How To Learn Chinese Online

小和尚念经，有口无心 – xiaoheshangnianjing,youkouwuxin

Fri, 14 May 2010 09:54:47 +0000

小和尚念经，有口无心 – xiao3he2shang4nian4jing1,you3kou3wu2xin1

Literal meaning = small/little monk reads scriptures, have mouth not heart.

This is a proverb about a monk who reads the scriptures, claims to be a monk etc but in his heart doesn’t really believe or practice i.e. a hypocrite.

This proverb can be used to describe someone who is forced to study for example. Many children go to University or college because their parents force them but they don’t want to be there. Or it could be used to describe people who claim to be Christians (or any faith for that matter) but get drunk, lie, commit fornication etc.

Pretty much any situation where what comes out of peoples mouth isn’t really what they feel think or believe. Perhaps it also carries the connotation of someone who feels a little bit of pressure from parents, society or whatever to conform or say what they say but inside they don’t agree or believe.

拔苗助长- bamiaozhuzhang

Fri, 14 May 2010 09:39:50 +0000

拔苗助长-ba2miao2zhu4zhang3

Literal meaning of each character = uproot,pull/draw out – young plant/seedling – help – grow

The image portrayed by this useful idiom is of someone pulling at a seedling or small plant thinking it will help it grow faster. This of course is ridiculous as it’s only water, sunshine and time that causes a plant to grow. We cannot make a plant grow faster by pulling at it.

Therefore this idiom is useful when describing someone who tries to force something to go faster than it’s natural process. Something take time no matter what you do, there are no short cuts and patience is needed. If you think someone is pushing you too hard you could use this to tell that person to lay off, but only of course if there pressure or encouragement genuinely has no effect on the result. If a teacher is telling you to do your homework or review class material etc then the idiom doesn’t apply because this idiom is only really applicable to situations where the efforts of another genuinely have no effect on the end result, and perhaps can do harm and even hamper the result.

This idiom can also be rendered as 揠苗助长 – ya4miao2zhu4zhang3 – where the only difference is the first character “ya4″ which also means “pull”. However I am told that the above version with “ba2″ is more common.

小题大做 – xiaotidazuo

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:57:26 +0000

小题大做 – xiao3ti2da4zuo4

Literal meaning of each character = small – problem – big – do/produce

Actually, this is basically the same as the English idiom “make a mountain out of a molehill”. The Chinese version doesn’t use the graphic comparison like we do. They simply say the problem is small but the doing or action is big.

Just in case you don’t know what “make a mountain out of a molehill” means (perhaps you aren’t a native English speaker) this idiom is used to describe when someone is over reacting to a problem. The problem is very small but the person is reacting as if the problem were very big.

身在曹营心在汉 – shen zai cao ying xin zai han

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:33:11 +0000

身在曹营心在汉 – shen1 zai4 cao2 ying2 xin1 zai4 han4

Literal translation = body – at – Cao (name) – camp – heart – at – Han (name)

Idiomatic translation = Your body is in the camp of Cao but your heart is in Han’s camp.

This is a very nice Ancient Chinese Proverb. If you can use it correctly it will really touch the hearts of Chinese people and they will be highly impressed with your Chinese.

Cao was a famous war general and appears in the famous book The Three Kingdoms. I haven’t read the book myself but I know the other famous general in there is Zhu Ge Liang and I assume there is one named “Han” as well.

I am not sure if there is a specific story about a certain soldier whom this idiom applies to or not, but it basically comes the history of Caocao and his wars at the time of the The 3 Kindgoms.

The usage and meaning of this is quite specific. I used to think it just meant someone who is there in body but not in spirit (perhaps day dreaming) but the real meaning is about where someone’s loyalty lies.

For example, a company is bought out by a bigger company and maybe fires the managers and a new manager comes in. You still have the same job but now you have a new boss, however you still love the old boss and have devotion to him or her. So although your body is working for the new company and new management, you miss the old company and management and still have loyalty to them even begrudgingly continuing your job.

Therefore, there aren’t many opportunities to use this idiom as it’s meaning is quite specific.

Mandarin Chinese Initials/Consonants – Pinyin

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:04:04 +0000

Here are the 21 “initials” also known as “consonants” of the Mandarin Chinese language. These are the basic building blocks of this language and practicing the pronunciation cannot be over emphasized. Writing the Chinese language using our Roman alphabet is known as “Pinyin”.

I recommend spending all of your time practicing these sounds until you are blue in the face. If you get to eager and start trying to learn words before having a good pronunciation foundation you run the risk of ruining your chances of ever having good pronunciation because once you have a bad habit it’s very hard to get rid of.

Therefore I recommended attaining the highest level of pronunciation that you can before moving on and starting to learn actual words. There aren’t that many phonetics in the Mandarin Language so it won’t take very long to master.

I like to think of these “initials” as letters of the Chinese alphabet. I also like to think that every “word” has only 2 letters, an initial and a final.

		
		
		 Click the play button to hear the initials

b(o)

p(o)

m(o)

f(o)

d(e)

t(e)

n(e)

l(e)

g(e)

k(e)

h(e)

j(i)

q(i)

x(i)

zh(i)

ch(i)

sh(i)

r(i)

z(i)

c(i)

s(i)

		
		
		 Click the play button to hear the initials

Now you will notice that each of the initials above have a letter in brackets beside them. That is because it’s kind of difficult to say the initial without a final. So the letters to the left of the brackets are the actual “initial” and inside the brackets are a “final” or “vowel”.

When listening to the above initials try to concentrate on the sound of the initial alone in order to grasp how to pronounce it.

Now the letters from “b” to “h” are pretty easy if you are a speaker of English. The English sounds are pretty much the same in Chinese for those letters.

Outside of that is where it gets a little complicated. The “j” isn’t so bad as it sounds pretty much like our “j” as in the word “jeep”. However the “q” is nothing what you would expect and it’s hard to find an exact equivalent in English. Its fairly close to “ch” as in when you say “cheep” but try to work hard to find the minor difference. Some people like to think of it as a “tch” sound with the “t” being very subtle. You will likely need face to face tutoring to get the exact right sound as it’s far too difficult to describe the differences with words. The same goes for “x”. It also is fairly close to our “sh” sound as in the word “she” but again that only gets you close to the actual sound.

Now we have the “zh” which is often compared to the “j” sound in the word “jug”. You might think that the “j” initial and “zh” initial are the same as both are compared to the letter “j” in English, but they are not the same and you should work to find out the very subtle differences in their pronunciation. Same goes for “ch”. It’s similar to the “ch” in “churn” and “sh” is similar to the “sh” in “shirt”. The “r” is also similar to our “r” but there is a difference and it’s quite difficult to explain in words. So for someone just starting in Mandarin learning you can get quite close to the true pronunciation with just your English ability but work hard to hear and mimic the slight differences.

Finally we have “z”,”c” and “s”. The “z” is more like a “dz” noise. Or the “ds” as in “birds”. The “c” is more like a “ts” as in “bits” but the only barely utter the “t” noise, the “t” shouldn’t be very strong. The “s” is similar to ours so there’s not too much to say about that.

There you have it. That’s almost have of the entire language right there. After this you just need to master the finals and you can perfectly pronounce every single Chinese word with only about 60 phonetics. I’m not aware of any other language that has a similar finite pronunciation range.

Of course there are the 4 tones (5 if you count the neutral one) but that’s for another day. Just focus on one thing at a time so as not to overload your brain. All the initials above are uttered in the first tone so when practicing them try to “sing” them the same way the speakers are using a high level unchanging tone. You might think it sounds ridiculous but that’s Chinese !

因人而异 – yinreneryi

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:17:19 +0000

因人而异 – yin1ren2er2yi4

Literal meaning of each character = because – people – and/yet/but – different

This is a fairly self explanatory idiom when you read the meaning of each character. It basically means “everybody is different”, “differ from person to person” or “vary with each individual”

I first came across this idiom when talking about language learning and comparing languages with a taxi driver. I gave my opinion about Chinese being easy and French being hard and I also said that it was only my opinion and someone else may feel differently. I also comparing my learning Chinese faster than french and so on and at some point in the conversation he said this idiom.

So I now use it when talking about language learning to say that some people learn faster than others. It isn’t to say that anyone is a better person than anyone else, it’s just that they are “different”. However I am pretty sure that it can be used to other situations when talking about peoples individual abilities or maybe even tastes etc.

塞翁失马焉知非福 – saiwengshimayanzhifeifu

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:26:51 +0000

塞翁失马焉知非福 – sai4 weng1 shi1 ma3 yan1 zhi1 fei1 fu2

Literal translation – saiweng (persons name) – lose – horse – how – know – not – blessing

This basically can be translated as “a blessing in disguise” or even “a curse in disguise” ie the opposite.

It comes from a story about an old man named “Saiweng”. He lost his horse and his friends came to comfort him but he was optimistic saying that it could be a good thing. He turned out to be correct when sometime later the horse returned bringing with it another better horse. His friends again came to him this time joyful but Saiweng wasn’t so sure this was a good thing. Turned out his son broke his leg while riding this new horse. Once again his friends came to comfort him over his son’s injury but Saiweng once again didn’t necessarily view it as a bad thing right away. Rightly so as the broken leg prevented his son from being conscripted into the army and therefore saved his life.

This proverb is generally used to comfort someone if they have fallen sick or had some sort of catastrophe. It could also theoretically be used in the opposite way for someone who has had something very good happen to them but I highly doubt it is ever used in this sense, as who ever wants to rain on someone’s parade and spoil the moment ?

So although it can be used to warn people that the apparent good fortune may be bad luck waiting to happen, it is more commonly used to try to cheer up someone who is troubled over some misfortune that has befallen them.

同床异梦 – tongchuangyimeng

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 15:01:51 +0000

同床异梦 – tong2chuang2yi4meng4

Literal meaning of each character = same – bed – different – dream

This is a very easy idiom to understand and use. It basically describes a marriage where the husband and wife pretty much do their own thing. Quite likely there is no romance or love left in the marriage and the staying together is likely only for convenience sakes. The only thing they share is a bed, whereas their dreams and goals are different.

Perhaps they stay together for the sake of the children, but in any event emotionally the marriage is pretty much over and they both know it and likely everyone else knows it too.

道不同不相为谋 – daobutongbuxiangweimou

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:56:35 +0000

道不同不相为谋 – dao4bu4tong2bu4xiang1wei2mou2

Literal meaning of each character – road/path – not – same – not – mutually – for/do/accomplish – idea/plan/scheme

One dictionary defines this Ancient Chinese Proverb as “people with different principles will not make common cause”

My understanding of this proverb is to do with people’s outlooks on life and life goals. I most often use this proverb when talking about marriage. If 2 people don’t have the same or similar goals in life they aren’t compatible for marriage. It doesn’t necessarily mean one person is better than the other, they just simply aren’t compatible.

This might be something one could use in order to break up with a boyfriend or girlfriend in a nice way. I have never tried it myself, but it would be a logical usage. It’s a nice way to say “we aren’t compatible”, only if what you are saying is true of course. You would have to be on a different “path” then your soon to be ex-partner.

Basically any situation where you have different goals or different life paths, so working or being together will not accomplish anything of mutual benefit, in fact it may make life harder and therefore it’s better to part.

巧妇难为无米之炊 – qiaofunanweiwumizhichui

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:12:36 +0000

巧妇难为无米之炊 – qiao3fu4nan2wei2wu2mi3zhi1chui1

Literal translation – skilled wife difficult to without rice make good meal.

Even the most skilled of wives/women is unable to make a good meal without rice

This Chinese Proverb is used to describe situations where the materials given are not sufficient for the job. It means you cannot blame the person for the result or outcome when it was impossible to have a good outcome regardless of who handled the task.

Even the best cook in the world can’t make dinner if he doesn’t have any food. If the quality of the food is inferior the taste will be too. One cannot build a decent house without the right materials and one cannot do their job well if the boss is too cheap to buy decent tools.

I think you can use your imagination as to when and how to use this proverb as it pretty much speaks for itself. However it does give us a glimpse into the Chinese culture and how rice is such an important part of their culture. I would think “rice” is likely used in many idioms and proverbs.