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Blog Language

Chinese Children’s Song: Two Tigers

“Two Tigers” (两只老虎) (liang3 zhi1 lao3 hu3) is one of my favorite songs when I was little.

In Chinese culture, tiger is regarded as the king of animals. We believe in a tiger has a power.

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Blog Opinions

Traditional Chinese Characters or Simplified Chinese Characters

To a Mandarin-Chinese learner, learning traditional characters or simplified characters is a question.

Traditional characters are used commonly in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and  most oversea communities.

Simplified characters are used officially on Mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and growing oversea communities.

Categories
Blog Culture

Chinese Idiom Story: Waiting for a Hare Under a Tree

This idiom story 守株待兔 (shǒu zhū dài tù) is a very famous Chinese folktale. This story tells a story that a farmer got a dead hare by accident while he worked on a field.

Categories
Blog Language

How to Pronounce Mandarin-Chinese Tones

Mandarin-Chinese is a tonal language. Tones are more like music notes, which guide you on how to pronounce each character. In this sense, speaking Mandarin-Chinese is more like singing.

It sounds fun but might be confusing to English speakers who are never exposed to tonal languages. However, if you know the trick, you will find it is not difficult at all.

Categories
Blog Culture

Chinese Poetry Tang Poem: Spring Dawn

Sring is around. We will learn a Tang poem tang poem “春晓”(spring dawn) written by poet 孟浩然 (Meng, Haoran).

春晓 is a very famous poem. In this poem, the poet described vividly of a typical spring scene.