Category — Chinese

[Update:] Alicia’s mother has kindly corrected the mistakes in my story. For the full version without corrections, see the full entry.

今天是五月二十二号日。我去办公室了。晓爽也去办公室。她是很忙。我不是太忙，但是我很累。我笔文章。我有红色的笔，也黑色的。我的手机是大的。，晓爽的手机是小的。她不喜欢我的手机。

今天，天是蓝色的这里的天是蓝的，草也这里草是绿色的。但是那里是太阳。我那里是红的大的太阳不知道。我的大妹妹在南非。这里有大荒的太阳。，那里的太阳是橘黄色。

我们吃面后天。我们很喜欢面条。

[Read more →]

I picked up the Chinese again today and jumped in with learning the colours. The lesson was quite straightforward although some of the characters are a bit complicated.

[Read more →]

I’m sure you can all remember various nursery rhymes from your childhood. How can you forget the good old, “Heads, shoulders, knees and toes.” Well, I’ve been learning it in Chinese. The words are slightly different and it took me a while to get the hang of it. The great thing about singing in Chinese is that there are no tones. Here is how it goes.

头发、肩膀、膝盖、脚、膝盖、脚
头发、肩膀、膝盖、脚、膝盖、脚
眼睛、耳朵、鼻子、嘴
头发、肩膀、膝盖、脚、膝盖、脚

Tóufa, jiānbǎng, xīgài, jiǎo, xīgài, jiǎo
Tóufa, jiānbǎng, xīgài, jiǎo, xīgài, jiǎo
Yǎnjing, ěrduo, bízi, zuǐ
Tóufa, jiānbǎng, xīgài, jiǎo, xīgài, jiǎo

Hair, shoulders, knees and feet, knees and feet
Hair, shoulders, knees and feet, knees and feet
Eyes and ears and nose and mouth
Hair, shoulders, knees and feet.

I have it on good authority that Chinese children (my generation anyway) never learnt this song. Nevertheless, I found it a good way to learn a string of new vocabulary. Something that is worth pointing out is that in Chinese, there is no difference between singular and plural versions of nouns.

Listen to this lesson at chinesepod.com.

Lesson 16 builds on lesson 15 by introducing the numbers. Counting in Chinese is easy until you get to 3.

一 (1, yī)，二 (2, èr)，三 (3, sān)，四 (4, sì)，五 (5, wǔ)，六 (6, liù)，七 (7, qī)，八 (8, bā)，九 (9, jiǔ)，十 (10, shí)。

Days of the week are prefixed with 星期 (xīng qī) and become:
星期一 (Monday)
星期二 (Tuesday)
星期三 (Wednesday)
星期四 (Thursday)
星期五 (Friday)
星期六 (Saturday)
星期天 (Sunday)

It seems that Sunday is also a special day in China as well. Rather than 七 we have 天 which means heaven or sky.

The months are simple. We simply add the word 月 (yuè), meaning month, after the number. We have:
一月 (January)
二月 (February)
三月 (March)
四月 (April)
五月 (May)
六月 (June)
七月 (July)
八月 (August)
九月 (September)
十月 (October)
十一月 (November)
十二月 (December)

Some other numbers that are useful are:
零 (líng) 0 (Sometimes a simple circle is used)
百 (bǎi) 100
千 (qiān) 1000
万 (wàn) 10000
亿 (yì) 100000000

These numbers can be combined to produce those that don’t have their own characters. For example: 15 (十五) = 10 (十) + 5 (五), and 24 (二十四) = 2 (二) * 10 (十) + 4 (四).

It all seems simple enough. However one thing I do remember from being in China is that numbers always confused me. Especially the number two. So, doing some research beyond lesson 16 I have found an explanation for some of the exceptions to the rules.

When listing numbers (such as phone numbers) 幺 (yāo) is often used to replace 一. This is to avoid confusion with similar sounding words.

When talking about amounts, 二 is often replaced with 两 (liǎng). However this only happens when talking about 100s, 1000s, 10000s, or 100000000s, never 10s. It can also be used to replace 2 units, again when talking about amounts. I’ll have to ask about phone numbers though as I wouldn’t class these as “amounts” and yet I’m sure I remember adverts in China using the word 两 for 2.

There are shorthand versions of 20 (廿, niàn) and 30 (卅, sà) which are often used in dates.

Fractions can be expressed using 分之 (fēn zhī). Five eighths would be represented as 八分之五 (literally 8 parts of 5). This seems backwards to me as surely five eighths is 5 parts of 8.

And for completeness, the decimal point is represented by 点 (diǎn) to give 一点四 (1.4).

I think that about satisfies my curiosity for numbers. There are many more exceptions and regional variations on the numbering system. Wikipedia seems to have a comprehensive article on the Chinese numbering system although I can’t vouch for its accuracy.

菜鸟16 Numbers

Why don’t we celebrate a National Day in England? I suppose many countries around the world are celebrating their independence from the various colonial powers. But still, it seems a bit poor that we don’t have an English National Day.

Anyway, lesson 15 is all about holidays and Celebrations.

A: 今天是国庆节吗？
B: 是的。 十月一号是中国国庆节。
A: 美国国庆节是七月四号。
B: 对。我知道。
A: 国庆节快乐。

A: Is today National Day?
B Yes. 1st October is Chinese National Day.
A: American National Day is 4th July.
B: Yes, I know.
A: Happy National Day.

菜鸟15 Holidays and Celebrations

[Update:] Apparently, when you are talking about Chinese National Day or American National Day, you need to repeat the 国, once for the country and once for the phrase “national day”.

Chinese National Day - 中国国庆节
American National Day - 美国国庆节

I have corrected the mistake above.