Dragon Boat Festival
Posted on | May 22, 2009 | 1 Comment
端午节（duān wǔ jié）, or the Dragon Boat Festival, is one of the most popular traditional Chinese festivals. It occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar.Activities
Two of the most widespread activities for the Dragonboat Festival are preparing and eating 粽子 (zònɡ zi), or glutinous rice dumplings.
Another one is dragonboat racing.
These activities are related to the origin of the Dragonboat Festival.
Origins
The best and most widely known legend relates to Qu Yuan (c. 340 BC – 278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu, in the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty. Qu Yuan served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu Yuan was banished for opposing the alliance. Qu Yuan was accused of treason during his exile. During this time, he wrote a great deal of poetry, for which he is now remembered. Twenty-eight years later, Qin conquered the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River on the fifth day of the fifth month.
It is said that the local people who admired him threw rice into the river to feed the fish so that the fish would not eat Qu Yuan’s body. This is said to be the origin of zònɡ zi . The local people were also said to have paddled out on boats to retrieve his body. This is said to be the origin of dragon boat racing.
Watch this 3-minute video about 端午节，challenge yourself and see how much you can understand.
Resources
1.《Chinese Traditions and Festivals》textbook taught at 1on1 Mandarin
2. Duanwu Festival article from Wikipedia
3. Dragonboat Festival from Baidu-百科
Spoken Chinese sentence pattern-01
Posted on | May 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment
We have been through a very busy week again, especially when we have a group of Wheaton students visiting. Good thing is that we finally put our first weekly sentence pattern together, hope you all enjoy and tell us in comment how can we do it better later, here comes the first one,AA=A一(yī )A
Meaning: to have a try/to give it a try;
Usage: AA indicates reduplicated verbs.
Examples,
1. 这是我做的菜，你尝尝。（same as 尝一尝）
zhè shì wǒ zuò de cài ， nǐ chánɡ chánɡ .
This is what I cooked, please try it.
2. 你有什么好想法，可以说说。(说一说）
nǐ yǒu shén me hǎo xiánɡ fǎ ， ké yǐ shuō shuō .
If you have any good ideas, tell us about it.
3. 如果你喜欢这件T恤，可以试试。（试一试）
rú ɡuǒ nǐ xǐ huɑn zhè jiàn t xù ， ké yǐ shì shì .
If you like this T-shirt, you can try it on..
4. 听听，这是谁的歌？(听一听）
tīnɡ tinɡ ， zhè shì shuí de ɡē?
Listen to this, guess who sings this song?
5. 想想，今天晚上你想去哪儿吃饭？（想一想）
xiǎnɡ xiǎnɡ ， jīn tiān wǎn shɑnɡ nǐ xiǎnɡ qù nǎ ér chī fàn ?
Think about it, where do you want to eat tonight?
* Try to use this pattern to make some new sentences, tell us what you can come up with in comment.
Here are 5 audios , hope it helps. ( thanks Lucy for recording)
[display_podcast]
Xiaochi Chinese April newsletter-audio
Posted on | April 27, 2009 | 1 Comment
Finally, audio version is available now, listen and learn, tell us what do you think.
“Gānzào 干燥is most often used to describe weather or a place”，
Here are words and sentences used in the newsletter.
[display_podcast]
北方的冬令寒冷干燥。 The winter in the north is cold and dry.
好久没下雨， 天气太干燥了 It has not rained for a while, the weather is too dry.
北京太干燥了，我的皮肤很干 Beijing is too dry, my skin is very dry.
helpful websites for Mandarin learning
Posted on | April 20, 2009 | 2 Comments
nciku.com
Need to look up a word by pinyin, English, or in Chinese? Need to hear how it’s pronounced? Check out this website with the funny name, Nciku.
In my few months of learning Mandarin it’s the best site I’ve come across so far. Why?
- search by pinyin, English, or Chinese
- don’t know the pinyin or the English translation of a character, but know how to write it? Use your mouse to write the character, and the dictionary will suggest matches and look it up for you
- instantly hear how a word/phrase is pronounced
- example sentences so you can see how the word is used, with pinyin and English translation directly underneath. ‘Cause a word might be suitable in one situation but not another. Useful for those “use this vocabulary word to make up a sentence” homework exercises!
- looping flash animations show you how to write the word, stroke by stroke
- active forum so you can ask questions that a dictionary can’t answer
- sign up for an account to create your own vocab lists for later review
- can look up English words, with both American and UK pronunciation
The site’s still in beta but has certainly come a long way since its inception. Wonder what features are coming next?
MDGB Online Dictionary
To be honest, I haven’t used this one as much as nciku. But this site still has some impressive features.
- specialized vocabulary and advanced words included
- Chinese <-> English translation (no pinyin support, sorry! but copy&paste is supported)
- radical/stroke lookup
- flash cards and character quizzes (under 练习 Practice)
- option to denote tones with numbers, marks, or different colors. Pretty.
They also have an offline reader available. Ever find it annoying to read a Chinese document on the computer, find a word you don’t know, open up a web browser, then copy&paste the word into a search engine to find out the meaning? With the reader, just hover over the word and a definition will pop up. However, it’s only free for 15 days.
This website was great for finding the Chinese names of common houseplants that filter the air. (Be sure to check the poison information on the plants if you click on the link)
Are you curious about the Chinese names of air-cleaning houseplants and where you can get them in Beijing? What are your favorite websites for learning Chinese? Do you use software that shows popup definitions for text that you can hover over with your mouse? Show you care and share in the comments.
P.S.
20 points for anyone who can tell me what nciku and MDGB mean.
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