#zhongwen
I had been thinking about how wordle works well for english because it has consonant clusters and a wide variety of possible syllables that make it interesting but also narrow-down-able, whereas mandarin decidedly Does Not. I guess to get around that this uses four character phrases. Tricky but at least you might learn a new chengyu regardless :)
If you have a hard time getting yourself to read big chunks in mandarin (or any L2) I suggest comics! Even if you’re not a fan normally! You’ll get more natural language than textbooks but in more manageable bits, and with visual context to help out.
Ray is a series I read in high school but never finished–because apparently it wasn’t all translated into english! So I was excited to find it in mandarin. She’s a surgeon with x-ray eyes, so unsurprisingly I’m picking up some medical vocabulary.
Language practice is hard enough, don’t force yourself to read originally-written-in-chinese work if there’s other things you’re interested in already. You can find scans by searching [title] 漫画. eg: Saint Young Men 漫画 Or depending where you live the library might have some! Especially for graphic novels you might have to find a print version; I found an excerpt of Fun Home so at least I know it was translated. For looots of original comics, the app 快看漫画 is great if a little overwhelming, or this site.
适应 (適應) shìyìng and 习惯 (習慣) xíguàn can both be used to describe adapting to a new things, but they’re not the same!
适应 (適應) shìyìng
V. to adapt, to fit, to suit. This can be about something’s compatibility with a system, a sort of “coming into alignment with” maybe.
适应需要
shìyìng xūyào
meet the requirments (say on a job app)你的思想必须适应变化了的情况。
nǐ de sīxiǎng bìxū shìyìng biànhuàle de qíngkuàng
You need to adapt your thinking to the changed circumstance.
习惯 (習慣) xíguàn
N. habit, custom. (不良习惯 - bad habit) nothing tricky here
V. to accustom to, to get used to. For me this kind of “adapting” feels much more about personal contexts. For example when I was studying abroad people would ask if I had 习惯ed to the city, to the food eg.
他习惯早起。
tā xíguàn zǎoqǐ
He’s used to getting up early.我已经习惯了纽约的生活节奏。
wǒ yǐjīng xíguànle niǔyuē de shēnghuó jiézòu
I’ve already gotten used to the pace of life in New York.
As always the more times you encounter them they will naturally disambiguate themselves, but hopefully this gets you going!
开斋节快乐！kāi zhāi jié kuài lè! Happy Eid!
斋月
zhāi yuè
Ramadan (occasionally 拉马丹 lā mǎ dān）
封斋
fēng zhāi
to fast (she says it’s only for Muslims, but I think she means is it has religious connotations, since it can also be applied to Lent)
This account does a lot of daily life scenarios, sometimes she’ll interview a friend. This Ramadan explainer is a little over-simplified but has some good vocab! (also to note, yes the Hui minority is Muslim, but there are regional differences, and there are also non-Hui Muslim Chinese. for more on ethnic minority definition mess see)
After “After Babel” - Heichi magazine
黑齿 Heichi is a bilingual Chinese-English online magazine, “Heichi neither claims an origin nor pursues lost traditions; it considers alternative perspectives on art’s relation to politics and society, spirituality and technology, the beautiful and the grotesque.”
It’s easy to toggle between the two version, so handy for checking comprehension. Once you get advanced-ish it’s easy to get mired in HSK vocab lists but feel like you /still/ can’t read anything you care about! At some point you have to aim your vocab acquisition for yourself !(•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑
Chinese Zero To Hero made a free short series on famous Chinese poems! They’re from the Tang Dynasty & in Classical Chinese, so this is a nice way to get some guidance (if you’d like something more contemporary they also did a songs series)
Both 東西 (东西) dōngxī and 事兒 (事儿) shì’r translate to “thing,” but the things they apply to don’t actually overlap much! After awhile this is the sort of thing that just “sounds weird” if you mix them up, but until then here’s some tips to keep them separate~
Measure Words 量词
- for 东西 the measure word is 个
- for 事儿 the measure word is 件
Concrete Things/Experiences - 东西
东西 is generally for actual objects, but also extends to abstract things that could be touchable, sorta? hard to explain but let’s try examples
哎呀 那个东西我放在哪儿？
Āiyā nàgè dōngxī wǒ fàng zài nǎ'er?
Where’d I put that thing??
maybe the most common use of dongxi, as the equivalent for “thingy/thingamabob” when you forget the word
今天社会上有很多美好的东西，也有不少丑恶的东西。
jīntiān shèhuì shàng yǒu hěnduō měihǎo de dōngxī, yěyǒu bù shǎo chǒu'è de dōngxī.
There are many nice things as well as ugly things in today’s society.
the “nice things” mentioned here could be enumerated, you could say “the internet” or “air conditioning,” bad “things” could be “the rising cost of housing;” even as abstract nouns they are nouns. What they are not is…
Tasks/Abstract Happenings - 事儿
事儿 applies to tasks, happenings, situations. This is why “有事儿吗?” is “Did something happen/are you ok?” not “Do you have a thing?” It’s also why as a polite way to get out of something you can “不好意思，已经有事儿” as in you already have a commitment/thing to do.
对不起，忘了这件事儿了。
duìbùqǐ, wàngle zhè jiàn shìrle.
Sorry, I forgot about that. (say if your supervisor asked you to do something)
今天我忙死了！得做很多事儿！
jīntiān wǒ máng sǐle! Děi zuò hěnduō shì er!
I’m so busy today! I have to do so many things!
现在那件事还好吗？
xiànzài nà jiàn shì hái hǎo ma?
Did the matter get sorted out?
I hope that separated them out decently. The idea for this post came from flipping through 汉语常用近义词语辨析 Common Chinese Synonyms Discriminated if this is something you’d like more of (or hmu) !(•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑
A selection of bilingual interviews with African-Chinese people (非裔 fēiyì : of African decent). It’s very, “look at these accomplished African-Chinese citizens, but people say rude things to them online!” which is obviously a tepid, wechat-approved take, but still cool family stories to hear and things. (see also some more recent, material racist happenings)
箱 = xiāng = box, trunk, chest
This one is pretty straightforward, it’s all about boxes or box-like shapes!
行李箱 (xíng li xiāng) is a suitcase, 收件箱 (shōu jiàn xiāng) is your inbox and 蜂箱 (fēng xiāng) is a beehive, or the box with bees. Sometimes, building these words is done very pragmatically, for instance, 烤箱 (kǎo xiāng) is the “roasting box” aka the oven, and 冰箱 (bīng xiāng) is the icebox… aka, the fridge!This sign came from a letter box that my friend Iris shot in Hong Kong. Can you guess how to write letter box? It’s just putting together the characters for letter + box: 信箱 (xìn xiāng). Neat!
a fun blog for typography and hanzi collection~ if you ever want all the Old Dirt on a character throw it into zdic, it’ll even give you oracle bone versions if it has one
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my partner found me a chinese pronoun pin! I think pronoun pins are often more complicated than people like to acknowledge (wearing one at work was a truly grinding ordeal in “how can I attract more microagressions”) and are maybe most helpful for recognizing each other, but still cool!
You’ll see “TA” used online sometimes in ads since they don’t know who “you” are, which even that indicates an understanding that 他 is truly not neutral, and it seems to be generally spreading. 她/它/祂 have a complicated but comparatively recent history.
you can find the pins, and comics!, at Paradise Systems 格物天下
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@sendchinatownlove on insta has made a growing “BLM Dictionary for the Asian American Community,” with terms translated into Mandarin, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, etc. Talking to friends and family across language hurdles can be even more difficult, but it’s as necessary as ever with this kind of violence as a global issue
ally - 盟友 (méngyǒu)
Black Lives Matter - 黑命无价 (hēi mìng wú jià) [lit. Black lives have no price]
bias - 偏見 (piān jiàn)
complacent - 自滿 (zì mǎn)
injustice - 不公正 (bù gōng zhèng)
marginalized - 边缘化的 (biān yuán huà de)
privilege - 特权 (tè quán)
protest - 抗议 (kàng yì)
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葛蘭 Ge Lan (also known Grace Chang) - 教我如何不想她 “Teach me how not to miss her” (originally a poem by Luo Zhihai)
This video (1962) is a great example of global music flows! (wait for it) Ge Lan was born in Nanjing and trained in classical Beijing Opera, and later moved to Hong Kong and began starring in movies. Port cities are natural circulation points, and many of the record labels of 30s Shanghai also moved to Hong Kong with the rise of the CCP.
If you are interested in digging deeper, there’s Circuit Listening: Chinese Popular Music in the Global 1960s and Yellow Music: Media Culture and Colonial Modernity in the Chinese Jazz Age.I heard about this video through this great music newsletter.
How to compare in Chinese. Grammar
Since we use comparisons a lot in both conversation and writing, I’ve decided to to tell you about this grammar.
The basic structure for comparison 比 bǐ is
A + 比 + B + Adjective
For example:
- 我哥哥(A) 比 我(B) 高(Adj)。(My older brother is taller than me.)
- 这个公园(A) 比 那个公园(B) 漂亮(Adj)。(This park is prettier than that park.)
But in the real conversation, we may add more details when we compare.
You can add “degree,” like:
- “Wow! This one is MUCH bigger than that one.”
- “I am just A LITTLE shorter than him.”
- “He is 4 years older than me.”
You can add “degree” in the end of the sentence. So the structure is:
A + 比 + B + Adj. + Degree
For example:
- 我哥哥(A) 比 我(B) 高(Adjective) 得多(Degree)。(My older brother is taller than me.)
- 我哥哥(A) 比 我(B) 高(Adjective) 五公分(Degree)。(My older brother is 5 centimeters taller than me.)
You also can add “even more” when you would like to compare 3 things. So the structure is:
C + 比 + A + 更/还 + Adj.
For example:
- 我哥哥(A) 比 我(B) 高(Adjective), 我爸爸© 比 我哥哥(A) 更(even more) 高(adjective)。
Weather vocabulary
Left:Simplified version
Right:Traditional version
The adverb 都 (dōu) is used to express “all” in Chinese. It’s common to use 都 (dōu) in a variety of sentences where it would seem unnecessary in English.
Remember that 都 (dōu) appears after the subject. A common mistake learners make is to put 都 (dōu) at the beginning of the sentence (as “all” often appears there in English). This isn’t good Chinese - make sure you put 都 (dōu) after the subject and before the verb.
Structure:Subj. + 都 + [Verb Phrase]
Examples:
Since it is an adverb, 也 (yě) is inserted after the subject, before the verb or verb phrase.
Structure:Subj. + 也 + Verb / [Verb Phrase]
Examples:
In Chinese, regardless of whether the sentence is positive (“I like them too”) or negative (“I don’t like them either”), 也 (yě) is used the same way. Just make sure you put the 也 (yě) before the 不 (bù) or other negative part that comes before the verb.
也 (yě) with Adjectives:
也 (yě) can also be used with adjectives. Remember that for simple “noun + adjective” sentences you normally need to include an adverb like 很 (hěn) before the adjective. In that case, just put the 也 (yě) before the adverb.
Structure:Subj. + 也 (+ Adv.) + Adj.
I’m trying to post more this summer, so here’s another Mandopop vocab list. I’ve seriously been seeing some of these words pop up EVERYWHERE. I guess it’s the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon?
- 姿态 zītài - attitude / posture / stance
我们都讨厌她傲慢的姿态。 - 不知不觉 bùzhībùjué - unconsciously / unwittingly
不知不觉已过了三个月。 - 暧昧 àimèi - vague / ambiguous / equivocal / dubious
她与一个已婚男人的关系有些暧昧。 - 放纵 fàngzòng - to indulge / to pamper / to connive at / permissive / indulgent / self-indulgent / unrestrained / undisciplined / uncultured / boorish
我们偶尔都会放纵一下自己。 - 背叛 bèipàn - to betray
这种背叛严重伤害了我。 - 牵挂 qiānguà - to worry about / to be concerned about
好好学习，家里的事不用牵挂。 - 优先 yōuxiān - to have priority / to take precedence
我总是优先考虑我的孩子们。 - 忍耐 rěnnài - to endure / to bear with / to exercise patience / to restrain oneself / patience / endurance
我的忍耐是有限度的。 - 漫无目的 mànwúmùdì - aimless / at random
他过着一种漫无目的的生活。 - 闪烁 shǎnshuò - flickering / twinkling / evasive / vague (of speech)
她的眼睛里闪烁着喜悦的泪花。 - 坦白 tǎnbái - honest / forthcoming / to confess
坦白地说，我根本不在乎。 - 不配 búpèi - unworthy / unsuitable / not fitting
这袜子的颜色和鞋子不配。 - 退路 tuìlù - a way out / a way to retreat / leeway
我们到了没有退路的地步。 - 脸孔 liǎnkǒng - face
我还记得那些名字、那些脸孔。 - 不闻不问 bùwénbúwèn - to show no interest in sth / uncritical / not in the least concerned
她对这件事情完全不闻不问。 - 空白 kòngbái - blank space
我脑子突然一片空白。 - 标本 biāoběn - specimen / sample / the root cause and symptoms of a disease
苏州园林是中国园林的标本。 - 坐立不安 zuòlìbùān - agitated sitting or standing / restless / fidgety
都半夜了，儿子还不回家，母亲坐立不安。 - 无所事事 wúsuǒshìshì to have nothing to do / to idle one’s time away
孩子在家一整天都无所事事。 - 着迷 zháomí - to be fascinated / to be captivated
老爷爷的故事让孩子们听得着迷了。
These words are so fun to me! They are truly just fun to say. There are also A TON of words with this ABB pattern, so I’m only listing 20 that I’m familiar with. Please enjoy them :)
- 空荡荡 kōngdàngdàng - absolutely empty / complete vacuum
- 孤零零 gūlínglíng - lone / isolated and without help / all alone / solitary
- 毛茸茸 máorōngrōng or máoróngróng - hairy / shaggy
- 肉乎乎 ròuhūhū - plump / fleshy
- 阴森森 yīnsēnsēn - gloomy / gruesome / ghastly
- 热腾腾 rèténgténg or rètēngtēng - steaming hot / bustling / hectic / excited / stirred up
- 阴沉沉 yīnchénchén - dark (weather, mood)
- 香喷喷 xiāngpēnpēn - delicious / savory
- 空洞洞 kōngdòngdòng - empty / deserted
- 赤裸裸 chìluǒluǒ - bare / naked / plain / undisguised / unadorned
- 笑盈盈 xiàoyíngyíng - smilingly / to be all smiles
- 眼睁睁 yǎnzhēngzhēng - to stare blankly / to look on helplessly / to look on unfeelingly
- 笑嘻嘻 xiàoxīxī - grinning / smiling
- 甜蜜蜜 tiánmìmì - very sweet
- 黑乎乎 hēihūhū - black / blackened / dark / dim / blurry
- 绿葱葱 lǜcōngcōng - green and luxuriant
- 急匆匆 jícōngcōng - hurried / hasty
- 笑眯眯 xiàomīmī - beaming / all smiles
- 湿淋淋 shīlínlín - dripping wet / drenched
- 光闪闪 guāngshǎnshǎn - shiny / gleaming / brilliant
