Hi everyone! Today’s character is 湖 hú, meaning lake. If you follow Heisig, it is character 156. Those three dots on the left hand side are three drops of water. It is the water radical, 水 shuǐ, in compressed or abbreviated form 氵 I have two versions of today’s sentence. The first is from Pleco, is longer and…
Category: chinese
The wind howled through the trees.
Character of the day is hǒu. If you use Heisig, it is character 99. It means ‘roar’. You can make a couple of words with this character, distinguishing between roar as a verb and as a noun. Handy. Even if you are a beginner at Chinese, like me, you will probably recognise jiào because it’s one of…
Ninchanese
I’ve been looking for something new to stimulate my Chinese learning and this evening finds me avidly playing Ninchanese, a highly gamified application which you can use on the web or as an Android app. It caught my attention because someone mentioned that it teaches grammar, which not many apps do. This is important to…
The whole thing was a nightmare.
Character of the day is rú. If you use Heisig, it is character 104. It has a few meanings but the one we are concerned with today is the verb “be like” or “be similar to”. Here is today’s sentence. It’s interesting to note that 一切 means ‘all’, ‘everything’ or, in this case, ‘the whole thing’. We…
This gentleman will pay for everything.
I’m constantly looking for ways to refresh and consolidate my knowledge of the Chinese characters I’ve learned from Heisig. I nominally know 250 but I am prone to forgetting them if I don’t study and I need to connect them to other aspects of Mandarin, so from now on I’m having character of the day…
Choosing a Chinese name
Choosing a Chinese name is an elaborate business, as I discovered when I went down a rabbit hole of online advice and resources this evening. These are what I take to be some general rules: Choose one syllable to serve as your family name. Then you have an upper limit of two syllables for your…
MO or MU
I am avidly learning Chinese. Amongst other things (ChinesePod, talking to Harry, finding fun 中文 things on the internet), I’ve resumed learning characters from the famous Heisig system for learning to read. I’ve just reached the end of Heisig Lesson 10, which means I’ve absorbed 236 characters, a personal record. 236 characters feels like a…
Behold the majesty of my Chinese desk.
Look, it is huge. I have somewhere for all my books and study materials. Imagine how much I will get done.
Chinese: New Horizons
I went to school and earned 1 Chinese point. I think I am going to change my learning style for a while and get a private tutor, perhaps in a reciprocal Chinese/English tuition arrangement. I’m starting to realise that learning Mandarin Chinese is something that takes several years, not just a couple or a few,…
Happy New Year! Gong xi, gong xi, gong xi ni.
Happy Chinese New Year! Here is a traditional song with a kick-ass rhythm and a catchy tune. I strongly encourage you to sing along. ‘Gong xi’ means ‘congratulations’ or ‘wishing you joy’. Gong xi, gong xi, gong xi ni ya, gong xi, gong xi, gong xi ni. With the words in Pinyin, so you can…
The Hanyu You Want 