Polyphones in Chinese

Polyphones are very common in Chinese language. A polyphone is a character that can be pronounced in two or more different ways. With different ways of pronunciation, the polyphone usually has different meanings. Being able to use polyphones in Chinese properly will help us a lot in Chinese Learning. In this article, we are going to review the common polyphones.

1. 好 There are two ways to pronounce it - hao3 and hao4. When pronounced in the third tone, it means well or good, as in the phrase 好人 (a good guy) or 好天气 (good weather). When pronounced in the fourth tone, it means “to like”. However, it is seldom used alone, but usually used with another word such as 喜好 and 爱好, both of which have the meaning of “to like”.

2. 行 It is one of the most common words that you will encounter on street signs. For example, we have 请绕行 and 银行. However, it pronounces different ways in the two phrases. In the first phrase请绕行, it is pronounced xing2, which means “to go”. The whole phrase means “Please go the other way.” It is pronounced hang2 in the word 银行, which means “bank”.

3. 赃 This character has two pronunciations. They are zang1 and zang4. The first tone, zang1, means that something is really dirty and is an adjective. The second tone, zang4, is usually used as a noun such as 心脏, which means heart.

4. 假With two distinct tones, jia3 and jia4, this character is easy to read and remember. Jia3, means fake. It can be used as an adjective, such as the word假如(if). It can be used as a noun such as, Jia4, 假期, which means vacation.

Chinese Valentine's Day

The Chinese people believe that the star Vega（织女星）, east of the Milky Way, is Zhi Nu and, at the constellation of Aquila（天鹰座）, on the western side of the Milky Way, Niu Lang waits for his wife. 

Zhi Nu was said to be the youngest of seven daughters of the Queen of Heaven. With her sisters, she worked hard to weave beautiful clouds in the sky, while Niu Lang was a poor orphan cowherd, driven out of his home by his elder brother and his cruel wife. Niu Lang lamented over his lonely and poor life with an old cow, his only friend and companion. The magical cow kindly told him of a way to find a beautiful and nice woman as his life companion. Under the direction of the cow, Niu Lang went to the riverside on an evening, where the seven fairies slipped out of their heavenly palace to bathe. He took one of the beautiful silk dresses the fairies had left on the bank. When the fairies left the water, the youngest couldn't find her clothes and had to see her sisters fly back to heaven without her. Then Niu Lang came out with the dress and asked the youngest fairy, Zhi Nu, to stay with him.

Several years passed on Earth, which were only a few days in heaven. Niu Lang and Zhi Nu lived happily together and had two children before the Queen of Heaven discovered Zhi Nu's absence. She was so annoyed she had Zhi Nu brought back to heaven. Seeing his beloved wife flying in the sky, Niu Lang was terrified. He caught sight of the cowhide hanging on a wall. The magical cow had told him before dying of old age: "Keep the cowhide（牛皮） for emergency use."Putting the cowhide on, he went after his wife with his two children. With the help of the cowhide, Niu Lang was able to follow Zhi Nu into heaven. He was about to reach his wife when the Queen showed up and pulled off her hairpin to draw a line between the two. The line became the Silver River in heaven, or the Milky Way. Zhi Nu went back to the heavenly workshop, going on weaving the clouds. But she was so sad, and missed her husband across the Silver River so much that the clouds she weaved seemed sad. Finally, the Queen showed a little mercy, allowing the couple to meet once every year on the Silver River.

Mandarin Resources:

hsk exercises

Chinese cultural embarrassment

With China’s increasing influence, the intercultural communication between Chinese and foreigners has become more and more frequent. And a lot of people has started learning Chinese. It seems the online Chinese is going rather hot outside China, but what is going on domestically?

In China, people, especially the youth group, tend to neglect the importance of Chinese tuition and its rich culture. They usually pay more attention to foreign language acquisition than mandarin. That’s why a lot of young people are not standard in mandarin speaking. Some can only speak local dialect.

Various factors can account for this situation. For example, a good command of a foreign language may help young people in China get a good job while Chinese skills may be of no significance in one’s job hunting and even their career. As a result, some students may not value Chinese language as English.

Besides, nowadays fewer and fewer universities stimulate Chinese language study in campus, which has caused it to be marginalized. Under this circumstance, Chinese language becomes less and less popular in universities. So, the Chinese should also speed up their steps to learn Chinese language and Chinese culture as foreign Chinese learners do.

If you are condidering learning Chinese too, you can start by taking online Chinese lessons, or access free online learning resources. 

hskcourse.com is an online platform for HSK exercises, that has structured hsk grammar lessons. This site aim to help you not only successfully pass the exam, but gain confidence in using Chinese language.

Learn Chinese at school or home

Chinese learning is not all about learning Chinese characters or pinyin, or saying a few phrases or sentences. When people learn mandarin online, they should also focus on Chinese culture, history or just know what it is about China, such as the higher education in China, especially for those who want to further their Chinese learning in Chinese universities.

The Chinese higher education normally last 3 or 4 years, with some particular major lasting 5 years or more. In order to be admitted to universities, all students must attend the College Entrance Examination, which has been on hot discussions these yeas in China, because the exam values a student only by how many scores the student get in the exam. No matter how capable the student is or how well he performed at high school, he may not be considered “good” if he performed badly during the exam.

A good education should train students to think for themselves, but the value outlook of traditional education pays much attention to the examination system. A student’s ability is valued by weather he or she can pass the all kinds of tests designed by school or other institutions.

Attending universities to study may seem a little traditional, but there is good news for those who want to lean Chinese online, especially for those who are not in China. With the development of internet and China’s economy, online higher education has been spread in many parts of China. They can learn mandarin online at home with traveling to China.

So, which one do you prefer? Study Chinese at school or home?

Polyphones in Mandarin Chinese

For those who want to learn Chinese characters, I think the difficult lies not in the writing part, because Chinese characters are imaginary and will be very easy to remember if you divide a certain character into parts. What really troubles the Chinese learners who learn mandarin online is the polyphone of certain characters.

The most common polyphones in Chinese for beginners are: “乐” in音乐(yīn yuè) and 快乐(kuài lè), “干” in 干净(gān jìng) and 干部(gàn bù), “似” in 似乎(sì hū) and 似的(shì de).

Once there was a foreigner who was taking Chinese for beginners, he considered Chinese people to be very arrogant after his trip to China. However, others disagreed in that Chinese people were generally famous for their modesty and humility. When asked why he thought so. He replied: “In China you can see sentences like ‘中国人民很行’, ‘中国建设很行’, ‘中国工商很行’, ‘中国农业很行’ and ‘中国很行’ everywhere in the streets, that is too pompous, don't you think so?” Actually, he has actually mistaken “银行(bank)” for “很行(very good)”. “银”resembles“很” and“行”is a polyphone，when pronounced “xíng” , it means good or okay; When pronounced “hang” in the phrase “银行”, it means bank. No wonder the foreigner misunderstood the names of the banks, polyphone is so puzzling and deceptive.

In order to learn mandarin online well, it is necessary to understand the usage of the Chinese characters with more than one pronunciation. There is no doubt polyphone is a barrier if you intend to learn Chinese well. So if you want to learn pinyin or Chinese characters, never ignore the polyphones or jokes like the one above may often happen.

Enjoy your process of learning Chinese!

Advice for Learning Chinese Online

Many people choose to learn Chinese because Chinese is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world aside from English. And also many students find it’s hard to find a native Chinese tutor, so they choose to learn Chinese online. Today, I will give you some advice.

1.      The first, also the most effective way to learn Chinese online is to get a tutor: If you went the self-study route, then tutor who can help you learn Chinese online is a must. There is a source--Skype, there will most likely be a charge unless you bargain to teach English, to learn Mandarin online with a native tutor will make you Chinese learning much easier.

2.      Second, one cannot become proficient in any language without taking the time to learn it. Use flash cards, audio, tutors and so on. Learning some basic Chinese phrases online is quite important. Exposure to these phrases, even if you've only learned vocabulary, will help you understand sentence structure. Websites such as ichineselearning.com have lists of basic and common Chinese phrases.

3.  Third, choose a great program. There are a multitude of online programs ranging in price from free to $500. You have to decide which program is best. Of the many online resources, hskcourse.com is maintained by a team of professional Chinese teachers with years of experience in teaching Chinese as a foreign Language. 

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. 

If you are a serious learner who wants to learn HSK grammar the easy way and to speak Chinese efficiently, this for you!