Learning Chinese is becoming more important

Learning Chinese is becoming more important due the ever growing economy of China. As its importance grows, more and more schools adopt Mandarin as part of their curriculum. Last year Rumson Fair-Haven Regional High School launched a Mandarin class with just a handful of students but has now increased by popular demand.


For further information read this article: http://www.app.com/article/20100527/LIFE/5270318/1006/LIFE/Mandarin-Chinese-class-breaking-down-language-barriers

Dangers of Chinese Takeaway

A survey has shown that eating Chinese takeaway is more likely to give you food poisoning that a dodgy kebab or blow me away vindaloo curry house. More than 55% of Chinese takeaway’s inspected failed a basic hygiene test, while 54% of kebab shops and 48% of curry houses failed to clean properly.

Hold a thought; isn’t 10% of them failing enough let alone in the 40-50% range? I’m surprised they are still in business!

The problem largly stems fron cultural differences and different practices and standards in foreign countries. Many Chinese and Indian staff failed to understand the instructions to maintain hygene standards as instructed by their council.

On the other end of the spectrum, McDonalds and KFC are the cleanest restaurants you can find, with just 4% of McDonalds and 1% of KFC failing the test.

In December the Tai Pan Chinese Restaurant in Manchester was fined £70,000 for serving rice contaminated by cockroaches.

In the UK over 850,000 people fall victim of food poisoning from nasty unhygienic restaurants.

All in all, writing this article has made me hungry and I’m about to go out and buy some crispy shredded beef, my favourite!

Or maybe it's best to stick to your own kitchen? Simple Chinese Cooking

iPad copy already hits Chinese stores

Apple currently has no launch date for the iPad in China in fear that the market will be unprofitable. A copy of the iPad which is called the iRobot has already been seen in one of Shanghai’s top computing outlets. They are selling the iRobot as the iPad’s identical twin.


The iRobot is on shelves in the Shanghai store, surrounded by other “Apple” products including three iPhones (?).

The iRobot is selling for $400 where as the cheapest iPad is $500. Although the iRobot has attributes of a typical fake product including cheap plastic and non-Apple features such as memory card slots and USB ports.

Piracy and cheap alternatives an ongoing problem for large Western firms struggling to compete in the China market. However, with high quality and a superior product Apple should be able to enter the market successfully just as it did with the iPhone.

I haven’t got an iPad or iRobot yet, but for an extra $100 I think it’s worth the extra spend for a high quality product. Now if only they were both a little cheaper?

Check out this video to have a look at the iRobot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YgVFWNh078

For more information visit: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64R1HH20100528

Learn Chinese – Make no mistake

There are tricks to learning Chinese. There are some commonly made mistakes by learners of Chinese, one of the mistakes is the word order when asking questions. English doesn’t translate perfectly into Chinese, the grammar and word order is different.


In English when we make a question we’d usually put there “where” or “what” first. Such as “what would you like to eat?” But in Chinese you need to put that question word at the end, so you need to say “you would like to eat what?” “你想吃什么?” If you said “什么你想吃” That would be completely wrong and you would get some strange looks.

So remember with questions, the word order changes. Another example might be if you were in China and had your hotel address and were asking “where is my hotel?” you would like to say “my hotel is where?” which is “我的酒店是在哪里？” and not “哪里我的酒店?” Oh just reading it makes me cringe! Lol

李华

Recommended reading:

Easy Peasy Chinese is fun book to help learn some of the concepts in learning Mandarin. It also has some interesting incites into Chinese culture and is pretty cheap too! Chinese isn't easy peasy, but this book makes it fun.

Mandarin and Taiwanese Speaking Contest

170 foreigners took part in the first round of the Mandarin and Taiwanese speaking contest on 8th May in Taipei. The contest is held each year by Radio Taiwan International for non-native Mandarin and Taiwanese speakers living in Taiwan.


This year’s topic was on “Save the Earth” to help raise awareness of global warming. Participants has to speak for three minutes about their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.

The final round will be held on 22nd May, for more information visit http://www.rti.org.tw/

Learn Chinese Reading a Diary

At Chinese school this week we learned a number of characters from 饲料 (fodder) to 敬意 （surprised）.The characters can be found in the following text which we had to recite. It’s a diary with three entries. It’s about a child’s father buys two rabbits, and several weeks later the female rabbit gives birth to four rabbits!


Check out my video where I read Chinese. A transcript and translation is below so you can follow. Hope you enjoy.

利华



日记三则

10月2日 星期四 有雾

爸爸买了一对兔子。小兔子红眼睛，长耳朵，雪白的毛，真可爱。爸爸好似我，兔子一天吃五百克饲料，要分三次喂，还要喂些水。我一定要把他们喂好。

11月3日 星期一 晴

今天，爸爸说：“母兔块生小兔了。”我惊异地问：“真的吗？”爸爸说：“真的。•我真希望早点儿看见兔子生出来啊。

11月7日 星期五 阴

小兔生下来了，一共四只，可爱极了。小兔小兔你们快快长大吧。

English Translation


Three diary entries

October 2nd Thursday Foggy

Dad bought a pair of rabbits. The small rabbits have red eyes, long ears and snowy white fur. Dad ttold me, a rabbit eats five grams of fodder three times a day, and also has water. I will defiantly feed them well.

November 3rd Monday Bright day

Today father said "the female rabbit will soon have a baby rabbit.” Surprised I asked: “Really?” Father said “Really.” I really wish I can see the baby rabbits born sooner.

November 7th Friday Cloudy

The baby rabbits have been born, four in total, they’re so cute. Little rabbits little rabbits grow up quickly.

Visit Beijing

Beijing, Pekking, 北京- The capital of China for over 850 years is probably one of the most travelled cities in China with over 150 million visitors each year. Beijing or 北京 stands for ‘northern capital’ has to be one of my favourite cities in China. While Shanghai is an amazing city, I personally find that Beijing is so much richer in Chinese culture and has more to offer from a tourist perspective.

In Beijing you’ll find plenty to see from the Forbidden City （故宫）, the Summer Palace （颐和园）and the hutongs (胡同).

Tiananmen Square (天安门) is just off of the Forbidden Palace and is the largest public square in the world. Honestly it’s huge and takes roughly twenty minutes to walk from one end to the other.

From JingShan park(景山公园) you can get a spectacular view of the rooftops of the Forbidden City. Make your way across to Temple of Heaven (天坛) early in the morning to see the locals performing their morning thai chi and make your way to the Silk Market in the afternoon which is famous for its knock-off goods (how I love the Silk Market!)

Lastly a trip to Beijing isn’t complete without a trip to quan ju de（全聚得）the home of Peking duck (mmmmm). If you love Peking duck then you have to go to quan ju de to try the original recipe.

I’ll write more about each of these places later. If you want to know more about visiting China post a reply and I’ll get back to you.

Me at the Temple of Heaven


Recommended reading:

The Rough Guide to Beijing 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

Chinese Hot Pot 火锅

I’m addicted to Chinese hot pot. Most famous is the Schezuan hot pot which is extremely spicy, but regions in China having their own also. Hot pot is as it suggests a hot pot. It’s served as a broth which is boiling, and is kept at boiling on your table. All the food is also served raw and so you have to cook it yourself in the broth. It’s a very social way of eating and is very similar to fondue in Europe.


In Chinese hot pot is pronounced as huo guo (火锅) which stands for fire pot as I guess in the good old days it used to be served on top of hot coals.

Most hot pots tend to be similar with the raw meats, vegetables and sauces served, however the broth varies from region to region. You can also get a pot split into two so you can get two flavours, so why not try one spicy and one mild.

Still hungry after you’ve eaten? The broth at the end is fantastic! It’s a soup that has absorbed all the flavours from your meal. So, all of the crap, meat, and vegetable flavours are in the soup. So when you do go for a hot pot, try to save some room for the soup.

Here are a few hot pots I ate earlier :-）

Bai Jiu - Chinese Alcohol - 白酒

Bai jiu – 白酒。Well where can I start? Bai Jiu is an infamous drink across China in business, family celebrations and holidays.


Bai jiu literally means ‘white alcohol and that’s exactly what it is, the Chinese version of vodka. To me it tastes slightly sweeter and so it can go down easier. It tends to have a higher alcohol volume than vodka so once you stand up you will feel it! Bai jiu has a really strong flavour too, so if your drinking it it may be a good idea to have something to chase it down to ease the flavour.

Bai jiu comes out at all special occasions, unfortunately for me when I visit China it is a special occasion for my friends in and dinner can end up leading to a headache the following morning.

Business in China is done in restaurants not the boardroom and bai jiu plays an important role. Bai jiu breaks barriers and creates bonds and relationships with one another and relationships are key to business in China. So to get business done, you need to be able to hold your drink, otherwise you may be too drunk to seal the deal!

干杯!

Bai jiu can also come in very pretty bottles. Here are a few I drunk earlier.

China’s One Child Policy

Since 1979 china has had a one child policy and has had a huge effect on the China’s society. However the policy is misunderstood in the west, assuming that all Chinese are restricted to just one child. In fact due to exemptions and loop holes only around 35% of the Chinese population are restricted to the one child policy.

Some of the exemptions include rural areas, parents with no siblings, and ethnic minorities. Those living in rural areas are allowed to have a second child if their first child is a girl or has a physical or mental disorder. Those who have a second child who are not exempt are fined and can also lose out on their bonus from the workplace.

China is a very male dominated population. Chinese often prefer a boy to carry on the family name - 重男轻女, zhòngnánqīngn ("favouring male offspring over female"). Favouring males led to an increase in abortions and so there is an unbalanced population in males and females. The oldest generation form the one child policy are now in their 30’s and with more males than females people are concerned of being lonely and having no one to take care of them.

The one child policy has also led to what is known as ‘Little Emperor Syndrome.’ Children who are born into a wealthy family and by policy are an only child. The children are spoiled by parents and grandparents who want to give theme everything and the children expect them to give them everything. Families often throw money (or invest) in the children to go on and live their dreams through education, music classes and so on which can often be a lot of pressure for the children also.

I was always confused when my Chinese friends would refer to their (哥哥) older brother or (妹妹) younger sister as they didn’t have any relatives. These terms are now loosely used and family extends further. What westerners call their cousins the younger Chinese generation call their brothers and sisters.

As much as over populated China is, it is estimated that the one child policy has restricted the birth of around 250 million. That’s a lot of Chinese babies!

北京一夜 One Night in Beijing

What can I say, I love KTV. In china Karaoke is so different. It’s not something that happens in a groggy old pub where every Tim, Dick and Harry watches and has to put up with your singing. No, KTV in China is more than that and is a national passed time.

I was amazed when I went into my first Karaoke bar in TianJin. We went into a tower block, and went up onto the 20th floor. Stepping out of the elevator there were corridors upon corridors of doors with rooms, just like a hotel. But, unlike a hotel, behind each door was your very own karaoke lounge, complete with a coffee table to place your beers and snacks down on.

The selection of English songs was quite poor, so I’ve been learning a few Chinese songs so I can smash up the karaoke floor next time I go. Here’s a video of me singing along to one of my favourites 北京一夜 One Night in Beijing

李华

Chinese Tattoo's Gone Wrong

What’s the most obscure Chinese tattoo you’ve ever seen on a Westener？

Chinese characters are fashionable to have as a tattoo. But some have gone horribly wrong. If you’re thinking of getting a tattoo with Chinese characters, be sure that you understand what it says or that you take a friend along who does. Chinese tattoos on a westerner are sometimes a bit like Chinglish and don’t quite translate, others are just absolutely ridiculous.

How about this one? “My abusive husband pimps me out”

But it doesn’t work just one way. Here’s a tattoo on a Chinese guy who was told that this means “old soul with young spirit.” For all those non-native English speakers reading my blog, “Frunk” has no meaning in English. In fact it is not used in the English language at all.

And lastly “at the end of the day, this is an ugly boy”
 

大家小心一点 :-)

Simplified and Traditional Chinese Characters

The written Chinese language evolved over the years however today there are two main written versions of the characters in use today, traditional and simplified. Personally I only learn how to write simplified character, but there are certain rules which you can learn to recognise traditional characters. Traditional characters can be important to learn, especially when you go to KTV (karaoke). Most KTV bars use traditional characters and if you wanna sing along, you best get used to the traditional characters, only if it’s to read and recognise them.


Simplified is the more common written form in Mainland China where as the traditional form you will find in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Although the simplified form with fewer strokes can be quicker and easier to learn, the traditional form can also be easier to understand from a different perspective. This is because the traditional characters still maintain all of the radicals and meaning within the character, therefore if you were to look at a traditional character for the first time and you just understood the radicals, you could probably piece them together to get a rough understanding of what the characters meaning.

Simplified or traditional, which do you understand and which do you prefer?

龙 - Dragon - simplified character
龍 - Dragon - traditional character