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helpful Chinese language learning tips and resources

怎么搞的？zěnme gǎo de?

Posted on | June 15, 2009 | Comments Off

This is a common saying I hear on the streets.  This is used when someone is not satisfied with one’s own or another person’s actions, sometimes showing misunderstanding about what happened. 

怎么搞的 (zěnme gǎo de) carries the tone of blaming or complaining.  In English, this phrase would be translated as “What’s going on?“  or “What’s wrong with me/you?“.

Here are some examples to show how this phrase can be used:

1)  怎么搞的！  明天就开会讨论了，你们到现在还没把计划 书写出来！
Zěnme gǎo de!  míng tiān jiù kāihuì tǎolùn le, nǐmen dào xiàn zài hái méi bǎ jìhuà shū xiě chūlái！
[What's going on?  We have already talked about having a meeting tomorrow.  You still haven't written out your proposal!]

2）你是怎么搞的？  屋子弄得这么乱！
Nǐ shì zěnme gǎo de？  Wūzi nòng de zhème luàn！
[What's going on?  The room is so messy!]

3）A:  你的机票呢？
Nǐ de jīpiào ne?
[Where's your plane ticket?]

B: 我刚才明明放在桌上的， 怎么搞的， 一转眼就不见了。
Wǒ gāng cái míng míng fàng zài zhuō shàng de, zěnme gǎo de, yī zhuàn yǎn jiù bú jiàn le.
[I just placed it on the table in a very obvious place.  What's wrong with me?  I turn away and it's now gone.]

Reference:

刘德联， 刘晓丽.  Exemplification of Common Sentence Patterns in Spoken Chinese 汉语口语常用句式例解.  Peking University Press, 2005.

Comments: Comments Off
Category: Culture, Language
Tags: Patterns

Top 3 Chinese video websites

Posted on | June 15, 2009 | Comments Off

Today, we’d like to introduce you the top 3 Chinese video websites.  They are free and helpful resources to learn Chinese and practice your Chinese listening skills.

Youku video 56 video Ku6 video

These are the three video sites in China I visit most frequently.  I personally like Youku.com the most because of its speed and the least amount of embedded ads. If you visit these websites often,  you are probably up to date with the latest news in China as well.  These websites would not only be helpful for practicing your Chinese listening skills, but also for providing you with another means through which you can better understand China.

What’s coming next?

*We will post some popular videos regularly to our blog page, as well as try to provide video scripts where helpful.

*If you don’t want to miss any upcoming posts,  please subscribe to rss feed or get well formatted email updates.

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Category: Learning Approaches
Tags: tools > useful > video

Free Chinese input tool

Posted on | May 29, 2009 | 1 Comment

chinese inputGoogle pinyin input tool is one of most popular input tools in China. I love using it everyday at work, because it’s Fast, Smart and Easy to use.

If you are learning Chinese characters and want an easy way to input them yourself, you should try it out.

You can download at following address and can be installed easily,

http://www.google.com/ime/pinyin/

available for windows XP and Vista systems

Helpful shortcuts:

1.Switch easily from Chinese to English input by using the Ctrl+Shift shortcut,

2.Select input results using Number keys accordingly or Space key to select the first one

3.Use “,” key (comma key)goes to previous page and “.” key(full comma) to next page.

Since this software and instructions are all in Chinese,  you run into any problems, let us know in comment, I ‘d love to help.

Comments: 1 Comment
Category: Language
Tags: tools > useful

Making 粽子zòngzi (Glutinous Rice Dumplings)

Posted on | May 27, 2009 | 2 Comments

zongzi

There are many different ways that people make zòngzi, with fillings that are either sweet or savory.  I found this recipe from a website called, Eating China (http://www.eatingchina.com/recipes/zongzi.htm).  If you are a fan of sticky rice, this is one recipe you need to tackle, especially in light of the Dragon Boat Festival coming up.  Send any comments our way after you’ve tried the recipe, and let us know what you thought about the whole “making zòngzi experience”.

Makes 20 dumplings

Ingredients
40 large bamboo leaves (2 for each zongzi)
20 long strings (for binding leaves)
1 kg (2.2 Ib) uncooked glutinous rice
2 kg (4.4 Ib) fatty pork, sliced into 3 cm (1″) cubes
10 salted duck’s egg yolk, shelled, cut into halves
40 small dried shittake (black) mushrooms
20 dried chestnuts
10 stalks of scallions, cut up into 1 cm (1/2″) lengths
500 g (18 oz) dried radish diced very finely
100 g (3.5 oz) very small dried shrimp
200 g (7 oz) raw peanuts (shelled, with skins)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice wine
Vegetable oil
5 cloves of garlic, roughly crushed
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 pieces star anise

Method

Preparing ingredients

  1. Soak rice in water for three hours, drain.
  2. Stew pork and chestnuts for 1 hour in soy sauce, rice wine, ground pepper, 1 teaspoon of sugar. and star anise. Set aside pork and chestnuts in bowl.
  3. Boil peanuts until tender (30 minutes to 1 hour).
  4. Soak mushrooms until soft. Clean and cut off stalks. Stir-fry with a little liquid from stew. Set aside in bowl.
  5. Shell and halve duck eggs. Set aside in bowl.
  6. Chop up dried radish finely and stir-fry with some 1/2 teaspoon sugar and garlic.
  7. Stir-fry spring onions until fragrant.
  8. Stir-fry shrimp very quickly.
  9. In a large wok or bowl, add rice, then add spring onions, radish, shrimp, peanuts. Mix together well.

Wrapping zongzi

  1. Rinse bamboo leaves in hot water to tenderise, before washing thoroughly in cold water.
  2. Wet strings to make them more pliable.
  3. Take 2 leaves and overlap them. About 2/3rds of way along the length of the leaves, place one hand underneath, make a cup shape with the leaves.
  4. Add a small amount of rice mixture, then add 1 piece of pork to the centre of the rice. Add more rice on top, compressing slightly.
  5. Now repeat this process, in turn adding 1 each: chestnut, mushroom, half a duck egg, followed by a layer of rice until you have a full rice ball in your hand.
  6. Wrap leaves tightly around the ball of rice.
  7. Dumplings should be pyramid shaped with sharp edges and pointed ends. It takes some practice to make nice looking ones.
  8. Zongzi are tied up just like shoes laces with a double knot which makes them easy to open.
  9. *Steam for 1 hour, unwrap and serve.

Notes
Eat zongzi plain or with a sauce of your choice. Wrapped tightly in plastic, zongzi freeze well. To reheat, thaw, and without removing the bamboo leaves, steam (best option), or microwave. Before micro-waving, poke a very small hole in the wrapping and pour in 1/4 of a teaspoon of water to help prevent the zongzi drying out. To test for doneness, plunge a sharp fork into the centre of the zongzi. If the pointy end of the fork is hot, so is your snack.

For a video you could also check out this video from youtube:

Comments: 2 Comments
Category: Culture, Language
Tags: festivals

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