jenny's blog

[Teacher's Tips] "However" in Mandarin Chinese

Accurate Translation:
1. 但是 (dan shi)
English pronunciation: dunshr

2. 然而 (ran er)
English pronunciation: raner

3. 不过 (bu guo)
English pronunciation: bugur

If you mean “however many…” it would be 无论多少 (wu lun duo shao)

Example in a sentence:
ENGLISH: "However hard it may be, we must do our best."
MANDARIN: "不管多难, 我们都要尽我们最大的努力去做。"

[Chinese Learning] 6 as popular online Chinese term

6 is a popular online term. The digital simplification language that has become popular in the LOL game is the homophonic number of the spoken word "slip". The interpretation of slip is probably slippery, but in spoken language, it is the proficiency of expressing a thing. For example, your Chinese is very slippery, meaning that you speak Chinese very well. You play cards very slippery, meaning You play cards very well, you are very familiar with the card hero. Similarly, your study is very slippery, meaning that your academic performance is very good.

[Chinese Learning] 666 in Chinese

The latest slang meaning of 666 originated from online e-sport games and then caught on widely in the entire online sphere.

6 sounds the same in Chinese as 溜, which has multiple meanings. One of its meaning is as a verb -- to connotate escaping/fleeing/skating away. However, it can also be an adverb which means awesome, amazing, superb or highly skilled.
So in its origin amongst online e-sports, gamers used it to compliment other players by typing "666" as a quick way to represent "溜溜溜".

Some examples of 溜 in its proper usage:

[Chinese Learning] Animal Idioms

1. 一石二鸟
It directly translates to one bird two stones
Meaning: to finish or accomplish two jobs with a single effort.

2. 井底之蛙
Direct translation: vision of a frog at bottom of a well
Meaning: To describe someone having a tunnel vision, that the person is uncultured or does not have the foresight.

3. 黔驴之技
Direct Translation: To have the skill of a donkey
Meaning: To describe someone having a very limited skill

[Chinese Learning] Face in Chinese; Facing the music

Today's theme: The word face is used very frequently in modern young people.
As we often say: Lose face, I often use this word in the process of learning Chinese. Maybe many people think this is a bad word, but I think it is very practical.
For example: I don't think I can speak Chinese in Singapore, I don't lose face. but Darren teacher donot think so ,As long as we are willing to work hard, we can learn it well!
Of course, there are many uses for face, such as: Face to face; Face the music ;Poker face means faceless.

[Chinese Learning] Chinese Business Strategy and Culture

When it comes to war strategy and business strategy, in the eyes of the Chinese, they are the same thing. The only difference is in tactics.

In terms of business tactics, the Chinese believe that waiting for the right moment to strike is very important, since one can achieve one's goal with a minimum expenditure of energy. There is even a Chinese saying describing this: 事半功倍 which means to magnify one's effect while expending only half the energy. In Chinese culture, someone who waits to strike at just the right moment is considered very intelligent.

[Chinese Learning] At Best?

Teacher Chen Da prefers to use the word At best.
At best, means 顶多、充其量.

For example: I just came to Singapore, at most it is a new person.
A few days ago, I went to the choa chu kang public library to read books. "
I don't think the composition I wrote is new. It can only be done at best.
Of course, this word is also often found in international news reports!

For example: Recently published job reports show that U.S.employment picture remains murky at best,"

Ok, the word we are learning today is at best

[Chinese Learning] What is 'Trump' in Mandarin Chinese?

With the advent and rise of the Trump Administration, many students have asked me curiously on what is the Mandarin name of Donald Trump?

Well, in Mainland China, Trump is named 特朗普 (tèlǎngpǔ). This is because for foreign names, those in Mainland China usually prefer to transliterate every consonant sound from the original name into the Chinese name, adding extra vowels to fit Mandarin phonetics.

[Chinese learning] The similarity between Mandarin and English

Chinese grammar is in many ways similar to English grammar. A simple Chinese sentence structure consists of a subject, a predicate and an object. For example, 'I wash my hands' in Chinese is 我 Wo (I) 洗 xi (wash) 手 shou (hands). Chinese gammar is even simpler in some ways. For instance, the Chinese language does not have different forms based on gender, or singular/plural. There are some differences between Chinese and English, but it is not hard to trace the clue and bridge the gap.

[Chinese learning] Is Mandarin easy to forget?

Written by Teacher Jenny!

One of my students started Mandarin study two to three years ago, but he stopped learning and pending for two years. When we restarted the Mandarin lessons, it was a bit challenging for him to pick up the lesson quickly. But comparing to a beginner without the language basis in Chinese, he has good basics in Chinese Pinyin and pronunciation. So the initial stage would be the most difficult stage for a language learner, once pass through this, it will be much easier to pick up the language.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - jenny's blog