Chinese food and chopsticks

When we are learning Chinese, we should make full use of the vast learning resources from the Internet, among which Chinese culture is easily accessible.

 A lot of people have heard Chinese food from online Chinese. Chinese food is quite famous for its various flavors and styles etc.

There are many kinds of food in China such as Cantonese food, Sichuan food, Shanghai food. So how do these cuisines taste? Cantonese food is a bit light, Sichuan food is very hot, while Shanghai food is rather sweet. 

In the north of China, people often eat noodles and dumplings. In the south of China, people eat a lot of rice and seafood.

Another culture about Chinese food is the dining tools. To many people, Chopstick or kuai4 zi is a headache, because they can hardly pick up the food with chopsticks. But the Chinese people can handle it pretty well since they were very young, let’s say 4 or 5 years old. That’s why a foreigner in China will be very impressive if he can use the chopsticks to eat food.

Chopsticks are the main dinging tools in China. Chinese children start with a spoon but will adapt to chopsticks as early as they are 3. A lot of students who learn to speak mandarin will send chopsticks to their friends because chopsticks symbolize straightforwardness, because of its shape. Chinese chopsticks don’t have pointed tip, unlike the Japanese style that is refined to pick out the bones for their main diet, fish. Chinese chopsticks are mostly of bamboo, but today there are more and more wooden ones and plastic ones.

For online Chinese learners, Chinese culture is important in that it will help you better understand the language and generate your interest in speaking Chinese

Mandarin Resources:

HSK grammar

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.

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!