Did Mom scold the horse?
Or to ask the same question in Chinese.
Mama ma ma ma?
媽媽罵馬嗎？ Put it into google translate and you get:  Mother scold the horse?

Mama is your mom. (First tone)
ma is to scold.          (Fourth tone)
ma is a horse            (Third tone)
ma is a verbal question mark.(Neutral tone) When put at then end of a statement it turns the statement into a question. ( A handy trick sometimes).
ma with a second tone is hemp or marijuana.
Hmmmmm.... Maybe Mom is scolding the horse for eating her marijuana?

So, anyway Mandarin has four tones and a neutral tone.
Although there are relatively few sounds in Chinese, with the addition of tones to the equation it multiplies the possible number of meanings. Context is also key and I will go into all of this in future blogs.
8:57 PM | Category: | 0 comments

Personal Descriptions in Chinese
Chinese people are comfortable in their own skin. They are not overly self-conscious. 
They don't dwell on whether they are are tall or short, skinny or fat, smart or stupid, handsome or ugly.

For the non-Chinese it can seem rude when they point out on first meeting your height, weight or other characteristic. They don't mean anything by it. They see things the way they are and assume there is nothing wrong in stating the obvious.
So, get used to it. If you meet a Chinese person one of the first things they say might be a reference to your physique.
Please check out my video for help in the pronunciation of these terms.
General pronunciation rule: Read it as you would in English. If we don't have the sound in English,  remember that each character is one syllable. I may add two sounds together with a + sign, or if you see parentheses around a part of a word say the word minus the part in parentheses.
 
Characters:            你  好 胖
Pinyin:                  Ni Hao Pang
Pronunciation:     Knee How Pong.
Translation:         You're very fat.

Or:
Character:           瘦
Pinyin:                Shou
Pronunciation:    Show
Translation:        Skinny or thin

Sentence:            你好瘦
                    Knee How Show.
                     You're very thin.


Characters:            你  好 高
Pinyin:                  Ni Hao gao
Pronunciation:     Knee How Gow (gow rhymes with cow).
Translation:         You're very tall.

Characters:            你  好 矮
Pinyin:                  Ni Hao Ai
Pronunciation:     Knee How Eye.
Translation:         You're very short.

Characters:            你  好 聪明
Pinyin:                  Ni Hao Cong Ming
Pronunciation:     Knee How Ts+ong Ming.
Translation:         You're very smart.

Characters:            你  好 笨
Pinyin:                  Ni Hao Ben
Pronunciation:     Knee How Bun.
Translation:         You're very stupid.

Characters:            你  好 帅
Pinyin:                  Ni Hao Shuai
Pronunciation:     Knee How (Sh+why}.
Translation:         You're very handsome.

Characters:            你  好丑
Pinyin:                  Ni Hao Chou
Pronunciation:     Knee How Chou.
Translation:         You're very ugly.

A few years ago an internet sensation was caused by the fun had with Little Fatty

You can learn more Chinese by following me on twitter and by watching my videos on youtube at Immediate Chinese. http://www.youtube.com/user/immediatechinese?feature=watch
9:14 AM | Category: | 0 comments

Me! Me!

The secret is me! me!

Let me explain. I went to elementary school in Taiwan. Graduated high school in America in 2008.

I can communicate in either language.

You can too. The secret is to not waste your time trying to figure out how to pronounce words like: qi, xi, xiao, zi, cui.

I mean seriously, what is that? Even if you were told how to pronounce these words, would you remember?

The secret I use to teach Chinese is to teach it using English as much as possible. When I tell you how to pronounce a word, you read it the same way you would in English.

The first word I want to teach you is "secret". In Chinese it is "me me".

So you see the secret (the Me Me) to learning Chinese is to learn it from me.

Come back often and I'll teach you some more.

You can also learn more on my youtube site. More about that later.

- Ray


6:32 PM | Category: | 1 comments