Archive for July, 2010
A Series of Tubes: The Subway (地铁) Posted by Stephen on Jul 30, 2010
The phrase “rush hour” doesn’t really apply to China, because at almost every hour of the day you’ll find yourself rushed, crowded pushed, and ultimately locked in a struggle to get from point A to point B. However, if you are unfortunate enough to have to commute during morning and evening peak commuter hours in…
The Summer Palace Video Posted by sasha on Jul 30, 2010
Steve’s most recent post about 颐和园 motivated me to make a video to give you fine folks more insight into this treasure of Beijing. It really is my favorite place to visit here, and I hope you’ll see why after watching this short video about it! This time, I included the English translation in the…
China is #1 (Or Are They?) Posted by sasha on Jul 27, 2010
This past week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a report that labeled China as the new #1 in the world in terms of 能源 (néng yuán – energy) consumption, putting them ahead of the United States. Using data from 2009, the IEA’s report claimed that during the year, China consumed energy equivalent to 2.252…
Chinglish 是什么？ Posted by Stephen on Jul 26, 2010
In one hundred years from now, what language will we be speaking? Will Chinese prevail as the global dominant language or will English continue its stranglehold on business, culture and academia? Will Chinese and English bridge the gap between two very different languages or will they continue on their separate ways? Anyone that’s been to…
夏天已经来了 (Summer Has Already Arrived) Posted by sasha on Jul 24, 2010
For my second video post, join me on a stroll around 后海 lake to see what Beijing folks like to do outside in the summer time. With a long, cold winter, it is important to get outside and enjoy the warm weather while it lasts! As usual, I’ve included the vocabulary used in the video…
Staying in Tone Posted by sasha on Jul 22, 2010
When it comes to learning Chinese, understanding how to 读 and 写 the thousands upon thousands of 汉字 is obviously the most difficult part of the learning process. However, if you are simply interested in learning how to 说中文, you will probably encounter the most difficulty whilst attempting to learn the four 声调 (shēng diào…
Wingin’ It Posted by Stephen on Jul 20, 2010
Learning Mandarin Chinese, especially as a native English speaker, is doubly difficult because you’re learning both a new phonetic system (pinyin) and a new alphabet in the form of characters. It becomes a lesson in duality as both right and left brain are active when learning pictograms and their corresponding pronunciation and tones. But unlike…