Archive for the ‘Mandarin’ Category
Here’s a great youtube video to teach you how to say “Happy Birthday!”, “Happy Holiday!”, “Wish you Merry Christmas”, “Wish you Happy New Year!” in Mandarin.
It’s a short Mandarin lesson to say nice things in holiday season. A great way to learn in a good mood.
This is alos a wish from ChineseBay.com to all of you, my dear visitors, ChineseBay fans!
We will learn much more in year 2010!
How to say “Merry Christmas” in Mandarin & Cantonese?
聖誕快樂 （圣诞快乐)
Mandarin:sheng4 dan4 kuai4 le4 (all 4th tones)
Cantonese: sing3 daan3 faai3 lok6 (all 3rd tone but the last one 6th tone) Read the rest of this entry »
Pro. Tianwei Xie teaching Chinese
Dr. Tianwei Xie is a professor of Chinese Califronia State University Long Beach. You can find free learning materials from his web site. Here I would like to share with you some free Mandarin lessons from him: 15 lessons in all.
- Unit One: Let’s Get to Know Each Other
- Unit Two: My Family
- Unit 3: Where Do You Work?
- Unit 4: This Is My Address
- Unit 5: Where are you from?
- Unit 6: I Am Learning Chinese
- Unit 7: Is Chinese Difficult?
- Unit 8: I Understand Chinese
- Unit 9: Where Do You Study (Work)?
- Unit 10: What Time Is It Now?
- Unit 11: What Day and What Date Is It Today?
- Unit 12: What’s the Weather Like Here?
- Unit 13: Do You Like to Eat Chinese Food?
- Unit 14: What Game Do You Like?
- Unit 15: Are You Going to China?
You can download the mp3 for the lessons or play online too:
Standard Podcast [1:54m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1042) Standard Podcast [3:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (399) Standard Podcast [2:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (372) Standard Podcast [4:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (337) Standard Podcast [4:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (641)(First 5 lessons. For other mp3 of other lessons, you can go to his site at:
http://www.csulb.edu/~txie/ccol/mp3/
Simple Mandarin:I Cannot Speak English
Pinyin w/Tone Marks wŏ bù huì shuō yīng wén
Traditional 繁（正）體 我不會說英文。
Simplified 简体 我不会说英文
Simple Mandarin(1)
Learn some basic Mandarin with our Simple Mandarin Series.
Let’s learn some simple Putonghua 普通话 or Guoyu 国语 (Mandarin) here.
Just one simple Mandarin sentence a day, your Chinese learning is on its way!
Today’s sentence: Can you speak English?
Pinyin w/Tone Marks nĭ huì shuō yīng wén ma5 ？
Traditional 繁（正）體 你會說英文嗎？
Simplified 简体 你会说英文吗？
Here’s how to say Happy Mother’s Day!
mŭ qīn jié kuài lè
母亲节快乐！
kuài lè 快乐 = happy
mŭ qīn 母亲 = mother (formal)
jié 节 = festival
zhù nĭ shēng rì kuài lè
祝你生日快乐! ( This is how to say ‘wish you happy birthday’ in Mandarin Chinese )
shēng rì 生日 = birthday
zhù nĭ 祝你 = wish you
Pinyin or Hanyu Pinyin is the official Chinese romanized phonetic/pronunciation system. It’s been around for over 50 years and has been helping Chinese learners a lot. More Info Here
How do you type the Pinyin tone marks with your keyboard? It’s pretty tough without some tools.
You can do it easily with This One
(Try to type in this han4yu3 pin1yin1 and you will get hànǚ pīnyīn )
“The Qingming Festival (traditional Chinese: 清明節; simplified Chinese: 清明节; pinyin: Qīngmíngjié, or Ching Ming Festival in Hong Kong, Vietnamese language: Tết Thanh Minh), meaning Clear and Bright Festival, is a traditional Chinese festival on the 104th day after the winter solstice (or the 15th day from the Spring Equinox), usually occurring around April 5 of the Gregorian calendar (see Chinese calendar). Every leap year, Qing Ming is on April 5th.”
For 2003, 2007, 2011, Qingming is on April 5th (leap year every four years), but for 2001-2002, 2004-2006,2008-2010, it falls on April 4th. So this year 2009, we will have Qingming Festival on April 4th, the same for next year 2010.
“Qingming is a statutory public holiday in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. It has long been a public holiday in the latter three jurisdictions, but became a public holiday in mainland China in 2008 for the first time since 1949.”
Qingming was frequently mentioned in Chinese literature. Among these, the most famous one is probably Du Mu’s poem (simply titled “Qingming”):
清明
杜牧
| Traditional Chinese | Simplified Chinese | pinyin | English translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 清明時節雨紛紛 | 清明时节雨纷纷 | qīng míng shí jié yǔ fēn fēn | A drizzling rain falls like tears on the Mourning Day; |
| 路上行人欲斷魂 | 路上行人欲断魂 | lù shàng xíng rén yù duàn hún | The mourner’s heart is breaking on his way. |
| 借問酒家何處有 | 借问酒家何处有 | jiè wèn jiǔ jiā hé chù yǒu | Where can a winehouse be found to drown his sadness? |
| 牧童遙指杏花村 | 牧童遥指杏花村 | mù tóng yáo zhǐ xìng huā cūn | A cowherd points to Almond Flower (Xing Hua) Village in the distance. |
(source from wikipedia)
Other English names of this festival: Tomb-sweeping Day (China mainland translation); Ching Ming (official in Hong Kong); Pure Brightness
(For other Chinese festivals and holidays, check out the Chinese Lunar Calender for 2009 )
清明
【唐】杜牧
清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂。
借问酒家何处有？牧童遥指杏花村。
作者简介：杜牧（公元803－约852年）唐代诗人。
You can play or down the mp3 for this famous Tang peom in Cantonese and Mandarin here:
Posted in Cantonese, Cantonese-vs-Mandarin, China, Chinese festivals, Mandarin, News | 
Tags: Chinese festivals, mp3, peom
Learn to say these colors in Mandarin: blue, red, yellow, green, orange, black, white, purple, pink, golden. (蓝色,红色, 黄色,绿色, 橙色, 黑色,白色, 紫色, 粉红色, 金色,)
To start, just go to our Flashcards – Colors
1)Let’s continue to compare Cantonese and Mandarin pronunciation
B)There are some Cantonese sounds that do not exist in Mandarin.
e.g. Sounds with the ending ‘m’: saam1 三(three)/衫(clothes) caam3 杉(fir) sim4禅（Zen)
In Mandarin, they are pronounced as: san1三 shan1衫(clothes)/杉(fir) chan2禅(Zen)
From the above, you know that the different characters with the same pronunciation with the same tone in Cantonese may pronounced very different in Mandarin and vice versa. This causes mistakes for Cantonese and Mandarin-speakers trying to speak the other language.
By mistake, Mandarin-speakers may say saan1 ger3 instead of saam1 go3 for 三个（three items)
and Cantonese-speakers may say cen4san1 instead of chen4shan1 for 衬衫 (shirt).
In many of the cases, these Northern and Southern accents can be understood.
Sometimes, it causes lots of misunderstanding or discomfort for the listeners.
Note that we do not have zh、ch、sh、r、x in Cantonese while
in Mandarin there are no ending m (aam, am) p, t, k or initials m and ng or the following finals (added initial g, s, f to make examples):
goe鋸 soeng商 soek削 seoi需 seon詢 seot摔 syu書 syun孫 syut雪, fui 灰(no. It is not the same as ‘ui’ in Pinyin for Mandarin)
Some may want to say the Cantonese Jyutping ’s’ is the same as ‘x’ in Pinyin. No, there is a little difference.
e.g. The Cantonese syun1孫(grandson) is not the same as xun1熏(smoked) in Mandarin
The Cantonese si1gwaa1丝瓜(Luffa) is not the same as xi1gua1西瓜(water melon) in Mandarin
Maybe the subtle difference is hardly noticed for beginners.
Any feedback or correction is welcome.
Please bookmark this series for more updates soon.
We use Jyutping for all examples of Cantonese words, and Pinyin for Mandarin.
Posted in Cantonese, Cantonese-vs-Mandarin, Jyutping, Mandarin, News |
Tags: Cantonese-vs-Mandarin, Jyutping
