijing taxi driver. This expression is great for repeat visitors to China and anyone blown away by the pace of development.

7. Zhēnde! Wǒ yìdiǎn dōu búkèqile!

真的！我一点都不客气了！

“Really! I’m not being polite at all!”

Perfect for when people keep piling kung pao chicken into your bowl long after you’re full, or pouring you glass after drunken glass of baijiu — and think you’re just saying “búyào” (“I don’t want it”) to be polite.

Once, when a Chinese friend insisted I drink another round of Tsingdao, I had to repeat this phrase over and over while shielding my glass from his swinging beer bottle. Be ready to battle for your stomach and sobriety.

8. Fēi xià kǔgōngfū bùkě.

非下苦功夫不可。

“It requires painstaking efforts.”

Some 5,000 tumultuous years of history have taught the Chinese that nothing comes easy. People usually say this when faced with any challenge, such as taking the national college entrance exams or pounding the pavement for a job.

It’s useful for climbing China’s mountains, squeezing into crowded transport, or walking into one of the noxious bathrooms at the train stations.

9. Bùhǎoyìsi, wo yǒushì Yàozǒule.

不好意思，我有事要走了。

“I’m sorry, I have something to do. I must go.”

Chinese people prefer to be vague about the details — which means you never have to explain why you need to leave right now. It’s ideal for uncomfortable situations of any kind. Add another “bùhǎoyìsi” at the end if you feel a little guilty for bolting.

10. Wēiwēi zhōnghuá, yuányuán liú cháng!

巍巍中华，源远流长。

“China is awesome [in size], and has a long history!”

Show your love for the Middle Kingdom by praising two things that make the Chinese extra proud: their large country and nearly 5,000 years of history. Shout out this expression on the summit of Huangshan, from a watchtower on the Great Wall, or overlooking that grand vault of Terracotta Warriors.

Next time you’re in Beijing, Shanghai and beyond, see if you can use all 10 of these expressions. You would definitely be niú in my book.

Learn Chinese Idiom from a Story

爱屋及乌 (ài wū jí wū)

爱(ài), love

屋(wū), house

及(jí), and also

乌(wū), one kind of bird, crow

The word together meaning: If you love your house,  you will also love the crow on the roof of the house.

In English:  Love me love my dog.

The Story:

here was a dynasty called Zhou (zhōu 周) in the Chinese history. One day, the king of zhou asked his officials for advice on dealing with prisoners of war. An official said, "I once heard if you love someone, you are intended to love even the crows on the roof of his house; if you hate someone, you are intended to hate even the walls and the parapets of his. The prisoners of war were enemies fighting against us. In my opinion, we'd better kill them all."

But the king didn't agree with him. "I think we should treat the prisoners of war differently by differing them into those who are guilty and those who are not. The guilty ones will be sentenced to death in order to avoid future disasters." Another official put forward his suggestion. The king didn't think it was a proper way, either.Then a third one said, "Your majesty, i think all the prisoners should be set free and sent back home to work in the fields and support themselves by their own labor. Moreover, you should keep strictly the rules for reward and punishment and treat your relatives and friends impartially.The people are sure to believe in you if you administer our country by morals and laws." The king thought the official's proposal was quite reasonable so he accepted and followed it.As a result, the domestic situation soon settled down and gradually the country became more stable and stronger. The idiom is then used to mean that if you love someone, you'll love people and things relative to him as well.

Chinese grammar: Subject-Verb-Object structure (from internet)

Chinese grammar is remarkably simple for the beginner. Verbs do not conjugate, (ie it’s just ‘go’ whoever’s doing it – I go, you go, he go etc), there are no genders, no ‘the’ or ‘a’, and no tenses as such.

Subject-Verb-Object
In Chinese, you say the subject first, then the verb, then the object, the same as English. So for example,
I = Wǒ,我
Love = Ài 爱
Rice = Mĭfàn 米饭
Add it all together to make Wǒ ài mĭfàn 我爱米饭– I love rice

Negative

To make a sentence negative, you just add no/not, bù 不 in front of the verb
e.g. Wǒ bù ài mĭfàn 我不爱米饭– I don’t love rice

Questions

To make the statement into a question, you just add ‘ma 吗’ at the end.
e.g. Wǒ ài mĭfàn ma 我爱米饭吗– Do I love rice?
Learn one more word – you ‘Nĭ 你’ and if you already know how to say to your Chinese friend:
Nĭ bú ài wǒ ma? 你不爱我吗?
Don’t you love me?!

Sometimes behind the transitive can follow two objects, one refer to people and the other refer thing
for example:
He gave me some ink.他给了我一点墨水

More examples:

我姐姐是护士
My sister is a nurse.
我是老师。
I am a teacher.
你是学生。 you are a student.

Measure Words – Don’t panic

The Chinese language employs measure words when talking about a number of something. A bit like when people refer to ‘100 head of cattle’, or ‘two bunches of flowers’, apart from that it is used in all situations, for example, in Chinese one would say ‘two sticks of road’ and ‘three flat-things of ticket’.
Different measure words are used according to the shape or use of the thing. Things held with the hand often use ‘bă – 把’, and long thin things often used ‘tiáo – 条’which literally means stick.
Fortunately, as with most things in Chinese, there is an easy way out for beginners. The measure word ‘gè – 个’ can be used to refer to virtually anything, and though it’s not strictly correct Chinese, it will get your meaning across. So one (of something) is yī gè, two is liăng gè, three is sān gè

learn chinese human body parts from a vidio

learn Mandarin Chinese from a video ( Happy Chinese)

Happy China. In this video, the hosts will take you to visit Shanghai, the most big and famous city in China.

Learn Chinese Pinyin online free from the video

Chinese Pinyin 

Learn Chinese, One sentence a day! (1)

Learn Chinese, One sentence a day! (1)

Nǐ hǎo!
你 好！           How are you!

nǐ hǎo má?          
你 好 吗？        How are you doing?

Wǒ hén hǎo.
我  很  好。      I am good.     
                                                                                     

New words:

你， you

好， good

吗， a mark of question

我， I， me

很， very

Learn Chinese from a kid's song "star" (星星）'twinkle twinkle little star'

   

yī shǎn yī shǎn liàng jīng jīng，

一 闪 一 闪   亮   晶   晶，             twinkling like bright clear crystal, 

mǎn tiān dōu shì xiǎo xīng xing。
满    天   都 是 小   星  星。           little stars full of the whole sky

guà zài tiān kōng fāng guāng míng，
挂   在   天 空    放   光     明，        hang in the sky give out the light

hǎo xiàng tián shàng xiǎo yǎn jing。
好    像     天     上  小 眼 睛。      just like a lot of eyes.

New words:
一 闪 一 闪， a flash of light, twinkle

亮 晶 晶,  bright with light

满 天, full of the sky

都 是, full of

小 星 星, little stars

挂 在, hang on

天 空, sky

放 光 明, emit light

好 像, seem, looks like

无 数, a lot of

小 眼 睛, little eyes.

I also find the English version song here:

Learn Mandarin Chinese through a famous song Xiaocao (小草）

小草（little grass）

Méi yǒu huá xiáng，méi yǒu shù gāo 没   有  花   香，　 没  有  树  高,　 wǒ shì yī ké wú rén zhí dào de xiǎo cǎo

我  是  一 颗 无 人  知  道  的  小  草. cóng bù jì mó， cóng bù fǎn nǎo

从   不  寂  寞,　从  不  烦  恼, nǐ kàn wǒ de huó bàn biàn jí tián yá hǎi jiào

你  看  我 的 伙  伴  遍  及  天  涯  海  角. Chún féng a chún féng nǐ bá wǒ chuí lǜ

春    风  啊  春   风  你  把  我  吹 绿. yáng guáng a yáng guáng nǐ bǎ wǒ zhào yào

阳    光   啊 阳   光   你  把 我  照  耀. hé liú a shán chuán， nǐ fú yǔ le wǒ

河 流  啊   山   川, 你  哺  育 了 我. dà dì a  mǔ qín ba wo jín jín yong bào

大  地 啊 母 亲  把 我  紧  紧  拥  抱. I am not sweeter than flowers, I am not taller than trees I am a little grass nobody knows Never feel lonely, never feel worried You see my partner all over the world Spring winds let me green, The sunshine let me warm, Brooks and lands  conceived me and let me grow Earth-- Mother hugs me tightly New words: 1.      没有 no, not A: 你吃饭了吗？( Did you have your dinner?) B: 没有。(NO) 2.      花 flower 3.      香 fragrant, scent, sweet, (of food) savory 这种白花闻起来很香 （The white flower smells sweet.） 4.      树， tree 5.      高，tall, high 高楼大厦 （high buildings） 6.      我 ， I, me 7.      是， am, is, are, was, were, was, be 8.      一颗， a piece of 9.      无人， nobody, no one 10.  知道， know, familiar 11.  从不， never 我从不抽烟。 I never smoke. 12.  寂寞，alone, lonely 13.  烦恼，sth bother you, sth unhappy 14.  伙伴， partner 15.  遍及， all over, everywhere 16.  天涯海角， the end of the earth, the corner of the sea                              means the remote places, 17.  春风，the wind of spring 18.  阳光，sunshine 19.  照耀， shine, shed light on    阳光照耀大地。 ( the Sun shone on the earth) 20.  河流，river 21.  山川， mountains and brooks 22.  哺育, conceive, bring birth to, 23.  母亲，mother 24.  把，marker for direct-object 25.  紧紧，tightly 26.  拥抱，hug

Chinese poem 春（chún) 晓(xiǎo)

         春(chún)晓(xiǎo)

     唐táng-孟mèng 浩hào 然rán

春(chún) 眠(mián) 不(bù)  觉(jué) 晓(xiǎo)，

处(chù)  处(chù)  闻(wén) 啼(tí)  鸟(niǎo)。

夜(yè)   来(lái)  风(féng)雨(yǔ)  声(shēng)，

花(huá)  落(luò)  知(zhī) 多(duó) 少(shǎo).

Spring moring

Tang dynasty Meng haoran (689-740)

In spring, one sleeps unaware it is dawn;

Everywhere I hear the chirping of the birds.

At night there were sounds of wind and rain;

I wonder how many blossoms have fallen.