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Top 10 of 2012 Posted by sasha on Dec 31, 2012
Tempus fugit (time flies in Latin) – one of the only things I remember from my language classes in high school. That ancient phrase still holds true today. This year has flown by; 2012 is just about finished. Despite all the hype around the Mayan calendar, we’re still here. Having spent a few weeks in…
Chinese Christmas Vocabulary Posted by sasha on Dec 23, 2012
The holiday season is upon us yet again, and while most people don’t associate China with Christmas, the holiday is becoming more and more popular in the Middle Kingdom. For the past month, the Christmas spirit has been alive and well here in Beijing – in subway stations, shopping centers, restaurants, and bars all across the…
Better Know a… Province (Part Three) Posted by sasha on Dec 11, 2012
We’re going around this massive country little by little here at Transparent Chinese in this series inspired by one of my heroes, Stephen Colbert. So far, we’ve covered the two most famous cities in China – which are actually municipalities – Beijing and Shanghai. We’ve also explored two provinces famed for their heat – Sichuan and…
Advanced Time Telling Posted by sasha on Nov 30, 2012
Yesterday, I introduced a lot of vocabulary words and grammatical structures for how to tell the time. I focused mainly on the different parts of the day, asking for/giving the time, and talking about daily activities. At the end of the post, I gave you 10 examples to practice. Here are the answers: 现在几点？ 现在五点…
Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains Posted by sasha on Nov 24, 2012
A while back, we introduced China’s Five Great Mountains. Well, there’s more to China’s mountains than just those five, so today we’ll take a look at the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains (四大佛教名山 – sì dà fó jiào míng shān) as well. After all, a big part of Chinese culture is making a pilgrimage (朝圣 – cháo…
Better Know A… Province (Part Two) Posted by sasha on Nov 14, 2012
For those of you who are just joining this ongoing series, so far we’ve covered two municipalities (Beijing and Shanghai) and one province (Sichuan). Today, we’re going to make a big leap from the land of pandas and hot pot in southwest China to the complete opposite corner of the country as we explore Heilongjiang…
Get Your Drink On Posted by sasha on Nov 10, 2012
A lot of time is spent talking about food when you’re learning a language, but how about drinks? From morning to night, drinks are just as big a part of our day as food is. Whether you’re out in a restaurant (饭店 – fàn diàn), perusing the coolers of a local corner store (小卖部 – xiǎo…