Categories
Blog Language

Basic Rules for Writing Chinese Characters

In the mobile era, people are now busy with typing instead of handwriting. It might be good news for Mandarin-Chinese learners.

Categories
Blog Culture

Chinese Idiom Story: Mother Meng Relocated Three Times

This history story is about Mother Meng. Her son, Mencius(孟子) (meng4 zi3), was a famous educator, philosopher and politician in Chinese history during Warring states period.

Categories
Blog Culture

Chinese Poetry Tang Poem: Grasses

When you think of spring, which imagine jumps into your mind in the first place? For me, it is green grasses.

Today we are going to appreciate a tang poem: grasses (草) written by the poet 白居易(Bai2, Ju1yi4). This poem praised the life strength of grass.

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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 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.