Green in Chinese culture

In Chinese learning, color learning is an important part. In Chinese culture, colors have deeper meanings under the visible appearance. When we learnmandarin online, we should know the meaning of different colors. For example, you are not supposed to present a green hat as a gift to your Chinese friends. Why? Let’s learn colors in Chinese culture.

The color green is a very special color in Chinese learning. In English, green means new, young or freshman. In Chinese, there is a saying called “wear a green hat”. If  “他被带了绿帽子” or he is wearing a green hat, it means he was betrayed by his wife or girlfriend.

Why is this saying? It comes from a story.

The story says: Long time ago, the husband often went on business trip, leaving his wife at home. She was so lonely and empty that she dated her neighbor and unluckily they were caught being together when the husband returned. The husband forgave them, but they were still in contact. One day, they came up a plan: The wife will let the husband wear a green hat to fight cold, and when the husband went out, her lover would come and date her. Thus, wearing a green hat means someone is betrayed by his wife or girl friend.

Are you interested in this story? 

The color green has other meanings. In China, 绿色食品 or Green Food means food which causes no damage to the environment. Besides the color green, there are a lot of colors that have very different meanings from the ones in English. 

Color black in Chinese

In the previous Study Chinese series, we have leaned the color of Green and its meaning in Chinese culture. Today, we will learn another color: Black.

The Chinese character for this color is 黑色. This character may be a little complicated when we write it, so we should really pay some efforts in learning Chinese characters.

In western or American culture, black may not be a pleasant word. For example, people in those countries may use “black day” to describe a bad or sad day. Another example is the “Black Friday”, which is believed by many Christians that Jesus died on that day. So, black Friday means unlucky day.

But, black, corresponding to water, is a neutral color in China. The Daoism regards black as Heaven’s color. That’s why the Taiji symbol uses black and white to represent the unity of Yin and Yang. Ancient Chinese regarded black as the king of colors and honored black longer than any other color. And the Dao School chose black as the color of the Dao. 

In modern China, black is used in daily clothing. And in some area, black may also be used during a funeral to symbolize the spirit's return to the heavens. A black ribbon is usually hung over the deceased's picture.

Color learning is a big part of Chinese language learning, because of its meanings underneath the word. You may study Chinese or learn pinyin with a tutor if necessary, because a face-to face guidance will certainly be more helpful.

Mandarin or Chinese

When you decide to learn Chinese language, you should be aware that mandarin and Chinese are two things. So what is the difference between them?

Chinese refers to general Chinese language which includes many dialects such as Shaanxi dialect, Cantonese etc, while Mandarin refers to the official language in China or the standard language used at Chinese school.

Knowing the difference between mandarin and Chinese, let’s see some of the best ways to learn mandarin.

The first one is to learn mandarin at a Chinese school, where the Chinese teacher can give you the best guidance and where your mistakes can be corrected so that you can speak standard Chinese language. 

The second is to taking a class online which has become so popular these days. Reasonable cost, flexible time, customized service and no time wasting are all its advantages. 

Third, whether you are taking a class or not you should check out some of the free resources on the web for learning Chinese. Great blogs for learning Chinese language such as HSK course.  This site uses a progressive approach to help you learn hsk grammar, with each session built on the previous one. Every grammar point is introduced with easy-to-understand explanations and typical examples.

Because mandarin is so popular in China, almost everyone in China can understand mandarin. That’s also why people really mean learning mandarin when they say learn Chinese. Besides the pronunciation differences, the writing pattern of Chinese characters are also different in different regions of China such as Mongolia.

Learn Chinese everywhere

Many people across the world are beginning to learn Chinese mandarin, even kids in America has begun to learn pinyin at their kindergartens. Take America as an example, from kindergartens to a high school, there is a rapid rise in interesting among American pupils to study Chinese language.

There are many reasons why learning Chinese has become so popular, especially nowadays. First, Chinese has long history full of legends, which attracts many who want to know about its history and culture, thus learning the language. Second, Chinese is spoken by the largest population in the world. Third, China’s international influence has been raised a lot nowadays. Furthermore, the rapid economic development is still undergoing since long time ago and mastering a foreign language means more opportunities in the career.

More and more foreigners' learning Chinese reflects the economic development in China. On the other hand, over two hundred Confucius institutes have been set up in 69 countries. On TV we can see many foreigners take part in Chinese class online. The number of foreign students who are attracted by the mysterious and charming language and come to china learning Chinese also increases steadily every year.

Chong Yang Festival in Chinese Culture

Are you learning mandarin online? Don’t forget about the key to perfect Chinese-Chinese culture. Today, we will continue to learn about Chinese festival.

Chongyang Festival, or Double Ninth Festival

Some of you may learn from Chinese tuition that this day usually falls in October in the Gregorian calendar. In an ancient and mysterious book Yi Jing, or The Book of Changes, number "6" was thought to be of Yin character, meaning feminine or negative, while number "9" was thought to be Yang, meaning masculine or positive. So the number nine in both month and day creates the Double Ninth Festival, or Chongyang Festival. Having learned online Chinese, you will know that Chong in Chinese language means "double." Also, as double ninth was pronounced the same as the word to signify "forever", both are "Jiu Jiu," the Chinese ancestors considered it an auspicious day worth celebration. That's why ancient Chinese began to celebrate this festival long time ago.

The most famous custom of Chongyang Festival is ascending a height to avoid epidemics. This custom was passed down from long time ago. Therefore, the Double Ninth Festival is also called "Height Ascending Festival". The height people will reach is usually a mountain or a tower. Ancient literary figures have left many poems depicting the activity. Even today, people still swarm to famous or little known mountains on this day

With the popularity of learning Chinese online, learning Chinese culture and festivals well becomes also important. So, take action now to learn online Chinese and know more festivals in China.

Also, seek Chinese tuition here!

Learn Chinese characters

For beginners who learn Chinese language, it is always more difficult to learn Chinese characters than anything else. However there is a way out. It’s been proven by many learners that learning Chinese characters by category will help them better learning mandarin.

How? Let’s take a look at the following group of Chinese characters as an example: “X 光”(guāng)", “可口可乐”(coca cola) , “麦克风”(microphone), “比基尼”(bikini), “超市”(supermarket). This group of characters didn’t exist in the Chinese language because they come from English. We can this group of characters wai4 lai2 ci2, words coming from other country or language. Foreign as they are, they have been existing in Chinese publications and people’s daily life now.

It means to substitute the foreign morpheme with the same or similar native morpheme, only borrowing the foreign meaning. In Chinese school, this means a shift in the meaning of some established native Chinese Characters, so as to accommodate the meaning of English words. That is, the word has already existed in Chinese language, when borrowing the same word from English, people assimilated some of its meaning in English which are new to Chinese, and then the meaning of this word in Chinese has been extended. Sometimes, the work is accomplished through an intermediary. And English “zhuan jie ci” in Chinese mainly comes from Japanese.

Does this article help you some in learning mandarin? Write to me if you have any question concerning mandarin study.

Dragon boat

In this article, we introduce you a very important Chinese festival-the Dragon Boat Festival. As we can tell from the name, the main symbol of the day is the dragon boat, or Long2 Zhou1 (Check out how to read this word in the pinyin chart.).

Dragon boat racing is an indispensable part of the festival, especially in southern part of China such as Guangzhou. As the gun is fired, people will see racers in dragon-shaped canoes pulling the oars harmoniously and hurriedly, accompanied by rapid drums, speeding toward their destination. Folk tales say the game originates from the activities of seeking Qu Yuan’s body.

On Dragon Boat Festival, there are many traditional customs. For example, parents will dress their children up with a perfume pouch, fill the bags with perfumes or herbal medicines, and finally string them with silk threads.

If you learn mandarin online or elsewhere, you will know people in China also eat a very famous food on this day. That is Zong4 zi, as the traditional food for the Dragon Boat Festival is a pyramid-shaped dumpling made of glutinous rice and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves to give it a special flavor, varies greatly across China.

In some parts of China, it is a very popular practice to drink this kind of Chinese liquor seasoned with realgar on the Dragon Boat Festival. Ancient Chinese believed realgar was an antidote for all poisons, so most effective to drive away evil spirits and kill insects. Everyone would drink some realgar wine during the Dragon Boat Festival, and children would have the Chinese character for "King” written on their foreheads with realgar wine. This is for protection from evil and disease for the rest of the year.

Winter Solstice in China

Learning Chinese culture is of great importance for Chinese studies, especially to those who are learning Chinese for beginners, because it will largely generate your interest in Chinese language.

China is a country with long history and rich cultures. Among them are Chinese festivals, which occur throughout the year. From today, we will introduce some of them. Let’s first talk about Chinese Winter Solstice, an important time mark of the year.

For those who want to have Chinese studies, let’s get to know this festival. The Northern hemisphere on this day experiences the shortest daytime and longest nighttime. After the Winter Solstice, days will become longer and longer. As ancient Chinese thought, the yang, or muscular, positive things will become stronger and stronger after this day, so it should be celebrated. It is the earliest of the 24 seasonal division points. The time will be each December 22 or 23 according to the Gregorian calendar.

On this day, in the Northern part of China, people eat dumpling soup on this day, while residents of some other places eat dumplings, saying doing so will keep them from frost in the upcoming winter. In other places, people also eat tangyuan (learning Chinese characters), a kind of stuffed small dumpling ball made of glutinous rice flour. In some parts of South China, the whole family will get together to have a meal made of red-bean and glutinous rice to drive away ghosts and other evil things.

Are you interested in learning Chinese characters of this festival? You can go to online Chinese schools which are very popular today.

Sing songs to learn Chinese

learning Chinese language online has been proven to be a very great way to learn mandarin Chinese: flexible time, time-saving and limitless learning resources online After class, Chinese learners can find many ways to reinforce Chinese language learning, for example, listen to the radio and listen to songs on the Internet and so on these. Today we will talk one of the many ways to self study Chinese: sing Chinese songs.

“I think my excellent Chinese owes to my first Chinese teacher, who made me fall in love with Chinese language learning by singing Chinese songs to us” said Jeremy, who is a student at school. “It is important to be interested to study Chinese so that you can motivate yourself. In my Chinese class, my teacher Jessica will always sing Chinese songs which makes the class go on with beautiful melody.”

Different learning strategies of Chinese can directly affect the use of the effect of Chinese language learning. Chinese songs which have some positive impact on learning, Mainly reflected in increased interest in learning Chinese, increase vocabulary, language sense, understanding of rhyme and so on. However, and because the complexity of the Chinese themselves, thus, the Chinese foreign students learning Chinese songs also have certain negative effects, mainly in speech problems, syntax problems, and so on pragmatic issues.

Indeed, singing songs is a great way to learn mandarin Chinese. For those who like to sing, they will learn to understand the Chinese meaning, and then to sing along. At last, they learn a lot of new words in the middle of learning Chinese songs. To sing Chinese songs has a certain positive impact on study Chinese, mainly in increasing interests, enhancing vocabulary, language sense, understanding of rhyme and other aspects.

Confucius across the globe

For many of those who learn mandarin online, Confucius may sound familiar. Well known in China, Confucius continues to attract and mystify a worldwide audience a good 2,500 years after his aphorisms, compiled in the Analects, were first propagated by his followers. The influence of Confucian wisdom on Chinese learning, thought and lifestyle has been sustained. With 523 Confucius Institutes around the world, Confucius is one of China's biggest exports to the world.

Learning Confucianism is an important part of learning Chinese online. It is the mainstream of Chinese traditional culture. Also, Confucianism will survive because of its adaptability. It works in different time frames and cultural contexts, depending on how it is interpreted, and lends itself to manifold interpretations. Confucianism allows different disparate cultural elements to work together. For instance, scholars are engaged in developing specialized need-based programs premised on Confucian thought for state officials and entrepreneurs.

It was said that dozens of Chinese teachers at Confucius Institutes in the United States could be forced to leave due to a State Department directive. The directive was sent to universities that sponsor the nonprofit institutes that promote Chinese language and culture overseas. And thus people can only learn mandarin online or come to China to take lessons.

Many Chinese tutor may be forced to go back to China and many people who want to learn Chinese might come across the difficulty to Chinese learning. Good news is that both countries have worked out well to let Confucianism stay not just in China. 

Study Chinese hot

Chinese language learning is a hot topic today. Why? It is widely known that the pace of China’s development in the world arena is rapid. China’s international status has also been rising rapidly. Besides, the 5000-year-old splendid history of Chinese civilization is another aspect counting for the highly increasing number of students learning Chinese language. Numerous foreigners have stepped into this ancient land, appreciating Chinese culture.

Additionally, China’s rapid economic growth and especially its entry to the WTO attribute greatly to the fever. More and more business people cast their eyes on the Chinese market, and want to get more profit from it, which largely inspires the enthusiasm for learning Chinese.

Today, more than 40 million people around the world are learning Chinese language, and various educational institutions in over 100 countries have offered Chinese courses.

The rising study Chinese fever has been spread across the world. People from outside China are not just learning Chinese only at schools, some also learn mandarin Chinese at home through the internet. Almost every foreigner coming to China can speak some simple Chinese such as nihao, zaijian, xiexie, etc. Are you ready to welcome the Chinese language fever? 

Hit the road with mandarin Chinese

Nowadays, the number of tourists coming to China is increasing in a dramatic manner. To travel in China, learning Chinese is a must if you don’t want to ruin your journey to China. A lot of people choose to learn Chinese online which is convenient and affordable of course.

With some basic Chinese language you learned, you can hit the road now! In China, one thing you can’t miss is to buy things besides learning Chinese. There are many exotic and unusual things to buy in China which make wonderful souvenirs and gifts for relatives and friends back home, such as tea which is famous worldwide. There are hundreds of varieties of Chinese tea. They can be classified into five categories - green tea, black tea, brick tea, scented tea, and oolong tea; wines: In ancient China, wine was regarded as sacred and was used only in sacrifices. Today, however, wines and spirits are becoming popular as accompaniments to Chinese food; Antiques: If you're an antique enthusiast, China is the place for you! Fascinating antique and curio shops and market stalls are to be found in most cities and country towns. You need to be careful however, when buying expensive items to ensure, for example, that the item carries the official red seal of the shop and the sale documents are in order.

In China, being able to say “Nihao” and “Xiexie” is far from being enough. Tourists also need to learn Chinese and master Chinese characters and phrases more because there are many signs marked only by mandarin and pinyin. Better learn mandarin to recognize them.

If you are interested in travelling, China is your best choice. Based on it, you should learn Chinese a lot. Chinese history, Chinese culture, Chinese festivals and Chinese friends, all of this can be your motivation to learn Chinese.