The Pet Dragon - a children's book

I accidently stumbled across this gorgeous book called The Pet Dragon - A Story about Adventure, Friendship, and Chinese Characters by Christoph Niemann. It features gorgeous illustrations with the aim of giving children aged 4-8 an introduction to (simplified) Chinese characters. What a great gift it would make!

Buy now from Amazon

Oranges... Mandarins... Orange you confused?

I read something recently but can't for the life of me remember where I read it. Well anyway the reasons that oranges, mandarins, and kumquats are passed around and given around Chinese New Year time is because Mandarin Orange 柑 - the name of the fruit is phonetically similar to gold -- jin ju (金橘子) in Mandarin or kam (金) in Cantonese. Another explanation is that the Mandarin word for mandarin oranges is ju (橘), which sounds like ji (吉) (ji xiang 吉 祥) meaning good luck.

From
http://www.nwchineseculturalassociation.org/cny.htm
and here
http://purple2001tulips.blogspot.com/2008/02/chinese-new-year-is-coming.html

Anyway, for those that don't know my distant relatives live in the same building as us just a couple of floors below, and we also share the same ayi. Every night bar one since I got back from Taiwan I've been eating dinner in their house. And every night my great aunt says to me, "Take some mandarins...". I did this reluctantly just to be polite. As mentioned before I don't have a big interest in food so I just took them out of politeness.

I had nowhere to put them or hold them so she started putting them in my jacket pocket. It was quite funny to see my pockets stuffed with them but I must've forgotten about them because the next night when I went down there for dinner again and she said again, "Take some mandarins..." I grabbed a bunch (these mandarins are tiny - about the size of a ping pong ball, btw) and I was about to put them into my pocket when I realised my pockets were already full!

Not knowing what to do (and feeling a little foolish and embarrassed!) I quickly said, "Oh I still have lots at home I haven't eaten yet..." and quickly changed the topic. Well the 'at home' part wasn't exactly the truth, but the 'haven't eaten part' was true!

So of course as soon as I got home I quickly took them out of my pocket and put them in the fruit bowl on the dining table. Then, of course I had to try one. I am not sure how common these mandarins are in China but in Australia they don't really exist. They are tiny! So I went to the kitchen and started peeling it and popped the entire thing in my mouth. Oh. My. God. It was so sweet and delicious. It was so amazingly sweet and juicy (and I normally don't like citrus fruits at all...) It was heavenly. I quickly then ate another two. And more. And soon they were all gone. Yep, all of them.

The third night when I went down for dinner I didn't wait for her to ask me.. I asked her if I could take some (more)! Ha!

PS When I was younger and people asked if I spoke Mandarin I would be a smartarse and answer, "No, but I speak Orange" and they'd look and me funny and some people would wonder if Orange actually was a language! Oh dear... :)

THAT "Gong xi gong xi gong xi ni" song

I've briefly mentioned the Chinese New Year "Gong xi" song twice here and here but I decided to search for more information about this song.

I found it mentioned on this blog http://mumsgather.blogspot.com/2008/01/gong-xi-gong-xi-gong-xi-ni-pinyin-song.html

They are teaching the classic Gong Xi Gong Xi Gong Xi Ni Chinese New Year song at my daughter's kindy. However, during those times when they were singing it, I noticed that my girl was not singing along. (Because she doesn't understand Mandarin and she is new at the school, the others had learned it before).

So what does a Mandarin Character Illiterate Computer Geek Mom do to help her daughter? Well, she searches the internet of course. Lol! And this is what I found. A YouTube Video of the Gong Xi Gong Xi Gong Xi Ni song. Its like singing karaoke with cute little animations. Chinese Character Song Lyrics as well as an English translation of the lyrics is included. You can go here for the Gong Xi Gong Xi Gong Xi Ni Pinyin Song Lyrics.

The kids love it. They listen to it over and over and over again and laugh at the animations. Well, you don't have to be a Chinese Character illiterate like me to enjoy this Chinese New Year classic song with your kids. Just press play and enjoy! Warning: It may sound a little irritating after playing it over and over and over again about 10 times or more. Lol!

Youtube video



Here are the lyrics (translations not by me!):

每条大街小巷
mei tiao da jie xiao xiang
每个人的嘴里
mei ge ren di zhui li
见面第一句话
jian mian di yi ju hua
就是恭喜恭喜
jiu si gong xi gong xi
恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀
gong xi gong xi gong xi ni a
恭喜恭喜恭喜你
gong xi gong xi gong xi ni

冬天已到尽头
dong tian yi dao jing tou
真是好的消息
zhen shi hao di xiao xi
温暖的春风
wen nuan di chun feng
就要吹醒大地
jiu yao chui xing da di
恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀
gong xi gong xi gong xi ni a
恭喜恭喜恭喜你
gong xi gong xi gong xi ni

浩浩冰雪融解
hao hao bing xue rong jie
眼看梅花吐蕊
yan kan mei hua tu rei
漫漫长夜过去
man man chang ye guo qu
听到一声鸡啼
ting dao yi shen ji ti
恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀
gong xi gong xi gong xi ni a
恭喜恭喜恭喜你
gong xi gong xi gong xi ni

经过多少困难
jing guo duo shao kun nan
历经多少磨练
li jing duo sao mo lian
多少心儿盼望
duo shao xin er pan wang
盼望春的消息
pan wang chun de xiao xi
恭喜恭喜恭喜你呀
gong xi gong xi gong xi ni a
恭喜恭喜恭喜你
gong xi gong xi gong xi ni

1
In every avenue and street
From the mouth of everyone
The first sentence when we meet
is congratulations
Congratulations, congratluations, congratulations to you
Congratulations, congratluations, congratulations to you

2
The winter has come to an end
That's really good news
The warm breeze of the spring
will wake up the earth
Congratulations, congratluations, congratulations to you
Congratulations, congratluations, congratulations to you

3
The heavy snow has melted
The plums are about to blossom
The endless dark night is over
We hear the crowing of a rooster
Congratulations, congratluations, congratulations to you
Congratulations, congratluations, congratulations to you

4
After so much difficulty
with so much discipline
How many hearts are looking forward
To the news of spring
Congratulations, congratluations, congratulations to you
Congratulations, congratluations, congratulations to you

Repeat 2,3,4.

Now, for those that don't know... Chinese New Year is also called "Spring Festival" or 'chun jie' 春节 . Why? - I don't know.. because it is not Spring yet and it certainly isn't warm! Also those lyrics kind of aren't applicable right now given it is still freezing and the snow from a week ago hasn't even melted yet.. and I certainly don't see any plum blossoms or roosters crowing! LOL.

Invest in languages, firms urged

From http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iXqiT5lH5LJGtxkpe9MCYnXfEV1Q :

31 January

Invest in languages, firms urged

One in four firms has lost business contracts because their staff cannot speak a foreign language, according to a report.

A survey of more than 500 UK companies also found that one in 10 had to pay to have documents translated because no-one in their organisation had the necessary language skills.

Manufacturing, catering and leisure firms were most in need of workers who had learned another language, according to the study by the publishers of the Teach Yourself Business Languages series.

The books' author, Sarah Carroll, said: "China is one of the fastest growing global markets and the demand for UK Mandarin Chinese speakers is increasing.

"Mandarin Chinese is quickly becoming one of the most useful languages to know in business, and Spanish may well end up rivalling English as a global business language in the Americas by 2050.

"Businesses need to be aware of this and invest in foreign language speakers so they are able to compete in the global market."

One in five firms said they would be willing to pay higher salaries to staff with language skills.

Interesting!

Nanjing Dong Lu (Nanjing East Road)

I have a (hopefully) interesting story to tell about this road. Long before I heard of the famous "Nanjing Dong Lu" 南京東路 in Shanghai I knew of the Nanjing Dong Lu in Taipei because my grandparents lived near there. They haven't always lived there but have lived there for just over 20 years now. They bought the place when it was brand new (and my aunt (and uncle) bought the place one floor above so that she could help take care of my grandmother). It is right in the heart of the city in a very convenient location and due to its location their humble little apartment would cost a lot more to rent than our place in either Sydney or Shanghai.

When I first went to Shanghai 3 years ago (on the same trip where I also visited Taiwan) I started to learn of this famous road and thought to myself "OMG it's the same road as the one in Taipei!"

Nanjing Road is obviously named after the city of Nanjing (or Nanking as it used to be known) in China and while I've been here I've noticed that Shanghai and Taipei have SO many road names in common. It is kind of like dejavu and kind of freaky like I don't even know where I am anymore...

Another weird (but good) thing I've noticed is that I can read so much more of the signage than before. I don't know how this happened other than I seem to have a pretty good memory and when I see the same character over and over again I just remember it (even if I wouldn't have a clue how to write it). I used to be able to read less than half the characters on signs in Taiwan but now I can read almost everything. I can read bus stop signs and menus with ease. Even going back to 'traditional characters' doesn't faze me.

(INSERT PIC HERE LATER)

I'm quite impressed with myself! :)

Strange experiences

Strange experiences

Yesterday I met up with another Australian expat girl... Afterwards, I went to Chaterhouse Books in Times Square. I must be a glutton for punishment (after my last experience). Anyway I decided to try my luck. I had a list of about 50 books and on that list, 10 I really wanted. I also wanted to see if they had Lonely Planet Taiwan.

Well I was very disappointed. If you like fiction you're in luck. If you don't, the selection is dismal to say the least. Or maybe it's my electic taste. Who knows? But NONE of the non-fiction topics that I am interested in were there. I couldn't believe it. None at all. To give you an example: The 'health' section consisted of one narrow self that had books on: dieting and weight loss, caring for babies and children. That's it! Nothing of substance at all for those who are not looking to lose weight and don't have kids (ie me). The business and computer section was highly disappointing too. Humph.

Apparently they are not legally allowed to import any book relating to Taiwan. I said so I can't find it in another bookstore in Shanghai? And the lady said she didn't know but they didn't want to do it for fear of getting into trouble with the authorities.

Anyway, while I was there there was a girl (about 10 years of age) with her mother. I could not believe my ears when she swapped effortlessly between Shanghainese - Mandarin - English, back and forth. She spoke Mandarin with a perfect Beijing accent and English with a perfect American accent. Unbelievable! It's unbelievable how easy it is for kids to learn languages. When my sister and I were growing up one of my mother's friends had some young kids we used to play with. The mother was Vietnamese Chinese and the father was a white South African. From the moment they could talk the father forced them to only talk Chinese (Mandarin) with their mother and English with him. As a result they swapped back and forth so easily, so effortlessly. I was probably around 10 at the time and remember this so clearly. If only it were that easy for adults - d'oh!

Today, I was doing some last minute shopping for relatives in Taiwan. Both my parents had rung me with a 'shopping list' of things to buy and gifts for people. While I was doing this I accidently found a really great DVD store that had heaps of English/foreign DVDs. I finally got Ang Lee's Lust Caution (after my father reminded me I was supposed to get this for him!). I made them play it (two copies - one for me and one for dad) in the store to make sure 1) it was working fine and not dodgy, 2) the deleted scenes were intact. It was copied from the "Taiwan version" so yeah it was all there. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! Here I was watching some R-rated sexually explicit scenes (in fast forward motion) with a guy in a little DVD store. So so strange! I almost felt guilty. I felt like a pimply 16-year-old boy sniggering. Haha. The thing is, the cut scenes don't really affect the movie that much but still, it does play a role in the script so who wouldn't want a complete movie if they can get one? Unfortunately for hubby there are no English sub-titles so he'd better learn Mandarin quick smart if he wants to watch it (not that I can talk, ha!)

Also, I saw they had the Simpsons Movie too so I nabbed that one. In English this time!

Who the heck are Wade and Giles?

As if the Traditional vs Simplified script thing wasn't confusing enough... it got me thinking about the pinyin that they use in Taiwan... well, they don't! They use the Wade-Giles method but even then not always. They could use different methods of writing in the same sentence or sign. I remember reading a hilarious article about it in Culture Shock Taiwan about it all.

Actually, when I was growing up I never learnt pinyin OR Wade-Giles, I learnt 'zhuyin' which is by far more accurate than pinyin in terms of getting the right pronunciation of a character. (I also believe it made it easier for me to learn Japanese hiragana and katakana as it's the same kind of thing).

My surname starts with Ch in Wade-Giles but in pinyin starts with Zh. When stupid strangers ring me up on the phone (both back home in Sydney and here in Shanghai) they try to say my name in Chinese but they always get it wrong because it doesn't actually have a 'Ch' sound at all!

Wade-Giles was developed by Thomas Francis Wade, a British ambassador in China and Chinese scholar who was the first professor of Chinese at Cambridge University. Wade published the first Chinese textbook in English in 1867. The system was refined in 1912 by Herbert Allen Giles, a British diplomat in China.[2]
The Wade-Giles system was designed to transcribe Chinese terms, for Chinese specialists. This origin has led to a general sense that the system is non-intuitive for non-specialists and not useful for teaching Chinese pronunciation.
The Republic of China (Taiwan) has used Wade-Giles for decades as the de facto standard, co-existing with several official but obscure Romanizations in succession, namely, Gwoyeu Romatzyh (1928), MPS II (1986), and Tongyong Pinyin (2000). Taiwanese place names are still being virtually written in Wade-Giles, and many Chinese Americans and Canadians also write their Chinese names in Wade-Giles.

Read more here if you are interested

I think due to pressure from China and from the rest of the world, though, that Taiwan will gradually convert all their English signage and documents to pinyin. It just makes more sense to have a standardized way of 'writing' Chinese in English. Those poor foreigners who have been to both Taiwan and China must be confused out of their wits!! I know I was.

So... Taiwan will remain Taiwan (no change)
Taipei will become Taibei (small change)
Kaohsiung will become Gaoxiong (big change)

On a different topic but same line of thinking. When the bloody heck is the USA going to change from imperial to metric system, huh?

How can you love without a heart?

For anyone studying Mandarin they probably know there is the traditional way of writing characters (complicated), and the simplified way. Having learnt both I can see the merits of both. I grew up learning the traditional way (which is what they use in Taiwan and Hong Kong) but one year we went to a different Chinese (Saturday) school, and in university they taught us simplified and pinyin.

Since all Chinese characters are derived from pictograms, the traditional characters make more 'sense', but the simplified characters are easier to write and remember (since they have fewer strokes). It is obviously easier to go from traditional to simplified, but not the other way around.

However, the problem with simplified is that a lot of the time the meaning is totally lost.

Eg in 'love' (ai) 愛 is the traditional method, and 爱 is the simplified. If you look closely they are exactly the same except there is a component missing in the middle. That is another character in itself 'heart' (xin) 心. So whoever did this 'simplifying' did a pretty bad job IMHO.

Here's another one which makes no sense whatsoever. 'behind, backwards, after' (hou)後 . The simplified way is 后. Now, first of all they look nothing alike. Second of all, 后 actually means queen. The only reason it was chosen was because it had the exact same sound (hou4). Weird, huh?!

Even though in China they have been using the simplified writing system for a few decades now, you can still sometimes see buildings and documentation with traditional characters which is why it pays to know both.

And people wonder why Mandarin is so hard to learn?!

Wikipedia article on "Debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters"

Mandarin and Spanish

Well it's been almost a month since hubby started his Mandarin lessons and I'm astounded by the progress he's made. I said that in a few months time he'll probably be better than me! (and no, I'm not joking). My main problem is just learning new vocab, words I never used growing up but need to know now for my adult life. So while he is having his lessons I am secretly eavesdropping hoping to learn a thing or two ;) :)

Meanwhile, I realised I have fallen off my Spanish learning wagon and need to get back into it. For those who are learning it I really recommend Coffee Break Spanish. My friend was using it and I decided to try it too. For something that is free it's pretty good! They are podcast lessons. The only thing is if English is not your first language it may be a bit hard due to the hosts' Scottish accent and also they teach the Spanish Spanish, which is a little different to South American Spanish (which I was used to and found easier). But anyway, like I said, it's awesome for something that's free!

I just did a quick search about language learning blogs (to add to my Bloglines of course ;) ) and there are soooo many blogs written by people currently learning a 2nd, 3rd language. It's great to see so many people embracing learning another language because we all know how hard it can be the older you get and the excuses people come up with: "I am not good with languages", "I'm too old", "I won't ever get a chance to use it", "I don't need it" etc etc. Bah humbug! Languages are one of the most useful things to learn. So you can play tennis or piano - so what? They are great skills to have but not nearly as useful as another language. Not that I'm brilliant with languages myself. I struggle just like everyone else and I admit I procrastinate, forget, become lazy, etc etc. But I think it's one of those things you don't realise how rewarding it is until you have accomplished it and understand those around you. To me you don't even need to be fluent enough to write an essay or to pass IELTS, or HSK or whatever. As long you can have a decent adult conversation and read books, magazines and newspapers, the web (even if you don't know every single word) I think that is a big accomplishment.

I mean, when someone whose second language is English speaks English to me, I can immediately pick out their faults in their grammar, pronunciation or whatnot but really, it doesn't matter because I think to myself, geez, their English is still a heck of a lot better than my German/French/Italian/Spanish/Japanese or whatever!!

It's funny though. I find myself noticing people's mistakes and the same ones are made a lot of the time. Some mistakes I notice friends and family members making are:

* "There have" instead of "There are/is" or "There were/was" because in Chinese it's 有 (you).. it sounds strange in English but if I translate it back to Mandarin in my head it makes total sense.

* "A.M. 11:00" instead of "11:00 A.M." My stepmum writes me notes (when I used to live at home) and she would always put the AM or PM before the time. I pointed this out to her, and to my dad, but she just keeps doing it. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

* Plurals where there shouldn't be any. eg Softwares, furnitures, jewelleries (jewelries),.. These words don't have s's on the end! (not that I know of anyway).

Anyway, I just found this blog commenting on this article about Mandarin being a 'fad'.

"...In a few decades China may indeed overtake America as the world's top economic power. Will Britons who make the effort to learn its language be rewarded with better careers? Barring some kind of sea change in global language learning, the answer will almost always be no.

With its tones and horribly complicated writing system, Mandarin is much harder to learn than most European languages. The Foreign Office, for example, gives its officers four times as long to get from beginner to operational level in Mandarin as it does in Italian, French or Spanish—and only those with the greatest aptitude for languages are selected for it. The vast majority of Westerners who travel to China to study Mandarin give up, go home and forget what they have learned. Undergraduates at British universities find it hard to adjust to a workload heavier than that for other subjects, and many drop out...."

Someone on the blog commented:

I do think a lot of the current craze around Mandarin is similar to that which surrounded Japanese during the 1980s, where Japanese was considered ‘the’ language to learn due to Japan’s booming economy and their increasing presence in foreign markets.

I can definitely relate to this as this was one of the reason's I learnt Japanese (well it was the 1990s but still...) and it's funny how this focus has shifted onto learning Mandarin. I don't regret learning Japanese for a second. I still shocked myself that when I went there recently I could actually understand a lot of what people were saying, despite not attaining a very high level (only crappy high school level) and not using it for 12 years. I really wonder if Mandarin is a 'fad' and in 10 or so years it'll be another language we are told we 'must' learn?

I do have a lot of respect and admiration for anyone who can master Mandarin, especially someone with no prior knowledge of any language apart from their mother tongue. It really is a very hard language to learn but in saying that, I think the reading/writing is a lot easier than Japanese and the grammar is easier than English!

When I go to coffee shops and cafes here I often see 'foreigners' with laptops and a whole stack of text books studying Mandarin. Not just any beginner type of Mandarin but bl00dy hard HSK level type stuff and I think to myself - How the heck did they get that far? Wow, I'm really impressed, amazed, jealous even.

On another topic, hubby and had a debate about which was easier to learn out of Mandarin and Japanese. On that same blog is an interesting discussion. Another thing about Japanese though is that if you learn Katakana (48 characters) and you know English you can read a lot of the signs because they are just English words written in Japanese characters (and read funnily).



Actually I have a funny story to tell. I love reading Katakana and I find that reading it regularly (on food packets for example) helps me remember it and never forget it. Anyway, many years ago I was at home with my sister watching "The Simpsons" on TV (or 'terebi') and it was the "Mr Sparkle" episode (one of my favourites!) When I saw the packet (written in Katakana) I put on my big sister all-knowing show-off voice and said, "Hey I can read that!... Mi-su-taa Su-paa-ku-ru... Mister Super Cool!" But it turns out it was actually "Mister Sparkle" and I felt a bit stupid so sometimes you can 'translate' Katakana incorrectly but most of the time it is pretty easy. :)

OK, back to studying for me...

Funny translations

I'm trying to find how to get to a particular road and getting very frustrated. First I tried to find it on my map (which is all in Chinese) then I realised that it may be too far out and not even on there and searched the smartshanghai map (nope) and google extensively, can't find it. Looked up the road on Wikipedia, nope. Looked up a hotel that is on that road and the map of that hotel, nope, no help. About to give up and decided to search the Chinese name of that road on Google. Found some discussions about it and someone else was asking the same thing. Someone answered take the train and someone else answered take the taxi ie 打的. (but still didn't specify HOW to get there). Anyway I also opened up a tab with the exact same website in English (done by computer translation) and nearly spat out my water when I read the translation. The second replier's answer was "Fight." LOL!

Helpful words for fabric market visitors

It's hard for me to rate my own Chinese ability. If I were to rate it honestly I would say it is that of a 6 year old but on the other hand it's not. Also, although I have never studied it, my grammar is usually pretty good (almost as good as my English) because I can just tell when a sentence doesn't make sense.

Whenever I go shopping I have this paranoid fear that I'm going to get ripped off because they know straight away that I'm not a local due to my accent and my not up-to-scratch vocabulary. The weird thing is although I've not learnt that many words, if I hear them I can usually figure it out what it means by the context.

Now, I had no idea how to say 'cashmere' in Mandarin. Since I wasn't planning on getting my coat made that day I didn't plan anything either. However, I asked one of the salesladies what fabric it was, "这个是哪种布?" and she replied, "羊绒" (yang rong). Immediately the cogs in my brains started turning. 羊毛（Yang mao) is wool, so Yang rong must be cashmere? I think? Rong must be the same rong as 'velvet.' But hang on! Isn't cashmere made from a goat? Oh yeah that's right... 羊 (yang) can mean both sheep or goat (I know because my sister was born in the year of one) but technically a goat is a 山羊 (shan yang - mountain sheep). Haha. It's weird because I've known the words 羊毛 and 绒 for as long as I can remember (my mother was/is an avid sewer - as in a person who sews, not a place for human waste - haha) but the word for 'cashmere' never entered my vocab - guess because she never sewed with it and didn't really buy clothes made from it! (don't really need it in Australia).

I'm gonna have to teach myself more clothing fabric words because whenever I buy clothes one of the first things I do is look at the label. This tells me what it's made of (will I be allergic to it? Is it a quality fabric? How will I care for it, wash it? etc) so I can determine if the price fits the quality. But also because I am allergic to wool, and I don't like fake-wool either AKA acrylic which 'pills' like nothing.

So here we go:

Cotton 棉 mián
Wool ( 绵)羊毛 (mián) yáng máo
Cashmere 羊绒
Silk 丝 sī
Acrylic ?
Polyester ?
Spandex 氨纶 ān lún
Denim 牛仔布 níu zǎi bù
Jacquard 提花织物 tí huā zhī wù
Brocade 锦 jǐn
100% ... 全 quán (used more verbally)

qipao/cheongsam 旗袍 qípáo
shirt 衬衫 chèn shān
pants/trousers 裤子 kù zi
jacket 茄克 jiā kè
coat 外套 wài tào
dress 礼服 lǐfú
handbag 手提包 shǒu tí bāo

size 大小 dà xiǎo
little bigger 大一点 dà yì diǎn
little smaller 小一点 xiǎo yì diǎn
little narrower 窄一点 zhǎi yì diǎn
little wider 宽一点 kuān yì diǎn
little longer 长一点 cháng yì diǎn
little shorter 短一点 duǎn yì diǎn
little higher 高一点 gāo yì diǎn
litte lower 低一点 dī yì diǎn
darker (colour) 深一点 shēn yì diǎn (颜色 yán sè)
lighter (colour) 浅一点 qiǎn yì diǎn (颜色 yán sè)

sleeve 袖子 xiù zi
cuff 袖口 xiù kǒu (lit. sleeve mouth)
collar 衣领 yī lǐng
armhole 袖笼 xiù lǒng
chest/bust 胸 xiōng
waist 腰部 yāo bù
hips/butt 臀部 túnbù
3 vital measurements - bust, waist hips 三围 sānwéi

buttons 扣子 kòuzi
zipper 拉链 lā liàn
velcro 魔鬼粘 mó guǐ nían
press stud 揿扣 qìn kòu

stripes 条 tiáo
spots 点 diǎn
pattern 图样 tú yàng
embroider(y) 绣 xiù

to be continued!

---
I just found this online Chinese dictionary nciku.com but I still think Xuezhongwen is a little better. :)

Hubby's first Mandarin lesson

After weeks and weeks of agonising about what to do with learning Mandarin, which method, which company.. hubby finally decided on getting a personal home tutor with Mandarin H----.

Last night the tutor came over and I was basically bumming around on the net and doing some design work on the computer and eavesdropping (how could I not? They were sitting 2 metres away from me).

Anyway, at one part of the conversation I was trying to hold it all in and not laugh my head off. It was just too funny. It may not seem funny to anyone else but at the time for me it was hilarious.

They were talking about Sydney, our hometown...

The conversation went something like this:

Tutor: "So what do you think tourists find interesting about Sydney? I
hear there is a famous theatre there."
M: "No, it's in Melbourne. Melbourne has lots of theatres."
Tutor: "Oh? Sydney doesn't have theatres?"
M: "It does but not as many."

Then at this point I realised they were both confused and I couldn't resist blurting out, "I think she means the Opera house!"

After a few chuckles and confused looks.. it continued...

T: "So what else is interesting in Sydney?"
M: "There is a bridge.."
T: "A bridge? Do tourists go to Sydney just to see a bridge? Is it a famous bridge?"
(at this point I realised she had probably never heard about the famous Harbour Bridge?!!)
M: "Yeah.. it's a big bridge..."
T: "Hmm..OK."

Learning Mandarin

I came across this article this morning.

Increasing Foreigners Show Desire to Learn Chinese

Growing numbers of foreigners are showing a desire to learn the Chinese language, latest statistics from the Ministry of Education have shown. By the end of last year, nearly 30 million people from 85 countries and regions were learning standard Chinese -- putonghua. China is also witnessing a growth in the number of foreign students who come to study Chinese and related courses, according to Friday's China Daily. This English-language newspaper says an estimated 410,000 foreign students have signed up for Chinese courses over the past 10 years.

It is estimated that the number coming to China to learn the language has maintained an average annual growth rate of 35 percent over the past few years.

China's continuous economic growth and the strengthening of its trade and business ties with the rest of the world have been cited as the major factors behind the interest in learning Chinese.

These kinds of business engagements have in turn sparked a huge demand for professional employees in foreign countries with a good command of Chinese. And the trend is more evident among some of China's largest trading partners, particularly Japan, the United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and some nations in Southeast Asia.

"I think a good knowledge of Chinese can help me secure a good job back in my country as there is a growing number of companies setting up operations in China," said a 24-year-old female student of Peking University who comes from ROK.

She added that a certificate of the Chinese Proficiency Test, or Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK), is important when seeking a job in a large company in ROK.

The KSK test, which began in Beijing in 1988, is national standardized test designed to assess foreign students' command of Chinese.

To date, the Office of the State Commission for the Chinese Proficiency Test has set up 44 testing centers in 27 Chinese cities, including Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, and 55 centers in 24 other countries in Asia, Europe the Americas and Oceania.

Since 1991, a total of 380,000 people from 120 countries have taken the test in those centers, according to statistics from the Ministry of Education.

I think it's interesting because when I was in high school (oh so long ago now!) the only languages they offered were French, German and Japanese. These were deemed the most useful at the time. Some schools also offered Indonesian (because of its proximity to Australia). Little did they know back then that Chinese Mandarin would be far more useful!