Last Saturday, I was having a “composition marathon” with the upper primary students to prepare them for their upcoming CA. One of the themes was to write an essay about how you plan for a party for your sister who has returned from overseas. Some students used “shocked” to describe how the protagonist felt when[…]
It’s Chinese New Year in less than a week’s time. It’s the Year of the Horse and your annoying relatives will definitely ask you to spew some horse-related greetings before they give you that ang pow. Don’t worry. We are here to help! Memorise these and I guarantee that you will get a lot of[…]
A friend was feeling upset and posted this on Facebook: Life is like grass. 人生如草 We could have consoled her by saying: take care, life’s not that bad and so on. But if you were good in Chinese, you could say: 野火烧不尽 春风吹又生 Sounds more poetic, right? This means the fire can’t burn all the[…]
The Chinese New Year is approaching! When you meet your uncles/aunties/cousins in the extended family, there is one problem. There are so many different terms for them in the Chinese language. Fret not! We have created a cheat sheet for you. Maybe, if you address them correctly, you will get a bigger ang pow! Useful[…]
Do you know 巴刹 is exclusively used in Singapore and Malaysia? It is derived from the Malay word pasar. If you are chatting with Chinese from other nationalities, you should say 菜市场, else they will be wondering who you are intending to kill (since 杀sounds alike) !
Some students complain about how difficult the Chinese language is. I think the beauty of the language overshadows all reasons why one shouldn’t learn Mandarin. Here’s a good example. This is an English poem. You say that you love rain, but you open your umbrella when it rains. You say that you love the sun,[…]
“Chinese tip: I overheard someone say this on national television. 我遗传了爸爸的生意。 This is wrong. It means you had the business through your father’s genes. It should be: 我继承了爸爸的生意。 继承： inherit 遗传: heredity”
Chinese tip: I overheard someone say this on national television. ?????????? This is wrong. It means you had the business through your father’s genes. It should be: ?????????? ??? inherit ??: heredity