#chinese resource

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

Different ways to say “increase” and “decrease” in Chinese: Pt.1

Want to say increase or decrease but tired of using 增加 and 减少? Here are plenty of other alternatives that you can use:

increase - 增加 - zēngjiā Context: general increase in quantity, amount, business and economics Example: 这个月的开支增加了。 This month’s expenses increased.

decrease - 减少 - jiǎnshǎo Context: general decrease in quantity, amount, health, business etc. Example: 我想减少每天刷手机的时间。 I want to reduce the time I spend scrolling on my phone every day.

raise / improve - 提高 - tígāo Context: improving something: quality, ability, efficiency, standards Example: 她想提高汉语水平。 She wants to improve her Chinese level.

lower / reduce - 降低 - jiàngdī Context: usually refers to metrics, physical levels, goals etc. Example: 公司希望降低运营成本。 The company hopes to lower operating costs.

rise - 上升 - shàngshēng Context: natural rise in numbers, rates, temperature, prices, status, pressure Example: 最近物价一直在上升。 Prices have been rising recently.

fall / decline - 下降 - xiàjiàng Context: natural decline in numbers, quality, sales, grades Example: 效率下降了2%。 The efficiency rate decreased by 2%.

grow - 增长 - zēngzhǎng Context: usually refers to things that change over time, not suddenly e.g. economy, demand, knowledge, experience Example: 去年的销售额增长了百分之十。 Last year’s sales grew by 10 percent.

improve / enhance - 提升 - tíshēng Context: improving skills, abilities, promoting someone Example: 这次培训提升了我的工作效率。 This training improved my work efficiency.

go up / rise - 上涨 - shàngzhǎng Context: increase in quantity or degree of indicators e.g. prices/consumption, values, levels, water levels, rent etc. Example: 房租又上涨了。 The rent went up again.

drop / fall - 下跌 - xiàdiē Context: mostly financial, economical, or statistical situations e.g. prices, stock value, market data Example: 这家公司今天的股价下跌了百分之五。 This company’s stock price fell by 5 percent today.

rise / become higher - 升高 - shēnggāo Context: numerical values, prices, physical states e.g. blood pressure, blood sugar, temperature and other measurable indicators Example: 今天下午气温会继续升高。 The temperature will continue to rise this afternoon.

strengthen / enhance - 增强 - zēngqiáng Context: immunity, confidence, resistance, ability Example: 运动可以增强免疫力。 Exercise can strengthen immunity.

ease / lessen - 减轻 - jiǎnqīng Context: pain, stress, burden, pressure, symptoms, workload Example: 新系统减轻了大家的工作负担。 The new system reduced everyone’s workload.

reduce / alleviate - 缓解 - huǎnjiě Context: symptoms, stress, anxiety, tension Example: 深呼吸可以缓解压力。 Deep breathing can relieve stress.

weaken - 减弱 - jiǎnruò Context: various scenarios actually, including natural phenomena, signals, physical states and well-being, and abstract concepts Example: 地下室里的手机信号很容易减弱。 Phone signals weaken easily in the basement.

[meichenxi]

HSK Online update!

So I’m now a couple of weeks into this course and thought I would give everybody an update on how things are going. 

The course as mentioned before has two main parts: the (very extensive) app that you work through, doing vocabulary, HSK specific tests, grammar and so on, as well as the live lessons and classes. At the end of each 9-lesson unit, there’s some kind of exam or special training to complete, as well as successfully reviewing all of the content until now. 

The online lessons are wonderful as always - they’re my favourite part. The teacher teaches at exactly the right level, the little bit of ‘competition’ with the other students is fun, and it forces me to be faster.

The app too is well-designed. What I find most challenging about the course is the intensity it moves at: before every lesson you have to review/learn around 3 units of vocabulary and grammar. Some of this you may know, but some may be completely new. I think if I had previously learnt all the vocab from HSK5 this intensity wouldn’t be a problem; it would be a very useful reviewing period. I can tell that some of the other students have clearly gone through HSK5 many times on the app before taking the vocabulary - there’s one student in particular who is miles ahead of the rest of us. 

For me, personally, I find the reading and grammar sections very challenging as they use a lot of new words that haven’t been taught yet. The good thing about this is that it exposes you to ‘real exam conditions’, and so whilst this may be disheartening, you’re in a much better position to approach the exams when they come around, and the wall of text that I apparently love to talk about isn’t as forbidding. 

With that in mind, then, who would I recommend this for? 

1) Those with a solid base in HSK5 who are not confident in their exam technique / want to review. I think this is who the course is aimed for, and they do an excellent job of it. I personally have probably suffered from not having studied all the way through HSK5 (I had done about a quarter when the class began and knew some other random vocab from other studies), and am definitely finding the pace of the course challenging. For the words or grammar points which I do know, however, the review style is perfect. So this would suit most the group of people above. 

2) Those without a solid base in HSK5 who have the hours to put in the work. I am gaining a lot from this course, though I’m constantly trying to keep up. If you don’t have HSK5 level vocabulary, however, you may find that the pace of the course and the materials used (in grammar sections etc, all HSK5 with a lot of vocabulary you won’t have come across) is challenging. This isn’t meant to discourage, just to inform - it’s a huge step from HSK4 and I think the app is representative of the level of language you need to do well in the exam. Aside from the app, though, if this is your first time coming across these words, you’ll need to spend some time with a flashcards app learning them most days to get the most out of it. 

Let me know if you have any questions or are interested in hearing more about the course!

- 梅晨曦 

[digmandarin]

MandarinBean Review: Practice Chinese Reading and Listening

With the wealth of internet resources of the modern age, many people are turning to websites designed to help mandarin students, blogs, or even chatrooms for help. The days of reliance on courses and textbooks are behind us and it…

This post will look at MandarinBean and attempt to determine if it is worth your very valuable time.

Review this Chinese Reading & Listening site with me!

[liu-anhuaming]

i know i’ve talked briefly about the dictionary apps i use most often, but it’s been awhile since i made those posts so i decided to update the list and give more detailed accounts about each dictionary i have on my phone

it’s pretty long so i put it under a cut

1. Hanping Lite

if you’ve been following me for a while then you’ll know hanping is my ride or die dictionary app for mandarin. i’ve been using it ever since i got a smartphone and absolutely love it. here’s why:

you can handwrite characters if you don’t know the pronunciation

you can also search for characters using a radical index organized by stroke order

has stroke order animations for a couple hundred characters

can use pinyin or zhuyin for pronunciation, and there are multiple ways to show tones. i personally use color-coded pinyin without the tone marks

traditional and simplified

pre-made vocab lists for all 6 HSK levels, idioms, and common characters

the cons:

only a couple hundred characters have stroke order animations

no example sentences for words

the app is only available for android

2. Written Chinese Dictionary

i decided to try this app out on a whim a while back and, despite being thrown off by the look of the app, i really like it

you can download a free stroke animation pack for every single character

when you click on a word you can not only get a handful of example sentences, but also related words

radical index

there is a free flashcard feature. you can either use the pre-made flashcards for HSK or do your own based on a list you compile

this app also offers a handful of free short stories you can download and read in the app

here’s the one issue i have with the app:

there’s only about five or six example sentence for each word. sometimes this is enough, but there are some words that just have oddly complex examples that don’t help me understand how to use it

3. Line Dictionary

i’ve been using line as a website for a long time now but i recently checked out the app and i’m so glad i did. it’s basically the same as the website but easier to access

can handwrite characters

has both diagrams and animations for stroke order

as a sentence analyzer that you can use to figure out which characters form words together as well as the meanings of the words

gives you daily expressions, quotes, and idioms

example sentence heaven. there are so many different example sentences it’s amazing

i have nothing bad to say about line

4. 有道 Youdao

i’ve never really used it before but i know my chinese language partners all use it to help them translate words from mandarin into english so i figured it deserves a spot on the list for that alone

5. 萌典 Meng Dict.

this is another chinese app that i’ve used a bit before. it has a bunch of other features that i haven’t explored yet (i think it has a taiwanese dictionary too) but here’s what i think based on my experience so far

has the main definition in mandarin, then really basic definitions in english, french, and german

has stroke order animations

shows both pinyin and zhuyin for pronunciation

cons:

only uses traditional characters

might be hard to navigate if you’re at a lower level in mandarin

[hanbridgemandarinchineselearning]

More Chinese words about foods.  O(∩_∩)O嗯!

Feel free to share this with your friends!   <(￣ˇ￣)/

Let’s learn together!   \(^o^)/YES!

Do you guys eating rice like the way we do in Chinese?   ︿(￣︶￣)︿

I want a steak!    ~(～￣▽￣)～

Follow us to get more pictures! Welcome to forward this post to your friends!

Go to 

www.hanbridgemandarin.com 

to get discounts for Chinese lessons!

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

Classical Chinese Resources

I did a post earlier about Classical Chinese, so here are some learning resources that can come in handy

Textbooks:

Fuller, Michael A. An Introduction to Literary Chinese.

Kroll, Paul W., et al., comp. A Student’s Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese.

Rouzer, Paul. A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese

Yuan, Naiying, Hai-tao Tang, and James Geiss. Classical Chinese: A Basic Reader in Three Volumes.

Grammar:

Detailed and more in-depth grammar and structure explanations

Study Texts:

Guwendao Has a vast resources of different texts to study and read

A very interesting collection of texts from Korea at the time when Classical Chinese was used there. https://gimpomunhwa.or.kr/index.do https://gimpomunhwa.or.kr/html/site/gimpo/jungbong/edition/original/record/contents_19_05.html

A collection of various translated different texts

Translated annals text collection of the Ming China emperors

Collection of texts, you can easily search up specific ones

Online reader for texts

Other resources:

Dictionary: One of the few online dictionaries that I know of for Classical-Chinese to English translations. Also includes texts with English translations below, so quite useful for studying

General guide to chinese history

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

Classical Chinese Intro

Here's a quick intro to Classical Chinese that can come in handy if you're interested in Li Bais' poetry, or literary and historical texts using Classical Chinese. Classical Chinese is quite concise in the way it's written, with short sentences and a variety of pronouns. The grammar is realtively simple once you learn the core sentence patterns.

Note: Traditional characters are used but the modern meaning is not always the same. Classical Chinese is quite context dependant, so the character meaning may turn out to be something quite different than what you'd normally assume. Since it's context dependant, quite a lot of characters end up being omitted e.g. A [is] B, or [He] arrived.

Pronouns:

1. 1st Person (I / me )

吾 - I, me Example: 吾日三省吾身- -I examine myself three times a day.

我- I, me Example: 我見友 - I see a friend.

余 / 予 (yú) - I, me These ones are used less commonly as these are one of the oldest characters, and ultimately have the same meaning Example: 余行江上- I walk by the river.

2. 2nd Person (you)

子 - respectful way to address someone who's superior than you, such as a teacher, ruler etc/ Example: 子來矣 - The Master has arrived.

君 - addressing someone who's a lord, king, a ruler etc. Example: 君召我 - The lord summons me.

公 - respectful, but not to the same degree as 君 e.g. officials, elders etc. Example: 請公坐。 - Please sit, sir.

汝 / 女 - informal, to inferior or close person Example: 汝勿言 - Do not speak.

3. 3rd Person

Classical Chinese doesn't explicitly have 3rd person pronouns, as they're very much context based. There are however these:

之 - him / her / it / them Also used as a possessive or connector, but here it’s object-only. Examples: 我見之 - I see him/her/it. 爱人者，人恒爱之；敬人者，人恒敬之 - Those who love others will always be loved; those who respect others will always be respected

其 - his / her / its / their (possessive) Also can mean “that,” depending on context. Example: 其為人也孝悌 - [As for] his character, it's filial and brotherly 視其所以 - Observe his actions

彼 - that person /that one Refers to someone/something more distant. Examples: 彼一時，此一時 - That was one time, this is another

此 - this / this one (opposite of 彼.) Examples: 彼亦一是非，此亦一是非 - What is right here, is wrong there

Grammatical Relationships:

Topic–Comment This is the most common structure. A topic is introduced first, then the sentence that follows comments on it. Example: 書，我喜讀之 - As for books, I enjoy reading [them]. 為政，以德為本- As for governing: virtue is [its] foundation

Subject This is also a basic structure where the subject does something or is something. Example: 人皆有不忍人之心 - Everyone has a heart that cannot bear others’ suffering. 民安- The people are at peace.

Verb–Object A verb is directly followed by its object (very compact so you need to infer the context at times) Example: 飲酒- Drink wine. 見賢思齊- When you see someone of virtue/has virtue, think of emulating them 求仁得仁- Seek humaneness and obtain humaneness.

Coordination Two (or more) words of equal meaning or types are placed together. No conjunctions are necessary, though classical texts sometimes use 而 / 與 / 及 to mean and/as well/A then B. They don't modify each other unlike our next structure which is subordination Example: 風雨 - wind and rain 山川 - mountains and rivers 日月- sun and moon

Subordination This is an interesting structure where one element modifies or explains another element, e.g. A of B, A which is B, A describes B Example: 王之子 - The king’s son 古人之道 - The Way of the ancient people. 大國 - Big nation

Number–Measure Numbers often appear directly before nouns, measure verbs may be excluded unlike in Modern Chinese. Number measures may seem like number noun phrases but they are not. Number noun/noun phrases examples: 1. 一人 - one person 2. 二日 - two days 3. 三馬 - three horses 二日不食 - [Someone] did not eat for two days Number measure (includes a verb): 1. 退五 - retreat five (paces) 2. 拜二 - bow twice 3. 行百里者半九十 - [One who] travels 100 li considers 90 as halfway.

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

Just discovered the 盗墓笔记 Graverobbers Chronicles (Dàomù bǐjì) and now I'm obsessed, both with the tv series (accidentally skipped around 2 prequels and now I'm figuring it out as I watch Ultimate Note) and now the books.

At the time of writing this, I am on episode 15/37 and dear God. The amount of craziness and plot twists is just the perfect amount to keep me entertained.

The books are in Chinese so it'll be a good reading practise as reading news articles and graded readers can get repetitive sometimes. Literary Chinese is quite different from the usual textbook or daily Chinese, so this is definitely an interesting challenge.

Here's the link to the site, it's one of the best sites for Chinese novels that I've seen to date and I highly recommend it.