Sunday, July 17, 2011

Learn Chinese Idiom from a Story


爱屋及乌 (ài wū jí wū)

(ài), love
(wū), house
(jí), and also
(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 ) 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.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

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

Monday, April 4, 2011

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.

Friday, March 18, 2011

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

Thursday, March 17, 2011

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          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:

Monday, March 14, 2011

Learn Mandarin Chinese through a famous song Xiaocao (小草)

小草little grass
















Méi yǒu huá xiángméi 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 chuánnǐ 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.      flower
3.      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.      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

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Chinese poem 春(chún) 晓(xiǎo)


         (chún)(xiǎo)
     唐táng-mèng hào rán
(chún) (mián) (bù)  (jué) (xiǎo)
(chù)  (chù)  (wén) (tí)  (niǎo)

(yè)   (lái)  (féng)(yǔ)  (shēng)

(huá)  (luò)  (zhī) (duó) (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.

150 most used Chinese sentences in Daily life (2)

150 most used Chinese sentences in Daily life (1)