#putonghua

🌸😢📅 Will April still be kind to me? It started off by lying to me on the very first day. // 四月还会对我好吗？它第一天就在骗我。 Sì yuè hái huì duì wǒ hǎo ma? Tā dì yī tiān jiù zài piàn wǒ.

I learnt the word for trash from Mr. Housework, when You Zhangjing and Wang Sulong had a long funny discussion about sorting the recycling, including which kind of garbage they themselves should be sorted with.

photo from wikipedia

"二乔木兰（学名：Magnolia × soulangeana）是木兰科木兰属的植物，分布于中国大陆的广州、杭州、昆明等地[2]，是由玉兰（Magnolia denudata）和紫玉兰（Magnolia liliiflora）自然杂交得到，花朵颜色介于两亲本之间，花被片外面上端为白色，基部呈紫色，花内面白色"

Taken from Wikipedia, translation mine

'erqiao magnolia is a plant in the magnolia genus of the magnolia family; it is distributed over places like guangzhou, hangzhou, and kunming in mainland China. It is obtained as a natural hybrid of yulan (magnolia denudata) and the purple yulan (magnolia liliflora) the flower's colours are situated between those of the two parents; on the outside of the petals' upper edge is white, the base assumes a purple colour, and inside the flower is white.'

I have a decent Mandarin level but right now I'm trying to read more complex or literary texts such as newspapers, novels, or non fiction. Reading Wikipedia is actually a great, easy and accessible way to adjust myself to it. I would love to be able to go to China and visit botanic gardens whilst understanding the language properly and being able to immerse myself in it.

“Mean, Green, and Straight Poured into These Jeans”

Spoilers!

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#1. Nikki looks good 👍🏼

#2. I’m kinda glad that the show let Nikki make this mistake because as an Asian Chinese myself, though I have not directly had an encounter like this, I do have to say that there are a lot of non-Chinese in East Asia who kinda look similar, so sometimes for someone who doesn’t know, they may unintentionally make this same mistake that Nikki made. Which is great because she realized she f’d up when the clerk (who in the credits is identified as Thao Thanh Nguyen, if I’m not mistaken, is a Vietnamese name) is like “I don’t speak Chinese” and she goes “oh god I just spoke Chinese and I offended him”. Which, another point- whoever the dialect coach was, they did a good job on Ginger Gonzaga because she actually said 「我們是警察」, which basically is “we are the police” in Putonghua. She actually said it and pronounced it correctly. Which is really great because the last time the Chinese language got a bit mangled in the MCU was by Ethan Hawke playing Arthur Harrow, and I remember the Director of Moon Knight saying that if there was a next time they’d take better care to not let this accidental mangling happen, so to hear Ginger Gonzaga actually pronounce 「我們是警察」 correctly, that was so good to hear. So props to the dialect coach and props to Marvel 👍🏼

#3. I love them already 😂

Tibetan art students perform a version of Shakespeare's Hamlet in Tibetan language

The Tibetan version of Hamlet is probably the first time a famous Western classic play is performed by young Tibetan artists in their ethnic language, which has created an amazing chemistry with this cultural fusion, Tsering, who plays the role of Hamlet, told the Global Times...

金 = jīn = gold, money, highly respected

300-something words featuring 金, and they’re all shiny and precious! ✨ The first meaning of the caracter is gold, and it’s also associated with terms that are related with money, like finance 金融 (jīn róng), the rent 租金 (zū jīn), a ransom 赎金 (shú jīn) or simply cash 现金 (xiàn jīn). Naturally, it’s also featured in the name of a lot of animals, plants or anything that is golden. 金鱼 (jīn yú) refers to a goldfish, 金橘 (jīn jú) is a kumquat (aka, a golden tangerine), and 金毛狗 (jīn máo gǒu) is a type of dog with golden fur... can you guess?

As for expressions, how about this one, with a very straightforward meaning: 情比金坚 (qíng bǐ jīn jiān), ie, love is more solid than gold.