Let’s learn Chinese friends

滑雪 (huá xuě) - skiing

Fun facts: 滑雪 has a history of almost five millennia. Although modern skiing has evolved from beginnings in Scandinavia, it may have been practiced more than 100 centuries ago in what is now China. - Wikipedia

2 August 2019

吉他 (jí tā) - guitar

The word ‘吉他’ is borrowed from the West, and it’s the general name for all kinds of guitars like acoustic and electric, etc. We usually pronounce it as ‘jí ta’ with a natural tone.

31 July 2019

饺子 (jiǎozi) - dumplings

‘饺子’ is the most common Chinese dumpling. It consists of minced meat and finely chopped vegetables wrapped into a piece of dough skin. It’s one of the go-to food for Chinese New Year.

30 July 2019

网球 (wǎng qiú) - tennis

We say ‘打网球 (dǎ wǎng qiú)‘ as ‘play tennis’ in Chinese. However, ‘打‘ literally means ‘hit’.

Fun fact: Federer is my HERO!!! :)

29 July 2019

咖啡 (kā fēi) - coffee

The word ‘咖啡’ is borrowed from the West, and that’s why it has similar pronunciation with ‘coffee’.

Fun fact: ‘coffee’ originally comes from the greek work ‘Kaweh’. (Correct me if I’m wrong, hehe I’m not a coffee pro)

29 July 2019

火锅 (huǒ guō) - hotpot

Although it’s a delicious cuisine enjoyed all over China and around the world, different areas in China actually have their own versions of 火锅, for example 四川 (sì chuān)，重庆 (chóng qìng) and 北京 (běijīng)

24 July 2019

牛油果 (niú yóu guǒ) - avocado

Some people call ‘avocado’ by ‘牛油果 (niú yóu guǒ)’, but also ‘鳄梨(è lí)’

Fun facts:  Avocados are the fruit with the highest protein content, and yes they are a fruit!!

23 July 2019

眼镜 (yǎn jìng) - glasses

We say ‘a pair of glasses’ as ‘一副眼镜’ (yí fù yǎn jìng). But similarly, saying just ‘glasses’ or ’眼镜‘ in a sentence is totally fine.

Fun fact: Wearable eyeglasses can be traced back to Italy around 1284.

书本 (shū běn) - book

Synonyms: 书 (shū), 书籍 (shū jí), 图书 (tú shū)

书籍是人类进步的阶梯 (shū jí shì rén lèi jìn bù de jiē tī) -高尔基 (gāo ěr jī)

Books are the ladder of human progress. -Gorky

苹果 (píng guǒ) - apple

每天一苹果，医生远离我。(měi tiān yì píng guǒ, yī shēng yuǎn lí wǒ)

an apple a day keeps the doctor away　

Correction: 眼睛 (yǎn jing) - eyes

Beautiful but fragile. There’s an saying in Chinese: 眼睛是心灵的窗户 (yǎn jing shì xīn líng de chuāng hu), which means you can look through a man from his eyes. (The sentence is translated literally as ‘Eyes are the windows to your heart’)

社交网络 (shè jiāo wǎng luò) - social network

China has its own social networks apart from the world. QQ, 微信 (WeChat) and 微博 (Weibo) are the most popular ones.

中文 (zhōng wén) - Chinese

Chinese is one of the most spoken languages in the world with a population of over 17 billion using this language.

Chinese characters are the ‘drawing things’ you see when writing, which is ‘中文’ in this post. Pinyin is a tool which is used to help learn and pronounce these characters, which in this case is ‘zhōng wén’. Tones (4 normal tones + 1 special tone) are used in pinyin for each character.