It is ‘a piece of apple’, not ‘an apple’.
Of course, I’m talking about speaking the Chinese language.
Unlike English, you often add a classifier, or measure word, when you are describing quantity. It is, therefore,more proper to say ‘a piece of apple’, i.e. yi ge pingguo 一个苹果; rather than ‘an apple’ 一苹果– without the [...]
What was the most read news story of the past decade?
Neither the Iraq War, nor the attacks of Sept 11, 2001, according to an analysis by a US-based media tracking group.
It was the rise of China as an economic superpower.
The Global Language Monitor uses an algorithm to search print and electronic media for trends in [...]
One of the first things that you need to know before learning Chinese is its tones.
If you’re a speaker of non-tonal language like English, it may be difficult for you to comprehend. In Chinese, a slight change of Internation would change the meaning of a syllable altogether. In other words, even if you [...]
“Now Chinese is looked at as a key to the future!” says Professor Cornelius C. Kubler of Williams College.
“Should I learn to speak Mandarin or Chinese?” You may ask. Well, this depends on how you define the Chinese language. If you are talking about learning the official spoken Chinese, then you should learn Mandarin. In this case, Mandarin IS Chinese.
A secret to speed up your learning of Chinese is to find out the sounds that are uniquely Chinese.
The phonetic system of the Chinese language is very different from that of English. For example, the pinyin (Chinese phonetic symbols) ‘women’ is not pronounced as the way we pronounce ‘women’ in English. You can hear the [...]