The Top 10 Hot Words in 2008

1. 山寨copycatting

This Chinese term literally refers to the mountain strongholds of bandits. First borrowed to describe rip-off products, it has evolved to refer also to homemade products, such as video parodies of movies.

2. �be sunk/sunken

This is an ancient Chinese character, pronounced jiong. It means "light shining through a window". Young Chinese use it to express embarrassment, or a bad mood. Look at the character. Doesn't it look like a disappointed face?

3. 很黄很暴力very pornographic, very violent

During a CCTV interview about a new Internet censorship regulation, a girl said that an uncensored Web page once popped up on her computer. She called it "very pornographic, very violent". Some believe the girl was told to say it by CCTV, so it is now used to mock the way the network covers news. Besides, this very…very… sentence pattern is frequently copied by nitizens. For example 很傻很天真（very stupid, very naive, said by one heroine of the Edison Chen scandal）, and很爽很raychinese（slogan of a Chinese learning website www.raychinese.com）.

4. �nuts

Pronounced méi, the word is a variant of the word for "梅". But it also looks like a double version of the character 呆 (dai), which means stupid. So netizens have borrowed it to mean "very silly or very stupid".

5. 叉腰肌Psoas muscle

Xie Yalong, the former head of the Chinese Football Association, once criticized women players, saying they have weak Psoas muscles. (This is the muscle that links the trunk to the legs; it's important for motion.) However, nobody, including the players, knew where the muscle is. This quote is now used to mock Xie, who was recently removed from his position.

6. 打酱油get some soy sauce

When a person in Guangzhou was asked to give his opinion of the sex scandal involving Hong Kong star Edison Chen (Chen Guanxi), the man answered, "It is none of my business. I am just out to get some soy sauce." People have since begun using the words to mean "it's none of my business".

7. 泡良族 pick-up artists

This expression refers to men who seduce married women.

8. 凤凰男Phoenix man

This expression refers to a man who grew up poor and in the countryside, but later moved to a big city and married a city girl. Due to the couple's different backgrounds and habits, they often encounter problems.

9. 做人不能太CNN don't be too CNN

It emerged in response to foreign media's coverage of Tibet. Many Chinese thought it was biased. It gained more popularity after CNN commentator Jack Cafferty's rude talk of China.

10. 三个俯卧撑three push-ups A girl in Guizhou was rumored to have been killed by the relatives of local police officials. However, a local government official claimed the girl's boyfriend said the girl had jumped into the river when he was doing push-ups. The popularity of the term signals people's doubts over the story.

Top Ten Chinese Expressions in Everyday Life

Do you know the top 10 useful Chinese expressions in everyday life? ~_~

 

1.你好

nǐ hǎo

Hello!

――――――――――

2.我叫…

wǒ jiào

My name is …

――――――――――

3.欢迎，欢迎!

huānyíng huānyíng

Welcome, welcome!

――――――――――

4.认识你很高兴。

Rèn shi nǐ hěn gāo xìng

Nice to meet you.

――――――――――
5.谢谢 xiè xie

Thank you!

.不用谢

bú yòng xiè

You are welcome.

――――――――――

6.再见 zài jiàn

See you later.

――――――――――

7.对不起

duìbuqǐ

I am sorry.

――――――――――

8.没关系 méi guān xi

It doesn't matter.
――――――――――
9.多少钱？

duō shǎo qián

How much is it?

――――――――――

10.太贵了

tài guì le

It's too expensive.

This post is courtesy of  http://www.raychinese.com . 

The Most Simple But Useful Chinese Greeting

This is to present you the most simple but useful Chinese greeting.

Scene Description: Zhao Meijia met Li Yongzhe on the way, they greeted each other.

The New Issues of E-Magazine of Raychinese Are Upcoming

The last 9 issues of E-Magazine at www.raychinese.com are appreciated by a lot of web visitors and users for the all-inclusive content and colorful illustrations.

The readers leave message that these E-Magazines are helpful and interesting to get them close to Chinese life, Chinese festivals, Chinese etiquette, etc. and they are impressed with novelty and delicacy very much.

The good news is that Raychinese is doing hard to produce some new issues as they did always to repay all readers. Please keep your attention to our magazines at all times, we will come up with issues you are interested in as fast as possible and help you quickly raise your Chinese level.

Getting Close to Chinese Kungfu

Since the great success of Kungfu Panda and The King of Freedom (The Forbidden Kingdom), more and more people have been addicted to Chinese Kungfu.

Are you a Kungfu enthusiast? Do you want to be cool with Kungfu?

Here we'll get close to Chinese Kungfu.

Kungfu is a sport, gradually formed with continuous creation in the long process of historical evolution. It has unique nature different from the general sports. For general sports such as track and field, ball games, weightlifting, boxing, etc. the player over 30 should retire from the playing field due to physical reasons, besides, some maybe suffer health problems without awareness for too vigorous movement during adolescence.

"Chinese Kungfu" can be divided into Waigong and Neigong, namely the so called "training body outside and spirit and energy inside".

In addition to exercising a strong and flexible physical body, it can do physical and mental adjustment, strengthen the organs and smooth all streams of vital energy. The older the players are, the more effect they get. It has great effect on health and longevity.

Now there are lots of schools teaching Kungfu, learners can learn Chinese language in process of learning Kungfu, as well as enjoy the beautiful scenery and make lots of friends. Rayzone Language and Culture Training School and other 9 schools were awarded as the top 10 Kungfu schools.

      There is more detailed information at www.zhwushu.com , www.civcn.com , and www.raychinese.com .

How to Choose a Chinese School or Website?

With learning Chinese trend hotter and hotter, Chinese schools as well as Chinese learning websites spring up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, meanwhile, "how to choose a good Chinese school" becomes more and more important for every Chinese enthusiast. It is a question related to the learning effect and result.

How to Choose a Good Chinese School? Today, we'll give you some advice from the following aspects:

1.      The more suitable, the better.

The reason for Chinese learning varies from different learners. You can choose Chinese school or website according to your learning habit. If you want to learn Chinese with teacher face to face and you have enough time, the Confucius Institute will be fit for you, professional and available at big cities throughout the world, more information at www.chinese.cn . If you are too busy to learn Chinese regularly, you can choose to learn online, at your convenience and comfort, anytime and anywhere, www.raychinese.com  , www.chinese-tools.com  , etc. will be good choices.

2.      The more choices, the better.

Your learning goal, your Chinese level, and your learning time may change on and off. Therefore, it is better that the Chinese school or website can give you lots of choices to meet your requirement at different situations, such as online learning, offline learning, learning software, textbooks, free resources and so on. www.raychinese.com is the very website can offer your all these services: Distance Learning (with native teacher), Offline Training, Chinese Learning Software (for Pinyin and Chinese characters), Online Course (self-study) and free English-Chinese E-magazine. Besides, free resource at www.myhappyplanet.com  is also good.

3.      The more personalized, the better.

If you want to travel to China, course on Chinese travel will be fit for you; if you are interested in Chinese Culture, course on Kungfu, shadowboxing, calligraphy, paper-cutting will be wonderful; if you are a businessman trading with Chinese people, Business Chinese will be the best…The website with Customized Course will be your right choice, where whatever you want can be found. So will www.raychinese.com . 

 

May you raise your Chinese level rapidly!

Chinese Learning Resource Recommendation

Here is the collection of classic courses as well as profiles of Chinese learning websites, official websites for Chinese teaching, websites for Chinese learning and exchange to provide you more choices for Chinese learning.

URL: http://www.raychinese.com
Raychinese.com (Rayzone Chinese Website) is a professional website committed to teaching Chinese as a foreign language, launched by the Chinese Education Center of Rayzone Language and Culture Training School (refer to the profile of School and Center) after two-year research, development and test.
Raychinese.com (Rayzone Chinese Website) has diverse education columns, including Online Course, Private Class, Chinese School and so on, as well as self-study software in versions of French, German, Japanese and Korean, concentrating on listening, speaking, reading, and writing, namely Rayzone^TM学伴^TM Chinese Learning Software and Rayzone^TM学伴^TM Chinese Characters Learning (Handwriting Input) System to satisfy various learning requirements, such as "online self-study, online live teaching, offline self-study, offline live teaching".

URL: http://www.hanban.org
hanban.org is committed to providing teaching resources and services of Chinese language and culture to satisfy the needs of overseas Chinese learners to the utmost extent and making contribution to the development of multiculturalism and the establishment of a harmonious world. Its major responsibilities are: carry out the policy and development planning for Chinese international promotion; support various educational institutions at all levels throughout the world to teach Chinese; guide Confucius Institute headquarters to set up Confucius Institute; formulate the standards of teaching Chinese as a foreign language and organize the assessment, development and promotion of Chinese teaching materials; form the teacher qualification standards, carry out teacher training, select teachers and volunteers teaching Chinese abroad and implement the certification of teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language ; form the website standards, build related website platform and provide resources for websites teaching Chinese as a foreign language; research and develop various exams on Chinese as a foreign language.


URL: http://www.chineselinks.cn
chineselinks.cn is a website, specialized in gathering websites related to Chinese as a foreign language and providing navigation services for Chinese teaching industry. Its aim is to help you find out websites related to Chinese as a foreign language to get information you need without remembering various and complicated websites. We hope to offer you more information like this through this complete collection of websites, as well wish you can recommend us good websites.

URL: http://www.chinesebridge.org
The purpose of annual Chinese Bridge activities is to spread Chinese language and culture all over the world. "The Seventh Chinese Contest of International University Students", the major Chinese Bridge activity in 2008 was held in Changsha, Hunan province in July, 2008. A special plan―the global selection of Olympic Chinese ambassador was launched in 2008 to promote Chinese language and culture at the international level and select the winners to take part in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

URL: http://www.chinese.cn
The Confucius Institute Headquarters is a non-profit institute with the purpose of enhancing intercultural understanding in the world by sponsoring courses of Chinese language and culture; develop friendly relationships between China and other countries; accelerate the development of multiculturalism at the international level; and help bring about global peace and harmony.
The Confucius Institutes shall provide the following services:
a. Developing Chinese language courses for various social sectors;
b. Training Chinese language instructors for local institutions and providing them with Chinese language teaching resources;
c. Establishing local faculties for the holding of the HSK Examination (Chinese Proficiency Test) and for the administration of procedures for the Certification of the Chinese Language Teachers;
d. Providing information and consultative services concerning Chinese education, culture, economy and society;
e. Promoting research about Contemporary China.

Why do you need to learn Chinese?

Why do you need to learn Chinese?
It is a question important for all Chinese enthusiasts, as well as every Chinese instructor.Only know well about the motive, can teachers and students achieve a lot together.
Recently, Raychinese.com made an investigation on the question "Why do you need to learn Chinese?" to the all registered users at http://www.raychinese.com/ . The answer is collected and sorted out as follows:
1. Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world!
There are more people speaking Chinese than English. It's the number one spoken language in the world.
2. Chinese is useful!
China means market as well as opportunities for its developing economical and political power.
3. China has time-honored history and culture, attracting a large number of tourists throughout the world every year.
4. Chinese is a challenge for learners, and as well it brings great sense of achievement.

Chinese words borrowed from other languages 汉语常用外来词

There are some words in Chinese borrowed from other languages, we call them "外来词, wailai ci, borrowed words". Take for example the word Sha Fa. This is a Chinese transliteration of the word sofa. However, the characters used to depict this idea have nothing to do with either furniture or relaxing. Instead the characters used represent sand and hair, which have absolutely nothing in common with the idea and associations of the word Sofa beyond the fact that they are simply convenient to use because they most closely mimic the sound. Here teachers at www.raychinese.com collect a number of words like this which are frequently used in everyday life, I hope you can find it easy to remember them in your way.

阿司匹林	ā sī pǐ lín	aspirin
芭蕾	bā lěi	ballet
比基尼	bǐ jī ní	bikini
白兰地	bái lán dì	brandy
巴士	bā shì	bus
拜拜	bài bài	bye-bye
咖啡	kā fēi	coffe (café)
克隆	kè lóng	clone
酷	kù	cool
卡通	kǎ tōng	cartoon
香槟	xiāng bīn	Champagne
巧克力	qiǎo kè lì	chocolate
雪茄	xuě jiā	cigare
柠檬	níng méng	lemon
迪斯科	dī sī kē	disco
法西斯	fǎ xī sī	fascism
高尔夫	gāo ěr fū	golf
吉他	jí tā	guitar
贝司吉他	bèi sī jí tā	bass guitar
汉堡包	hàn bǎo bāo	hamburger
荷尔蒙	hé 'ě méng	hormone
幽默	yōu mò	humour
歇斯底里	xiē sī dǐ lǐ	hysteria (hystérie)
夹克	jiā kè	jacket
卡拉OK	kǎ lā OK	karaoke
考拉	kǎo lā	koala
逻辑	luó ji	logic
马拉松	mǎ lā sōng	marathon
麦克风	mài kè fēng	microphone
模特	mó tè	model
摩登	mó dēng	modern
木乃伊	mù nǎi yī	mummy
摩托	mó tuó	moto
尼古丁	ní gǔ dīng	nicotine
尼龙	ní lóng	nylon
奥林匹克	ào lín pǐ kè	olympic
乒乓	pīng pāng	ping-pong
披萨	pī sà	pizza
扑克	pū kè	poker
布丁	bù dīng	pudding
雷达	léi dá	radar
朗母酒	lǎng mǔ	rhum
伦巴	lún bā	Rumba
沙拉	shā là	salad
沙龙	shā lóng	salon
三明治	sān míng zhì	sandwich
爱滋	ài zī	AIDS
沙发	shā fā	sofa
探戈	tàn gē	Tango
坦克	tǎn kè	tank
托福	tuō fú	TOEFL
伏特加	fú té jiā	vodka
威士忌	wēi shì jì	whisky

May you enjoy your every minute at www.raychinese.com!

An Interesting Poem with Numbers 有趣的数字诗《一去二三里》

Chinese poems are a great part of Chinese literature and heritage of the long history. Chinese children start to recite some of the best everlasting poems when they are in cradle or when they learn to speak. If you know two or three well-known poems, or you can use them easily in your formal speeches, you will make your remarks very impressive and surprise all the audience. Let's start from some simple ones.

Today, teachers at http://www.raychinese.com/ select a poem from one pupil's Grade-One Chinese textbook. It's the first poem in the Chinese textbook for the primary school, called 《一去二三里》(yí qù èr sān lǐ), which descripes a living suburban landscape, once (1) going for a walk about 2 to 3miles, the poet saw 4 to 5 misty villages, 6 to 7 temples, and 8, 9 to 10 branches of flowers.

It is simple, because the poem used the ten numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10) smartly in a humour way. It is not only a good poem, but also a children folk song to practise speaking numbers. Before coming to the poem, please read the 10 numbers in pinyin for Chinese:

-

1 一 yí 2 二 èr 3 三 sān 4 四 sì 5 五 wǔ

6 六 liù 7 七 qī 8 八 bā 9 九 jiǔ 10十 shí

一去二三里 A leisure Walk

邵雍 (北宋) by Shao Yong (Song)

yí qù èr sān lǐ

一 去 二 三 里，

yān cūn sì wǔ jiā

烟 村 四 五 家。

tín� tái liù qī zuò

亭 台 六 七 座，

bā jiǔ shí zhī huā

八 九 十 枝 花。

_________

【English Translation】

Once a time, we walk leisurely for two or three miles

On the way, we see four or five villages

Six or seven temples and

Eight , nine or ten branches of flowers

【Notes】

烟村yān cūn ：炊烟袅袅的小山村 rural villages surrounded by the cooking smokes up in the air

【Chinese Explanation】

一走就是两三里路，看见沿途炊烟袅袅，住着几户人家。仿佛让人看到山里数座亭台耸立，路边的野花昂首怒放。

【Description】

这是一首古代童谣，它向我们呈现了一幅郊外的美景：在不远的地方，有一个小山村，炊烟袅袅，住着几户人家。山里几座亭台错落有致地排列着，树上、路边盛开着各种美丽的花。这首童谣巧妙地把一至十的数字镶嵌其中，让学生学习表示数字的汉字。

Relevant tags: learn Chinese, learn mandarin,learn Chinese online, Chinese course, Chinese class, Chinese lessons, Chinese teachers, Chinese characters, Chinese idioms, Chinese conversation, Chinese songs, Chinese culture, travel in China, Chinese food, Chinese Tang poem, Raychinese. Any problems in this Chinese Tang poem, please turn to our teachers online at http://www.raychinese.com/ . Raychinese is your first place to learn Chinese online or offline from native Chinese teachers at the comfort of your home or workplace.

How to Speak Chinese in a Day

Want to impress your Chinese host/hostess/guests and you have one day to prepare yourself? No fear! Teachers at www.raychinese.com prepare some suggestion to help you speak Mandarin like a Chinese in a day. Chances are you have a translator or your Chinese friends know how to speak English, but you can still shine by doing what this article is about to tell you.

Learn the "four tones" of Mandarin as much as you can.

There are many resources on the web that tell about the four tones. Search Google for "tones of Mandarin Chinese". These are the basics of Mandarin pronunciation. Do not be too concerned if you cannot get it right, it can be very hard. A bit of "foreign" tone makes you sound interesting, and are what set you apart from a silly American trying to speak Chinese and a fluent Chinese speaker.

Learn to say "Ni Hao" 你好.

"Ni Hao 你好" literally translates into "You Good" and can be a very generic greeting term. It is pronounced like "nee how". You can say it when you shake hands with your Chinese friends, when you walk by them in the hallway, when you sit down next to a new friend at dinner, etc.etc. It can be loosely used in all situations where you may say "hi" or "hello" in American English.

Learn to say "Xie Xie" 谢谢.

"Xie Xie 谢谢" means "Thank you". It is pronounced like "Shi-e Shi-e". It can be used whenever someone says "Thank you" to you.

Learn to say "Bu Ke Qi" 不客气.

"Bu Ke Qi 不客气" means "You're welcome". It is pronounced like "Boo Ker(British accent without the "r") Chi".

Learn to say "Tai Hao Le!" 太好了

"Tai Hao Le!太好了!" means "Wonderful!". It is pronounced like "Thai Hao Lah". This can be applied to many situations as you may suspect, such as someone agreeing to see you again, someone giving you a business card, etc..

Learn to say "Na Li Na Li" 哪里哪里!.

"Na Li Na Li 哪里哪里!" is a standard response to any compliment, including compliments to your spouse. Do not say "Xie Xie 谢谢" (Thank you) when you receive compliments. It is not the Chinese way. Instead, say "Na Li Na Li 哪里哪里!" (pronounced as "Nah Lee Nah Lee").

Learn to pronounce your name in Chinese.

Ask your Chinese friend ahead of time how to say your name in Chinese and practice it. Then as you shake hands with your Chinese host/hostess/guests, say "Wuo Jiao 我叫. . .[insert your name here]". "Wuo Jiao 我叫. . ." means "My name is". For instance, you say say "Wuo Jiao John" but pronounce "John" the Chinese way which actually sounds like "Yue Hahn". You can also say "Wuo de ming je shi [insert name here], which also means "my name is."

Say every phrase twice.

Except for "Na Li Na Li 哪里-哪里!" which is already a repetitive phrase, everything above can be said twice to make you really sound like a native. For instance, instead of saying "Ni Hao 你好", say "Ni Hao Ni Hao! 你好-你好!". Instead of "Xie Xie 谢谢", say "Xie Xie Xie Xie 谢谢-谢谢" (I know it may sound crazy but trust me, this is how a native Chinese would say it.) Say the phase a little softer the second time, and keep repeating to fade out smoothly. So here you go again: Ni Hao Ni Hao! (你好-你好!) Xie Xie Xie Xie! (谢谢-谢谢!) Bu Ke Qi Bu Ke Qi! (不客气-不客气!) Tai Hao Le Tai Hao Le! (太好了-太好了!)

Say "Da Jia Hao! 大家好!" when opening a speech.

You may be asked to make a speech. Open the speech by saying "Da Jia Hao! 大家好!" which can be loosely translated into "How's everyone today?" or "Hello everyone!" or "Good day, everyone!"

Use a Chinese phrase before you answer wherever you can.

Chances are you have a translator or your Chinese friends speak English. Even then, try to use a Chinese phrase before you move on to talking normally in English. This will really differentiate you from any other foreigners they meet and leave them very good impressions.

______________________________

Tips:Learn to speak Mandarin? Learn to speak Chinese? Learn to speak Putonghua? Personnally recommend www.raychinese.com for you to give a flavour for the study of Chinese (Mandarin Chinese, putonghua). This fantastic Chinese learning site provides Chinese Learning Software, interactive self-paced Online Course, Online Distance Lessons and FREE Chinese-English E-magazines for Chinese learning.

Learning Chinese make you more intelligent

Learning Chinese is good for develop the potential of human's brain, both left and right.

A child's intelligence will be affected a lot by the surroundings he growing up. Some one has made a research, if put the same child in the orphanage or a well educated family, his intelligence will have 35 points interval. Those who learn about the intelligence test would know, this test is derived from western. They set 100 as a middle scale, which is the general average intelligence of westerners. What do 35 intervals mean? To the left, 70 is the deadline, lower than this is idiot. To the right, a man with 130 point intelligence is talent.

There is another research, some researchers do the census in every Asian country, and find that, people of China, Japan, Korea, Singapore have the average intelligence on 105-115, which is far much higher than other countries. This result is based on wide investigation. What does it can prove? Some wise men did some analysis and find they have one in common, that is they have been learning Chinese. Chinese characters are pictograph, just like picture. This special structure can make both the left and right brain actively in the process of learning Chinese, which is good for develop the intelligence.

So, learning Chinese in childhood, it can develop the intelligence. Learning Chinese in adulthood, it good for business and travel, even better understanding of China. Learning Chinese in agedness can stay the youth and keep wise. How big the advantage is!

How easy it is to learn chinese at www.raychinese.com.

Story About Chinese Valentine’s Day

Chinese Valentine's Day is on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese calendar.

A love story for this day is about the 7th daughter of Emperor of Heaven and an orphaned cowherd. The Emperor separated them. The 7th daughter was forced to move to the star Vega and the cowherd moved to the star Altair. They are allowed to meet only once a year on the day of 7th day of 7th lunar month.

The story began from the good-looking poor orphaned boy living with his elder brother and sister-in-law. After his parents past away, his brother inherited the house and the land. The boy owned an old ox. He needed to work on the farm's field with the ox everyday. So he was called a cowherd. His daily life was just like in a Cinderella story.

The 7th daughter of Emperor is good at handcrafting, especially weaving clothing. So she was called a Weaving Maid. The Emperor likes her skill to weave clouds and rainbows to beautify the world.

The ox was actually an immortal from the Heaven. He made mistakes in the Heaven and was punished as an ox in the Earth. One day, the ox suddenly said to the cowherd, "You are a nice person. If you want to get married, go to the brook and your wish will be come true." The cowherd went to the brook and saw all 7 pretty daughters of Emperor came down from Heaven and took a bath in there. Fascinated by the youngest and also the most beautiful one, he took away her fairy clothes secretly. The other six fairies went away after bath. The youngest couldn't fly back without her fairy clothes. Then the cowherd appeared and told her that he would not return her clothes unless she promised to be his wife. After a little hesitation and with a mixture of shyness and eagerness, she agreed to the request from this handsome man. So they married and had two children two years later.

One day, the old ox was dying and told the cowherd that he should keep his hide for emergency purpose.

The Emperor found the sky's not that beautiful as before without the 7th daughter weaving clouds and rainbows. He wanted his daughter's grandmother to find the missing daughter and to bring her back. . While the 7th princess was flying to the Heaven with her grandmother, the cowboy wore the ox hide, took his children in two bamboo baskets with his wife's old fairy clothes and chased after his wife in the sky. The grandmother made a milky way in the sky with her hairpin, which kept them separated. The 7th princess was moved to the star Vega (The swooping - Eagle) in the Lyra (Harp) constellation. And the cowherd with his two children stayed in the star Altair (Flying one) in the Aquila (Eagle) constellation. The star of Vega is also known as the Weaving Maid Star and the star of Altair is as the Cowherd Star in China.

Magpies were moved by their true love and many of them gathered and formed a bridge for the couple to meet in the evening of the 7th day of the 7th lunar month, which is the day the Emperor allowed them to meet once a year.

They said that it's hard to find a magpie on Chinese Valentine's Day in China, because all magpies fly to make the bridge for the Weaving Maid and Cowherd. The one thing to prove that is the feathers on the head of the magpies are much lesser after the Chinese Valentine's Day. If the night Chinese Valentine's Day rains, the rain are the tears of the Weaving Maid and Cowherd.

This material is courtesy of: http://www.raychinese.com/index.php/Magazine/index.shtml

Learn Chinese Language Tips and Techniques

Chinese is a language, or a group of languages, spoken by 1.3 billion people worldwide. If you believe Chinese to be one language, rather than a grouping, it is the single most commonly spoken language on the planet. It is spoken in countries like China, Taiwan Singapore, and Malaysia. If you are interested in learning Chinese, it can be intimidating and challenging. But learning Chinese can also be rewarding, and knowing it can have benefits for your career, and help to improve your travels to Asia.

If you decide to learn the Chinese language, there a number of ways you can go about doing so.

As a college student, you can study Mandarin Chinese and earn a degree in it. Earning a college degree in Chinese will provide you with a solid knowledge of formal, or Mandarin, Chinese. You will also be proficient in reading and writing the alphabet, which is a standard alphabet throughout the Chinese-speaking world. If you are established in your career, and find it necessary to learn Chinese for business dealings and /or business-associated travel, you can enroll in an accelerated Chinese language course online, or by purchasing audiotapes that teach quick techniques, which will help you to rapidly learn how to speak basic Mandarin Chinese. Learning to speak Chinese this way is convenient if you need to learn it before an important business trip. There are several learning centers that provide accelerated online programs in Chinese, and many lesson on tape available for purchase.

If you are a student majoring of minoring in Chinese, or if you are a tourist with a desire to travel to Asia, an ideal way to learn the Chinese language is through participation in an immersion program. By doing this, you will not only learn how to speak Chinese, but you will learn about and experience Chinese culture. By studying Chinese in a city like Beijing, where the language is natively spoken, you will become part of the life and culture, and you will find learning to speak the Chinese language is much easier than you thought. Since it is a total immersion into the Chinese world, you will learn all conversational and idiomatic styles of the language. You will interact everyday with people who are native speakers of Chinese, and who can't or won't speak English with you. You will be taken on guided tours of the famous landmarks, as well as the everyday places. You will grow to understand and recognize the value of the ancient Chinese culture: the history, the art, the architecture, the food, and the people. You will attend courses in which you will learn the complex Chinese alphabet, how to read it, and how to write it as well. Learning the Chinese language by attending an immersion program is an ideal way to go.

If you are fluent in the Chinese language, not only could it help you if are established in a career, but it could also open doors to new careers for you. For example, you could take a job as a foreign language translator, where you would be responsible for translating websites, training documents, and other important business documents, while helping to bridge the communication gap between two very different cultures. You might also consider a career as a teacher if English as a second language. You have the opportunity to relocate to a Chinese-speaking nation, and teach the English language to Chinese students. Being fluent in Chinese will definitely make your relocation less stressful.

With the development of internet, learning Chinese online turns out to be a good choice. No matter who you are, wherever you are, you can have access to Chinese learning at your convenience. www.raychinese.com is the very website for Chinese learn, where you have have lots of Choice: Distance Chinese Learning, Online Chinese Course, Chinese Learning Software, Offline Chinese Training, etc.

Learning how to speak, read, and write the Chinese language has many advantages. It gives you the potential to enhance you career by working and/or traveling abroad, or you would have opportunities to embark on new careers as a translator or a teacher. If you plan to travel to Asia, learning Chinese will make your journeys less stressful and more enjoyable. Taking the time to learning the Chinese language will open your eyes to a new and often misunderstood culture, and is an achievement that can be personally and professionally fulfilling.

Learning Chinese is not so difficult

Chinese is said to be one of the most difficult languages in the world. Is it true? Let us see the view of Mr.Tylor, a student of www.raychinese.com, whose first language is not Chinese.

I used to think that the Chinese character was difficult to learn, which is because the single character is difficult to memorize. Character is the basis of vocabulary, and most of Chinese vocabulary is two-word noun or compound word. Due to many reasons, two-word noun and compound word are easy to learn.

For example: 马车、火车、汽车、自行车、公交车 are all can be split into single character, and each character has its definite function in the word. But in English, this rule can be different, these words can be translated into cart、train、car、bicycle、bus, which are all separated words in spelling and have no connections from each other. There is compound word in English too, such as " push（推）＋ cart（马车）＝ pushcart（手推车）", but it is few.

The word马车(cart) is easy to memorize and write, and the pronunciation is same as the that when it is separated into single one, except that the second character 车 turn to be neutral tone. I refer to the English, because the pronunciation rule is so different in English. When reading an English word, you should know where the stress is.

When you are learning Chinese, the new word is combined with those characters we've learned, so it's a review process. We can guess the meanings of some words even without the help of dictionary. Sometimes, I can find a word, which is difficult in English, and easy to understand in Chinese, such as unanimous vote, which equal to全票 in Chinese. The two common characters全 and 票 can replace the uncommon English word "unanimous vote".

Learning two-word noun has many advantages. But sometimes I mix some words up, for example, I say修装, in fact it's装修. But this matter happens rarely.

After six-month study at Rayzone Language and Culture Training School in Wuhan, as well as one-year self-study with Rayzone Xueban Chinese Learning Software after his return to homeland, Mr. Tylor has achieved a lot, not only Chinese language, but also Chinese friend.

 

How do you learn Chinese?

How do you learn Chinese?

Online? Software? Native Chinese tutor? Self-study?

I stumbled upon a website a few days ago, maybe useful for you.There you can get anything you want.

www.raychinese.com is a website for Chinese learning, offering distance Chinese learning, online Chinese course, Chinese learning software, offline Chinese training, etc.

You can have a try! :)