Archive for 'Vocabulary'
Chinese Vocabulary for Learning Languages Part 1 Posted by Ayana on Jul 27, 2021
According to the Ethnologue (published by SIL International), there are over 7,000 living languages worldwide: 现在全球有超过7,000种不同的语言。 Xiàn zài quán qiú yǒu chāo guò 7,000 zhǒng bù tóng de yǔyán. Nowadays, there are more than 7,000 different languages in the world. The Chinese word for language is 语言 (yǔ yán). It refers to any language. For example: 一个国家可能有几种地方语言。…
Chinese Summer Vocabulary: Part 2 Posted by Ayana on Jun 29, 2021
Summer is a great season (季节 jì jié). It’s a season of vacations, leisure, and entertainment. The warm weather and the light clothes fill people with energy; the shining sun and the long hours of daylight encourage people to be active. But, nothing is perfect. Even summer brings with it some inconvenience (麻烦 má fan)…
Chinese Summer Vocabulary Posted by Ayana on Jun 16, 2021
Astronomically, we still have a few days before summer will officially arrive on June 20. But it certainly feels like summer is already here – 夏天来了 (xià tiān lái le, summer is here). The phrase 夏天 (xià tiān) means summer. It ends with the noun 天 (tiān), as all of the Chinse four seasons end…
Expressing Your Emotions in Chinese Posted by sasha on Jun 7, 2021
Talking about your emotions (情绪 qíng xù) is an important and tricky part of learning a language. Some words translate well between languages, while others don’t at all. There are tons of English words for describing emotions that simply can’t be translated into Chinese, and it’s the same the other way around. In this post…
Chinese Weather Vocabulary Posted by sasha on Apr 22, 2021
When making small talk, one topic that always comes up is the weather (天气 tiān qì), whether you like it or not. If you can forgive me for that cheesy pun, I’ll teach you some useful Chinese weather vocabulary and phrases in this post. Seasons (季节 jì jié) winter (冬天 dōng tiān) spring (春天 chūn tiān)…
Chinese Time phrases Posted by Ayana on Apr 15, 2021
Time is the most valuable commodity. No one can create time, no one is able to buy more of it. It stands still for no one, and once it’s lost, it can never be replenished. Time is our most precious resource. We’ve already learned how to tell the time in Chinese, but talking about it…
Libraries in China Posted by sasha on Apr 8, 2021
In case you didn’t know, this week is Library Week in the United States. As such, we’re taking a look at libraries in the different countries represented on the language blogs here. In this post, we’ll learn all about libraries in China, starting with a bit of vocabulary. Chinese Library Vocabulary First of all, let’s…