Merry Christmas in Chinese!!!

Learn how to say "Merry Christmas" in Chinese on Youtube with us~~~

check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n7kkEQERcI&list=HL1387564041&feature=mh_lolz

How to say "thin“ in Chinese

The word 瘦(shòu) means “thin”, this is what the most of the women around are aiming at. But if you take a look at the radical of the word you will find our ancestors considered 瘦(shòu) as a sign of illness. Being skinny is being ill. So we can actually see the Chinese thinking through our characters. I hope you find it interesting. ：）

 

 

Chinese Video Lessons

spent almost a whole day writing Chinese learning tips and doing video lesson~wow~~
this pic is the video i made today~~hahaha....
I'll send out learning tips tomorrow  :)

you can check out our latest video on youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5fXGhgVGZY

Weekly Chinese learning tips! How to say IF in Chinese

Finally finished my second Chinese learning tips article.
:) if you are interested getting our free weekly learning tips,
please contact us here
smartmandarin1984@gmail.com
Katrina Lee
SMART Mandarin

Chinese Video Lesson!! :)

New look of my video lessons!!! :)

Chinese Video Lesson

This is how my video lessons' quality will look like~
I'm very happy and proud of myself with what I've done so far with my own power!!

Chinese Video Lesson Quality~ :)

This is how my video lessons' quality will look like~
I'm very happy and proud of myself with what I've done so far with my own power!!

Student's Chinese Homework!

 

I'm so proud of my student~

makding Chinese sentence and writing characters :)

If you take a closer look, one of the sentences says : My teacher will marry a man she never met.

haha.....

To say "get married" in Chinese

Do I need to learn Chinese characters?

你(nǐ)　好(hǎo)

Hi!

Thank you for reading our very first Chinese learning tips article. J

This is Katrina Lee from SMART Mandarin.

I’ve been teaching Mandarin for more than three years, and I’m here glad to use my expertise and experience in my classes to assist you with some common questions you might have when learning Chinese.

 

1.     Student: Katrina, I don’t want to learn recognizing and writing Chinese characters, because those characters seems difficult and complicated to learn, is it possible to learn without reading and writing also be fluent in Chinese?

 

Yes, it is possible to be fluent in speaking and listening without learning writing and reading in Chinese. It is possible, but NOT EVERYONE can be like that.

I have some students only learning listening and speaking and they are quite fluent in Chinese, but they are only rare few cases.  The reason is when people learning only pinyin, all they can recognize from the book is the English alphabet combinations which is pinyin, but not the real Chinese words.

In the beginning, they find it easy to acquire only using pinyin, but the more they learn, the more challenges they face. First of all, there are so many words with the exact same pronunciation and tone.

 

Let me take an example : newspaper is called “報(bào )紙(zhǐ)”(traditional Chinese) “报(bào )纸(zhǐ)”(Simplified Chinese) in Chinese, and only in Chinese is called “只(zhǐ)”(traditional & simplified) 。 So if you want to say, I only have one newspaper.

Then we say “我(wǒ )只(zhǐ )有(yǒu )一(yí )份(fèn )報(bào )紙(zhǐ )”(traditional) “我(wǒ )只(zhǐ )有(yǒu )一(yí )份(fèn )报(bào )纸(zhǐ)”(simplified) , if we only look at the pinyin, we’ll see the pinyin combination “zhi” twice! So you might bit a little bit confused translating this sentence as “I paper have one paper only” or “ I only have one only…” ??!!

It’s quite troublesome figuring out those things.

This example is only one minor problem you need to deal with, what if you’re reading a whole paragraph or conversation in pinyin only!?

By learning Chinese characters, you can easily tell the meaning of a sentence with less confusion, and the more words you know or you learn, the easier it gets to understand a paragraph in Chinese, because most of the Chinese characters obsess a meaning or few meanings in it. So when you see the character, you know the meaning and pronunciation altogether.

This is just my personal opinion, if you find it helpful, then I’m glad that this reading helps. If you have different opinions or questions, please feel free giving me your voice, I’ll appreciate it! :)

I’ll be sending out my Chinese learning tips at least every week. The learning tips are for encouraging people to learn more, share ideas. All the opinions and questions will be appreciated.

 

Katrina Lee

The difference between 根本 & 并不

The difference between 根本 & 并不

1. 根本 means "simply"

according to Chinese textbook
you can use 根本 in a positive or negative sentence

positive sentence: 我觉得他根本就是一个白痴。 (I think he's simply just an idiot！)

negative 我根本不懂他在说什么。( I simply just don't understand what he's talking about.)

The two examples above, you can see that "根本“ is focusing on emphasizing the statment which you are trying to express.
First example : 我觉得他根本就是一个白痴。 so 他是一个白痴 (he's an idiot.) is the idea of the sentence, and 根本 is just for
emphasizing the idea.
So you can express the same idea without 根本， just say "我觉得他是一个白痴" (I think he's an idiot!)
You are not changing the meaning without 根本，but the the tone of expressing your idea/thoughts is less strong.


2. 并不 means "actually not" according to textbook

mainly used to deny other people's ideas

ie :
      A : 你工作了十个小时，应该很累吧。（ You worked for 10 hours, you're probably very tired.)
      B:  虽然工作了十个小时，但是我并不累。( Actually I'm not tired, although i worked for 10 hours already)

In this conversation, A is assuming B would be very tired after 10 hours of working, but B isn't tired.
So by saying 并不累 (actually not tired), B clearly states he's not tired also denying A's assumption.


Hope those examples and explanation help!
Sometimes reading more examples help understand Chinese more.
Because there are many things/vocabs in Chinese can't be translated in English.  ：）

The meaning of 会 能 可以 and usage in Chinese

The meaning of 会 能 可以 and usage in Chinese

The meaning of 会 could be translated as "know how to"

ie, 我会说中文。 I know how to speak Chinese.

     我会做饭。 I know how to cook.

 

and 能 use in differnt meanings

 

1.  physically able to....

 
ie 孩子太小，还不能做饭。

    这个西瓜太大，我不能拿。

 

2. not allowed to ....due to a circumstance..

ie 我不能喝酒，因为我得开车。

    他在工作，所以不能休息。

 

3. also means "May I..?“  and this meaning also can be replaced by "可以” asking for permissions

ie 妈妈，我能看电视吗？/ 妈妈，我可以看电视吗？

ie 我没有钱了，你能借给我一点钱吗？ / 我没有钱了，你可以借给我一点钱吗？

 

I hope that answer helps you :)

SMART Mandarin

Katrina Lee

 

Building spontaneous thinking/speaking in Chinese

 

How to build spontaneous thinking/speaking in Chinese?

Here is my advice

For beginners, listening to CDs, conversations few more times, then repeat after that many times.
Of course, if there's any sentence you find helpful, you should write it down.

for example, if you are listening to this conversation:

A: 你昨天买了什么？ (what did you buy yesterday?)
B : 我昨天什么都没买！（ I didn't buy anything yesterday)

in this conversation, 什么都没+ V  means "not at all"
so 我 昨天 什么都没  买 literally means ( I didn't buy anything at all yesterday)

It's a useful one to learn!
If I were learning Mandarin, I would definitly write this pattern down.
Say few more times until I'm very fluent with it.
Then I try to paraphrase.

我什么都没 吃。 I didn't eat anything at all.
我什么都没 做。 I didn't do anything at all.
我什么都没 说。 I didn't say anything at all

repeat your new sentences few more times and picture different situations where you can use those sentences.
Then next time, when you come acroos the scenario you need to use those patterns, the sentence
will just pop up to your head then you can say it with no thinking.