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Chinese Idioms

Aug 22nd, 2008 | By Rainbow | Category: English

Chinese proverbs have two “layers”. The superficial message becomes obvious immediately. However, as you read it again, you will discover the deeper meanings from within.
Listed below is my selection of the top 10 Chinese proverbs (歇后语/谚语). They show how creative the Chinese philosophers are and explain why the Chinese philosophers are seen as a [...]



歌唱祖国, 北京2008奥林匹克运动会

Aug 15th, 2008 | By Rainbow | Category: 汉语

北京时间8月8日晚上20点,第29届奥林匹克运动会在国家体育场(鸟巢)隆重开幕,全球204个国家和地区的代表团,欢聚在五环旗下实现了奥运史上空前大团聚。
在满座的体育场内,中国国家主席胡锦涛和国际奥林匹克委员会主席Jacques Rogge, 由他们的贵宾席上站立起来向在欢呼的人群挥手。
在悠扬的前奏下, 一名穿红色衣服的小女孩唱响了《歌唱祖国》。中国的升旗典礼经常会以《歌唱祖国》为主题的步操乐曲《歌唱祖国》。这首歌是中国最有名的爱国歌曲。以下是《歌唱祖国》的歌词,你除了可以欣赏到开幕表演的影片,亦能借此中文歌曲学习中文:

歌唱祖国 - Ode to the Motherland
*Wǔxīng hóngqí yíngfēng piāoyáng,
五星红旗迎风飘扬,
shènglì gēshēng duōme xiǎngliàng,
胜利歌声多么响亮,
gēchàng wǒmen qīnài de zǔguó,
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国,
cóngjīn zǒuxiàng fánróng fùqiáng.
从今走向繁荣富强。
Yuèguò gāoshān, yuèguò píngyuán,
越过高山,越过平原,
kuàguò bēnténg de huánghé chángjiāng,
跨过奔腾的黄河长江,
kuānguǎng měilì de tǔdì,
宽广美丽的土地,
shì wǒmen qīnài de jiāxiāng.
是我们亲爱的家乡。
Yīngxióng de rénmín zhàn qĭlai le,
英雄的人民站起来了,
wǒmen tuánjié yǒuài jiānqiáng rú gāng.
我们团结友爱坚强如钢 。
Repeat *
Wǒmen qínláo, wǒmen yŏnggăn,
我们勤劳, 我们勇敢,
dúlì zìyóu shì [...]



Ode to the Motherland, Beijing Olympic Games 2008

Aug 15th, 2008 | By Rainbow | Category: English

The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games began in the National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, in north Beijing at 8 p.m. on Aug 8, 2008.
In the full-packed stadium, President of the People’s Republic of China Hú Jǐntāo and Jacques Rogge, the President of International Olympic Committee, rose from their seats in [...]



China Survival Guide

Aug 5th, 2008 | By Rainbow | Category: English

The 2008 Beijing Olympics will start in three days (8th August, 2008), and some of my friends told me they bought tickets to see the performances live in Beijing. However, they didn’t know a tiny bit of Chinese and are afraid to communicate with the Chinese. Therefore, I tried to teach them a couple of [...]



Chinese Surnames

Aug 1st, 2008 | By Rainbow | Category: English

My colleagues are always so curious about Chinese names and keep on making fun of my surname (吴 wú/ng) as they find the pronunciation “ng” interesting. So let me talk about Chinese surnames in this article. The Chinese surname is very different from a Westerner’s first name.
The Chinese surname is placed before the person’s [...]



中文姓氏

Aug 1st, 2008 | By Rainbow | Category: 汉语

我的外籍同事对于中文名字总是那么好奇,不停地取笑我的中文姓氏(吴) ,因为他们认为“吴“ 的读音非常有趣。好吧,今次让我谈谈中文姓氏吧!
中国人的名字与西方人的名字是非常不同的。中国人的姓氏是放在名字前的, 但是西方人的名字是放在姓氏前的, 刚好相反。例如中文姓名Zhāng Huá Tiān (张华天)和西方名字Kathrin Shorr作比较,’ zhāng ‘ (张)是姓氏而Huá Tiān (华天)是名字,至于西方名字Kathrin 是名字而Shorr是姓氏。
根据一项在2006年发表的研究报告指出,以下是一些出现得最多的中文姓氏。
头20个最常见的中文姓氏(看见自己的姓氏吗?):

李 Lǐ
王 Wáng
张 Zhāng
刘 Liú
陈 Chén
杨 Yáng
黄 Huáng
赵 zhào
周 zhōu
吴Wú (我在第十哦)
徐 Xú
孙 Sūn
朱Zhū
马Mǎ
胡 Hú
郭 Guō
林 Lín
何 Hé
高 Gāo
梁Liáng

_______________________________________________________________
参考: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames



Chinese tongue twister

Jul 25th, 2008 | By Rainbow | Category: English

Tongue twisters are always a very effective and funny way to improve one’s pronunciation.
Since Chinese is a tonal language, this adds another difficulty to the tongue twisters, because they also play around with in the tones while pronunciation eventually stays the same. Here is a popular and quite difficult example:

青青山上一根藤,
qīng qīng shān shàng yī gēn [...]



绕口令

Jul 25th, 2008 | By Rainbow | Category: 汉语

绕口令是一个非常有效和有趣的方式,以改善一个人的发音。由于中文是一个充满高与低音调的语言。因此,中文绕口令比英文绕口令困难。下列是一个相当受欢迎的和困难绕口令, 当我在小学的时候, 我很喜欢跟同学鬥快:
青青山上一根藤,
qīng qīng shān shàng yī gēn téng,
青藤底下挂铜铃,
qīng téng de xià guà tóng líng
风吹藤动铜铃动.
fēng chuī téng dòng tóng líng dòng
不够困难吗?来试试一个更加困难的:
吃葡萄不吐葡萄皮,
chī pútao bù tǔ pútao pí,
不吃葡萄倒吐葡萄皮.
bù chī pútao dáo tǔ pútao pí.
很难哦!!很难哦!! 我应该吐葡萄皮或不吐葡萄皮呢?来试试这个吧!!
四是四, 十是十,
sì shí sì, shí shì shí,
十四是十四, 四十是四十,
shísì shí shísì, sìshí shí sìshí, [...]



Say goodbye to Chinglish!

Jul 11th, 2008 | By Rainbow | Category: English

China has launched a program to ban unintelligible English in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Chinglish has become a running joke among many foreigners in China, and many websites have been set up listing humorous examples of the mistranslation.
A road sign in China warns people to be careful and not to fall into the [...]



再见 ` `中国式英语´ ´

Jul 11th, 2008 | By Rainbow | Category: 汉语

中国已推出一项计划,在预备2008年北京奥运会期间禁止“中国式英语´´。
“中国式英语´´一向是许多外国人的笑话,而且还有许多网站故意列出“中国式英语´´的例子。在中国, 有道路标志警示 “人们要小心,不要落入河” 被翻译为 “Carefully fall to the river” 。在餐厅的菜单经常出现食物名称,如”Living to fry the beef rice”, “Butter many Privates” and “Bureau minced meat idea powder”。
在中国,误译的出现是因为很多中文词语表达的意思可以解释为多种方式与不同的释义,人们总是一个一个字翻译,导致“中国式英语´´出现。北京市政府在北京首次尝试面对问题,在北京旅游局设立了热线,为游客和当地居民提供服务,并教人们正确的英语。2008年北京奥运会即将来临,人们难以在短期内学习正确的英语,
不过,我相信,中国在迅速改善。”新中国” 即将来临。