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New Favorite ✨Game✨

Do you want to learn new Chinese Vocab that has no actually value? Me too!

Go to : https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=

Type in any Chinese or English word you want and learn all the words that connect with it

⭐️Example⭐️

龙🐲 lóng Dragon

You know, random shit like this. And you get suggestions like :

🌟Will I ever use this? Probably not. But it’s nice to know just cuz I can say things like

我是龙卷风。

我在龙潭游泳因为我是天帝。

我在卧龙自然保护区见了大熊猫胖得很。

The possibilities are ✨endless✨

Tag me in your creations! 我要见了你的句子！

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Random Sentences I think of :

青蛙跳过了烤面包机。 qīngwā tiàoguò le kǎo miànbāo jī. The frog jumped over the toaster. 🐸

我认识面包男。 wǒ rènshí miànbāo nán. I know the bread man 🥐🤷‍♂️🍞

天爸，多云爸爸，现在杀我。 Tiànbà, duōyúnbàba, xiànzài shā wǒ. Sky dad, cloudy papi, end me now.

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量词 liàngcí Measure words

个 Ge Basic measure word

本 Běn Measure for books or files

碗 Wǎn Measure for bowls/cups

双 shuāng Measure for pairs of things

张 Zhāng Measure for flat objects

位 wèi Measure for people (honorific)

Notes

I’ve been told before that traditional Chinese does not use classifier words. Is this true? I don’t know. I tried googling it but I haven’t found anything to confirm or deny it. If anyone does know, please let me know :)

If you don’t know a measure word for a specific object (because I’m sure there’s hundreds lol) just use 个。

Times I would not depend on 个: 位。Don’t say 一个医生 because it’s disrespectful.... unless you mean to be rude. Then go right ahead

We’re sorry about not posting as often. As we navigate these strange times, we’ll try to provide more weekly content for your enjoyment.

-That Language Aesthetic in and ouT 🤟

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Chinese New Year

Happy year of the Ox! 新年快乐！现在牛年！

https://chinesenewyear.net/zodiac/ox/

Make sure to check your horoscopes this year!

我再生病了😷 有新馆病毒！AGAIN!! 我不知道怎么我生病了... 这年不我的年。大家，请小心一点😞Covid fucking sucks my dudes

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Basic Radical Lists

What are Radicals?

Radicals are the basically building blocks of Chinese characters. Either a character is a radical, or it has a radical in it.

There are currently 214 radicals, but this list of 40 will help you get started.

Radicals help separate and organize the characters. Chinese dictionaries organize each character under the radical that it uses.

Here’s how radicals work :

人 [rèn] is a basic radical. 人 means person, as we all hopefully know. Taking this radical and placing it into another character, that 人 will suddenly look like this: 亻。 This partial character cannot stand alone. Do you recognize it from somewhere?

That’s right! We see the 人 radical in 你, 们, and 他。There are more characters with this radical, but we’ll keep it simple for now.

You might also notice the the radical will sometimes relate directly with the character it’s in. That’s why they are separated in this way. It’s not always the case, but more times than not, you’ll see a pattern.

Radicals help learners guess at both meaning and sound. You might not know that 你 means you, but you see the person (人) radical and automatically connect them.

Predicting Sound comes a bit later. People fluent in Chinese can look at a character and usually guess at an unfamiliar character and not be so far off what it actually sounds like. As second language learners slowly grasp the language, they might also notice this. It’s because we see the character and connect it with a radical, or another similar character that may have a similar sound. Not tone, but sound.

All in all, radicals are incredibly important. Memorizing radicals should always be the first step in learning Mandarin because it just makes it so much easier.

MEMORIZE THESE BEFORE LEARNING OTHER WORDS. I kid you not, it’s so much easier to learn once you know what your looking at character-wise. It’s going to be boring but stick it out.

Below are some helpful things to look at or watch to help learn radicals quicker:

Click on any radical to see its definition, and characters that contain that radical: https://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/sinograms.html?r

Splits characters into what radicals they are made out of: http://zhongwen.com/

This is super long, but gives each radical, pinyin, translation-English AND Spanish, stroke order/number, and examples of the radical in other characters. Also, nice overall vibes in the background. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=66hsy5cPyco

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跟宠物练习！

我太懒写拼音或者翻译... 所以准你好运😄

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Wholesome Language for your Pets 🐶🐱

你长得真可爱！ [nǐ zhǎng dé zhēn kě ài] You’re so cute!

我爱你！ [wǒ ài nǐ] I love you!

我们出去吧。[wǒ mén chū qù ba] Lets go outside!

你要吃饭吗？ [nǐ yào chī fàn ma?] Do you want to eat?

黑小宝贝！ [hēi xiǎo bǎobèi] Hey little cutie!

黑小家伙！ [hēi xiǎo jiāhuo] Hey handsome!

你要玩你的玩具吗？ [nǐ yào wàn nǐ de wànjú 吗?] Do you want to play with your toys?

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Word of the Day :

🌹花 huā Flower🌺

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方向 fāng xiàng Directions

北 Běi North

东 Dōng East

西 Xī West

南 Nán South

North east, south east, north west, etc. are all easy to remember with some simple word math.

The only difference is that while in English we put North/South first, Mandarin puts East/west first instead.

东 + 北 = 东北 [dōng běi] Northeast

Anyone traveling this holiday? I am! Can’t wait ^_^

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Why a Language book ?

Because It’s Pretty

Bro, there’s so many interesting words out there. Love learning about the stars? Learn those planet names!

They don’t have to be pretty but I find that if you like to look at something, you’ll look at it a lot

95% Aesthetic, 10% language.

...No one said I was good at math

Too much of a commitment? I feel you

Try five minutes a day. Even if you don’t fill an entire page. Five minutes is better than no minutes

Surprisingly, A lot of people are interested in learning a second language but just don’t. They’ll probably want a friend to get them thru it too

You could probably just copy what I write on this blog and boom aesthetic notebook that helps you accomplish the second language goal 👏

Also, It’s pretty.

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Cultural Segment

With your host, Zhongwen-Lingblr.

If the culture of the language you’re learning doesn’t interest you, find a new language. Or get interested quick

In these types of segments, I’ll provide you with basic information, and if your interested, I’ll supply links so you can go more in depth on your own.

Chinese New Year and Zodiac Signs

There are twelve Zodiac signs :

🐷 猪 [zhū] pig

Recent Years: 1995, 2007, 2019

🐭 鼠 [shǔ] Rat

Recent Years: 1996, 2008, 2020

🐂 牛 [niú] Ox

Recent Years: 1997, 2009, 2021

🐯 虎 [hǔ] Tiger

Recent Years: 1998, 2010, 2022

🐰 兔 [tù] Rabbit

Recent Years : 1999, 2011, 2023

🐲 龙 [lóng] Dragon

Recent Years: 2000, 2012, 2024

🐍 蛇 [shé] Snake

Recent Years: 2001, 2013, 2025

🐎 马 [mǎ] Horse

Recent Years: 2002, 2014, 2026

🐑 羊 [yáng] Ram/goat

Recent Years: 2003, 2015, 2027

🐒 猴 [Hóu] Monkey

Recent Years: 2004, 2016, 2028

🐔 鸡 [jī] Rooster

Recent Years: 2005, 2017, 2029

🐶 狗 [gǒu] Dog

Recent Years: 2006, 2018, 2030

* * *

-The current year is (obviously) : Year of the Pig

-Next year (2020) : Year of the Rat

Your zodiac is dependent on the year you are born. But there are many astrological factors that come into play, and can also determine the way a parent names you. Things such as celestial stem, early branches, element, and yin/yang alignment.

Curious about how to ask someone what their zodiac is? Me too

Question : 你属什么？ [nǐ shǔ shénme?] what is your chinese Zodiac sign? Or literally, what do you belong to?

Answer : 我属蛇。[wǒ shǔ shé.] I am a snake.

It’s important to note that asking and giving out a zodiac is a VERY personal thing, and says a lot about who you are even if you don’t want it to. People will make judgements based on your zodiac even if they aren’t true.

You may notice that 鼠 (Rat) and 属 (genus) have the same pinyin (shǔ). Ah. Homophones. What fun.

Reminder that two Third tones put together makes one Third tone and more of a shortened half tone. So when saying 我属鼠，it would sound more like shǔ shù

羊 [yáng] often comes out to mean sheep or ram, but actually represents the goat in the zodiac system. If you talked about the goat outside of the zodiac system, like an actual living thing, it would be 山羊 [shānyáng] or literally “mountain sheep”.

If you want to learn more about your own horoscope, check out https://chinesenewyear.net/zodiac/rat/

Help from Chineasy’s inventor, Shaolan Hsueh, https://www.google.as/amp/s/ideas.ted.com/the-surprising-influence-of-the-chinese-zodiac/amp/

https://www.ted.com/talks/shaolan_the_chinese_zodiac_explained/up-next?language=en

This took longer than I thought it would. I’ll try and add more variety next segment. Probably. I’m going to sleep now.

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颜色 yán sè Colors

红色 Hóng sè Red

橙色 cheng sè Orange

黄色 Huáng sè Yellow

绿色 Lù sè Green

蓝色 Lán sè Blue

紫色 Zǐ sè Purple

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Collection of my Bio’s,

Because they change all the time and I don’t want to see them go forever

Where I post about a language instead of actually learning the language

Learn a language, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.

I have no sense of what this blog is. Mostly just me throwing mandarin Vocab at a wall and hoping it sticks.

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Dialogue :

你好！[nǐhǎo] Hello!

你好！[nǐhǎo] Hello!

你叫什么名字？[nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?] What is your name/ what do you call yourself?

我叫方雅雯。你呢？[wǒ jiào Fāng Yǎwén. Nǐ ne?] I am called Yawen Fang. How about you?

我叫���爱君。 [wǒ jiào Wáng Àijūn.] I am called Aijun Wang.

你是高学生吗？ [nǐ shì gāo xuésheng ma?] Are you a high school student?

不，我是大学生。 [bù, wǒ shì dà xuésheng.] No, I am a college student.

Notes :

叫 [jiào] is the verb “to call”, so when asking someone their name, it literally means “what do you call yourself?”

They ask for a name like this because you may want to be called by a nickname or first name rather than last. Like, 我叫方雅雯，可是你能叫我雅雯。“My name is Fang yawen, but you can call me Yawen.”

方雅雯 [Fāng yǎwén] is my name lol in case y’all didn’t figure it out.

When introducing yourself in Mandarin, the last name (family name) always comes first. That’s why the English translation switches it from Fāng yǎwén to Yǎwén Fāng.

你呢 [nǐ ne] is a shorter way to kind of re-ask the question. The closest translation would be something like “how about you?” Or “and you?” But no direct translation.

Word structure :

我 叫 什么 名字？ is a very different sentence structure from what we normally see.

Subject + verb + question + noun

Why? It just is. Duolingo is good for drilling grammar into your brain if you need help with this. I can’t explain it in English. It just... makes sense I guess

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👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 家人 jiárén Family

👩🏻 妈妈 māma Mom

👨🏻 爸爸 bàba Dad

👩🏻‍🦱 姐姐 jiějie Older sister

🧑🏻 哥哥 gēge Older brother

👧🏻 妹妹 mèimei Younger sister

🧒🏻 弟弟 Dìdi Younger brother

Family relations are very important in Chinese culture. It’s very important to distinguish between younger and older siblings, as well as the eldest and youngest of the siblings. It’s even important to disguish what side of the family each grandparent comes from (mother or fathers parents), and between each sides seperate aunts and uncles.

Notes :

Eldest sister/brother : 大姐 / 大哥. [dàjiě / dà gē]

Youngest sister/brother : 小妹 / 小弟 [xiǎo mèi / xiǎo dì]

If you have more than one sibling older or younger than you : 哥，二哥，三哥 and so on.

Each familial name can be shortened to one syllable : so 哥哥 can be 哥 in an informal setting

老人 lǎorén Grandparents

...or literally, “old people” haHA

👵🏻 奶奶 nǎinai Paternal grandmother (informal) 👵🏻 祖母 zǔmǔ Paternal grandmother (formal)

👴🏻 爷爷 yéye Paternal grandfather (informal) 👴🏻 祖父 zǔfù Paternal grandfather (formal)

👵🏻 姥姥 lǎolao Maternal grandmother (informal) 👵🏻 外祖母 wàizǔmǔ Maternal grandmother (formal)

👴🏻 外公 wàigōng Maternal grandfather (informal) 👴🏻 外祖父 wài zǔfù Maternal Grandfather (formal)

It is important to note that while I listed the formal way of calling an elderly person / grandparents, it is rarely used. That’s right, you can use these terms on people who aren’t really related to you. Ive seen this a bit in English culture where if you are close to a friend and know their grandparent well, you probably just call them grandma/grandpa too. It’s just a familiar way of greeting and speaking.

I thought about putting aunts/uncles on this list but I think I might die if I do. There’s both formal and informal, for both younger and older siblings of each parent, and maternal vs. paternal. So like three different names for each and no. Just no.

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Word of the Day:

圣诞快乐🎄🎁🎅

Shèng dàn kuài lè

Merry Christmas!