I’m not going to dive into why—that’s a whole other post. But some of these transliterated names are seriously hard for me to say! And it seems like Chinese fans agree, because they have shorter nicknames for some foreign celebs.
The three celebs I mentioned above each have nicknames. I actually encountered all three nicknames while watching Chinese TV shows recently! So I can confirm that they are really used. Can you tell who is who?
小李子 xiǎolǐzǐ
阿姆 āmǔ
霉霉 méiméi
But where did these nicknames come from? What do they mean?
Leonardo DiCaprio / 小李子
The transliteration above starts with 莱 (lái), but transliterations are not universal. According to what I found online, 李奥纳多 is an alternative transliteration of Leonardo. As an American English speaker, I think this sounds closer to how I say Leonardo. So the nickname 小李子 likely comes from 李奥纳多. 小李子 is certainly much easier to say than 莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥.
Eminem / 阿姆
Interestingly, even though the simplified Chinese Wikipedia page for Eminem is titled 埃米纳姆, the body text uses both 埃米纳姆 and 阿姆. But the traditional version only uses 阿姆. The Baidu page only uses 埃米纳姆. 阿姆 is not only shorter and easier to say, but 阿+syllable is a known nickname structure, so my guess is that’s where 阿姆 came from.
Taylor Swift / 霉霉
According to these 百度知道 comments, Taylor Swift is called 霉霉 because 1) 霉 sounds like 美 and 2) she used to be unlucky when it came to charting on Billboard (霉 in this case as in 倒霉, to have bad luck/be out of luck). I would have guessed it was because she had bad luck in finding love honestly! You’ll have to decided for yourself which origin story you believe.
Lately I’ve been really interested in words that consist of two opposites smashed together, especially those used to mean “A and/or B.” I’m highlighting five of these words that I’ve encountered a lot.
生死 shēngsǐ - life or death 我当时知道生死就是一瞬间的事情。
去留 qùliú - going or staying 投票结果会决定选手的去留。
成败 chéngbài - success or failure 这项计划的成败取决于你。
真伪 zhēnwěi - true or bogus / authenticity 在缺乏知识经验的情况下，普通人应该如何分辨信息的真伪？
输赢 shūyíng - win or loss / outcome 我并不在意这场比赛的输赢。
Aren’t these words neat? I can’t wait to add more to my vocabulary!
The past couple years I’ve been taking efforts to expose myself to traditional characters. But after 12+ years of primarily being exposed to simplified characters, the adjustment process is difficult. Let’s look at some characters that have made my life a bit more frustrating or that I’m thankful I never had to handwrite in Chinese classes!
NOTE: My intention with this post is not to disrespect traditional characters. Sometimes I find that traditional characters are more beautiful! And even though I use simplified characters, I have family members who use traditional. My goal is simply to poke fun at myself and my struggles :-)
丰 / 豐 - This traditional character probably isn’t that hard to write, but I know from writing 幽默的幽 that I am not good at writing characters where there are elements inside the 山 component.
边 / 邊 - I was explaining the difference between simplified and traditional characters to someone. They asked me if I could write any traditional characters. I said that I probably could. I decided to try writing 邊. I soon realized I had literally no idea how to write it. 邊 and I are enemies now.
龟 / 龜 - I know a lot of people love this traditional character, but I butchered it so badly when my Chinese teacher made try to write it on the whiteboard. It haunts me to this day. I thought I understood strokes and stroke order well, but I look at 龜 and have no idea what is going on.
忧郁 / 憂鬱 - This doesn’t need an explanation. Writing 憂鬱 will make you 非常忧郁.
体 / 體 - This is a pretty common character, so I am very thankful I can get away with 体 instead of 體. My 骨s already don’t look great. A very thin 骨 would come out much worse.
铁 / 鐵 - In general I don’t like writing characters like 裁, 截, 戴, etc. because I am simply not good at getting the balance right. And the fact that the right side of 鐵 is so compressed/skinny is really just a recipe for disaster.
冲击 / 衝擊 - 6+5 strokes to 15+17 strokes? No way.
昼 / 晝 & 画 / 畫 & 书 / 書 & 划 / 劃 - I mentioned the first three of these in a recent post. I can’t really tell any of the traditional characters apart unless I put on my glasses and hold my face like an inch away from my laptop screen. 劃 is obviously more visually distinct, but I felt it should be grouped with its siblings. 10/10 not a fan.
为 / 為 / 爲 - 为 is so common—I really can’t imagine having to write so. many. strokes. every time I write 因为 or 为了 or whatever.
聋 / 聾 - Just 龙 to 龍 is already a lot. 龍 stacked on top of something else? I would not be able to cope. Poor 耳 will get squished down there!
断 / 斷 & 继 / 繼 - Too many 幺s. Yes, I know 幺 is very simple and only 3 strokes, but I can never manage to write it well! I get the angles wrong, of which I am very ashamed.
艺 / 藝 - I don’t know how to explain it…I just feel like 艺 and 藝 give off really different vibes, you know? So while I don’t have any trouble recognizing 藝 and associating it with 艺, something just feels off.
归 / 歸 - I have noticed that I don’t look how characters that can be divided into a 2x2 grid look, like 毁 for instance. So even though I actually don’t like writing 归 (t also comes out ugly and unbalanced), I don’t like 歸 either.
惊 / 驚 - I am incapable of writing 警 neatly so I just know I would not be able to make 驚 look nice.
飞 / 飛 - This one is not that complicated honestly, but just looking at it, I know 飛 would look so ugly if I tried to write it. I don’t even need to try.
听 / 聽 - I’m sure there is a sensible reason the two forms look so different, but I remember being so bewildering by this pair back in high school. So I’m going back to my roots by including 聽 here.
职识织 / 職識織 - Honestly I don’t think these characters are that bad, but I am incapable of recognizing the traditional versions no matter how often I see them. I really don’t know why. Every time I see them, I feel like I’ve never seen them before in my life.
几 / 幾 &机 / 機 - I remember these were the bane of my existence when I first began familiarizing myself with more traditional characters. I just could not associate 幾 with 几. Also the traditional characters have the 幺 and 戈 elements that we’ve already established I suck at writing.
灵 / 靈 - 3 little 口s in a row is too many for me. It’s good to know your limit, and this is mine.
钥 / 鑰 - This one bugs me because I think the right is the same as the right element of 輪, 論, and 倫 but it’s actually subtly different! And 3 little 口s in a row again!
艳 / 艶豔艷 - As you can see, this character has multiple traditional variants. I don’t think I have ever actually seen the middle one used, but regardless, I’m thankful that I do not have this character in my Chinese name.
卫 / 衛 - This is another traditional character that I hold a grudge against because I am simply incapable of remembering that 衛 is 卫. I think it’s because 衛 makes me think of 伟/偉, and 伟 obviously doesn’t look like 卫, so I can’t make the connection.
党 / 黨 - I know there is simply no way I could write this and have it fit in a square. It would come out like double the height it’s supposed to be. I can’t write 墨 well for my life either.
盐 / 鹽 - There’s a lovely song by 沈以诚 with this character as the title. It took me so long to realize what the title was because 鹽 displays so tiny on my computer that I couldn’t see the detail well enough to draw the character in Pleco!
单 / 單 - I am okay with 2 口s in a row, and I don’t mind 骂 for instance. But for some reason when I look at 單, it feels like the 口s are going to squish the bottom part!
Bonus: I thought it would only be fair to mention some simplified characters that I am not a fan of. My top pick is this group:
头 / 頭
实 / 實
买 / 買
卖 / 賣
读 / 讀
续 / 續
Whenever I write 头, it honestly looks so bad and unbalanced. I would prefer that the simplified versions of these characters be more faithful to the traditional versions just so I wouldn’t have to look at my ugly 头s!
Over my years of studying Chinese, I’ve encountered many familiar characters in unfamiliar situations. Basically, when I originally learned a character, I only learned one or some of its possible meanings. Then later down the line, I encountered the same character but with a meaning that I hadn’t learned. Confusion ensued. Then I pulled up Pleco or MDBG, and all became clear!
Let’s go down memory lane and look at some of the characters that have perplexed me over the years.
同款 tóngkuǎn - similar (model) / merchandise similar to that used by a celebrity etc
Recently I’ve seen a lot of ads with the word 同款. I was quite confused because I thought 款 had to do with money, like in 贷款 or 捐款. After looking up 款, everything made sense—the ads I saw were advertising a service where you can buy clothing that your favorite celebs wear!
款 kuǎn - section / paragraph / funds / classifier for versions or models (of a product)
疼惜 téngxī - to cherish / to dote on 疼爱 téngài - to love dearly
Before encountering these words, I was only familiar with 疼 from words like 头疼 and 疼痛, which have to do with pain. So you can imagine my confusion when I saw “cherish” as the definition for 疼惜! I find it interesting how this character has both a very positive and a very negative meaning.
疼 téng - (it) hurts / sore / to love dearly
告别 gàobié - to leave / to bid farewell to / to say good-bye to 离别 líbié - to leave (on a long journey) / to part from sb
I knew a lot of words with 别, but none with the meaning of leave/depart…even though that is the first definition listed in MDBG! Even to this day, when I see the expression 别来无恙, it takes me a sec to remember what 别 means in there.
别 bié - to leave / to depart / to separate / to distinguish / to classify / other / another / don’t …! / to pin / to stick (sth) in / (noun suffix) category
发毛 fāmáo - to be scared / to be panicked
I heard this use of 毛 while watching Chinese-language TV. I instantly looked up 毛 in Pleco because the meanings of 毛 I knew made no sense in the contexts of the scene. I’ve been able to remember this new (to me) meaning of 毛 thanks to the chengyu 毛骨悚然.
毛 máo - hair / feather / down / wool / mildew / mold / coarse or semifinished / young / raw / careless / unthinking / nervous / scared / (of currency) to devalue or depreciate / classifier for Chinese fractional monetary unit
说道 shuōdào - to state / to say (the quoted words) 问道 wèndào - to ask the way / to ask
I was so bewildered when I first saw 道 used like this—even though I knew many, many words with 道 that were diverse in meaning. Now I see this kind of 道 a lot when I’m reading, so I’m confident that you will encounter it sooner or later.
道 dào - road / path / principle / truth / morality / reason / skill / method / Dao (of Daoism) / to say / to speak / to talk / classifier for long thin things (rivers, cracks etc), barriers (walls, doors etc), questions (in an exam etc), commands, courses in a meal, steps in a process / (old) circuit (administrative division)
花光 huāguāng - to spend all one’s money 不光 bùguāng - not the only one / not only
Here there are two new meanings of 光 that I remember learning. For the “use up” meaning, 花光, 用光, and 吃光 seem to be the most common uses. As for the “only" meaning, I hear 不光 all the time now. It’s definitely super useful to know.
光 guāng - light / ray / bright / only / merely / to use up
理睬 lǐcǎi - to heed / to pay attention to 不理 bùlǐ - to refuse to acknowledge / to pay no attention to / to take no notice of / to ignore
理 is another character that I encounter constantly in words like 理解, 理由, and 处理. I think I first learned the “to pay attention to” meaning from the chengyu 不理不睬. Now I encounter and use 不理 really frequently!
理 lǐ - texture / grain (of wood) / inner essence / intrinsic order / reason / logic / truth / science / natural science (esp. physics) / to manage / to pay attention to / to run (affairs) / to handle / to put in order / to tidy up
Here is another example of “what? How did this character acquire both these definitions?” At least I have not had much trouble with remembering this meaning of 皮. I think I learned 顽皮 first, but I feel like I hear 调皮 more.
往事 wǎngshì - past events / former happenings 过往 guòwǎng - to come and go / to have friendly relations with / in the past / previous
过往 is a very tricky word for me because I have trouble remembering the in the past/previous definition. After so many years of only using 往 for things like 往前走, I have struggled to learn words like 来往 and 交往. So another definition of 往 is kind of too much for me I guess!
往 wǎng - to go (in a direction) / to / towards / (of a train) bound for / past / previous
被子 bèizi - quilt / CL: 床
I remember learning 被子 in Chinese classes and being surprised to see that 被 could mean quilt. But it would not stick in my memory, so I was constantly failing to recall 被子 while doing Anki. Fortunately, thanks to the song 红色高跟鞋 by 蔡健雅, I will never struggle to remember 被子 again.
被 bèi - quilt / by / (indicates passive-voice clauses) / (literary) to cover / to meet with
This one really gets to me because I feel like “deficit” and “luckily” are so, so opposite. There must be an interesting explanation for how 亏 ended up with both these meanings. I still have trouble remembering what 幸亏 and 多亏 actually mean.
不服 bùfú - not to accept sth / to want to have sth overruled or changed / to refuse to obey or comply / to refuse to accept as final / to remain unconvinced by / not to give in to 服从 fúcóng - to obey (an order) / to comply / to defer 服药 fúyào - to take medicine
I am pretty sure I first encountered this meaning of 服 when I heard the song 《不服》 performed by 汪苏泷 and some of the trainees on 青春有你2. I was very confused by it. Even after seeing the dictionary definitions, I struggled to understand how to use the word 不服. It simply took lots more exposure for me to grasp it. 服 as in 服药 still trips me up to this day. I’ve kind of given up on trying to remember it.
服 fú - clothes / dress / garment / to serve (in the military, a prison sentence etc) / to obey / to be convinced (by an argument) / to convince / to admire / to acclimatize / to take (medicine) / mourning clothes / to wear mourning clothes
输入 shūrù - to import / to input 运输 yùnshū - to transport / to carry / transportation
I felt borderline betrayed upon learning the word 运输. I felt like 输 was cheating on its partner 赢! I was also really confused at the time because I had no idea what “to lose” had to do “transportation” haha. I’ve come to accept 输入 simply because I see it so much that it’s become very normal to me.
输 shū - to lose / to transport / to donate / to enter (a password)
领取 lǐngqǔ - to receive / to draw / to get
I “learned” 领取 in Chinese class a couple years ago, but it never stuck for me. Then I saw 领 in the contexts of something like 领奖项. I was confused and looked up 领 in the dictionary. Then I had an ohhhh moment. Now I’m finally able to remember 领取!
领 lǐng - neck / collar / to lead / to receive / classifier for clothes, mats, screens etc
拼命 pīnmìng - to do one’s utmost / with all one’s might / at all costs / (to work or fight) as if one’s life depends on it
From 拼音 and 拼写 to 拼命! It’s a pretty jarring difference to be honest! But idol survival shows (which I watch too many of) include 拼 or 拼命 A LOT, so I’ve gotten used to it.
拼 pīn - to piece together / to join together / to stake all / adventurous / at the risk of one’s life / to spell
I’ve seen a lot of posts floating around in the Chinese teaching/learning scene about similar characters like 己 & 已 and 未 & 末. But these posts never seem to include the characters that I have the most difficulty with! So I made my own :)
Note: Some of these characters don’t look similar if you use traditional characters, but I primarily use simplified.
怒 nù - anger / fury / flourishing / vigorous 恕 shù - to forgive This is an example of one-way confusion. I learned 恕 as part of the phrase 恕我直言, but now, whenever I see 恕 I think it’s 怒 at first. But never the other way around.
拨 bō - to push aside with the hand, foot, a stick etc / to dial / to allocate / to set aside (money) / to poke (the fire) / to pluck (a string instrument) / to turn round / classifier: group, batch 拔 bá - to pull up / to pull out / to draw out by suction / to select / to pick / to stand out (above level) / to surpass / to seize In class once I wrote what I thought was 拔 on the board…it was 拨. I was very embarrassed. These two always trip me up! They are by far my least favorite duo on this list.
苛 kē - severe / exacting 苟 gǒu - if / supposing / careless / negligent / temporarily / surname Gou For some reason I am most embarrassed about confusing these two. I think it’s because when I look closely and carefully, they don’t seem that similar. But if I am not looking closely and carefully, they cause confusion.
茶 chá - tea / tea plant 荼 tú - thistle / common sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus) / bitter (taste) / cruel / flowering grass in profusion I saw a chengyu with 荼 (如火如荼) and totally thought it was 茶. I was so shocked when I realized otherwise! I guess the chengyu wouldn’t make much sense with 茶…oh well.
竟 jìng - unexpectedly / actually / to go so far as to / indeed 竞 jìng - to compete / to contend / to struggle On the bright side, since these two characters are pronounced exactly the same, at least you don’t really have to worry about that aspect. The big issue would just be writing the wrong one.
丰 fēng - abundant / plentiful / fertile / plump / great / surname Feng 韦 wéi - soft leather / surname Wei These characters are both last names, so watch out. You wouldn’t want to misread 韦礼安 as 丰礼安 or something.
暧 ài - (of daylight) dim / obscure / clandestine / dubious 暖 nuǎn - warm / to warm These two really give me a headache. I need my glasses to tell them apart! They look a bit more distinct in traditional, but I still managed to think 暧/曖 by 孙盛希 was called 暖 for a solid month or so.
呜 wū - (onom.) for humming or whimpering 鸣 míng - to cry (of birds, animals and insects) / to make a sound / to voice (one’s gratitude, grievance etc) I don’t really have an issue with 鸟 and 乌, but for some reason 鸣 and 呜 trip me up. I might need my glasses for them too haha.
妹 mèi - younger sister 姝 shū - pretty woman I’ve seen both these characters in names. Except I thought 姝 was 妹. I blame 张惠妹! I think for the rest of my life I’ll be paranoid about saying someone’s name incorrectly due to these two.
廷 tíng - palace courtyard 延 yán - to prolong / to extend / to delay / surname Yan I don’t actually know any words with 廷, but it can be used in names. In my experience, it’s especially common in Taiwan. But I have also seen 延 in names, so sometimes I have do a double take.
Honorable mention: 昼/晝 zhòu - daytime 画/畫 huà - to draw / picture / painting 书/書 shū - book / letter / document / to write Whenever I read something in traditional Chinese, these triplets are the bane of my existence. I’ve given up on trying to distinguish them and just guess from context instead. People use use traditional, how do you do it?
The Most Satisfying Feeling I Get from Learning Chinese
One of the most satisfying feelings I’ve experienced in learning Chinese is the feeling I get after hearing a new word and just *understanding* it. This isn’t that hard when reading (and that’s why we love 汉字), but when it comes to listening, it’s a whole different story. So the moments when I’ve heard a new word and intuitively known what 汉字 it consists of plus its meaning of have made me feel so accomplished. Over time I’ve jotted down some of these words, and I thought they would make a fun post.
迷失 míshī - to lose (one’s bearings) / to get lost I was able to understand this word thanks to knowing words like 迷路, 迷茫, 失去, and 消失. I first remember identifying this word in Escape Plan’s song 夜空中最亮的星.
旅途 lǚtú - journey / trip I know a lot of words with 旅 like 旅游, 旅行, and 旅程, and I was also familiar with 途 via 路途 and 前途. So 旅途 was very easy for me to understand.
心愿 xīnyuàn - cherished desire / dream / craving / wish / aspiration 心愿 is similar in meaning to 愿望 and 意愿, which I already knew. I believe I first heard this word in the song 有点甜 by 汪苏泷 and BY2.
高傲 gāo'ào - arrogant / haughty / proud I heard this word in the song 寻宝 by 沈以诚. I’ve listened to this song many times, and one day it just clicked! It’s all thanks to the similar words 骄傲 and 傲慢.
安稳 ānwěn - smooth and steady There are so many words with 安 like 安定 and 平安. I also know some 稳 words, such as 稳定 and 平稳. So I was able to put two and two together for 安稳.
还原 huányuán - to restore to the original state / to reconstruct (an event) The meaning of 还 here is very familiar from 还给 and 还清. Also, I know a lot of words with 原: 原来, 原本, 原始, 原先.
选拔 xuǎnbá - to select the best There are so many 选 words I see all the time like 精选, 选举, and 选择. I also know 拔 from 拔苗助长 and 自拔, so I was able to piece together the overall meaning of 选拔.
解压 jiěyā - to relieve stress I’ve already learned the word 缓解 which is related in meaning. Also, I’ve learned 施压 (or 施加压力), which is basically the opposite of 解压.
感人 gǎnrén - touching / moving I think this word is pretty easy to put together if you know similar words like 感染, 感动, and 动人.
认输 rènshū - to concede / to admit defeat I distinctly remember hearing this word in the Tanya Chua song 救生圈. I think I was able to understand it thanks to knowing that 认 can mean to admit like in the words 承认 and 公认.
Here’s to many more of these satisfying moments in 2022!
Since making this post, I’ve been taking note of other instances. Below are 15 more words I was able to get from hearing alone.
离散 lísàn - (of family members) separated from one another / scattered about / dispersed Of course, I know many words with 离, such as 离开 and 脱离. I also know some words containing 散, like 分散 and 散发. So it’s not a big leap to figure out what 离散 means.
星体 xīngtǐ - celestial body (planet, satellite etc) I was able to guess the meaning of 星体 because I am already familiar with 星球, which has a very similar meaning. I know it from Star Wars, aka 星球大战! But 星体 is from the EXO-C version of History.
堆积 duījī - to pile up / to heap / accumulation I basically understand 堆积 as 堆满 plus 累积. These are two words which I’ve learned previously.
魅惑 mèihuò - to entice / to charm Here’s another example where I know two similar words that I can essentially “combine” to get 魅惑. The words I already knew are 魅力 and 诱惑.
插播 chābō - to interrupt (a radio or TV program) with a commercial insert, breaking news etc / to put a call on hold I know 播 from words like 广播 and 播放. I also know 插 primarily from the expression 插一句. And thanks to the context (I heard 插播 used while watching a Chinese TV show), I was able to put two and two together.
杂乱 záluàn - in a mess / in a jumble / chaotic 乱 is such a common character, I see it all the time. As for 杂, I know the word 嘈杂, and my brain seemed to think that was somehow similar, and I guess I was right? There aren’t many characters pronounced za after all.
掩埋 yǎnmái - to bury 埋 is a 多音字, and I know the mái reading from the word 埋葬. I don’t know 掩 as well, but I’ve encountered the word 掩盖, so I was able to guess that the yan I was hearing was probably 掩.
期盼 qīpàn - hope and expectation / to anticipate / to look forward to / to await expectantly 期盼 is very similar to the words 期望 and 盼望. I hear 期望 all the time. 盼望 is not a word I encounter as often, but I’m familiar enough with it.
任一 rènyī - any / either Don’t quote me on this, but I understand 任一 as essentially meaning 任何一个. They at least seem to be interchangeable in the contexts I’ve heard 任一 in so far. I either heard it in 青春有你3 or 创造营2021, I can’t remember.
见证 jiànzhèng - to be witness to / witness / evidence I already knew 证据, meaning proof or evidence, and I was vaguely aware of 证 being used in other words having to do with evidence and witnessing.
打散 dǎsàn - to scatter / to break sth up / to beat (an egg) Not gonna lie, I wouldn’t have guessed the beat an egg meaning, but I was able to approximate the other meaning(s). There are so many words starting with 打, so it’s a familiar structure.
支撑 zhīchēng - to prop up / to support / strut / brace If you watch the 创造营 series, you have heard the words 支持 and 撑腰 about five million times: party girl之道 姐妹为你撑腰~ 支撑 is very similar in meaning.
自律 zìlǜ - self-discipline / self-regulation / autonomy (ethics) / autonomic (physiology) I kinda know the word 纪律, meaning discipline. I think being familiar with how 自 is used in words like 自卫, 自学, etc. helped as well.
方位 fāngwèi - direction / points of the compass / bearing / position I think I heard this word in a song, but I can’t remember what song at the moment. I connected it to the words 方向 and 位置. And 百科 defines 方位 as 方向位置, so I was spot on!
停歇 tíngxiē - to stop for a rest I know many words containing 停, including 停止, 停留, and 暂停. I don’t think I actually know many words with 歇, but I was aware of its dictionary definition for some reason. Must have looked it up at some point.
Too many of these are from survival shows…I guess that shows that I am learning from them!
I’ve been trying (admittedly not very hard) to read a full book in Chinese for a couple years now. I think I’ve tried 2 or 3 times? Well now I’m trying again with the book 《少女哪吒》 by 绿妖 (Shàonǚ Nézhā by Lǜ Yāo). I’m posting this in hopes that it will help hold me accountable so I actually finish this book!
Why have I picked this book?
It’s only about 200 pages long
The pages are physically small, and the text isn’t dense
It’s a short story collection
At least so far, the stories are slice of life and set in recent times
From my past attempts at reading a book, I know that I’ll feel discouraged if it’s taking me forever to get through a page. Also, I’m hoping that having six short stories ensures I don’t get bored or bogged down. Lastly, I didn’t want to make things harder for myself by picking a historical or fantasy novel.
One thing that I struggle with with reading in Chinese is resisting the urge to use Pleco. The problem is when I encounter characters that I don’t know. I can guess the pronunciation of course, but I can’t stand the thought of being wrong and then “learning” an incorrect pronunciation! I don’t mind guessing the meanings of new words if I recognize the characters (I try to just look up those words if I’m getting confused or if they repeat a lot so I want to learn them better). But I just don’t see myself ever being able to resist the urge to look up unknown characters! I’ve tried not looking them up and always end up going back after because I can’t take it. Wish me luck~
Recently I was doing a little light research on the rarest syllables in Chinese.* I discovered that I didn’t know any characters for some of the rare syllables I found, so I started wondering what syllables are the most common and the rarest in my vocabulary. I decided to undertake the unnecessary task of chronicling how many characters I know for each possible Chinese syllable.**
There are apparently 400+ possible Chinese syllables, and I only have so much time, so I’m sure I missed a character that I know here or there. However, the top 5 most common syllables (which I’m showing below) had a substantial lead over #6, so I’m fairly confident they are my true top 5. And for all the syllables presented below, I checked MDBG to confirm I wasn’t forgetting any characters.
*Rare in this case meaning how many characters exist for a syllable, not how often a syllable is used in the language. The latter would be an interesting but very different question. Also, I’m not taking into account tones here, and I am only considering simplified characters.
**I don’t have a perfect definition for what characters I “know.” I basically tried to include only characters I’m fairly confident I can write. There are definitely more characters out there that I recognize, but I didn’t want to include any that I believe I can’t read correctly out of context. I was a little more liberal for the rare category though.
I was not surprised to see yi, ji, qi, and shi make the top 5. That lion-poet-rock verse exists for a reason, and I feel like yi, ji, and qi are just everywhere. Yu was a bit of a surprise, but it makes sense since I like to research Chinese names, and a lot of the characters I listed for yu are used in names.
Rarest
For the sake of brevity, I’m only showing 25 syllables max for each category. There were simply too many for me to list them all.
First are syllables for which I only know 2 characters:
ang：昂、肮
cang：藏、苍
ceng：曾、层
gen：跟、根
geng：更、庚
gun：滚、棍
hei：黑、嘿
ken：肯、恳
kuan：款、宽
niang：娘、酿
pen：喷、盆
qun：群、裙
re：热、惹
reng：仍、扔
rou：肉、柔
ruan：阮、软
ruo：若、弱
sai：赛、塞
shua：刷、耍
sun：孙、损
te：特、忑
wai：外、歪
zhua：抓、爪
zhui：追、坠
zun：尊、遵
Next are syllables for which I only know 1 character:
ca：擦
cen：岑
dei：得
diu：丢
fo：佛
fou：否
gei：给
luan：乱
lve：略
nen：嫩
neng：能
nin：您
nuan：暖
nv：女
nve：虐
qia：恰
ri：日
run：润
sen：森
shei：谁
shuan：拴
tuan：团
weng：翁
zen：怎
zhuai：拽
What I find really interesting is how some of the syllables above are ones I encounter all the time while others are ones I only even heard relatively recently. For instance, I was a bit surprised that I only know one character each for luan and nv. I guess since 乱 and 女 are very commonplace, I feel like those syllables are everywhere, and it never occurred to me that I only know one luan and one nv character. But I remember furrowing my brow when I first learned 拴 and 虐. They feel unnatural to say honestly! I have to think about it for a sec.
Lastly, here are syllables for which I didn’t know any characters.
chua
chuai
chuo
cou
cuan
den
dia
ei
kei
keng
nou
pou
seng
zei
zuan
Some of these definitely elicited a “what? This is a legit Chinese syllable?” reaction from me. When I think about it more carefully, it makes sense that some, like chuo, exist. After all, I encounter zhuo and shuo all the time. But since I’ve never heard chuo, I guess it surprises me! Zei and dia strike me as the most unusual. Were you surprised by any of the syllables on this list?
If you’re interested in learning about the rarest syllables in general (not for me specifically), here’s some of the stuff I read:
I looked back at my blog archive and was surprised to see that my last music recommendations post was in November 2020—almost a year ago! Well I did have my Mandarin Music March challenge, but I’m not counting that. Here’s an update on what I’ve been listening to the last 6 months or so.
蔡健雅 / Tanya Chua I have included Tanya Chua in past recommendation posts and featured a few of her songs on my blog, but I’ve been listening to her constantly this year, so I wanted to highlight her amazing music again. I am not a huge ballad/slow song fan, but I love hers. And she does great upbeat pop songs too. Favorite album: 双栖动物（2005） Favorite songs: 原谅、达尔文、坐立不安、无底洞、生锈游乐场
沈以诚 / Eason Shen Have you ever wondered what country-inspired Mandopop would sound like? Well you can find out right now. I discovered Eason Shen during my August challenge. He also has more typical pop songs, from slow and calm to uptempo to soulful. Favorite album: 玩家（2020） Favorite songs: 牛仔、寻宝、巴赫旧约（翻唱）、15楼窗外、形容 *First two songs are the ones with country influence.
林宥嘉 / Yoga Lin Yoga Lin is another artist I’d heard of but overlooked for whatever reason. I checked out one of his albums during my August music challenge and instantly fell in love. He’s already become one of my top 10 most played artists of 2021. I would describe a lot of his music as pop rock. Favorite album: 大小说家（2012） Favorite songs: 白昼之月、唐人街、感同身受、慢一点、4号病房
莫文蔚 / Karen Mok I made the mistake of not checking out Karen Mok earlier because I assumed most of her music was in Cantonese—she has actually released more Mandarin albums than Cantonese! Her older albums have some great rock-leaning and almost grungy tracks, and I love some of her more recent slow songs. Favorite album: 如果没有你（2006） Favorite songs: 境外、溜溜的情歌、懒得管、薄荷、女朋友的男朋友
张惠妹 / A-Mei A-Mei is a Mandopop legend. She has a very powerful voice that works well for slow, emotional ballads and face-paced rock songs alike. I see her songs covered on various singing shows often as well. I particularly enjoy her more bombastic ballads and the rock tracks from her AMIT albums. Favorite album: 阿米特（2009） Favorite songs: 也许明天、装醉、开门见山、血腥爱情故事、我最亲爱的
徐佳莹 / LaLa Hsu I’ve known about LaLa Hsu for years, but I never explored her music much until more recently. I was pleasantly surprised by the versatility of her voice and the diversity of her discography! It’s been about 4 years since her last album, so I’m hoping she has something in the works. Favorite album: 心里学（2017） Favorite songs: 你敢不敢、到此为止、理想人生、现在不跳舞要干嘛、灰色
陈势安 / Andrew Tan I first heard of Andrew Tan through a cover of his song 天后 by Jeno Liu 刘力扬. Both versions are great, and I recommend you give both a listen. Anyway, Andrew Tan has a very deep, rich voice with a lot of soul. His newest album has some great pop hits that I can’t get out of my head. Favorite album: 唯一想了解的人（2021） Favorite songs: 唯一想了解的人、兜圈、天后、我们都伤、势在必行
田馥甄 / Hebe Tien Hebe is another artist I neglected to check out sooner because I had heard her song 《不醉不会》 years ago and didn’t care for it. However, her latest album really struck a chord with me, so I’ve been going through her discography. She has some fantastic slow, emotional songs and some stuff with more edge too. Favorite album: 无人知晓（2020） Favorite songs: 讽刺的情书、底里歇斯、终身大事、人间烟火、小幸运
李荣浩 / Li Ronghao Watching Li Ronghao on 青春有你3 inspired me to finally check out his music. I definitely get the hype. His style is pretty distinctive (but I honestly don’t think I can describe it well) and he releases a lot of long 4:30-5:00+ minute songs, so he’s not for everyone, but I saved at least a couple songs from all of his albums. Favorite album: 嗯（2017） Favorite songs: 戒烟、不将就、李白、满座、老友谊
陈奕迅 / Eason Chan I’ve just started exploring Eason Chan’s discography, but so far there’s a lot to like. As a Hong Kong singer, he has Cantonese and Mandarin albums (and some albums with both languages), but I’m just sticking to Mandarin for now. I can’t wait to hear more soon! Favorite album (so far): 认了吧（2007） Favorite songs (so far): 烟味、让我留在你身边、快乐男生、放弃治疗、陪你度过漫长岁月
Other songs I’ve been loving:
黑色天空 - 路嘉欣 / Jozie Lu Angsty, brooding, emo perfection.
If you want to travel anywhere in the world for free and meanwhile practise your language skills with native speakers, this website is for you. TalkTalkBnb combines travel and languages to give you the opportunity to learn a language while traveling and meeting new people, totally for free.
Oh, and you can host native speakers of the language of your choice for a full immersion at home!
On this website you can read Grimms’ fairy tales in 18 different languages! (English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Danish, Romanian, Finnish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish and Hungarian)
does anyone else find their grammar getting worse in their native language as they learn more languages?
for example, i’ve always known the difference between their/there/they’re, and i’ve never really understood how people could mix them up, but now i find myself making typos all the time mixing those up even though i know the difference??
2번 책: I believe in a thing called love By Maurene Goo
Here are a few pictures taken from today’s study journal. I read this book back in the beginning of March and really enjoyed it! If you are an avid K-Drama viewer and fan, then I think this book would be perfect for you!
이것은 책 너무 너무 따뜻한과 귀여웠어요! This book was so heart-warming and cute! ❤
The story is about a teenage girl who tries to win the heart of her crush by recreating famous trope scenes that are in K-Dramas! IT’S JUST TOO CUTE! Aggh!
(There are a few trigger warnings to watch out for in this book, so you might want to research the book before reading it, just to make sure that it’s a book that is right for you.)
Sorry about the few article reviews in the last few weeks- just began my first post-coursework semester as a Teaching Associate (whoo got my first mis-titled email addressing me as “Professor…”) and I’m about to head to Budapest to present a paper at the Second International Conference on Sociolinguistics! I’ll be back to reviewing articles in late September, but in the meantime here’s an interesting article about hyper-polyglots (people who speak crazy many languages),and a recipe comparison, of course. Enjoy and wish me luck presenting in Pest!
Much as this article describes a language skill we all wish we could have (i.e. picking up a dozen languages, and being semi-fluent in more dozens), this recipe is a wish-list of decadence: unusual chocolate linguine, chalky goat cheese, and sweet cherries result in a savory-sweet delight. While we may envy hyper-polyglots for their amazing faculty in 11-plus languages, you will be the envy of all who behold you nomming on this pasta. Good Cooking!
Do you know these times when you’re sitting in front of your textbook, trying to learn these boring af vocabs you’ve seen 1000 times but still can’t remember and just wish to do something different (or hoping that the world explodes so you can at least stop)?
Well, there are more ways to learn a language and I think because we just learned how we “should” learn a language at school, we’re limited in creativity. Thanks to school it’s hard to think outside of this “textbook, vocab lists, tests, etc.” stuff but there are ENDLESS things you can do to learn a language.
Remember: everything you do in your native language, you can try to do in your target language!
This is for all the people who are tired and exhausted, who are thinking about quitting or don’t have fun with their target language anymore.
DON’T YOU DARE TO GIVE UP! YOU’VE COME SO FAR!
_____________________________________________
Examples for different ways of learning a language:
write a diary
summarise an article about a topic you like (cooking, fitness, etc.)
listen to a podcast/radio
listen to music (while reading the lyrics)
try to sing along with music
read out loud while reading a book/magazine/blog/etc.
watch movies/series/videos
record videos in your target language or about how studying is going (progress, problems, etc.)
write a blog (well hello there :))
use apps that make it more fun (duolingo, memrise, lingodeer)
chat with native speakers
actually talk to native speakers ( I know what a crazy idea)
read websites about things you’re interested in
use social media only available in your target language
change the language of your smartphone
change the language of your pc
change the language of your life
play games in your target language (like not necessarily for learning it, I mean just playing a normal game IN your target language)
take online lessons with teachers that make you forget you’re learning
do a challenge! (I love this one so much)
find a learning group
be active in forums (no matter about language learning or a forum in your target language)
find a language exchange partner. (You should, seriously.)
watch lessons on youtube
read a (children-)book (with audio)
talk to yourself
think in your target language (a fun way is to tell a story about your life while it’s happening like “I went down the road with a stranger always behind me, who could it be? What does he want? It got quiet… too quiet. I tried to keep calm but was it really a coincidence? All in the middle of nowhere?” I know I’m bad at this but I hope you get what I mean, think of it like reading a book.)
learn vocabs with pictures, type in the word you want to know and ONLY look for pictures, try to feel the word. If you google for “strawberry” (in your target language and don’t know what it means) look at the pictures, the colours, how could it smell? Make a sentence with the new word. When was the last time you ate it? How was it?
Write a story/book online or just for yourself.
Make a mindmap
Use a topic jar (a jar where you put in notes with different topics on it, you take one every day and write/talk about it)
use social media to find groups interested in learning a new language or your target language
translate texts and act like you’re a famous translator who’s the only person on earth who can translate your target language (for example if you’re reading articles about historical stuff, act like you’re the only one who can find out what happened back then and the whole world is counting on you!)
try to solve random online tests
listen to a song/audiobook/whatever and write down what you hear
search for words you want to learn and build up (funny!) sentences with them or even whole stories
read comics/mangas/etc.
search for receipts in your target language and pray to god you’re doing it right… if not, well you won’t forget the vocab again. Win-win situation. :p
search for language learning groups near your living place and actually meet them (stay safe and check everything before)
listen to children songs (I still remember the first children song I learned in English lessons… like… 11 years ago in 5th grade) these songs are supposed to stick… *cough* head shoulders knees and toes knees and toes *cough* sorry where was I?
connect with language learners over Skype (useful groups of course like German trying to learn French, Frenchman trying to learn Turkish, Turk trying to learn German)
write a list (you know… like I do right know so I don’t forget English)
describe things you see (more fun with a partner)
teach your target language to others
listen to audio while sleeping
take notes in your target language (I don’t mean for grammar rules or something like that, I mean notes you would take in your native language anyway)
write a letter (so much better than an e-mail)
write an e-mail (who has time for letters)
learn rimes
learn jokes (it’s also useful for social interaction)
talk to your pets (at least if they listen to you, if I start to talk to my cat she starts yelling into my face)
translate songs and learn the vocab of it so you have more fun listening to it later
think about a topic and write down every word you can think of and then translate them into your target language
Before I begin: sorry for my long break. I’m back and changed my profile picture (in case you have no idea who on earth you are following here) and my template… and also my header for my posts so… you know… everything. But now let’s start. :)
This time I want to make it short, so here are 26 study tips for learning a foreign language.
Study every day. Even if you just study 5 minutes, that’s important for your progress. 17 minutes every day is FAR BETTER than two hours on one day of the week.
Learn the most important 100-300 words.
Use good apps/websites for your target language. Take the time to find out which apps and websites work best for you.
Watch movies, series and videos in your target language. If needed turn on subtitles.
Write a little text every day. For example a diary entry.
IMPORTANT: Practice speaking right from the BEGINNING!
Try to live your language as much as you can. You should do everything you can in your target language. Think about what you do in your native language and then try to do it in the language you want to learn.
Change the language on your social media websites.
Change the language on your smartphone.
Read books for children if normal books are too difficult for you.
Study vocabs you just can’t keep in mind with apps extra for this problem.
Find a chat group in your target language. More people, more fun.
Try to think in your target language, even if you’re quite new to it. For example learn the numbers and use your target language for counting.
Make a plan for learning. (Yeah that came a little bit late lol)
Find out which learning type you are. Seriously don’t skip this. You really, really, really should know that! It will make things so much easier!
Use new words as soon as you can. For example when chatting with your language exchange partner: replace every word you can with your new vocab.
Write a list with big and (IMPORTANT) small goals (!!!)
Listen to music while reading the lyrics, even if you don’t understand it.
Read a book and listen to the audio version of it.
Write a diary in your target language.
Talk to yourself. Who could be more interesting? :p
Write a list with rewards for reaching your goals.
TRACK YOUR PROGRESS! You will need this when hitting a plateau.
Search for apps/websites that are only available in your target language and use them.
Use a calendar with your goals and progress on it.
Use image search for hard vocabs. Try to get a connection to this word.
Done. I hope some of these tips help you. :) PS: Sorry for mistakes but my new notebook marks every English word as wrong.
There is NO hard language, just different ones. Even the hardest language is just average difficult.
As many of you know there are 5 groups of languages for English native speakers based on “how hard” a language is.
With group one being the easiest (languages like Spanish, French, Italian, etc.) to group five including the hardest (like Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.).
But to which group a language belongs can change drastically based on which languages you speak or are interested in.
So let’s take a look at “how hard a language is” when you actually don’t know a single language at all.
When learning their mother tongue, it’s all the same, all around the world. Kids can express themselves in an easy way at the age of 4 to 5. At this point they can tell you stories about what happened during the day, follow commands that include multiple steps (like go brush your teeth, then change clothes, go to bed, etc.) and also strangers should be able to understand what the kid is saying. So the kid is at a level what we would consider fluent but not at a high native speaker level, because it can’t understand complex topics. A kid is starting to actually try talking when it’s around 6 months old.
So as a result we can say if you don’t know any language at all you need around 4 years to learn it in a way, to be conversational. And you have to keep in mind that for the first language kids have the URGE to learn it, because otherwise they don’t “belong” to the group and humans are social animals. They can’t just switch to their native language if they don’t want to learn anymore. If they want to talk to ANY person, they HAVE TO learn their first language. It’s socially necessary and back in time an important step of survival.
So let’s say if you don’t know any other language and have a very important reason for learning one AND are surrounded by it non stop with people trying to talk to you ALL THE TIME, you will need 4 years to be on a decent conversational level.
So if we take a look at the 5 groups of languages, even the hardest ones don’t take adults THAT long.
And adults have the opportunity to have social contact without their target language.
Even if you don’t “need” your target language, people of this language aren’t trying to talk to you all the time and you’re not surrounded by it non stop, adults are able to reach an even higher level as “conversational” in this time span.
So it’s not like the “hardest” group of these language rankings is actually hard, it’s just closer to “learning from scratch” because it’s not closely related to the language you know. And even then you’re still faster than having to learn a language totally from point zero because you already learned how a language in general works.
The result is, the hardest group is more like the normal group and everything else is just “how much faster and easier will it be based on what I already know”.
So don’t scare yourself with stuff like “oh my god, everyone says it’s such a hard language… can I even learn it?”. Yes, you can. You will even learn it faster than native speakers without having the language surrounding you 24/7. If 4 years olds can learn it, every adult can learn it. And it’s NOT(!) a hard language! It’s just harder than the other ones and ONLY(!) because you already have a great advantage when it comes to the other languages. But the level of difficulty, even for the hardest language is actually just “normal”.
And it’s annoying that people keep talking about such called “hard languages”. Theres just an average difficulty and everything else are just extra points you gained through your native language that makes specific languages EASIER for you.
Let’s look at it like that:
With every language you start at 0% (what every kid no matter which language they’ll learn as their native language does).
The closer your target language is to the languages you know, the higher your start percentage is.
For example if you’re Korean learning Japanese, the grammar is quite similar so you already start with 20%.
If you’re Spanish and learn Italian you even have many words in common, so you start with 30%.
(Btw the percentage numbers are just random numbers to show what I mean, they are not fact numbers.)
If you’re Russian you’ll start with 10% when learning German because you already know how cases work.
And so on. It works with EVERY language. If you know genders, cases, conjugation, etc. and your target language includes that, you don’t have to figure out how it works, you already know it. Sure you often have to learn new words for that but it’s not like you have to figure out the system behind that.
So the absolute WORST case could only be to start at 0% (what you probably never will because in the very basic every language is the same, for example trying to talk about a subject, etc. You already know the purpose of a language.) BUT you will NEVER(!) start with minus percent. So stop freaking yourself out. There is no hard language, just a more different system you have to get used to.
It’s not hard if everyone, literally everyone, can learn it. Especially millions of 4 years olds. Don’t give up just because you make mistakes or don’t get the hang of something right away.
Every kid needs around 4 years to speak the absolute same stuff, no matter which language (not including writing system in later years). So all languages have the absolute SAME difficulty when it comes to learning them. It just depends on what you already know, which can make it easier/faster.
Do you know these times when you’re sitting in front of your textbook, trying to learn these boring af vocabs you’ve seen 1000 times but still can’t remember and just wish to do something different (or hoping that the world explodes so you can at least stop)?
Well, there are more ways to learn a language and I think because we just learned how we “should” learn a language at school, we’re limited in creativity. Thanks to school it’s hard to think outside of this “textbook, vocab lists, tests, etc.” stuff but there are ENDLESS things you can do to learn a language. Remember: everything you do in your native language, you can try to do in your target language!
This is for all the people who are tired and exhausted, who are thinking about quitting or don’t have fun with their target language anymore. DON’T YOU DARE TO GIVE UP! YOU’VE COME SO FAR!
_____________________________________________
Examples for different ways of learning a language:
write a diary
summarise an article about a topic you like (cooking, fitness, etc.)
listen to a podcast/radio
listen to music (while reading the lyrics)
try to sing along with music
read out loud while reading a book/magazine/blog/etc.
watch movies/series/videos
record videos in your target language or about how studying is going (progress, problems, etc.)
write a blog (well hello there :))
use apps that make it more fun (duolingo, memrise, lingodeer)
chat with native speakers
actually talk to native speakers ( I know what a crazy idea)
read websites about things you’re interested in
use social media only available in your target language
change the language of your smartphone
change the language of your pc
change the language of your life
play games in your target language (like not necessarily for learning it, I mean just playing a normal game IN your target language)
take online lessons with teachers that make you forget you’re learning
do a challenge! (I love this one so much)
find a learning group
be active in forums (no matter about language learning or a forum in your target language)
find a language exchange partner. (You should, seriously.)
watch lessons on youtube
read a (children-)book (with audio)
talk to yourself
think in your target language (a fun way is to tell a story about your life while it’s happening like “I went down the road with a stranger always behind me, who could it be? What does he want? It got quite… too quite. I tried to keep calm but was it really a coincidence? All in the middle of nowhere?” I know I’m bad at this but I hope you get what I mean, think of it like reading a book.)
learn vocabs with pictures, type in the word you want to know and ONLY look for pictures, try to feel the word. If you google for “strawberry” (in your target language and don’t know what it means) look at the pictures, the colours, how could it smell? Make a sentence with the new word. When was the last time you ate it? How was it?
Write a story/book online or just for yourself.
Make a mindmap
Use a topic jar (a jar where you put in notes with different topics on it, you take one every day and write/talk about it)
use social media to find groups interested in learning a new language or your target language
translate texts and act like you’re a famous translator who’s the only person on earth who can translate your target language (for example if you’re reading articles about historical stuff, act like you’re the only one who can find out what happened back then and the whole world is counting on you!)
try to solve random online tests
listen to a song/audiobook/whatever and write down what you hear
search for words you want to learn and build up (funny!) sentences with them or even whole stories
read comics/mangas/etc.
search for receipts in your target language and pray to god you’re doing it right… if not, well you won’t forget the vocab again. Win-win situation. :p
search for language learning groups near your living place and actually meet them (stay safe and check everything before)
listen to children songs (I still remember the first children song I learned in English lessons… like… 11 years ago in 5th grade) these songs are supposed to stick… *cough* head shoulders knees and toes knees and toes *cough* sorry where was I?
connect with language learners over Skype (useful groups of course like German trying to learn French, Frenchman trying to learn Turkish, Turk trying to learn German)
write a list (you know… like I do right know so I don’t forget English)
describe things you see (more fun with a partner)
teach your target language to others
listen to audio while sleeping
take notes in your target language (I don’t mean for grammar rules or something like that, I mean notes you would take in your native language anyway)
write a letter (so much better than an e-mail)
write an e-mail (who has time for letters)
learn rimes
learn jokes (it’s also useful for social interaction)
talk to your pets (at least if they listen to you, if I start to talk to my cat she starts yelling into my face)
translate songs and learn the vocab of it so you have more fun listening to it later
think about a topic and write down every word you can think of and then translate them into your target language
Self-studying a language is an amazing way to learn, if you’re careful to avoid the pitfalls! Here are the steps I go through when making a study plan:
Step 01: Decide what you want to do and what you can offer (what language(s), how much time/money/energy/etc)
Step 02: Gather resources (decide what type you like best and then research and test)
Step 03: Make S.M.A.R.T goals (follow the guidelines and make good goals that will encourage you)
Step 04: Create your plan (using the 3 steps above and some prompting questions on the guide, form a schedule. Be organized, but stay loose and adaptable)
Step 05: Add some back-up or pressure (find an accountability or tandem partner, add the pressure of a scheduled exam, etc)
Check out the link for more Info on each step + tons of tips and links to resources and other guides!!
Good luck!!! Self-studying a language is not easy, but it’s so rewarding and fun!!!
It is so rewarding and honestly just comforting when a language starts to really feel part of you
Yes! And related: I was just talking to my mom about how satisfying it is to be able to just text or email in a second language with ease… like, wow, I can communicate with people in a completely different language! It’s surreal…
Looking up a technical or very specific word that isn’t in you dictionary or you’re not sure if it’s the correct word to use? It doesn’t always work but try looking up the wiki page in English (or whatever language you feel like) and look at the “this page in other languages” tab (marked by the 文 character on mobile iirc) to see if your target language has the same page. You can also try reading the article to try and learn some related words.
Founded in October Juche 35 (1946), the university is a pedigree establishment for training university lecturers.
It has such faculties as philosophy, history, pedagogy, linguistics, foreign languages, mathematics, physics, life science, chemistry, physioenvironmental science, art, physical culture and sports, and in-service training.
It has over 100 research rooms, labs and skill practice rooms, a library which houses hundreds of thousands of books, a gymnasium, a hall of culture and a publishing house.
